Committee on Finance October 31, 2018 City Council Meeting
RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, the Works Progress Administration was created by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt on May 6,1935 during the Great Depression as part of his "New Deal;" and,
WHEREAS, over the course of its eight year run, the Works Progress Administration, renamed Works Projects Administration (WPA) in 1939, employed 8.5 million Americans on thousands of infrastructure-related projects throughout the United States; and,
WHEREAS, the WPA built hospitals, schools, storm drains, sewer lines, bridges, airfields, roads as well as employed artists, musicians and actors; and,
WHEREAS, the projects implemented under the WPA often were, labor intensive and avoided efficient technology & machinery in order to increase the need for employment; and,
WHEREAS, the WPA was dismantled in 1943 as the United States entered World War II, having decreased national unemployment numbers down from nearly 20% at its inception to 2%; and,
WHEREAS, the federal government has largely been the driving financial force behind modernizing many of the roads and bridges originally part ofthe WPA; and,
WHEREAS, the City of Chicago currently has a 518 total blocks that were part of the WPA program lacking proper curbs, drainage, sewer, grading and pitch; and,
WHEREAS, the Chicago Department of Transportation estimates the cost of modernizing a single WPA block between $600,000-$750,000; and,
WHEREAS, the United States Congress has made no effort to remedy this situation by allocating federal highway dollars to their complete modernization; and,
WHEREAS, the City Council of Chicago has routinely authorized the sale of general obligation bonds in order to fund and facilitate the various local infrastructure needs of its citizenry; now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Members ofthe Chicago City Council, call on the Committee on Finance to hold hearings on the modernization of WPA Streets in the City of Chicago; and,
BE...
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