GM CEO Fritz Henderson acknowledged Monday the automaker's open to moving from its RenCen world headquarters along the Detroit River to save millions in taxes. Can Detroit still be called the "Motor City" without automakers?
The automaker is under pressure to cut costs by June 1st or face bankruptcy. To that end, GM's being courted by Warren Mayor James Fouts, who, later this week, plans to tout his city's lack of an income tax (versus $6 million annually in property tax payments to the City of Detroit) as a big reason to relocate GM's HQ to the company's Technical Center in the Macomb County city.
A move also would leave the Motor City without a Big Three automaker, with Dearborn, MI the home to Ford Motor Company and Auburn Hills, MI the home to Chrysler, GM was the lone holdout still located within the boundaries of the city of Detroit. Without GM, do we still call Detroit the "Motor City?"
Yes, it's still the "Motor City" but the fact that GM's even looking to leave the city is just another example of how this once-proud industrial icon-of-a-city has gone from heroic "Arsenal of Democracy" to zero. [via Detroit News]