As manufacturing shrinks and car factories close, people feel disappointed, even betrayed. Others are saying let go of the auto jobs and the car culture that’s hurt Michigan cities. Michigan Now’s Chris McCarus listens to voices from the state capital.
TRX1: This is a tale of two Lansings. The first one houses the capital dome. The other one is the township that got smaller and smaller as the city annexed it at the edges. The city was wall to wall people in the 1950′s.
AX1: “The downtown was really a wonderful place. You could walk there if you needed to. Downtown was a place you could enjoy yourself. Every thing was downtown.”
TRX2: Before the malls and the expressways hollowed it out. Those voices are from a WKAR TV documentary called…Things Not Here Anymore. 50 years ago, the place to put GM’s new car factories was out in the township. Today, this woman sits there in her truck as a security guard. ….guarding vacant land that produced the Chevy SSR roadster until 2006.
AX2: “It’s not too much left because factory and stuff they’ve torn it down. All these people gone. Lost their jobs. Some of them lost their homes. Are you a native Lansing person? No. Flint. Yep Flint.”
TRX3: Flint had 200,000 people in it in 1960. Today it’s almost half that. Detroit, Saginaw, Muskegon, Battle Creek. Same phenomenon.
AX3: “The loss in total revenue from GM leaving the Township community is about $500,000 a year.”
TRX4: John Daher is the longtime Lansing Township supervisor. He was born and raised within the city limits.
AX4: “If it were just a one time 500k that would be something we could absorb. But it’s forever. And that hurts.”
TRX5: It’s 9 at night on west Saginaw. No one around for a good quarter mile. Even the security
guard has gone home, maybe to Flint. The possums and raccoons would get hungry by the time
they crossed all this pavement. GM still owns it.. The last of the 6 factories is almost gone.AX5: “well we’re gonna end up with 180 acres of what I used to think was prime real estate. I’m not sure as we speak.”
TRX6: Daher’s thinking about jointly developing 60-70 acres with the city. 2 of the old factories
were on the city side of the line. But the land won’t be cleared off for another year. So they’ve
got another 365 days of looking at it. Being reminded.TRX7: More demolition is happening downtown. A parking structure is turning into rubble. Now you can start to see all sides of the art deco brick Board of Water and Light building. Built in 1940 and being restored.
AX6: “we’re taking down some parking in order to add a new world company headquarters that’s gonna add 400-500 jobs.”
TRX8: That’s Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero. Up for reelection Nov 3. He and Lansing Township Supervisor John Daher have fought over sprawl, sewer and taxes before. But Daher says he’s willing to work with the mayor.
AX7: “Downtown Lansing means a lot to me. I want it to succeed. If Lansing and downtown Lansing succeed it’s good for the entire community and that’s what we’re all about.”
TRX9: As elementary school kids showed off their garden and Bernero posed for pictures, he said making cars and selling them is great, but make your city for people, don’t make it for cars.
AX8: “I say parking is a good problem to have because if you need parking that means you have people coming down here. Of course we all wish we had better public transit, that we had some type of light rail that would obviate the need for public parking space. Alas, in this state we still have a love affair with the automobile and we have a long way to go in terms of public transportation.”
TRX10: Urban planners would agree with Bernero. Some demolition is good. A lot is bad.
AX9: “What happened in Lansing township on those sites on Saginaw, it’s a shame in many respects. We’d all been better off if they’d just kept those structures up for a few years. Because it might be that another purpose would have come in and used those sites. I think it’s a darn shame. I think it’s a darn shame that GM chose to tear those sites down. I think it was a big mistake.”
TRX11: The elementary school kids are quick to answer what they want to be when they grow up.
AX10: “be a judge. Be a gardener. Be a farmer.”
TRX12: Maybe these kids will judge that growing food in town will give them a more secure future than building cars in the township or anywhere else.