Together at last

When you're desperate, sometimes other desperate people seem very appealing. Same goes for automakers; Ford and G.M. may join forces to create engines and other powertrain technologies, according to anonymous sources at The Detroit News.

Boot the Don

(Click on the flyer for a larger image)

As you can see, there's an effort underway to recall Flint Mayor Don Williamson. In fact, Flint may be catching recall fever.

Latonia Larry, R.I.P.

Dana DeFever of The Flint Journal reports:

"In the most recent homicide, police said they have a "person of interest" in Thursday's early morning death of a 36-year-old woman after an altercation in her North Stevenson Street home.

"Her 9-year-old son, who was home at the time, called his uncle when he heard his mother screaming, police said. The uncle went to the home and found the mother dead."

ABC12 News identifies the victim as Latonia Larry here.

For a map of Flint homicides, go to the Flint Murder Map.

In memory of Drake's

I don't know if it still holds true, but it used to be quite common for certain Flint kids to think that Ann Arbor was the coolest place in the world, or at least in Michigan. The attraction was understandable. After all, Ann Arbor had stores that were open downtown, and you could roam around at night in blissful safety. The theaters, or at least one of them, showed movies like Dance Craze. (The major drawback was that bars and party stores in Ann Arbor actually scrutinized your fake I.D.'s.) I also got the feeling that a lot of the pretentious Ann Arbor types were slightly afraid of anyone from Flint, which was kind of novel.

There was the unfortunately named Nectarine Ballroom, Schoolkids' Records, and Drake's, which seemed lost somewhere in the fifties. I had a job there washing dishes one summer during college, and Mr. Tibbles, the long-time owner, would pull a wad of bills out of his pocket to pay me after a shift. He'd also occasionally warn me about playing The The too loud in the dishwashing room.



Drake's is long gone, but the Food Museum website has a nice little history of the place:

“Drake's had been in existence since the 1920's,” writes Jobee. “On the walls of the shop there were pictures of people, some of them quite notable, who had visited or eaten there. JFK had his picture taken with the owner, Mr.Tibbles, in 1960 after his speech initiating the Peace Corps at the University of Michigan.

“During the late 60's to early 70's, some of the customers would be John Sinclair, Iggy Pop and the Prime Movers (pre-Stooges), the MC5, and Bob Seger. It was rumored that Nico was spotted at Drake's while she was in Ann Arbor living at Iggy's Fun House but I don't know.

“I started hanging out at Drake's during the 1980's as a teenager. At that time it was a popular spot for college students, townies, and punk rock kids. Drake's was part of the young and hip ‘Ann Arbor Scene’- yes there really was a scene at one time. That was the time of my ‘Grace Jones Look.’

“Drake's was really special part of Ann Arbor life. Unfortunately, Mr. Tibbles retired and his children wanted nothing to do with the shop so they put it on the market and sold it. The shareholders of the City of Ann Arbor did absolutely nothing to stop it and in fact encouraged it. They were and still are an exclusive group of White wealthy new-age ex-hippies and expatriated suburbanites with no taste, culture or respect for Ann Arbor's urban history. For them, Drake's was only a haven for a subculture they couldn't understand and who had no spending power. So the arrogant Philistines spat in our faces with a Bruegger's Bagel franchise."

Michigan Today adds:

"Alums who graduated before the early '90s will remember pecan rolls and sandwiches at Drake's, the legendary sandwich shop that faced the Diag. Drake's closed in 1993. Other eating institutions, such as the Pretzel Bell, are also gone. In their place, a number of chain restaurants have moved in, but so have food joints that cater to today's palates: sushi bars, falafel stands, and organic pizza."

Photo source: Pictorial History of Ann Arbor

Bad journalism's greatest lists

It seems Forbes Magazine just can't stop creating disparaging lists that include Flint. They've already placed the city on the list of America's Most Miserable Cities, now Flint's on the list of America's Fastest-Dying Cities. Shockingly, there's a lot of overlap between the two lists.

Is this garbage computer generated, or is some hapless intern from Syracuse University churning it out? (Um, I'm talking about the lists, not Flint Expatriates.) And how about a list of the cities with the most affordable housing? Or the best Vernors floats?

But don't despair. Flint can take pride in not being on the list of The 60 Worst Cities to Live In.

A vote for inner peace

Journalists are taught to get the specifics, but never forget to keep the big picture in mind as they write. In other words, don't ever lose sight of the larger fundamental issue. Of course, sometimes this approach can go a little too far.

Here's the beginning of the post-election coverage in today's Flint Journal:

"Voters are dumping elected officials in droves these days. Nine of 10 incumbent township supervisors who faced challenges were defeated in Tuesday's primary. And just three months ago, a host of school board incumbents were booted from office.

"Are voters fed up with local politicians, or are they expressing a more general discontent with their lives?"

Is your vote for township supervisor really a mirror to your inner psyche? When a Flushing voter rejects Andy Trotogot for supervisor, is it actually a reflection of deep existential angst?

Dear God, I voted for Ross Perot twice. I threw my support to Ralph Nader in the contested 2000 election. I thought it was a principled attempt to crush two-party dominance, but now I'm not so sure. There may be something really, really wrong with me.

The numbers game

New census numbers are out for Genesee County and the results are distressing, but not surprising — people are leaving the county, especially young people and African Americans.

RoNeisha Mullen reports:

"Genesee County is losing residents at a rate more than double that of years past, according to a Census report released today.

"It hits home especially in the black community, where population has been on a constant decline. Nearly 5 percent of the county's black residents have packed up and headed elsewhere since 2000.

"Many young black people don't believe they can succeed in Flint, said Torchio Feaster, a 26-year-old lawyer.

"'The city is struggling, and a lot of these kids don't have two-parent homes, so they don't think it's feasible to achieve the American Dream here in Genesee County,' he said. 'They don't know any black people who've made it, so they think they can't make it (here) either.'

'In all, about 3,000 people left the county in 2007, compared to about 1,500 in 2006.

"Of those 3,000, almost 1,000 were between the ages of 18 and 24."

The overall county population dropped to 434,715 in 2007, down from 436,141 in 2000.

Flint Artifacts: 1960 Longway Planetarium — Sounds from the Space Beyond

Note to Annonymous

Will the Anonymous reader who commented on the Jonathon Joseph Stevens, R.I.P. post please email me. I had to reject your comment, but I'd like to talk to you about it. My email is listed under "About Me" in the right-hand column. Thanks.

Reverse deindustrialization

Will higher oil prices spell the end of globalization and deindustrialization, two intertwined forces that have had a catastrophic impact on Flint?

The blog Alterdestiny explores the possibility:

"Let's think about how expensive oil changes the globalization equation. First of all, it may mean that the trend of deindustrialization in the United States reverses itself. Perhaps this seems far-fetched in the face of GM's latest plant closings. But once it becomes economical again to manufacture items at home, we are likely to see factories again spring up. How does this then affect the developing world? Does it continue to develop? If manufacturing jobs aren't going to Cambodia or Honduras anymore, do those nations fall further into poverty? Or do they change their production for the local market, building localized economies that succeed because money was made through an earlier globalized economy? On the local front, do unions make a big comeback because both labor and capital will be less spatially flexible? Will US unions also be able to make big inroads in Mexico, since the border will be the one place where transnational manufacturing will still make sense?"