Tuesday, May 7, 2013

"Found Michigan" Finds Flint Mayor Dayne Walling

 
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."


2 comments:

  1. Golfside OrchardMay 7, 2013 at 4:28 PM

    ugh... "longform" shouldn't become an excuse for not editing. NPR tried some longform interviews a few years back... BOOORRRRRIIIINNNGGGG.

    Dayne Walling doesn't exactly exude interest. 5 minutes listening to him would be most peoples limit.

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  2. I guess I should have read the interview before taking potshots. Not too bad and not long at all.

    Seriously 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.

    ReplyDelete

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.