Dayne Walling at City Hall in Flint. (Photo by Emily Bingham/Found Michigan)
There's an indepth and compelling portrait of Flint Mayor Dayne Walling by Lou Blouin on Found Michigan, a site that focuses on longform journalism about the Great Lake State. It describes Walling's work to revive Flint, despite the imposition of an emergency financial manager and an array of daunting obstacles.
"In a cash-strapped city, that means Walling can only do a fraction of what he no doubt wants to do. Understanding that things move slowly in city government, lately he’s dedicated himself to making sure future city leaders have things a little better—he’s now leading the charge for a new master plan in Flint, which will guide the city’s redevelopment over the coming decades. It’ll be Flint’s first such vision in more than 50 years—since the plan in 1960, which optimistically projected nothing but explosive growth in the auto industry and corollary fortunes for Flint."
ugh... "longform" shouldn't become an excuse for not editing. NPR tried some longform interviews a few years back... BOOORRRRRIIIINNNGGGG.
ReplyDeleteDayne Walling doesn't exactly exude interest. 5 minutes listening to him would be most peoples limit.
I guess I should have read the interview before taking potshots. Not too bad and not long at all.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, true "longform" with Dayne could be a real slog. An extended, free-wheeling one-on-one with Ex-Con Don however would be a real page turner.