Seeing a dead GM plant really dropped my jaw

[ThomWV]

I had to drive about 250 miles up to Cleveland today (lucky buy of a bulky E-Bay item) and on the way I passed by a large GM plant. It proudly advertised with a painted wall what two models were made there, but I don't recall which ones they were. This wasn't a rust belt sort of place, it was obviously a relatively new facility in good repair. It was as large as the closest town to my home. No kidding, including the substantial parking areas (both employee and for finished cars) that surrounded it the entirety of the plant was easily as large as a West Virginia town of 500 souls, including homes and gardens. I knew to expect this but it was just hard to imagine such a place where the lots were mostly empty. I noted that the employee parking area held no more cars than you'd expect at a small sized Wal Mart. The portion of the lot that was laid out to accept the plant's output was empty, save one auto carrier with its load of a dozen finished cars. It was like an automotive ghost town. It must have employed thousands just recently. Not now.

Across the highway there was a well ordered trailer court. It was large and neat, the sort of place where you find lots of hard working young people who haven't set their roots yet but are working toward it as best they can. All of them out of work now. Nice rows of neat trailers, trees, children's things here and there, nothing tawdry. Next were the modest homes built after the great war, typical over much of western Pennsylvania and central Ohio and these too were the homes of ex-factory workers. What in hell are all of these people going to do? None of those jobs are coming back.

Cleveland really is the home of Rock and Roll. There is no place in the world I'd rather be with an FM radio.

[ColbertWatcher]

1. I hope you took a picture of it. k+r, n/t

[Joe the Liberal]

2. I hope so too....

and if he didn't perhaps he can find it via google maps satellite.

[ColbertWatcher]

3. Are those images current?

I thought they were at least a year old!

[ThomWV]

5. Wouldn't be hard to do

Nope, no camera. I think I was on I-80 or maybe it was I-76 and it was close to the state line, but I don't recall the name of the town.

It was just so striking that everything seemed so very normal. Beautiful day and traffic was light so I was just steaming along and then there was this giant plant that was obviously the hub of the surrounding very pretty town. And I just could not help but think how very good it all looked and how bad it all was.

You just have to stumble - there's no way to grasp it. How in hell did this happen? How did all of these damned fine people who did their jobs so precisely in tune with their birth-given work ethic and built those lovely neighborhoods - how did all they did, and did for so many years, come to nothing and gone? Who stole this American Dream? It sure as hell wasn't the folks who lived in those surrounding modest homes - they are just the ones who did all the work, and now take all the screwing.

And "investors" are screaming that they've lost it all. Kiss my ass, 'lost it all'.

[Ikonoklast]

4. Lordstown Assembly..

Where they build the Cobalt.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lordstown_Assembly

They just finished an expansion, re-tooling for the future. Currently on shut-down.

I've pulled auto parts into there before.

[5thGenDemocrat]

6. Heck -- you should come on up to Saginaw, Michigan sometime

Since I graduated high school in 1975:
Nodular Iron -- gone.
Steering Gear Plant One -- gone.
Steering Gear Plant Two -- gone.
Chevrolet Parts Plant -- gone.
Central Foundry -- gone.
Chevrolet Transmission -- gone.
Thirty-four years ago, GM hired 24,000 in Saginaw. Today, it's about 6,000 -- including those working at Delphi (not technically part of General Motors -- but who's shitting whom?). The Delphi complex just east of town is, literally, one mile square and it employs a mere 4,000 people in six plants.
Saginaw's a corpse. All most of us here are doing is waiting to die along with it.
John
Mind you, Flint's been hit even harder than us. This go-round, re: the GM bankruptcy, it's Oakland County's turn.

[tomreedtoon]

7. I saw similar things years ago on I-75.

When I used to drive up to Saint Louis to see my dying mother, I'd see rusted-out factories all along the side of I-4. No idea what they were, but there were these immense factories with big tanks and funnels and things. No sign of activity.

I once stopped at a little roadside store there. It was as if I had time-warped back to the 1940's. It looked like a little shack, which had a couple of refrigerator compartments with soda, milk, meat and everything in it. The floors were wooden. The people in the place, the locals, looked like they came from Central Casting. They were not at all happy.

I felt sorry for them, and powerless because I couldn't do much for them except buy a soda, give them a smile and leave. Now all of America is going to look like that burnt-out town. And there's nothing any of us can do.