Big pile of cheer-leading agenda-pushing.
"Business reviving for local builders; Construction jobs may increase by 4,000" July 04, 2011|By Casey Ross, Globe Staff
Developers across the Boston area are moving forward with a number of large construction projects that were stalled by the recession, creating thousands of jobs and ending one of the state’s most prolonged building slumps.
At least nine major developments are under construction or preparing to begin, including two multibillion-dollar complexes in Boston’s Seaport District, the 60-acre Assembly Row project in Somerville, and a mini-city taking shape on the site of the former South Weymouth Naval Air Station.
Together, the projects promise to create some 4,000 construction jobs in coming months, with many thousands more possible as work escalates. The increased activity offers a measure of relief to an industry beset by extreme joblessness.
Why do I smell an agenda being serviced here?
At the height of the recession, labor leaders were reporting a 35 percent unemployment rate among construction workers, more than three times the rate of the broader economy.
The developments moving forward include office towers and stores that can help revitalize gritty urban neighborhoods, biotechnology laboratories that will host cutting-edge research, and thousands of apartments that will help curb the shortage of rental housing in the region.
“There’s a lot going on because there are reasons to be confident in the future of the economy,’’ Governor Deval Patrick said in a recent interview. Despite financial constraints, Patrick said, the state has continued to lay the groundwork for a recovery, by building new roads and other infrastructure to help educational institutions and research companies expand operations. “And that’s where you’re seeing the pickup and the results,’’ Patrick said.
But the impact on jobs will not be immediate, and while some projects are moving forward, many others remain stalled or are barely inching forward, leaving union leaders skeptical that the recovery will proceed fast enough to help the long-term unemployed.
“I’ve been at a number of groundbreakings where pictures are taken and the right things get said, but then nothing happens,’’ said Mark Erlich, executive secretary of the New England Regional Council of Carpenters. “The iceberg is melting, but icebergs melt slowly.’’
Unless you need to holler global warming.
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