Interview: Design Faith and Gordon Young Talk about Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City

Kenneth Caldwell at Design Faith, a great blog about art, architecture and culture, came up with some great questions for me after reading Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City.

What about Flint’s history contributed the most to its decline?

Depends on who you ask. General Motors is an obvious culprit for eliminating close to 80,000 jobs in Flint. Some say it’s the United Automobile Workers union’s fault because the union was too militant and too demanding. Of course, labor agreements are the result of negotiations. General Motors didn’t have to give in to union demands. And union workers didn’t have anything to do with the horrible management decisions General Motors made over the years. Then there are U.S. policies that effectively swapped our industrial economy for the so-called service economy. The middle class withered, but we get to buy a lot of cheap crap at big box stores. Others point out that Flint never diversified its economy, but who diversifies during the glory years? Is Silicon Valley trying to diversify and develop something other than technology right now? So it’s a complicated question, and it’s probably a combination of all those things.

This pattern of corporations using up and wasting towns seems to be a global trend, not just a U.S. one?

Corporations abandon cities to varying degrees all the time. And that is one of the factors creating shrinking cities all over the world. Some of the statistics are pretty surprising. More cities shrank than grew in the developed world over the past 30 years. Fifty-nine U.S. cities with more than a hundred thousand people lost at least a tenth of their residents over the last 50 years. Flint and Detroit are high-profile examples because they lost half their population, but the same thing happened in Buffalo, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. But don’t assume this is just a Rust Belt phenomenon. The Great Recession ensured that cities in the South and the Sunbelt are part of the trend now.

Read the entire interview here.  

Teardown Lands on The Atlantic Wire's Summer Reading List

Writer Alexander Nazaryan recommends Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City on The Atlantic Wire's summer reading list. Here's what he has to say:

What it’s about: A journalist living in San Francisco decides to move back to decrepit Flint, Mich., where he was born and raised. Moreover, he does this in what appears to be a fully sound state of mind.
How long it will take to read: It’s a densely packed 288 pages, but nobody is going to quiz you on the address of The Wooden Keg – we hope.
Useful factoid: Flint has been named one of “America’s Fastest-Dying Cities,” “America’s Most Miserable Cities” and “Worst Cities for Recession Recovery,” among a plethora of other negative superlatives Young lists right before decamping for this once-industrious place that gave rise to General Motors.
You should read it if: Your city planning experience doesn't go past SimCity and you can’t figure out why towns don’t just build tram lines, spruce up the public parks and renovate warehouses into lofts.
It matters because: As cities like Flint go, so goes much of the nation.
Perfect for: The amateur urbanist who wants to go to Flint without actually having to leave the backyard.

Crimes of Creative Passion in Flint, Michigan

Connor Coyne: Guilty of writing and living in Flint

Designer, photographer and man about town Shane Gramling has cooked up another intriguing and compelling project in Flint. It's called Facing Flint and it takes the Vehicle City's reputation for crime and lawlessness and uses it to reveal the creativity flourishing in the town that G.M. forgot:

"This is Flint, Michigan — where serial entrepreneurs lurk around historic storefronts, and you can hear shots of dangerously good espresso being fired off in the streets, a city where students help pioneer next-generation vehicle energy sources and every artist carries a concealed brush. Watch your back world, we're coming for you."

The project's just getting started, but the rogue's gallery already includes mug shots of writer Connor Coyne; Jan Worth-Nelson, guilty of "committing wordslaughter and literary crimes of passion as a poet, novelist, and essayist for longer than you’ve been alive; and Ted Nelson, a "flinty-eyed miscreant from the hedonistic hellhole of Hollywood." 

Flint Artifacts: Buick Playing Cards

"You always win with Buick?" Not sure everyone from Flint would agree. Thanks to Cecelia Parks for the great artifact.

The Inferno

Some comments deserve their own posts. Anonymous reflects on education and the assembly line:

Working my way through college (MSU), I would return to my Flint hometown after Spring Quarter. I'd immediately place job applications with all the GM productions in the hope of getting something paying union scale to fund the next year's tuition.

In the Summer of 62,I got a call from Fisher Body and was escorted to the fabled assembly line. The noise was incredible, sparks flew everywhere from welders attaching various metal parts into an auto frame. My reaction was "Dante's Inferno," and how could people possibly work here every day. I soon found out.

