Flint Expatriates

Flint Photos: St. Mary's in the Late Seventies

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 03:17:00 +0000

An event at St. Mary's Church on Franklin Avenue in the late seventies. (Photo courtesy of the St. Mary Facebook page.)

Flint Postcards: The Vehicle City

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 04:28:00 +0000

Flint Photos: Bristol Road

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 02:52:00 +0000

Cigarettes and oxygen outside Donna's Donuts on Bristol Road. (Click to enlarge.)

This shot is courtesy of Flint resident Shane Gramling, a photographer and graphic designer who posts other compelling images of the Vehicle City at Flint Photo Journal. (Click to enlarge.) Here's Shane's story from his website:

I was raised in a single parent home near Franklin and Leith in Flint, Michigan. We didn't have much; mom made sure we never missed a meal or went without proper needs, and she dished out plenty of love.

I am thankful for my fathers effort, for coming around 4-5 times a year. Over the years I've let go of the bitterness. I truly believe that he gave it all he could, in light of his alcohol addiction.

I have a thousand memories of my mother and I out at Zimmerman Beach, basking in the sun. I have a thousand more memories of riding bikes, and toying with Legos, GI Joe's, and playing hysterical late-night games of Monopoly with my best friend who lived just three houses down.

Then there's that time when someone tried to pry open our front door at 6am while we were home. And that other time when some random kid punched me in the gut, interrupting my water rocket session in the field across from my house.

Living in Flint has taught me that cities do not have agendas. Cities are not trying to jack my bike a gunpoint. Cities are not trying to kick in my back door.

I've learned that these "bitter occurrences" are merely human, and they are evident everywhere humans are found.

Assault on Precinct 13: Life Imitating Art

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 04:38:00 +0000

I've always had a soft spot for urban paranoia films of the seventies, perhaps because I grew up in Flint during the seventies. This brief scene from John Carpenter's Assault on Precinct 13 has some uncanny parallels with the old hometown. The low-budget thriller's advertising materials do a nice job of summing up the plot: "A cop with a war on his hands. His enemy...an army of street killers. His only ally...a convicted murderer."

Flint and Rochester: A Tale of Two Cities

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 14:24:00 +0000

With the decline of Kodak, Rochester, New York could have become another Flint, but it has fared far better than the Vehicle City. Peter Applebome of The New York Times reports:

It feels like the wrenching culmination of a slide over decades, during which Kodak’s employment in Rochester plummeted from 62,000 in the 1980s to less than 7,000 now. Still, for this city in western New York, the picture that emerges, like a predigital photograph coming to life in a darkroom, is not a simple tale of Rust Belt decay.
Rochester has been a job-growth leader in the state in recent years. In 1980, total employment in the Rochester metropolitan area was 414,400. In 2010, it was 503,200. New businesses have been seeded by Kodak’s skilled work force, a reminder that a corporation’s fall can leave behind not just scars but also things to build upon.

The 1 % in Flint

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 14:20:00 +0000

What's it take to be part of the 1 percent in Flint? According to this interactive income map of the United States, your household income would have to be at least $178,656. That amount would only place you in the top 8 percent in Los Angeles or the top 18 percent in the San Francisco Bay Area.

From Flint to Iran

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 04:46:00 +0000

The Flint Parking Pattern

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 17:31:00 +0000

Michael Kimmelman of The New York Times has a great story about the paving over of American cities to create parking. Sound familiar, Flintoids? Pensacola, Florida has somehow snagged the naming rights to this unfortunate phenomena.

The Pensacola Parking Syndrome is a term of the trade used to describe a city that tears down its old buildings to create parking spaces to entice more people downtown, until people no longer want to go there because it has become an empty lot. Cities should let the free market handle the construction of new parking spaces. People who buy or rent new homes can pay extra if they want someplace to park a car. Municipalities can instead cap the maximum number of lots or the ratio of spaces to dwellings and offices.

I'm biased, but I think the Flint Parking Pattern (FPP) would have been more appropriate.

Thanks to Grumkin for passing this along.

Lions in January

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 01:12:00 +0000

This is really weird and I may be just imagining it, but I appear to be watching the Lions in an actual playoff game.

