In Detroit, locals brace for holidays

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By Andrea Billups

WARREN, Mich.

Plans are commencing in this Detroit suburb for a holiday celebration. There will be horse-drawn wagon rides, Christmas caroling and a petting zoo for the children.

But as much as Warren tries to embrace the coming holidays as normal, things here are anything but merry for local residents - about a quarter employed by U.S. automakers - as they wait uneasily for word from Washington about a possible bailout plan that could save their flagging industry. Or without it, bring about its demise.

Jim Fouts acknowledges that it's a tough time to be mayor in Warren, a city that is as dependent on the car industry as Washington is on the federal government.

About 35,000 of the city's 140,000 residents are employed in auto-related jobs with thousands more auto industry retirees calling it home. Here, a massive GM technical center sprawls across a 330-acre campus, while Dodge maintains three high-tech facilities that employ about 6,000 workers.

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Detroit Begs for Help

The big three U.S. automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, all based in Detroit, are appearing this week in Washington to ask for federal funds to curb the decline of the American auto industry. The city of Detroit would be hardest hit if the government let the auto makers fall into bankruptcy. An estimated one in three Detroiters lives in poverty, making the city the poorest large city in America.

Up the road in Sterling Heights, in another 3 million-square-foot complex, DaimlerChrysler employs about 2,400 workers.

Simply put, Mr. Fouts says, if one of the Big Three crumbles, the ripple effect would likely turn Warren into a ghost town.

"I think everybody here is apprehensive," Mr. Fouts says, noting that nearly every conversation from his constituents begins, "Do you think we'll get the bailout?" And, "What will happen if we don't?"

"My city is highly dependent on the auto industry. GM is to Warren what Coca-Cola is to Atlanta or what the president is to D.C. I cannot conceive that Congress would turn them down. It's not whether they will - but they must."

He pauses and adds sadly: "If they don't, it's going to be a cheerless holiday season here."