There’s a big controversy in Detroit over whether or not GM should move from it’s too-expansive, too-expensive downtown HQ in the Renaissance Center. GM’s newly-expanded (and now half-empty) Tech Center is nearby, in Warren. The mayor of Warren has offered GM tax abatements to make the Tech Center its permanent home. The Tech Center is the hub of GM’s auto engineering and design operations.
From a purely financial standpoint, GM, a bankrupt company that would be liquidated without the government’s welfare, cannot afford to stay in the Renaissance Center. But in Detroit, this quickly becomes a race issue – like all else. Leaving Detroit always = racism. The Wall Street Journal ran an opinion piece stating that Obama, who is not running GM, called Detroit mayor Dave Bing and assured him that the White House fully supports GM’s stay in Detroit. A quote from the piece:
We don’t know whether GM should stay in Detroit. But we do know that the location of a company’s headquarters is one of those decisions typically not made by people who are busy not running the company.
Indeed, the White House is so busy not running GM that Obama started making business decisions for the company, based on preference politics, the night before he announced the bankruptcy.
