The event, sponsored by Awake Pinellas along with MoveOn.org, is about calling for more U.S. jobs by investing in rebuilding infrastructure, and will take place 4-5 p.m. Saturday Oct. 22 at Booker Creek Bridge, 9th Street and 7th Avenue South in St. Pete.
Democrats on a national level (like Ed Rendell and Rahm Emanuel) have been calling for such infrastructure spending, and it was a part of the president's $447 billion jobs bill that was rejected by the U.S. Senate on Tuesday night.
Kofi Hunt with Awake Pinellas says Booker Creek Bridge has been labeled as structurally deficient and in need of repairs, thus was an ideal choice when convening a call for more infrastructure spending. He said he'd been in contact with officials at the AFL-CIO about what bridges in the area are in such need.
On NBC's Meet The Press last Sunday, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel said that such infrastructure spending is a stimulus for the economy, saying, "everybody has roads and bridges and stuff in their neighborhood and their community."
But can liberals rally behind building roads and bridges? Kofi Hunt calls it a good start.
And he says one thing that he finds unacceptable is Republicans who refuse to meet with the president at least halfway to jump-start the economy, though some senators who voted against the jobs bill say they do support individual pieces of it.
Hunt said he heard Pinellas GOP Congressman Bill Young speak at a rally for the U.S. Postal Service a few weeks ago, where he said that, 'After the election he hopes people get down to doing what's right for this country.'
But Hunt says, "I don't think the American people can afford to wait until after the election. We need economic security and we need it now."
