Vice President Joseph Biden was in Cincinnati's Northside neighborhood on Thursday morning to tout the benefits the federal stimulus program and the jobs it will create in the Tri-state.
He spoke to a outdoor crowd of several hundred outside an abandoned factory on Spring Grove Avenue in Northside, that will be renovated, in part, with stimulus money.
The vice president started speaking just after 10:30 this morning, using the old American Can factory as a backdrop for his 30-minute pro-stimulus program message.
This old factory will be renovated into the new Factory Square apartments and stores, with the help of $1.6 million in federal stimulus money.
Mr. Biden says even though projects like the Factory Square development iwill mean 200 to 300 construction jobs over the next year, he says the stimulus program is still a hard sell. The developer of the project also adds it will permanently mean another 35 to 45 jobs on site, once the project is finished.
He told the crowd here that over $4 billion dollars in stimulus funded projects are in the pipeline for the Tristate and Ohio. He adds it will take time to have all that money funnel its way through the system to become badly needed projects and paychecks.
The Vice President asked for the crowd's patience as well as determination to make sure all the stimulus funds are well spent.
Several times, the vice president spoke directly to the administration's critics saying, "What have they suggested we do? Just let people lose their jobs, unemployment benefits and medicaid funding?"
Mr. Biden says we can't let this great recession turn into an economic calamity.
Biden and Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory also congratulated a new worker at the Cincinnati Hamilton County Community Action Agency, who was hired with stimulus money to help Tri-state families weatherproof their homes.
After his speech, the Vice President stayed with member of the crowd for almost a half hour talking, taking pictures and signing autographs.
Mr. Biden also promised the crowd to come back to Cincinnati to do something he's always wanted to do, catch a Cincinnati Reds game at the Great American Ball Park.
