GM plant closure in Pontiac, Michigan, devastates local economy

Shelby Berger's pawn shop is one of the only prospering businesses in Pontiac, a city with 65,000 people and about 30 minutes' drive north of Detroit. General Motors veterans have been pawning once treasured company rewards in distress or disgust at the state of America's biggest carmaker Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

A steady trickle of gold rings bearing the letters 'GM' have found their way through the doors of the pawn shop. Behind Berger's modest storefront is a trove of hard earned possessions ranging from electric guitars to refrigerators, jewellery, American football jerseys, bicycles, chainsaws and DVD collections Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Danco Sotirovski, owner of the workfly.com community incubator, where community businesses and working people come together to plan new enterprises Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Kone Bowman, member of the city council for Pontiac and owner of a local insurance company. He says that 700 local families lost their homes to foreclosure last year. 'You've got walls closing in on both sides. The people in the city, they're afraid. They don't know what's next.' Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Matt Hart, employee of Guido's Pizza, which used to serve the GM factory every Saturday. Now that the shift has been cut, the pizzeria is suffering. GM's woes have an immediate, visible impact on scores of neighbouring businesses. 'We give them good deals,' says Matt Hart, who works in the pizza store. 'We used to have two drivers running to each gate constantly for two hours straight.' Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Steve Sutton, a civil engineer who lives in Pontiac, Detroit's long-suffering workers are no strangers to hard times. The motoring industry went into a deep downturn in the early 1980s. But this crisis is worse Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Mike and Tammy Randolph. Mike is a retired Ford worker. Tammy is unemployed Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Tim McMann, owner of the Blue Note Cafe in downtown Pontiac Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Ray Gralewski, a Pontiac resident auditioning for the TV show Survivor at a local restaurant in Sterling Heights Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

More Survivor hopefuls line up to register Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport

Michael Smith, another Survivor hopeful and Ford employee Photograph: Brett Mountain/Rapport