CNN

For this long-beleaguered region of Northeast Ohio, a gleaming new 2.8 million-square-foot manufacturing plant symbolizes something that has been fleeting in recent years: hope.

Hope that years of promises – so often broken or deferred – have been replaced by action in the form of 2,200 employees at the Ultium Cells electric vehicle battery plant, which sits at the forefront of cutting-edge green technology and manufacturing.

Hope in the shadow of the hulking former General Motors Lordstown plant that closed its doors in 2019, forcing workers like George Goranitis to leave the only jobs and homes they knew.