Strengthening America's Workforce, Revitalizing the Alice Griffith Housing Development

Strengthening America’s Workforce
On Labor Day, we renew our commitment to strengthening America’s workforce and expanding economic opportunity. As we commemorate this important day, we face the stark reality that millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet and put food on the table.

After more than 240 days in the majority, House Republicans have yet to pass a single piece of legislation to create jobs and put Americans back to work. Instead, they have passed legislation that would destroy nearly 2 million jobs and have voted against 10 Democratic initiatives to revitalize our economy and create jobs.

House Democrats are committed to the number-one priority of America’s working families – job creation. Through our “Make it in America” initiative, we have put forth several measures that could create jobs now and strengthen the economy:

• A Highway bill that will create jobs by rebuilding American roads and transit – rejecting the House GOP approach that would slash investments and would destroy more than 600,000 jobs.
• A bipartisan Infrastructure Bank proposal that can create millions of new jobs by creating a private-public partnership to finance needed projects to rebuild and modernize our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, railways, ports, broadband, and power grids.
• A robust FAA Reauthorization bill that will create 150,000 jobs and strengthen the economy.
• A China Currency bill that could help create about one million manufacturing jobs by providing our government with effective tools to address unfair currency manipulation by countries like China and level the playing field for America’s manufacturers, small and large.
• Legislation to create clean energy jobs, including renewing the clean energy manufacturing tax credit that expired in 2010.

Congress must focus squarely on getting our economy back on track and strengthening our middle class. Working together, it's time to place Americans' top priority — job creation — at the top of our agenda.

Congresswoman Pelosi joins friends and family for a volunteer work day at the AIDS Memorial Grove.

Revitalizing the Alice Griffith Housing Development
Today, the Department of Housing and Urban Development announced a $30.5 million Choice Neighborhoods grant to revitalize, redevelop, and expand the Alice Griffith Housing Development in Hunters Point. The project is part of the larger Candlestick Point-Hunters Point Redevelopment Project, integrating it alongside new mixed-income residential units, office and retail space, more than 300 acres of parks and open space, and creating thousands of jobs for the area.

I was proud to support this project alongside Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and commend Mayor Ed Lee, city housing officials, HUD representatives, and community partners for securing this grant. This project reflects the key goals of the Choice Neighborhoods initiative: to build sustainable, mixed-income communities with affordable rental and below-market homes alongside market-rate houses; to connect local households to services and schools, public space and parks, transit and jobs. And it upholds the principle of one-for-one replacement, ensuring no loss of public housing units.

With this announcement, San Francisco has secured more than an investment in new housing; our city has begun to transform a neighborhood, revitalize a community, strengthen our economy, and provide a fresh start for the families of Alice Griffith.

Federal Building Post Office Town Hall
The U.S. Postal service is considering several post offices in San Francisco for possible closure. The locations that are under review include the Phillip Burton Federal Building station, the Visitacion Valley station, the Bayview-Hunters Point station, the McLaren station and the Civic Center post box unit. On September 7, 2011, a postal representative will be at the Phillip Burton Federal Building and Courthouse from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. to answer questions, discuss alternatives and provide information about potential changes to the building’s postal operations.

Please feel free to forward this information to your family and friends. To learn more about these efforts, to express your views, or to sign up for email updates, please visit my website. I am also on Twitter at https://twitter.com/NancyPelosi.