A Barren Oasis: General Motors in Ohio

LORDSTOWN, Ohio—From the horizon I thought it was an outlet mall. We were driving down I-80 in eastern Ohio and hadn’t seen anything substantial for miles. But then came this sprawling complex beyond the shoulder: tan, bland, and stretching on for at least a quarter of a mile. It was just nondescript enough to be a mall that draws people from across the state, eager to cash in on the cheapest deals.

But the parking lot was too bare to be a shopping center. It looked as though it had long ago gone bald, the occasional car sprouting out of the pale peach of asphalt. But as we neared the end of the stretch of buildings, we saw two huge banners hung on one of the buildings.

Of course. A GM (GMGMQ) plant was the only place that could be this empty and depressed on the Monday after July 4. We had stumbled upon GM’s Lordstown outpost, a $350 million investment to increase production and domestically manufacture a new car, the Chevy Cruze.  A bit of Googling after the fact revealed that it had been shut down since the end of May, forced to watch the company’s bankruptcy from the sidelines. Nearly 3,000 people have been laid off during GM’s tumult, and the workload has been reduced to only one shift. That shift reportedly resumes later this month, at which point the Lordstown plant will transition back into production. 

For that, Lordstown is lucky. Its GM plant is staying open. It makes the fuel-efficient Chevy Cobalt and the upcoming Chevy Cruze, two of Chevy’s centerpieces as it emerges from bankruptcy. Seventeen other plants are closing, yet Lordstown’s remains. The parking lot will be filled once again. Nevertheless, it will still be emptier than it used to be.

(Photos from a moving car by David Backer.)