It's easy to explore my old Civic Park neighborhood in Flint via Google Street View. Twenty years ago, the experience was more nostalgic than distressing. A digital trip down memory lane. 2402 Bassett Place and the neighboring house at 2406, once owned by the Bowden family, looked pretty much the same, even though the surrounding blocks were already in serious decline. But it was only a matter of time before Bassett Place caught up with the rest of Civic Park.
AUGUST 2008
 |
| The crack down the middle of my old driveway has widened, reminding me of Andy Goldsworthy's Drawn Stone installation at the de Young Museum in San Francisco, though it obviously draws far less attention and adoration. Otherwise, the two houses look much like they did when I lived on Bassett Place in the 1970s and '80s. The low-resolution image helps hide the fading paint and less-than-pristine yards, but there would be no real cause for alarm if I drove down the old street in 2008. |
JUNE 2011
 |
| A sunny day and higher resolution make the two houses look even better almost three years later. The pine and the chestnut trees provide some welcoming shade. |
SEPTEMBER 2015
 |
| Just four years later, and it's all over. Both houses are boarded up. The screened-in front porch where my family gathered in the summer to watch baseball games across the street in Bassett Park is open-air now. The siding has been stripped from my childhood home, reverting back to the original minty green. |
JANUARY 2022
 |
| Almost seven years later, and the boards on the windows and doors of the two houses appear to be doing their job. The two structures look more or less the same in this winter scene. A closer look reveals that our old garage is a shell — the door is gone and there are large holes opening in the back. And the small white house to the south — once owned by the Procuniers and then the Kildees — hasn't survived. It's gone. |
JUNE 2025
 |
| The houses are slowly returning to nature by summer 2025. The tall grass and encroaching shrubbery make it seem less bad and more of a natural progression. At least things are growing instead of rotting away. (Of course, the Google car may have cruised by between mowings by the city or the land bank, but if the decline is inevitable, at least it appears green and vibrant in what could be the last google images before these two abandoned houses disappear forever.) |
It is heartbreaking . I was a Genesee County Prosecutor for 28 years and a lifetime County resident. My dad was a Flint cop. Flint was my City. I grew up on stories of Flint in its heyday. Although there are some great things happening here and many, many truly great people, we just can't get past the neighborhood decline, the deterioration of a once nationally recognized school system, the lead crisis stigma and the crime. My drive to Johnny's Shoe Repair on Stockdale takes me through a once thriving neighborhood that now holds acres of curb indentations with driveways to nowhere. Don't even get me started on the decrepit building that was once Cook School. I feel your pain. " Teardown" was fabulous.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that Johnny's is still going strong is a Flint miracle.
DeleteGordon long time no chat. Forgive me for not keeping up, I didn't realize that you were still at it. It's funny/weird because before winter I took a drive thru the ol' Bassett Place neighborhood. Our old house is abandoned, door wide open, and most of the windows broken. I have to realize that it was 45 years ago that we bought the house at 2318. Time and nature do retake abandoned properties. Throughout the Civic Park area there are acres of empty lots.
ReplyDeleteAfter GM gave the rod to Flint, the population quickly dispersed. There is only 1 high school in Flint, when I graduated from Southwestern our class had 600 as did the others, Northwestern, Northern, and Central.
We moved out of Bassett in 1989, it was still somewhat viable, we had a grocery Double D, I think. The streets behind us were beginning to get sketchy in 89, but the whole area looks like something out of a doomsday movie....very sad.
I'm glad to see you are still at it.....I will have to check in more often.
Dave, great to hear from you. I've definitely been a very sporadic Flint correspondent the past few years. Needed a break after my daughter was born in 2016. And just kind of burned out after the book. But hoping to wade back in a little now. We had two pretty crazy break-ins before we left in in 87, but I was still sad to leave. Let's connect next time I'm back in Flint.
DeleteI grew up in Flint, East Village, and left there in 1979 for Los Angeles. 1997 was the last time I visited Flint and I was shocked by the deterioration. I can’t image Flint now. I have wanted to return for a visit, but can’t bring myself to do so as I don’t want to replace my cherished memories with current realities. So very sad. Flint was so vibrant and it felt like the center of the universe for me. The foundation of my life, even today, includes many of the experiences I had in Flint with family, friends and culture.
ReplyDeleteI went back in 2009 after a long absence and it was a pretty rough at first. Not easy. But glad I went back and got to know the city again.
Delete