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The similarities between Janesville, Wisconsin, and Warren are astounding -- and in many ways, painful.
With a 2010 population of about 63,000, Janesville, county seat of Rock County, Wisconsin, is slightly bigger than Warren. That midwestern blue-collar town also was home to a General Motors assembly plant, along with various other manufacturing facilities in past years.
But when General Motors announced plans in 2008 to idle that plant -- the oldest GM plant at the time -- it was because consumer demand for large vehicles, including big SUVs like the Chevy Tahoe being built there, was diminishing.
Then-U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, who later served as House speaker, calls Janesville home, and, in fact, he was among the first people to receive word of GM's planned closure announcement one day before United Auto Workers there were informed.
Ryan was standing in his kitchen when former GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner called his cellphone the evening of June 2, 2008, to relay the news.
"You know you'll destroy this town if you do this," a frantic Ryan responded. "These are the best workers you've got, and this town has been loyal to you. Why don't you shut down a plant in a big city where it won't have that much of a devastating impact?"
Grasping, Ryan continued, "Give us Cavaliers. Give us pickups."
Sound familiar?
The story of Janesville is told brilliantly in the book "Janesville: An American Story" by longtime Washington Post writer Amy Goldstein, who took a leave of absence from her work at the newspaper to spend time -- years -- exploring the stories of this town.
I was among several local people recently invited by Warren community member Dennis Blank to delve into the book together, in search of ideas our town perhaps could borrow on how to react or counter what is about to happen when GM idles its Lordstown complex here next month. Much like Janesville, our town also has come to rely on the auto plant as a lifeblood for good-paying manufacturing jobs and tax revenue.
As I wound my way through Goldstein's stories of the people of Janesville, sometimes I felt I was reading about Lordstown. I read about the gut-wrenching division of families created when GM workers accepted transfers to plants hours away, leaving their families behind. Much like the stories we have been relaying in Tribune Chronicle pages, workers in Janesville began commuting from small one-bedroom apartments where they stay during the week back home each weekend. The lifestyle certainly is not a desirable one, but somehow it seems to work best for those who see few options.
I read about attempts some laid-off workers made at retraining for brand new careers. Some found success, but others bailed out, fearful that no jobs would exist in even the new career paths they were choosing.
I also read about the painful subsequent Janesville closure of another large manufacturer, Parker Pen, that moved operations overseas, but not before asking workers to help develop outlines to train the foreign workers about to take their jobs.
There also was a collaborative effort by some of Janesville's business leaders to raise funds to trigger an economic development plan to draw in new business. And I read about Janesville's generosity, collecting and bagging groceries for distribution to those who needed help. All in all, the stories resembled those of Warren.
In the end, Janesville residents are managing. By no means do they see economic growth or success like some others in America. That city's once prosperous middle class has been left to rely by considerable extent to its own resources. But as Goldstein describes, those resources include more generosity and ingenuity -- and less bitterness -- than in many communities that have been economically injured.
Like Janesville, people here remain hopeful that something will give. And until then, I believe our resilience will continue. As in the past, we will pull together, and we will get by.