Silicon Valley Congressman talks new industrial future for Lorain

LORAIN — A Silicon Valley congressman stopped in Lorain to talk with local politicians and union leadership. U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Fremont, California, met with local officials at the Ariel Broadway Hotel on Monday as part of a tour of Northeast Ohio towns hit hard by deindustrialization following remarks at the City Club of Cleveland earlier that day. Lorain's industrial roots date back to the hulking steel mills on East 28th Street, American Ship Building Co. at the mouth of the Black River, Thew Shovel, the Ford Motor Co.'s Lorain Assembly Plant and countless other industries that employed hundreds of thousands of International City residents throughout the years. Many of those former industrial sites remain vacant brownfields today, or await a second life in redevelopment — something Khanna hopes to spur through modern manufacturing. "I wanted to come to Lorain to understand what's happened here and what needs to be done," Khanna said. "It's so deeply sad that we as a country watched as the steel left, the auto plant left, the shipbuilding left and we didn't do what we should have in providing economic redevelopment in this area." Khanna wants to see modern steel plants around the country combined with artificial intelligence and robotics, he said, alongside shipbuilding and high-tech, remote jobs. "It would help young people come back to the city and (create) a more vibrant downtown," Khanna said. "Lorain and places like Lorain have to be a priority in having economic development, what it will take for the future prosperity of families." While the Silicon Valley Democrat supported strategic tariffs to protect American aluminum and steel, he said those protective tariffs must be coupled with new industry — not the "chaotic and haphazard" approach the Trump administration has had to on-again-off-again tariffs that are increasing costs to manufacturers and straining trade relations with allies. "I'm calling for economic patriotism and I've introduced legislation specifically on modern steel, which would get federal funding to have new steel plants," Khanna said, adding Lorain Mayor Jack Bradley said Republic Steel may be open to leasing its East 28th Street property to another steel producer like Cleveland Cliffs. Elyria Mayor Kevin Brubaker was also included in Monday's session, and discussed opportunities for his city's future and how tariffs could impact it moving forward. "(Khanna) was very open to discussion, particularly about what our future looks like in Lorain and Elyria and Mayor Bradley and I were able to talk to him about the development projects we have going on in our prospective cities," Brubaker said. State Rep. Joe Miller, D-Amherst, said Khanna's team reached out to him to help organize Monday's session, including the congressman's meeting with local union leaders. Revitalizing Lorain and other cities like it will take federal, state and local governments working with public-private partnerships to kickstart economic development, Miller said. The Great Lakes region has become a focus recently, with President Donald Trump signing the "Restoring America's Maritime Dominance" executive order last week to designate areas as Maritime Prosperity Zones to support shipbuilding and related industries in the area. Lorain has been teased for years with rumors of the mills opening back up, Miller said. "It has been a very difficult job to be a Lorain Countian because we have been teased and given hope and then had it yanked out from under us so many times," Miller said. "That's why, right now, all of us are willing to bring bipartisan federal, state, local collaboration together in the hopes that we can change the direction of Lorain and Lorain County." Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com