Most of my readers aren't going to care, but a few will. The GM plant in Janesville is closing.
If it weren't for the church situation, I think Janesville would be my first-choice place to live in all the world. There are so many things I love about that city! And the plant's closing is going to be very very hard on the community.
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Plant closings are sooo hard on a community. I don't know how large the plant is in comparison to the size of Janesville, but it's never easy. We watched Anderson change so much after the plants started closing.
ReplyDeleteThe work-force at GM is about 3-4% of the population of the city. However, employees come from surrounding areas, so it's not like 4% of Janesville is employed at the plant. Still, it's going to have a big impact on the area.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know you had Janesville ties. DH and I lived there for three years, and my two older children were both born there. It's also where we joined our first LCMS church as a married couple (I wasn't Lutheran when we married). Sadly, that church seems to be heading in the same direction a lot of LCMS churches are. <:(
ReplyDeleteAnyway, yes, this is going to be a huge, huge deal for the community and I don't quite know how the city will recover. I can't imagine where the current employees will find jobs.
--Cate/Cait/whatever ;)
Susan, just out of curiosity, what is it about Janesville that you like so much? I've been through there a few times but only on the highway.
ReplyDeleteBarbara, the Janesville library is the best one I've ever used! I love the grocery store too. But that's not reason enough to love Janesville.
ReplyDeleteThere is something about the people that is just plain nice. I remember going to run errands on Dec 23 one year. Bad time to do errands. But I was amazed. People were letting others (with only a few items) go ahead of them in line to check out of a store. People in line at a stop light were waving others (who were trying to get out of a parking lot) ahead of them. People were smiling and joking around and being altogether pleasant. That is NOT what my daughter was experiencing in Crystal Lake, but that kindness is just typical of how the people in Janesville act.
My husband pointed out something he heard on the radio about the GM plant closing. Although I hate what is likely to happen to the city because of the closing, there is some truth to Janesville "getting what they deserve." The city votes Democratic. They voted for the legislators who are enacting the laws which curtail oil exploration, limit drilling, and put restrictions on the vehicles and the mileage they get. So if you vote for those kind of law-makers, and then there's no call for SUVs, then I suppose it only makes sense that a Democratic city got what it voted for....
ReplyDeleteThanks for the explanation re: Janesville. Tell your dd that Crystal Lake was nice and friendly (20 years ago) until it was invaded by those fleeing Schaumburg. Then everything changed :0
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it does sound like the city got what it voted for. Unfortunately, a lot of people who didn't want that will be hurt, and not just in Janesville.
We live in interesting times, don't we?
Barbara, I know what you mean about the spreading city. Pastor doesn't like it when I refer to his hometown (not far from Crystal Lake) as "Chicago." But when he lived there, it WASN'T yet. And granted, even now, it's quite different from further east. But still, the big city just tends to grow and spread.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely about people in Janesville not ALL being ones who will suffer the [unintended] consequences that they asked for in the voting booth. There were faithful Christians who died along with the unbelievers when Jerusalem was under siege in II Kings, and faithful Christians who got exiled to Assyria and Babylon, and believers who were caught up in the punishments which God brought upon the city of Jerusalem again in AD 70. I used to think it was SO unfair when the teacher punished the whole class just because 1/3 or 1/2 the class had been extra naughty. But now I see that's just sort of the way of the world. (I still don't like it though!)