Community | January 11, 2010 | 29 comments

Cities struggle to find new uses for auto plants

source: http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9528277

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Henry Ford's great-grandson arrived at the shuttered auto plant to brag about a plan to revive the vast empty space: Investors would transform it into a modern factory to make solar panels and high-tech energy systems instead of Town Cars and Thunderbirds...Several months later, a plan that exists only on paper is still awaiting final approval. The plant is still vacant, just like scores of other cavernous auto factories across the nation that have never been redeveloped.
(p.1, para.1,3)

An Associated Press analysis illustrates the scope of the problem: Of 128 manufacturing plants in North America closed since 1980 by the Detroit Three automakers and their largest suppliers, three of every five now sit idle...Those 128 plants had a payroll of 196,000 workers at the time they closed. Today, only 36,500 people work at those sites that have been redeveloped, and at only three of the revived plants does the number of employees match or exceed the number in their carmaking past. The rest are concrete prairies or steel behemoths waiting for reuse or a wrecking ball, most without any real prospects for new use.
(p.1, para.4,6)

The obstacles are many. The decline of the domestic automotive industry has come during a slowdown in commercial real estate. Many of the closed plants are far from urban centers, and nearly all have paint waste, heavy metals or other hazardous materials on site that exceed regulatory limits. Cleaning up those toxins can cost as much as $300,000 an acre and take years.
(p.3, para.2)


The entire story can be read at the link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=9528277
  1. groups:
    Community,   The Retail Sector
  2. tags:
    Economy,  Unemployment,  Auto Industry,  Manufacturing
  3.     
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29 comments // Cities struggle to find new uses for auto plants

  • hsdpafx01
    • 0
      hsdpafx01  

    • " “It’s the children and grandchildren of the laid-off workers. They won’t have the opportunities in those communities.”

      Thanks a lot, UAW workers. Your unrestrained greed has killed the golden goose and destroyed a nice way of life in Michigan. "

    • 2 years ago
  • Manatee_man
  • calm_incense
  • rickm8
  • s_peak
    • 0
      s_peak  

    • Why is this even a debate? They should be using all of these plants to produce solar panels, small turbines for wind power and maybe some pulsed magnetic engines so we can start moving away from our oil enslavement. If they really cared about change, as opposed to profit, there would be no question.

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • s_peak:

      Who is "they"? People won't have an incentive to turn these things into factories of renewable energy unless they have something to win out of it. In other words, people don't do things out of pure good will, they do it for a profit. To expect anything else is just idealistic.

    • 2 years ago
  • RaceBannon
    • 0
      RaceBannon  
    • s_peak:

      wrong, thats freidmanist nonsense. Last time I checked the wheel, the lever and pulley had no profit motive. People will make things to better for humanity for free, of course we need to allow those inventors/engineers to be able to do that...

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • s_peak:

      Sure there are people that do that. But they do it out of their own self interest. They do it because it makes them happy to see others happy. What I disagree with is when people get mad at others for not doing it and then call them "greedy"...

      You do it if you want to, but don't call me greedy if I choose not to do it (Not that you are calling me greedy, I'm just making a point). I have no moral obligation to do so. Good luck finding people who will do this for free. There are people who will do it, no doubt, but they will be far and few in between.

      And if we are talking about the pulley, the lever, and the wheel, what else are these things for except solutions to improve productivity and make things easier? Inventors have things called patents and they create things because they think they will win something out of it.

      Do you think Bill Gates created Windows out of a genuine compassion for the greater good? Do you think that Google was created to fill in humanity's need for a search engine out of sheer human compassion? The reality is that self interest created these things, not altruism.

      What's the point of creating something if it doesn't belong to you? Sure there are idealistic types who do things for the great of humanity. I applaud them for pursuing their dreams. But I do not call the people who do not offer it for free "greedy"...

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • s_peak:

      I find it amazing that you would say that the wheel had no profit motive. Imagine what transportation costs without the invention of the wheel would be like. Long ago, some ancient saw that it was easier for him to transport things with wheels than by pulling it.

      Did he do it for the good of humanity? No. He did it because it made things easier for him and his friends; in essence, because it was in his rational self-interest.

