Thousands moved out for a new GM factory; now it's closing

Reuters ^ | November 26, 2018. | David Shepardson;

[george76]

General Motors Co on Monday pulled the plug on the Chevrolet Volt hybrid and the Detroit-Hamtramck Assembly plant that builds it, both examples of a costly gamble that is not paying off.

GM’s widely touted factory of the future, forced on a town desperate for jobs and hailed decades later by former resident Barack Obama, is set to wind down over the next few years, leaving beleaguered Hamtramck wondering what happened.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said at a news conference Monday that he told GM chief executive Mary Barra Monday that “we moved thousands of people out of that neighborhood ... to create that assembly plant and I felt that the city of Detroit deserved more consideration.”

The Detroit-Hamtramck plant stands on 465 acres of land that was once a neighborhood known as “Poletown.”

In 1981, the Michigan Supreme Court approved a decision to allow Detroit to tear down up to 1,500 homes, more than 140 businesses, a hospital and six churches to build the $500 million plant. The Detroit News reported 4,200 people lost their homes as a result.

GM convinced officials in the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck, the state of Michigan - and ultimately the state’s highest court - to use eminent domain, a controversial process in which government seizes private land.

Karen Majewski, the mayor of Hamtramck, told Reuters that the GM plant is one of the largest contributors to local property taxes. Empty, she worried the factory will discourage other investments.

“They destroyed homes and churches and local businesses, all to build that plant,” Majewski said. “Now that the plant is going to close, people will wonder why that neighborhood had to be sacrificed in the first place.”

[Gene Eric]

Obama’s GM bailout had nothing to do with domestic operations — the bailout saved overseas operations.