Update: Ah, back to reality...another loss.

Visual Echoes of Flint

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 23:33:00 +0000

The Pacific Atlas Woodworking Co. is across the street from my office in San Francisco. I frequently walk by it when I've invented a reason to stop writing and wander around the neighborhood. It always reminds me of Flint.

The Price of History in Today's Real Estate Market

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:10:00 +0000

My sister Martha, who attended St. Mike's and Powers in Flint, is taking a somewhat unusual approach to selling her house in Tacoma, Washington. She's auctioning it off herself. It's a huge place, but her children are grown and she and her husband really want something smaller. They've found that selling a massive historic residence isn't exactly easy in this market.

Kathleen Cooper of the Tacoma News Tribune reports:

These days, home auctions typically are associated with foreclosed or bank-owned homes. But home auctions were increasing even before the real estate market busted. The National Auctioneers Association, based in Kansas, tracked homes sold by auction between 2003 and 2008, and saw a 7 percent to 8 percent increase each year.
“Auctions work in good times and bad,” association spokesman Chris Longly said Thursday. Auctions offer the certainty of a time and date of sale. They also are a way for more unusual properties, like historic homes, to find out what price the market will bear.
Gary Gestson, a Realtor with Maryland-based HistoricHomeTeam.com, said Thursday that owners crafting their own auction is somewhat unusual, because the pool of buyers for historic homes is small.
“Maybe six out of a thousand qualified buyers will be interested in your home,” he said. “Marketing is the key. If you market to Tyvek and particle board people, you’ll be frustrated.”

Martha's experience has left me wondering what a house like this would be worth in Flint or San Francisco.

Read more here: http://www.thenewstribune.com/2012/01/06/1971410/a-bit-of-tacoma-history-goes-on.html#storylink=misearch#storylink=cpy

Flint Videos: A Stroll Around Vehicle City

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:41:00 +0000

Remembering and Reviving Riverbank Park

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:42:00 +0000

Riverbank Park in downtown Flint shortly after it opened in 1979.

Cade Surface, a recent UM-Flint graduate and current Carriage Town homeowner, is conducting research on Riverbank Park for the Flint River Corridor Alliance to assist with several projects related to programming and maintenance work at the park.

The park was designed by esteemed landscape architect Lawrence Halprin, although many debate how much work he actually did on it. I've had very mixed feelings about the park over the years, but it has really grown on me lately. The reduction of the water level through downtown has left many features dry and unused. It would be great to see the park up and running at full capacity again.

Cade is asking the readers of Flint Expatriates to offer up any memories or thoughts on Riverbank Park, as well as any old photos or memorabilia. He'd like to document the history of the park as part of the efforts to help restore it. You can comment on this post or email me any digital photos or thoughts. I'll pass them along to Cade. Or you can send info directly to Cade at csurface(at)umflint(dot)edu.

By the way, longtime readers might remember Cade as the guy who once gave me a tour of his frat house. He's a good guy. Let's try and help him out. (He bought a house in Flint, after all, so let's show him a little gratitude.

Early fundraising and promotional materials.

"Sponsor a piece of the park."

The Archimedes' screw.

An early concert shortly after Riverbank Park opened with the short-lived Duane Hatchett sculpture visible in the background.

Flint Videos: Returning to the Eastside

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Happy New Year from Flint Expatriates

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 16:26:00 +0000

Flint Postcards: Offices of Gillespie & Van Wagoner, 122 E. Kearsley Street

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 20:55:00 +0000

Flint Artifacts: Flint Committee Against War and Fascism Flyer

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 05:50:00 +0000

Thanks to Tom Pohrt for this artifact from the archives
of his grandfather, Charles Pohrt.

Ordos: If You Build It, Will They Come? Apparently Not

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 03:52:00 +0000

It took decades and complex global economic trends to create all the vacant property in Flint. China managed to pull it off all on their own and much more quickly in the Ordos district, a self-inflicted ghost town in Inner Mongolia complete with a bizarre museum and thousands of empty structures. Lucy Hornby and Langi Chiang of Reuters report:

Off the back of a thriving coal industry, the local government has been building a new city for one million people called Kangbashi. It sits virtually empty and property prices are falling.
Even in the old city of Dongsheng where people live and work, some 45 minutes drive away, a wave of investment has backfired. Cranes sit idle over unfinished skyscrapers and migrant workers are fleeing.
The swing in fortune -- residents and property agents say prices have dropped by up to a third -- is a severe example of what is happening in cities across China, including Shanghai and Beijing.