In a life chapter where I was devoted to education, working an automobile assembly line was one of the most profound educational experiences of my life. Co-workers were surprising cordial to the "college kid." They were very safety-conscious and had to be. It was quite dangerous. The monotony was indescribable. Coping techniques were seen with empty whiskey bottles in wheel wells and trunks of the auto bodies passing by.

After 3 months of that lifestyle, there was never any question in my mind that I'd finish my education and avoid ever having to return to Dante's Inferno.

Demolition Funding for Flint and Other Michigan Cities

Much needed funding is headed to Flint and four other Michigan cities to demolish abandoned property.

"Today's announcement that Michigan will receive $100 million in federal funds to clean up blight in communities across the state is welcomed news," said Congressman Dan Kildee (D-Flint). "Freeing up federal money to revitalize and invest in cities, including both Flint and Saginaw in my congressional district, will strengthen neighborhoods and unlock greater opportunity for all homeowners. Since being sworn into Congress, one of my top priorities has been to secure this money to ensure cities and towns have the resources necessary to remove and repurpose abandoned homes. I'm pleased that the partnership between my office, the State of Michigan and the Treasury Department has resulted in millions of dollars in much-needed funds."

Ben Hamper and an Octopus Being Crucified

It's time for a Friday dose of Ben Hamper and Rivethead: Tales from the Assembly Line:

"After a hundred wrong turns and dead ends, we found my old man down on the trim line. His job was to install windshields with this goofy apparatus with large suction cups that resembled an octopus being crucified. A car would nuzzle up to the old man's work area and he would be waiting for it, a cigarette dangling from his lip, his arms wrapped around the windshield contraption as if it might suddenly rebel and bolt off for the ocean. Car, windshield. Car, windshield. Car, windshield. No wonder my father preferred playin' hopscotch with barmaids. This kind of repetition didn't look like any fun at all."

Flint Artifacts: UAW Ring

Flint Expatriate Joe Steve tells the story of a UAW ring:

"I had a great upbringing in our old neighborhood and looking back on it I really had it good. My father was a sports writer for the Flint Journal, John Steve, who died in 1962. My mother married John Misko in 1969 when I was 10 years old. We moved to John Misko's house on the south end because his house was smaller. It was also a really cool neighborhood as we lived 5 houses away from Lincoln Park. Mom couldn't get what she wanted for the house on Welch Blvd so after only 6 months we moved back to Welch and my stepfather had an offer on his house within four hours of listing it. I stayed there until I graduated from Powers in 1977 and my folks moved to Florida after I graduated from Aquinas College in 1981.

"My mother will be 95 years old this year. She gave me my stepfather's ring when she moved into a nursing home here in Grand Rapids 9 years ago. I have grown to understand what a great stepfather I had. He had no children of his own, as his first wife got sick and was not able to have children before she died. He worked 2nd shift at Fisher Body as a Tool and Die man for more than 30 years.

"And one more cool fact. My stepfather live next door to Angelo Braniff , one of the three Angelos who founded Angelo's Coney Island."

Flint Photos: Riverbank Park by James Harvey

A recent shot of Riverbank Park in downtown Flint. Budget cuts and layoffs make it tough to maintain public land in a shrinking city. Photo courtesy of East Sider James Harvey. Visit his Facebook page for more of his photos documenting Flint.

Addition By Subtraction: The Demolition of a Single Home in Flint, Michigan

As I illustrate in Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City, the sheer number of abandoned properties in Flint can be overwhelming. But even a single empty house can help destroy an entire block. It can act as magnet for scrappers, arsonists, and drug dealers. It can be the thing that convinces other residents working to save their neighborhood that it might be time to give up hope and move on.

The owner of this house in Civic Park walked away years ago, leaving almost all of his possessions inside. It doesn't look so bad from the outside, but looks can be deceiving.

In the counter intuitive way that success is often measured in a shrinking city, this story has a “happy” ending. Or, more accurately, an ending that is less bad than some of the other possible outcomes. The house was demolished in May. The lot was deeded to the neighbors in the yellow house, who will care for it like they’ve cared for their own home for decades.

It’s addition by subtraction in Flint, Michigan.