What happens when a city loses its identity? For much of the 20th century, the fortunes of the Midwest could not be extracted from those of the automotive industry. The big three — General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Daimler Chrysler AG — operated plants across the region.

And for 70 years, Anderson was akin to Detroit’s southern campus. General Motors Corp., Guide Corp. and Remy International once employed about 25,000 people in the city. Now that era has come to an end.

On April 30, Guide officially relinquished the keys to Plant 9. May 1 marked the first day of unemployment for the remaining 100 Delphi employees at Plant 20, as another 70 await transfer to GM’s Kokomo plant.

Mourning the loss — asking “What happened?” — is less important than setting the agenda for the next phase. For Anderson, that has meant stabilizing the losses with new manufacturing jobs, strengthening educational resources and broadening its economic base.

“We lost 23,000 manufacturing jobs, all related to each other,” said Larry Sloan, president and CEO of the Anderson Group Consulting. “The manufacturing, the rust belt thing is never coming back.

“I think we can be a center for advanced engineering, we have a lot of good engineers. (Anderson Mayor Kevin Smith’s administration) and its people understand the vision needed to move forward.”

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The automotive industry essentially created the middle class in America. It allowed generations of Americans in places like Anderson, Kokomo, New Castle and Marion to go from high school to high-paying jobs that allowed them leisure time, homeownership and the ability to send their children to college.

In May 2006, a television crew from BBC World (of the British Broadcasting Corp.) came to Anderson to film a segment for its Emerging Giants series, focusing on the economies of India and China. The city provided a good example of a community whose economy was based on a single industry.

“Many of the same issues occur,” reporter and producer Caroline Hepker told The Herald Bulletin. “Essentially, it’s globalization — people somewhere will always do it cheaper.”

The issue is almost universal across the Midwest.

In February, BorgWarner Automotive announced it would close its light manufacturing plant in Muncie. A Guide plant in Monroe, La., closed the same week as those in Anderson and Pendleton.

But manufacturing savvy in Indiana’s industrial cities has also pointed the way forward — albeit with foreign investors some of the time.

In June 2006, Honda announced it would build a 1,700-acre, $550 million plant in Decatur County near Greensburg. The factory, which will produce the Civic, is expected to generate 2,000 new jobs.

“This announcement says great things about the caliber of workers and sense of community that we have in southeastern Indiana,” said state Rep. Cleo Duncan, R-District 67. “It also speaks volumes about the new direction our state is heading and its commitment to economic development.”