Friday, November 12, 2010

Michigan School for the Deaf and Powers High Plan Moves Forward

A bill authorizing the sale and renovation of the Michigan School for the Deaf — the next step in creating a new home for Flint Powers and improving facilities for deaf students — has reached state lawmakers.

What could possibly go wrong?



6 comments:

  1. I went to the Valley School when they bought Fay Hall and tried to renovate it. Bad idea. The school had no idea what they were getting into. That place is built like a medieval castle. Nothing like punching through two feet of brick to run new ductwork. The current degraded state of that school is directly due to the financial hole they dug themselves on the project.

    I presume (I hope) these people know what they're doing, though. From what I've seen, it'll be a beautiful project and a real coup to get Powers close to downtown.

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  2. What does the deaf community think about this? I heard that there are MSD staffers living in apartments in one of the buildings and they will be displaced/evicted during renovations.

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  3. There have been a few protests from the MSD families about this, but it seems like no one has paid attention to what they think. Some signs protesting the plan were placed on Miller Road, in front of the campus, but were taken down within a 24 hours.

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  4. I think the protests from MSD families have been muted, and mostly sympathetically set aside, based on a review of the real-world financial picture and the State's fiscal situation.

    An imperfect way forward is better than having to close.

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  5. Your absolutly right JWilly. There are 1,000's of homes in Flint they could relocate too...

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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.