QOTD: Minding Your Yard
A report in Autoblog today details the protests that are taking place in Michigan as Ford plans to build a battery plant in the town of Marshall.
A plant, which we should note, was slated to be built in Virginia before that state/commonwealth's governor said "nah."
The whole Autoblog piece is worth a read. For me, it prompts a question that often haunts our time -- are you a YIMBY (yes, in my backyard) or a NIMBY (not in my backyard)? Is it a case-by-case thing?
Would you like to have a large plant built in your town, potentially bringing jobs and growth, or would you rather not have it close by, due to concerns about the environment/noise/traffic/safety/whatever? Are you a NIMBY/YIMBY when it comes to a large plant being built near a small town, but the opposite when it comes to, say, high-rise developments in urban areas?
This one could get heated, I know, so please play nice in the comments.
That in mind, please sound off (nicely) below.
[Image: Josie Elias/Shutterstock.co,]
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Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Marshall Marshall Marshall!
If you open this link and click once on the "Industry" heading, "Automotive" will appear first, and you can see all the billionaires who made their money in the automotive industry.
No Fords listed there. (Imagine how much $$$ the Fords might be worth today had they invested some of the family fortune in a good tech stock awhile back.)
Come to think of it, not a lot of 'employees' listed there either. Weird.
Some 30 plus years ago right after my former employer blew up their plant in Cincinnati, a search was done to construct a new automotive OEM coatings plant to replace it. Terra Haute, IN, was considered the best option - Good transportation, good utility services, good site for building the plant. Most everyone in Terra Haute was onboard and excited to see a major manufacturer coming to town. Alas, it never came to pass - the new plant employees were to be at-will, management represented associates and not organized labor represented as at the old Cincinnati plant. Folks from an interested union descended upon the town hanging posters depicting the evils of the paint industry and held "town-halls" to explain that death and destruction was likely if a paint plant full of non-union professionals weren't manning the controls. The union was very effective - the folks in Terra Haute changed their minds and disapproved construction. The new plant was then built in the cornfields of Western Ohio on the site of an existing coatings plant that was purchased for it. The folks in the Western Ohio town were and are very appreciative of the efforts made by that union.
Youngkin is an idiot.
VA needs those jobs but Youngkin would rather VA become a Red taker-state so that an impoverished and undereducated electorate will be cowed by fear into voting for him and his fellow GQPers.
Voters will remember this when it comes election time.
There are ways to mitigate risks to toxic processes - and as long as those safeguards are in place and not removed by moronic giveaways (See Norfolk Southern) then I welcome industry to our local area.
I agree with the others who state that disused industrial sites are better than clearing farmland and forests - in the same way that I'd prefer to see existing dilapidated neighborhoods redeveloped and densified rather than continuing the sprawl. People will say "Oh, but gentrification is bad - and you're eliminating the character/history/demographic makeup of this area - to which I say "Then clean up your own house & neighborhood - because nobody should live in squalor."