Flint Expatriates

Flint Portraits: Andre Dirrell

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:42:00 +0000

Andre Dirrell lands a hard right in last month's title bout against England's Carl Froch. For more great fight photos by Justin McKie go to The Boxing Bulletin.

Flint boxer Andre Dirrell once lived on Bassett Place in the Civic Park neighborhood. Although Dirrell lost his first shot at a title last month in a 12-round split decision, his future looks bright. It was the first loss of Dirrell's four-year professional career.

A pre-fight analysis by BoxingWatchers emphasized that Dirrell would be facing some real competition for the first time:

"In contrast, Dirrell isn't taking a step up in competition as much as he's taking a leap. The 2004 Olympic middleweight bronze medalist has dazzling athleticism and tons of potential, but he's never had to deal with the kind of quality he'll be facing as long as he hangs around in the tournament."

Despite the loss, The Sweet Science saw the fight as a learning opportunity that could pay dividends down the line:

"In the end Froch won by split-decision, but this tournament isn’t over. If Dirrell can learn from his mistakes he could prove to be a very, very dangerous foe for anyone in the tournament. He hurt the rugged British fighter a few times with his speed and timing.

"Dirrell will be back if he learns to quit the holding and use his feet to slide left or right and counter. He’s got the tools."

Bad Band Names Hall of Fame

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 16:49:00 +0000

Speaking of bands, these guys are from New Jersey, yet inexplicably decided to name their band Flint Michigan. That's sort of like a bunch of musicians from Flint naming their band Jersey City New Jersey. Not that there's anything wrong with that. In my expert opinion, I'd have to say the band Flint has much better hair than the band Flint Michigan.

Flint Photos: Flint

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 10:06:00 +0000

Grand Funk Railroad disbanded in 1977. Following the breakup, Don Brewer, Mel Schacher, and Craig Frost remained intact and formed the band Flint with the addition of Billy Ellworthy. Flint released one album on Columbia Records; a second record was completed but never released. Mark Farner began a solo career, signed with Atlantic Records and released two albums: Mark Farner (1977) and No Frills (1978).

Cars to Compost

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 14:05:00 +0000

Mayor Dayne Walling is launching a program to turn Chevy in the Hole into a depository for leaves and compost and, eventually, a park. According to the City Speak blog:

This new process will provide a significant savings to the city. “We currently pay $300,000.00 a year to have our leaves and compost taken away and an additional $400,000.00 to have top soil brought in to backfill demolition sites,” said Green Cities Coordinator Steve Montle. “By filling in Chevy In The Hole with our leaf and yard compost it is expected to save the city a half million dollars a year, while at the same time moving us one step closer to repurposing that site as a park and green space for the community.”

Buick Town East

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:29:00 +0000

The 2007 Riviera concept car that was born in China.

Flint Expatriates has written about China's love affair with Buick before:

"Of course, G.M. isn't exactly picky when it comes to lovers these days. The automaker is as desperate as a balding, recently divorced, middle-aged guy hanging out at the White Horse Tavern with an unemployment check burning a whole in his pocket.

And today The New York Times has a good piece on how G.M. ended up designing the new LaCrosse in China. Clifford Ghetti writes:

"But today’s commercial imperative is more compelling than nostalgia: sales of Buicks in China first outpaced sales in the United States in 2006, and the margin is considerable today. For the first nine months of 2009, for instance, Buick sold 312,798 vehicles in China; in the United States, it sold 72,389.
"In 1997 General Motors established two joint ventures with the Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation in China. One was for manufacturing. The other venture, for design and engineering, is the Pan Asia Technical Automotive Center. The center has done the engineering to adapt various G.M. global models for the Chinese market."

Read the entire article here, and go here for an interactive graphic on the new LaCrosse.

Flint Portraits: Wilburn LeGree

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:25:00 +0000

After numerous requests, I'm re-posting this from April 13, 2008:

All this talk of Homedale Elementary reminded my mom of Wilburn LeGree, "The Singing Cop" who used to visit schools all over Flint. She can still sing LeGree's classic ditties like "The Boys of the Safety Patrol" and "When You Cross the Street."

The State Bar of Michigan presented LeGree its Liberty Bell Award in 1999 and provided this biography:

"LeGree's career as the "Singing Cop" began in 1938 after a rise in rates of children being struck and killed by vehicles. LeGree was assigned to develop a school safety program and incorporate something that would grasp the children's attention -- music. The chief of police overheard LeGree singing and decided to put LeGree's talents to work.
"LeGree and his wife wrote words to popular musical tunes about obeying the law, safety in all situations and seeing police officers as friends. He visited hundreds of schools and sang his songs to children. Before he stopped counting, he estimated that he had performed safety songs to 25,000 students over a four-year period.
"LeGree's songs have been used in 46 states across the country as well as schools in Germany, Australia and New Zealand."

