Saturday, August 28, 2010

Flint Photos: Durant

Special thanks to Grumkin for this shot of the nearly restored Durant Hotel. This is kind of hard to believe. It looks almost perfect.



3 comments:

  1. I try hard to see the bright side of things...and I am certainly overjoyed that this project has finally came to fruition. However, I still am irritated by the decision to put such an expansive parking structure behind The Durant. Not only does it nearly ruin the views of all of the rear facing apartments, but it also destroys the urban sense of place..and prevents future development. Although the demand to develop that land is not here at the moment, it would have been lovely for the developers to make room for when that day comes.


    Otherwise....way to go!

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  2. I hear you, corner office. But I've tried to take the zen approach to Flint and parking lots. You simply can't beat it, so you have to accept that the powers that be in Flint have a thing for parking lots and nothing will stop them. It's like an addiction. They can't help themselves. If economic development were measured by parking lots, Flint would be considered a thriving metropolis. Just let it go, man. You can't win this fight.

    And I look forward to the day when Flint destroys parking lots to build buildings, rather than the other way around.

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  3. I understand your point, corner office, but I also understand why it was done. The Durant wouldn't have been as big a draw if people had to park on the street or off site somewhere. I'm not really worried to be out at night down there, but dealing with some of the 'characters' around there might have been too much to handle for some.

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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.