Keystone Research Center and Good Jobs First to Hold Press Conference on Sprawl, Unions and Good Jobs, July 1

6/30/2004

From: Chris Fegley, 717-255-7155, Peter Wiley, 570-522-0738 or press@keystoneresearch.org, Greg LeRoy, 202-626-3780 ext. 27, all of Good Jobs First

News Advisory:

Directors of the Keystone Research Center (KRC) and Washington D.C.-based Good Jobs First (GJF) will discuss how suburban sprawl is harming union members in the Philadelphia area at a live/telephone Thursday press conference.

WHEN: Thursday, July 1, 2004 at 1:30 p.m.

WHERE: Crowne Plaza Hotel, 1800 Market St., Philadelphia

Journalists wishing to participate by telephone may phone into the event by obtaining the call-in numbers from Zoe Lane at 202- 626-3780 ext. 34.

KRC executive director Stephen Herzenberg and GJF executive director Greg LeRoy will base their comments upon months of research and a five-hour training they will have just completed for 150 Pennsylvania labor leaders. This is only the second conference in the United States ever held by organized labor about suburban sprawl and smart growth.

The conference, "Smart Growth and Good Jobs in Southeastern Pennsylvania," is co-sponsored by KRC and GJF and is being held in conjunction with the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO's annual Committee on Political Education (COPE) conference.

In addition to the sprawling geography of unionized industries, the KRC/GJF curriculum includes mapping of state economic development subsidies, which reveals a pro-sprawl bias. It is based on Keystone's nationally recognized web-based database created last year.

The Keystone Research Center (http://www.keystoneresearch.org) is a Harrisburg-based think tank and the leading independent source of analysis on Pennsylvania's economy and public policy.

Good Jobs First (http://www.goodjobsfirst.org) is the nation's leading watchdog on state and local economic development subsidies, and the creator of the first labor-oriented curriculum about sprawl and smart growth in Chicago four years ago.