Kevin Conroy Wades into Wisconsin Politics

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:15:00 +0000

Kevin Conroy, who once lived across the street from Haskell Community Center, is considering a run for governor of Wisconsin. He's the son of former Michigan state senator Joe Conroy.

Flint Postcards: Koegel Meats

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:05:00 +0000

Donate to Flint Expatriates

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Flint Expatriates is obviously not a money making venture, but if you'd like to help offset the operating costs of the blog, feel free to donate any amount, however small. (We're talking $1-$5 here.) The goal is extremely modest — more profits than GM and Autoworld combined! Just click on the Paypal donation icon below.

Happy Birthday!

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Happy birthday to Flint Expatriate and Central High grad Patricia McFarlane Young. She's 79 today. Have a great day, Mama.

Go here for some of Pat's reflections on Flint. And here for her memories of etiquette lessons at the Durant. And here for a story of what works means for a Flint native.

Crepes Come to Flint

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:38:00 +0000

The Eating Flint blog has a great post on what it takes to successfully open a new business in Flint. It's not easy:

It turns out that the City of Flint has an ordinance which prohibits any carts like the crepe cart from doing business in the downtown area. (This explains why the Hot Dog Cart mysteriously disappeared from Saginaw Street). They made inquiries, of course, and tried to resolve the issue so they could run their business and not fear being shut down only days after getting started. They learned “informally” that if they stayed on private property, nobody would bother them. Thus, the Chamber of Commerce parking lot.

Days after getting started, Tim and Robb received a couple of visitors. A Flint police officer and a representative from the City Clerk’s Office notified the new business owners that they were in violation of the city ordinance and “to the extent that the cart was on private property that we were in violation of certain land use restrictions.” Uh oh. According to Tim, the officer and the representative didn’t actually say they were going to do anything about the “violations.” They were just there to notify.

The new business owners were beginning to realize that there were "certain business interests which were not happy about us being there."

Read the whole story here.

Happy Halloween from Flint Expatriates World Headquarters

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 14:22:00 +0000

Many enterprises are suffering through the Great Recession, and Flint Expatriates is no exception. Expenses are up; revenues are down. Well, revenues have always been down, but things are getting worse. In an effort to shake things up, the blog for the long-lost residents of Flint has decided to go corporate. Here's our new management team.

Flint Expatriates new CEO, recently "retired" from G.M. upper management, takes a break from the golf course to deliver an inspiring message for the future and angrily demand to know why this website makes almost no money. He ingeniously uses a sand wedge to illustrate his point, shouting, "This blog twitter thing called the Flint Patriots is in a sand bunker of red ink."

Flint Expatriates new Director of Corporate Communications tries to explain why our message isn't getting out to our target audience, partly because we don't have a target audience.

Our new CEO finally finds something he likes about Flint Expatriates during the all-employee cocktail mixer. The Director of Corporate Communications is quickly named the Executive Director of Corporate Communications!

Flint Expatriates new Information Technology V.P. looks for something to plug into after discovering Flint Expatriates I.T. Department consists of an aging Mac laptop.

The CEO and Executive Director of Corporate Communications huddle with the new Flint Expatriates Security Director. "All blogs do is steal material from other publications, so my job is to stop other publications from stealing from Flint Expatriates," explains the new security chief.

Flint Postcards: St. John Vianney

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 17:20:00 +0000

Flint Foodies

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:59:00 +0000

Here's something I never really expected to see...a blog about the Flint culinary scene called Eating Flint. Maybe Flint and San Francisco aren't as different as I thought.

WFUM May Have a New Owner

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 15:51:00 +0000

It looks like Central Michigan might buy WFUM-Flint from the University of Michigan. Go here for the story. Thanks to Rich Frost for passing this along.

The Luxury of the Seventies?

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:16:00 +0000

View Larger Map

David Harris of The Flint Journal reports:

"What was once a luxury apartment complex in the 1970s that turned into an eyesore in recent years is being torn down today.

"Two apartment buildings at 1710 W. Pierson Road were demolished by the City of Flint through a Community Development Block Grant fund."

Rowe Nears Completion

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 15:04:00 +0000

A worker put the finishing touches on an apartment in the ROWE building downtown. (Photo courtesy of Tim Jaglelo/The Flint Journal)

Speaking of luxury, the ROWE Professional Services Co. building on Saginaw Street is nearly ready for occupancy. Melissa Burden of The Flint Journal reports that "seven of eight luxury loft apartments are rented. Rent starts at about $1,050 a month for the more than 2,000-square-foot apartments that feature 20-foot ceilings, exposed brick walls and walnut floors."

