Mayor of Flint, Michigan wants city-run assembly plant

FLINT, United States (AFP) - As yet another auto plant prepares to shut is doors, the mayor of Flint, Michigan has come up with a radical - and possibly illegal - plan: a city-run assembly plant.

The aim is to bring much-needed jobs to a town that has sunken even further into despair in the 15 years since film maker Michael Moore documented the first round of plant closures by General Motors in his award-winning "Roger and Me".

Boarded-up houses and businesses darken the city's streets. Abandoned lots are choked with weeds and trash. Schools are crumbling. The bright lights of a downtown revitalization program serve merely to highlight the city's empty streets.

It is a scene that is playing out in industrial towns across the nation as manufacturing jobs are shipped to cheaper labor markets overseas. Next week, the despair will spread to more towns when Ford Motor Company announces a slew of plant closures.

In his first two years in office he managed to wrest the city from state control by erasing a massive deficit. He's paved the roads and managed to get a fresh slate of city councilors elected who back his sometimes controversial plans.

"We are going to do something different in this city that nobody else has done," Williamson said as he leaned across his wide desk in city hall.

"We will (build) our own manufacturing plants that the city funds," he said. "We are going to specialize in nothing but truck accessories."

There is plenty of factory space available and people who are used to working on the assembly line. And once the city proves the plants can make a profit, buyers are certain to come knocking, Williamson said.

It's not clear if the city would be allowed to run a for-profit enterprise, and many have questioned the rationality of the plan.

"It seems like the private sector ought to be the one developing plants and not the municipality," said Paul Keep, editor of the Flint Journal. "Is this going to take millions and millions of dollars from the Flint treasury?"

When pressed, Williamson refused to offer more details or even say when he plans on submitting his proposal to the city council.

But the fact that he's considering it highlights the desperate times Flint has fallen upon.

"Reality doesn't have a lot to do with what gets promised in Flint," said Albert Price, a professor of political science at the University of Michigan, in Flint.

Flint has hosted some spectacular failures over the years as the city tried to reverse the tide of job losses, Price said.

There was Autoworld, the failed theme park that closed within six months and cost the city 100 million dollars. Then there was a bid to revitalize the downtown with a festival market place. And an attempt to draw tourists by having the city buy and renovate a downtown hotel.

"Flint is in a desperate condition but it has little to do with Flint in particular," Price said. "Flint has lost more industrial jobs than most cities had."

Flint has always been a GM town and its fortunes have risen and fallen along with those of its main employer.

The northern Michigan town's population peaked in the 1950s at 200,000. But as GM's payroll shrank from 80,000 to its current level of less than 10,000 (including those employed at its former subsidiary, the now bankrupt parts supplier Delphi), so too did Flint.

The 2000 census pegged the population at less than 125,000 and it has declined even further since then as parents flee crumbling schools whose walls are lined with mould.

In November, GM said it would be closing another plant and there are rumors that Delphi will soon lay off thousands more employees. Unemployment in the town is already nearly three times the national average.

"There's a lot of people with a lot of plans and I hope they all work," said Keep of the Flint Journal. "Michigan's economy is broken with all this loss of manufacturing.

"It's a period of adjustment and I don't think we really have a clear idea as to what Michigan will be like. It's unsettling to people."

Regrettably, I have very little sympathy for this decrepit city...and for the underskilled who will be penalized by these much-needed closures.

In the early 60's, I drove to Flushing, MI. (outside Flint) with my family from Newport, Rhode Island for Christmas with my aunt and uncle. I was attending Naval War College, as a Lcdr. at the time.

My uncle was the plant engineer of the large Fisher Body plant there in Flint. And, at the time, he was probably grossing 100K./annum, plus.

We got into a discussion about the unions and wages on night over after-dinner coffee. It turned out that the unskilled sweepers in the plant were paid well over my wages as a Commander selectee, with flight pay -- and two graduate degrees.

I was stunned to learn of this wage inequity -- and have begrudged buying American automobiles ever since. For years I drove bugs and VW wagons...until they were phased out of the system. *S*

POX on GM and FORD -- purveyors for years of junk cars!

(Standing by for flames. *S*)

Hey send them this article: This was a Rochester NY city venture 50 million lost in first year. Now they want to dig a deeper hole!!! Oh the new Democrat Mayor who replaced the old democrat Mayor Johnson. Duffy: Failed ferry won't sink port Brian Sharp Staff writer (January 21, 2006) — Mayor Robert Duffy urged Charlotte merchants to look beyond the failed ferry venture Friday, reminding them of the $157 million in public money invested in the port over the past decade. "You look around, the changes here have been profound," Duffy said, pointing not just to the terminal but also to road improvements and the O'Rorke Bridge. "(The ferry decision) in no way suggests a lack of support for this area. We're going to be right there with you." The Harbor Merchants Association invited Duffy and his top advisers to address concerns after his Jan. 10 decision to pull the plug on the ferry and begin digging the city out of the $42 million debt incurred by the ferry itself and its operations. Duffy and his senior staff spent two hours fielding questions, at times drawing applause. While at the terminal, city administrators ripped down no-parking warnings taped to the front doors that one worried merchant said gave the impression that the building was closed. The officials promised to tear out pay-to-park boxes so people can park for free. They pledged to improve snow plowing. And they asked for suggestions for events to bring people to the area in the coming weeks and months. Millions more in public and private dollars are anticipated, with consultants drafting a master plan for future housing and commercial development. Efforts are under way to reuse the old firehouse, open a new Charlotte Village and Transportation Museum and extend the Genesee Riverway Trail to Petten Street. Duffy and Deputy Mayor Patty Malgieri met this week to discuss how shutting down the ferry might affect the city's capital improvements plan. Malgieri said the discussion focused on some reuse of the terminal staging area, which can accommodate 200 vehicles, on parking and on the possibility of additional marina space. City Council this week approved hiring Steve Gibbs and the Gibbs Marine Group as operator and manager of the new River Street Marine. Along with 112 boat slips, there is a building with restrooms, showers, laundry, lockers and a small office. The marina opens April 15, offering wireless Internet as well as dockside power and cable TV hookups. "The port needs one of two things," Gibbs, who lives in Greece, said in a phone interview. "That's either a major attraction — and that would be a regional attraction to bring people down to the port — or it needs housing and a community there to keep people down at the port, kind of like they did at Corn Hill Landing." Already, it seemed Friday, some merchants were doing what Duffy asked — moving beyond thoughts of the ferry. "Let's face it," said Lee Selover, president of the Harbor Merchants Association. "The ferry never got up and running. A couple months here, a couple months there. Nobody ever understood what the impact could be." During his terminal visit, Duffy had a quiet conversation with two Bay Ferries employees whose final workday was Friday. With the shutdown, Bay Ferries and the Rochester Ferry Co. are cutting staff to five or six people who will stay on until the ship is sold. The total number of employees affected was not immediately available. As the mayor later prepared to return to City Hall, he shook hands with ferry terminal shop owners and promised to return. Then he reconsidered leaving, turned and directed the five staffers with him into the empty Quiznos for an early lunch. "I would rather have a more short-term solution so we all survive through the winter," said Quiznos owner Kiran Patel, estimating that business has slowed to fewer than 25 customers a day. "Usually, I'm all by myself here. When I see a customer, I get delighted." Related articles: Mayor open to gambling at port Dumb and Dumber> What's next Mayor Robert Duffy will bring his first City Hall on the Road, a public session with city staff to the ferry terminal building the evening of Feb. 1. Advertisement

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