Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Thousands moved out for a new GM factory; now it's closing
Reuters ^ | November 26, 2018. | David Shepardson;

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Canada; Crime/Corruption; Extended News; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Connecticut; US: Illinois; US: Indiana; US: Michigan; US: New York; US: Wisconsin
KEYWORDS: 140businesses; 150000soldin8years; 1500homes; 6churches; automotive; barra; chatforum; chevrolet; chevroletvolt; detroit; duggan; electriccars; eminentdomain; generalmotors; gm; governmentmotors; hamtramck; hybrid; hybridcars; majewski; obama; obamacar; obamalegacy; poletown; solyndra; subsidies; travel; volt; volthybrid
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last
To: Freee-dame
Solyndra 500 million dollars gone where?

My guess would be someone's Swiss or Cayman Island account.

21 posted on 11/30/2018 6:25:57 AM PST by Don Corleone (Nothing makes the delusional more furious than truth.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 16 | View Replies]

To: george76

“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 ...


22 posted on 11/30/2018 6:26:42 AM PST by catnipman ((Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: V_TWIN
I’ll stick with my imports

"Imports"?

Lots of Toyota and Honda vehicles are made in America by Americans.

23 posted on 11/30/2018 6:27:48 AM PST by NorthMountain (... the right of the peopIe to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: george76
people will wonder why that neighborhood had to be sacrificed in the first place.

Congratulations - you've been community organized.

24 posted on 11/30/2018 6:29:31 AM PST by grobdriver (BUILD KATE'S WALL!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76
“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.”

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.

25 posted on 11/30/2018 6:30:45 AM PST by Fiji Hill
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76

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”.


26 posted on 11/30/2018 6:30:47 AM PST by lgjhn23 (It's easy to be liberal when you're dumber than a box of rocks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All
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 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. …
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.
27 posted on 11/30/2018 6:31:54 AM PST by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Don Corleone

“...My guess would be someone’s Swiss or Cayman Island account....”
Most likely? The mighty Odongo’s.


28 posted on 11/30/2018 6:35:34 AM PST by lgjhn23 (It's easy to be liberal when you're dumber than a box of rocks.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: NorthMountain

Wife’s got a German car but yes I have a Toyota truck....still, no unions.


29 posted on 11/30/2018 6:36:11 AM PST by V_TWIN
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 23 | View Replies]

To: george76

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.


30 posted on 11/30/2018 6:36:13 AM PST by EnglishOnly (Fight all out to win OR get out now. .)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: george76


Poletown.
31 posted on 11/30/2018 6:37:01 AM PST by PetroniusMaximus (<img src=(;.()))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: redfreedom

“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.


32 posted on 11/30/2018 6:37:52 AM PST by animal172 (Call me simply deplorable.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

We need a “like” button. The headline makes it sound like the plant moved in 3 or 4 years ago. Not almost 40.


33 posted on 11/30/2018 6:38:18 AM PST by 3RIVRS
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: MrEdd
Get hired by leaching off taxpayer subsidies, get fired when taxpayers cut off the gravy train.

IMO the long-term corrosive effects of that help explain why young people are turning to Socialism. They've become convinced that the free market is nothing but a scam.


34 posted on 11/30/2018 6:48:25 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: george76

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.


35 posted on 11/30/2018 6:57:52 AM PST by txrefugee
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Alberta's Child

“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!


36 posted on 11/30/2018 7:00:05 AM PST by Beagle8U (Free Republic is one stop shopping...It's the super Walmart for news.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: DungeonMaster

Close.

Solyndra.


37 posted on 11/30/2018 7:01:43 AM PST by super7man (Madam Defarge, knitting, knitting, always knitting)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: super7man
And the Solyndra plant was sold to Seagate for 30 cents on the dollar.

-PJ

38 posted on 11/30/2018 7:03:50 AM PST by Political Junkie Too (The 1st Amendment gives the People the right to a free press, not CNN the right to the 1st question.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 37 | View Replies]

To: DungeonMaster

“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?


39 posted on 11/30/2018 7:11:22 AM PST by tcrlaf (They told me it could never happen in America. And then it did....)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: george76

GM’s ultimate demise was fully cemented when it became
Obama-Government Motors.


40 posted on 11/30/2018 8:43:59 AM PST by indthkr
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-8081 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson