The last Chrysler plant in Kenosha, Wisc. is closing this week, the end of a 108-year auto manufacturing legacy that began with Nash and Hudson, becoming American Motors in the 1950s, and included the “Kenosha Cadillac”--the Nash Rambler.
I point this out not to pile on to what’s an all too familiar story but to point out to those interested in getting beyond the usual Manufacturing Belt tales of woe and “ruin porn” to a valuable new media resource in the region.
Changing Gears is a public media collaborative hosted by public radio stations in Ann Arbor, Chicago, and Cleveland but I’ve also heard Micheline Maynard, the project’s senior editor formerly of the New York Times, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
If you’re interested in whether Lordstown can pull off the Chevy Cruze or what to do about the acres and acres of brownfields across the Upper Midwest, I’d add them to your list of must reads and/or listens.