Poletown.
Posted on 11/30/2018 5:59:21 AM PST by 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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
My guess would be someone's Swiss or Cayman Island account.
“GM tried to revive the Hamtramck plant in 2008, as it neared financial collapse”
gee, i wonder what could cause a relatively new manufacturing plant to “financially collapse”?
“GM could reach an agreement with the local union to put a vehicle in the plant in talks next year.”
Oh, yeah, right ...
"Imports"?
Lots of Toyota and Honda vehicles are made in America by Americans.
Congratulations - you've been community organized.
Given Detroit's leadership since 1974, when Comrade Coleman Young became mayor, I knew the answer to that question the very first time that I heard that a neighborhood called Poletown would be razed to make way for the plant.
Libs destroy everything they touch...EVERYTHING! That includes Hamtramck, Detroit and GM.
Let that be a lesson to you, Detroit. Maybe eventually, ya’ll will “get it”.
In 2010, then U.S. President Barack Obama visited the plant and even drove a Volt for about 10 feet. Some Republicans and conservative critics pilloried the Volt as the “Obama car.”In all these years, I have seen exactly one Volt on the road. And it was parked in a Walmart parking lot at the time.
In the years after the federal bailout of GM, gas prices fell and the Volt did not hit GM’s ambitious sales targets. U.S. Volt sales are down 14 percent for the year through October to just 14,897 cars — about one-third the number of Chevrolet Silverado pickups GM sells in a month. Since 2010, GM has sold about 150,000 Volts — about half the capacity of a typical car plant running at full speed. …
“...My guess would be someone’s Swiss or Cayman Island account....”
Most likely? The mighty Odongo’s.
Wife’s got a German car but yes I have a Toyota truck....still, no unions.
Hey, -— “Too Big to fail”!
This is just part of how GM really works. I put GM on my scrap-heap of never again companies in ‘79.
GM is all about GREED. I could care less about GM.
They have never seen another dime from me since ‘79, - and
they never will.
“With Dodge (actually Ram) new styling, I’m considering a new Dodge PU.”
Didn’t they also take part in the big auto bailout touted by Obama? We own a 2017 Ram 3500 Dually. Was not my choice whatsoever, but my Boss, the wife, wanted it and bought it. I still don’t like it.
We need a “like” button. The headline makes it sound like the plant moved in 3 or 4 years ago. Not almost 40.
Boo-hoo. GM traded its future to the Democrat Party for government bail-out money that came with strings attached. In return for the cash, GM had to further the Democrat scheme to switch to “green energy” autos, as promoted by Al Gore and Obama’s enviro-nazis.
They might have been successful were it not for the intrepid Texas oilmen who were betting their industry’s future on the development of fracking. They broke the back of OPEC, fossil fuel became cheaper than green energy could ever be, and the rest is history. Pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossovers rule the roads of the USA.
“It’s mostly foreign manufacturers that are building new plants in the U.S. these days, and they tend to steer clear of these UAW-run states.”
Michigan isn’t a ‘UAW run’ state anymore, MI is now a RTW state!
Close.
Solyndra.
-PJ
“Sounds like that failed solar panel factory, was it called Solaris? Another liberal dream.”
If you think that was bad, look into the THINK! Electric Vehicle boondogglein Elkhart. $370 million tax dollars just wasted. They built less than 100 cars, and sold NOT ONE.
But Obama got a photo op out of it, and cronies got PAID, so is that not what is really important?
GM’s ultimate demise was fully cemented when it became
Obama-Government Motors.
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