    • 2 years ago
  • RaceBannon
    • 0
      RaceBannon  
    • s_peak:

      I doubt greed exist naturally in a social species like ours or species would of died off the minute the first hunter found a piece of meat and said this is mine get your own. No species on earth can be greedy for that matter. Plus the hunter pretty much gets the meat for free along with the tools to get the food plus there was no bill or loan for weapons.
      Now insert currency into the equation and tell the hunter, cough up some cash to eat and you wont eat then he might tell the world to screw off. What I'm saying is our system pits us against each-other for our own individual survival, which inherently goes against our insticts for the most part except self preservation with money being the catalyst.
      As for the inventions i listed, considering the wheel likely came out of ancient Mesopotamia, he (or they) probably made the wheel as a means to an end, but he didn't ask for royalties, or copyright the thing either. The lever and pulley being the same deal.
      To be clear the problem is money, and the sooner we work to make it unnecessary the sooner we can progress. It'll happen someday just not sure if I'll be around to see that day.

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • s_peak:

      I think greed has more than one name. You can call it self-interest, egoism, etc. Did early hunters share their food? Yes. But they did so because they knew that it was in their interest not to be alone. They also know that it is in their interest to form alliances. What would this hunter win by hoarding all the food to himself and denying his fellow tribesmen of a share?

      You can call it altruism, but I would call it rational self-interest.

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
  • RaceBannon
    • 0
      RaceBannon  
    • s_peak:

      I've read that article before, I should note that I don't consider economics a science as much as an explanation of a man made system rather than an observation of a natural one. I'll even take it further that economist should not be considered more than quacks with an army of adjectives but no scientific substance. Kind of like lawyers except lawyers don't pretend to be in command of a science whatsoever...

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • s_peak:

      So you'd have preffered if we had stayed hunter-gatherers? In the end, all civilization is based on self-interest my friend. The first cities and agricultural societies were based on farmers that produced a surplus of food, a surplus that they had an incentive to produce not out of of altruism but out of egoism and out of a knowledge that they could then trade their work for gold or money which they could then use to better themselves and their family.

      Had it not been for this "man made system" we would still be in the jungle with our fellow apes and primates.

    • 2 years ago
  • mojojuju
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  

    • Many of these sites simply no longer have a purpose to fill. If somebody doesn't think that they will have anything to win by opening these plants up again or renovating them to fulfill another task then they will just sit there.

      There has to be an incentive to win something or profit off of it for people to be interested, and I'm just not sure these places have that anymore.

      They will sit there until someone has something to win by either knocking them down or opening them back up again.

    • 2 years ago
  • Varex_Sythe
    • 0
      Varex_Sythe  

    • Retrofit the plants to manufacture some kind of green technology. Maybe produce solar panels or wind turbines. Maybe the auto industries could actually take a serious look at hydrogen fuel cell technology and put their own honest effort into it. Don't just have it sit there and think, "what'm I going to do with this," look at what people need or where the market is going and do something innovative.

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
    • 0
      nursediesel  

    • We had this problem with all the empty steel mills. It's bad. the economy shifts for many reasons. A lot has to do with changes in laws and restrictions on domestic manufacturers allowing other countries to out sell us for various reasons.
      In western PA, we had state government throw money at Volkswagen to build cars here. They got off tax free, we built them a new railroad and redid major highways. The plant operated until the tax breaks were over! Then they left.
      They used workers by constantly laying off and hiring new untrained people to keep the cost down. They fought unions because they didn't have to use them at home. We promoted their product for them and then they just left. Chrysler tried to work there and got some help but not the overwhelming display of affection we gave the foreigners.
      Then Sony moved in .... same song and dance. The government wined and dined them, advertised all the new jobs we were getting with our tax money thrown at the Sony people and the plant pulled even more cheap shenanigans than Volkswagen.
      Who do you think benefited long term?
      Many of these old behemoths are now office complexes or large companies with technical applications. Some are drive through small manufactures plants, that rent space to small businesses.
      Like the article says No One wants strapped with the HUGE cost of environmentally friendly clean up.

    • 2 years ago
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • nursediesel:

      Its kind of unfortunate the way that unions have hurt the very people they have tried to help by scaring away the employers like Volkswagen. Its also sad that foreign companies get better treatment than our own home companies.

    • 2 years ago
  • nursediesel
  • Xenzaka
  • RaceBannon
  • nursediesel
  • RaceBannon
  • CalgarC
  • nursediesel
  • UrbanGypsy
    • 0
      UrbanGypsy  
    • CalgarC:

      How are those supposed to create jobs? They sound very nice and feel-good but they don't do anything. There's plenty of skateparks already. In fact, you don't even need skateparks to go skating.

    • 2 years ago
  • CalgarC
  • UrbanGypsy
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