Sherry Lee Linkon, writing about Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City in Times Higher Education, reminds us that there are no tidy, clear-cut solutions for shrinking cities like Flint:
While scholars and urban planners throughout the US and Europe debate
strategies for revitalising former industrial cities that are
“shrinking”, “forgotten” or “failing”, Young reminds us that
storytelling, including the kind of inconclusive ending we might find in
a contemporary novel, sometimes reveals more than the most careful
study can. Better yet, a good story shows us why we should care, even if
it doesn’t provide any solutions.
And she points out that while Flint may seem unique to me and those of us who grew up there, the city's plight is, in many ways, all too familiar:
Flint will survive, he tells us, because it has many “tough people
fighting…in their own ways”. But it will be a long, hard battle without a
triumphant conclusion: Flint will never again be “a bastion of the
middle class”. At best, it might become “a different place that still
had pride and dignity”. That may sound like a disappointing conclusion,
but it’s an honest one. The economic and social challenges of the
post-industrial austerity economy are complex, and we may never return
to past prosperity. Like Flintoids, we need to keep fighting in our own
ways.
Read the entire review here.