Ghosts of Flint in San Francisco

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 21:37:00 +0000

I saw this old Chevy with an industrial background today on Florida Street near 16th on my way to lunch. It reminded me of Flint.

Having grown up in Flint during the golden age of customized vans, I was duly impressed when I spotted this gem parked on the western slope of Bernal Heights this weekend.

MSU Medical Research Coming to Flint

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 04:40:00 +0000

Flint gets one step closer to being a college town. Beata Mostafavi of The Flint Journal reports:

Michigan State University’s medical school is joining downtown Flint, announcing plans to open a community campus in the heart of the city.
MSU’s College of Human Medicine will develop public health programs, recruit and house top public health researchers and provide office and classroom space for staff, faculty and students in a yet-to-be determined downtown location, according to plans MSU was set to publicly unveil today.
The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation will fund an initial grant of $2.8 million for the project that college officials say will allow Flint to join East Lansing and Grand Rapids as pillars of the college’s statewide footprint and hopefully help grow more local doctors.

Flint Photos: Charles Pohrt and the Buick in the 1920s

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 16:23:00 +0000

Author, illustrator, and Flint Expatriate Tom Pohrt sent me these photos of his grandfather, Charles Pohrt, taken at the Buick, probably sometime in the 1920s. Charles was a tool and die maker.

The drop forge die sinking room at the Buick.

Charles, smoking a pipe, with two co-workers.

Flint Artifacts: Dort Motor Car Company

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 14:25:00 +0000

Michael Brown Named Emergency Financial Manager in Flint

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:13:00 +0000

The state of Michigan has appointed an emergency financial manager in Flint, choosing former interim Mayor Michael Brown. Dawson Bell of The Detroit Free Press reports:

As emergency manager, Brown will assume most of the duties of elected Mayor Dayne Walling and City Council and control city operations and finances. But he will have broader powers, too, including the authority to end employee contracts.

That means the long-running standoff between the city and the Flint police and firefighters unions will finally reach a resolution, although it might not be a happy one, depending on which side your on.

Kristen Longley of The Flint Journal has more details on the move:

Brown said he'll be talking to department heads and public safety officials.

He also plans to appoint an advisory committee consisting of a city official, a representative of the business community, one Flint resident and "up to two persons with relevant professional skills" to assist him, he said.

Brown said he expects to take actions similar to those of the current emergency managers appointed in Benton Harbor, Pontiac and Ecorse.

"It's pretty clear if you read the law, there's guidelines for managers," he said. "I'm going to be no different."

Flint Postcards: Chevy in the Hole

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 15:26:00 +0000

Behold the tranquil beauty of Chevy in the Hole.

Brain Drain in Michigan

noreply@blogger.com (Gordon Young) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 14:35:00 +0000

A post about Richard Florida's observations on states with a high percentage of native-born residents sparked a discussion of brain drain in Michigan. As you might expect, the news is not good. Lauren Silverman, writing for a Michigan Radio project, reveals:

Michigan has 15 public universities that serve almost 300,000 students each year. But almost half of these students leave the state after they graduate. That means Michigan has the 8th worst migration rate in the nation. Even South Dakota, Alabama and Idaho do a better job keeping college graduates in their states.

There used to be a steady stream of college graduates flowing in and out of Michigan, but that flow has turned into a sputter that businesses fear will dry up altogether. In 2008, Michigan lost a total of 15,000 students with bachelor’s degrees to other states. And according to Michigan Future, an Ann Arbor based think tank, over half of the college graduates that left the state don’t ever plan to come back.

Silverman quotes Britany Affolter-Caine, the manager of Intern in Michigan, on the severity of the problem: “If you look at the state and the number of students, age 22-29 with a bachelors degree or higher, no other state in the union lost more than Michigan, except for one, and that was Louisiana — that was just after Katrina!” she said.