between obama clinching the nomination and making history... hillary not conceding then conceding... and mccain proving over and over again how lackluster a candidate he is... a major news story has slipped through the cracks.GM will close four north american auto plants...those specializing in SUVs and large trucks...over the next two years.
i can't tell you how thrilled i am that the automotive industry has finally realized the destructive impact these vehicles have been making on the environment...now, of course, that people are no longer buying them with gas prices hovering around $4.00 a gallon.
but this does affect me in an odd way....beyond the joy that comes along with the death of the SUV.
my parents live in one of the towns. janesville, wisconsin is home to a very large GM plant and it will close next year or in 2010. the janesville assembly is the oldest factory still in use by GM...(for now.) it was built in 1919 and employed 7,000 workers in it's heyday. now it employs around 4,000.
4,000 may not seem like a lot for a town nearing 60,000...but it's a big part of janesville.
two months ago my parents put their house on an already slumping market in hopes of moving back down south to be closer to their children and the birth of their first grandchild... name yet to be determined but arriving mid-july in baton rouge, louisiana.
i'm not sure how much luck my parents will have selling their house now with the largest employer in janesville closing its doors. maybe another car manufacturer will move in? maybe they can build something else in the factory?
or maybe janesville will suffer the same fate as so many industrial midwest towns? destined to become a ghost town... it's too bad, really... janesville is a lovely burg just north of the illinois boarder... "the city of parks" and there are a lot of them. downtown still looks like something out of rockwell painting. and a river runs through it...
funny how something that seems so far away...something that would normally be a top story in any less-politicized environment... can surprisingly affect your life and the life of your loved ones.
keep your fingers crossed for my parents.
e.
1 comment:
That's too bad for another midwest town that's going to suffer.
However, I don't think it's due to GM realizing the detrimental impact on our environment, so much, as they just aren't selling like before. Honestly, if people where still buying large SUVs then I think GM and Ford would make them even bigger... that is if they were selling. Trucks and SUVs are their bread and butter but now that everyone is eating something else they are finally forced to change.
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