The Obama Boomtowns

Mayors across America line up at the trough with projects ready for stimulus money.

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Miami requested $3.4 billion for 456 city projects.

As part of his plan to revive a flailing economy, President-elect Barack Obama recently pledged to "Create millions of jobs by making the single largest new investment in our national infrastructure since the creation of the federal highway system in the 1950s."

His plan would include potentially hundreds of billions of dollars for infrastructure projects. And while economists debate whether this is the most effective form of fiscal stimulus, the mayors of the nation's cities line up at the trough. Schools, roads, rails, pipes and airports? Can we have some more, sir?

Even by Washington standards this would be a once-in-a-lifetime spending spree on projects that would be called pork in less-prodigal times. Cities across the country are ready to pig out.

On Dec. 8, just two days after Obama's pledge for massive infrastructure spending, the U.S. Conference of Mayors released an 803-page report--a wishlist of some 11,391 infrastructure projects they would love to press ahead with.

Talk about a dream scenario. Build all those projects, do it with federal money, say you're rescuing the economy with the spending and, since it's not your local taxpayers' money, don't even stress too much about whether or not the project's cost effective.

Give the money to banks or individuals and they might just horde it. Give it to states or the federal government and it will get stuck in the bureaucracy. But give it to the cities and they'll spend, says Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, the president of the Conference of Mayors. (Not that the governors are sitting idly by--they have $136 billion in plans they'd like to initiate.)

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Sacramento wants to plow $560 million into an assortment of road and interstate projects.

Perhaps it's no surprise then that Diaz's city outlined the boldest request, with 456 projects in Miami that could be completed for a cool $3.4 billion. They estimate the projects would create 55,355 jobs.

Major projects in Miami waiting for cash range from $281 million in various airport projects to $200 million for parking garages throughout the city to dozens of little projects from school renovations to upgrading fleets. Perhaps the most exciting project? $280 million to put a new public transit system on Miami roads: streetcars.

Sacramento, second on the list, wants to plow $560 million into an assortment of road and interstate projects to take pressure off congested roads. The city would also like $200 million to protect the city from floods by improving levees in the Natomas Basin. Other big safety items include $250 million requested to purchase equipment for the fire and police departments.

Philadelphia has the third largest wish list. The city wants $150 million to renovate new schools and $110 million for a new juvenile detention facility. Other items on Philly's $2.6 billion shopping list include Community Development Block Grants for bookmobiles ($500,000), a community theater ($12 million), the Philadelphia Zoo ($20 million), the Philadelphia Museum of Art ($80 million) and a revitalization of the Market Street Corridor and Convention Center District ($100 million).

All told, the conference collected lists from 427 cities with $73 billion in proposed projects. The mayors say that with funding they could start the projects and hence start pumping money into the economy in 2009, and finish them by 2010.

The mayors have big eyes. Those cities that responded would like $17 billion for streets, $15 billion for water and sewage, $13 billion in community development grants, $7 billion for transit systems, $6 billion for energy projects, $4 billion for schools, $4 billion for public safety, $4 billion for airports, $2 billion for public housing and $1 billion for Amtrak infrastructure.

Lawrence Summers, the former Treasury Secretary who will head Obama's National Economic Council, has said a fiscal stimulus will have to be "speedy, substantial and sustained." Congressional leaders have indicated that spending could even be as large as the $700 billion bailout, but details of how and where the money will be distributed are unknown.