At the height of Detroit’s boom in the mid 20th century, this plant manufactured Packard automobiles, employing about 40,000 people.The promise of good pay and plenty of work at similar plants around the city attracted people like Tennessee native George McGregor in the 1960s.Today, he's president of the United Auto Workers Local 22 in Detroit.“When I first came here, in the automobile factory, they were begging people to come. The hour rate was something like $3.25 an hour,” he recalled.But the auto industry stopped begging when demand for American cars slowed and interest in foreign automobiles increased.The Packard brand became extinct, and the hum of its once mighty factory is silent.Crumbling buildings are part of one of the largest vacant industrial complexes in the world. They symbolize Detroit’s boom-to-bust story.“There were about a dozen auto factories, and you know very large employers, and over time those have been shut down to now there’s only one left, ” Scorsone said.Economist Eric Scorsone, at Michigan State University, said although General Motors boasts the most prominent set of buildings in downtown Detroit, the auto industry plays a much smaller role in the city's economy.“In fact, health care is the biggest employer now in the city,” he said.There were about 300,000 auto factory jobs in Detroit in the 1950s, when the population was around 1.8 million.
在20世纪中叶底特律最繁荣之时，这家生产帕卡德汽车的工厂有近四万名员工。在20世纪60年代，该市其他类似工厂的高薪承诺和大量的工作吸引了田纳西州本地人乔治・麦格雷戈这样的人前来。如今，他是汽车工人联合会底特律地区22分会主席。我最初来这家汽车工厂时，他们巴不得人们来。薪水大约每小时3.25美元。但随着人们对美国汽车需求的下降，和对外国汽车需求的增加，这家公司不再巴望人们来了。帕卡德这个牌子便消亡了，这家曾经繁忙的工厂也安静了下来。破败的建筑物是这个全世界最大的空置工业园的一部分，它们象征着底特律从繁荣到破产的历史。这里有大约12家工厂，要知道有很多员工，后来就关闭了，目前只剩下一家。密歇根州立大学经济学家Eric Scorsone说，尽管通用汽车拥有底特律商业区最著名的系列大楼，这家汽车工厂在该市经济中发挥的作用要小很多。事实上，医疗行业是该市目前最大的雇主。20世纪50年代底特律有约30万家汽车工厂，当时该市人口大约180万。
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