Synopsis:

President Obama recently announced that he was canceling the “Save America’s Treasures” and “Preserve America” programs, both run by the National Parks Service. The rationale behind these cuts was that the programs “lack rigorous performance metrics and evaluation efforts so the benefits are unclear.” Alter however proposes that not only do the numbers actually show that these two programs are far more efficient than the Stimulus Program, but also that renovation and restoration of are present built assets makes far more sense in this construction-caution age. Data has shown that the two canceled programs actually created 16,012 jobs in their ten years, at a cost of only $13,780 per job. The Stimulus Package however is actually creating jobs at a cost of $248,000 per job. This is very sad news for these two programs that clearly made sense for our times. Jobs created through these programs are true green jobs, focusing development away from greenfields as well as reusing spent energy used previously to construct the buildings. Hopefully President Obama reconsiders these cuts.