To know Flint is to love and hate it at the same time. I live on the East Side with my family, and my husband grew up on the North End. The thoughts of shrinking the city yes is sad and heartbreaking but at the same time can be a helpful in keeping Flint alive and not just on life support.
Many of the homes in my husband's old neighborhood are in varying stages of ruin and are now over run by crime.
With the low tax base and now new millages going into effect for those of us that still live and work in Flint, the hope to keep the basic needs of the City ( fire departments, police) are still stretched thin. A smaller city takes some of the burden off of civic departments. Can I say that this will fix all of Flint's problems? No. Do I think that it is a good start into getting us back on tract? Yes.
People who are not from Flint or its surrounding areas only see what our crime rates are,run down homes and now closed factories that had at one point been jobs to thousands of people. What they do not see are the many good things that Flint has to offer, as in the Cultural Center, Stepping Stone Falls, the Flint Farmers Market, and a city that is full of a rich history.
So again to live in Flint you love it for what it was, you hate it for what it is now, and you can have hope that it will overcome all of the challenges that come down the path, and have the faith that Flint will become stronger no matter the outcome.
Wednesday, June 1, 2011
Reflecting on Flint
Flint resident T.I. Jordan reflects on the past, present and future of the city:
2 comments:
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.
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This is exactly what I've been trying to tell my husband, who has only seen the city since I took him there in 2004. I remember how beautiful Flint used to be (even when I was growing up in the 80's), and if you look closely under the rust and dirt, it has the potential to be beautiful again. It has always had a thriving artistic community and great people.
ReplyDeleteYou can't see architecture, history, culture or character in crime statistics. In Flint's case, as always, the few bad apples spoil the bushel.
Wake up, I live in Flint too, and the bad apples are taking over even my neighborhood, which was good as late as 2003.
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