Towne Club Pop

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 02:08:00 +0000

Show Some Respect

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:56:00 +0000

Youngsters in one Chinese province are forced to pay homage to the almighty auto. This didn't even happen in Flint during the boom years.

Sharon LaFraniere of The New York Times reports:

All the students at Luolang Elementary School, a yellow-and-orange concrete structure off a winding mountain road in southern China, know the key rules: Do not run in the halls. Take your seat before the bell rings. Raise your hand to ask a question.

And oh, yes: Salute every passing car on your way to and from school.

Your Pepsi or Your Life

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 20:34:00 +0000

The Detroit News reports:

A 77-year-old Flint man refused to give in to a would-be robber, instead fending off his assailant with a two-liter bottle of Pepsi before suffering a gunshot wound to the groin.
The Flint Journal reports Pat Gillespie is recovering at home after the shooting Thursday afternoon.
Gillespie says he was unloading groceries outside his home when one of two men pointed a gun and told him to empty his pockets. Gillespie tells the newspaper he "didn't want to give them nothing" and hit the gunman with a bag containing the Pepsi bottle. The men ran off, but shot Gillespie once.

Read the full story here.

And for the original Flint Journal story, that has a lot more detail, go here. This all happened in the Mott Park neighborhood.

Color Commentary

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 12:28:00 +0000

Designer turned marketer Chris Webb talks about how G.M. chooses colors for the Volt. It's basically a commercial for the internet age, but it's surprisingly interesting and offers a nice contrast with the yuppie extravagance of the Reagan-era Cadillac advertising I posted yesterday.

It did remind me a little of the color analyst scene in Roger & Me. And the part where Webb explains how G.M. uses three layers of color instead of two was somewhat reminiscent of the famous amp scene in Spinal Tap. (watch below)

All kidding aside, it seems like G.M. is finally figuring out how to market a car to a wider, more diverse group of consumers. (And no, G.M. did not pay me to say that.)

If you want a chance to fly to L.A. and test drive a pre-production Volt, go here to enter the Chevy color contest to name the strange green planned for some of the Volts. (Are they too broke to actually give a car away in the contest, as I mistakenly posted earlier? Apparently so.) Alas, there are no plans to re-introduce the "Bamboo Cream" of my grandma's Buick Electra.

UPDATE: If you scroll toward the bottom of this page, you can see some of the names people have submitted. And as some of the comments indicate, figuring out how to actually enter this contest is a real challenge. Perhaps I was a bit premature in declaring that G.M. has improved at the marketing game.

Citizens Bank: It Could Be Worse

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:24:00 +0000

Reuters reports that Flint's Citizens Bank is still losing money, but less than expected:

"Loss-making Midwestern bank Citizens Republic Bancorp Inc (CRBC.O) posted a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, despite a spike in loan loss provisions and expenses.
"Third-quarter net loss was $62.1 million, or 48 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $18.9 million, or 20 cents a share, last year."

Cadillac Style: Let's Go! Let's Live!

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:40:00 +0000

My favorite part is when the polo-playing dude douses himself with water while sitting on the hood of his Caddy and two women jump up and down in excitement. You used to see scenes like that all the time in Flint. The two dim-witted housing developers who almost blow themselves up is also pretty cool.

Mapping the Economic Mess

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:38:00 +0000

The Geography of Jobs is a highly informative animated map that "provides a striking visual of employment trends over the last business cycle using net change in jobs from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on a rolling 12-month basis."

"The timeline begins in 2004 as the country starts its recovery from the 2001 recession, following the bursting of the dot-com bubble. At first, broad economic growth was apparent across most of the country. Two notable exceptions are the Bay Area — the hub of the tech boom that drove job growth during the prior decade — and several metropolitan areas within the Midwest. The map reveals that much of the industrial Midwest never fully recovered from the previous recession, as manufacturers continue to shed jobs while other parts of the country were adding them in large number."

Go here to view the map.

Thanks to Haskell Community Center's Jim Holbel for passing this along.

Time Out

gordieyoung@sbcglobal.net (geewhy) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:45:00 +0000

Time Magazine takes a look at Flint:

"No place has felt the pain of General Motors' collapse quite as completely as Flint, Mich., which is about an hour's drive north of Detroit. Back in the early 1970s, GM had as many as 80,000 employees around Flint, making it one of the premier company towns in the U.S. But as GM's fortunes have fallen, so have those of Flint. GM is still the largest employer in town by far, but its Flint payroll has dropped to fewer than 8,000. Meanwhile, the Genesee County Land Bank owns more than 4,000 vacant residential properties in and around Flint, which had 124,000 residents at the last census. Today, streets are mostly abandoned, the average value of a single-family home has dropped to $16,400 and the city's unemployment rate hovers at 27%, which is two points better than it was in August when it hit 29%. "