Harold C. Ford on "Detroit"

Harold C. Ford reviews Detroit in East Village Magazine:

As I drove myself home from the empty house at Rave Flint West 14 at 1 a.m., I passed The Keg Bar at the corner of Van Slyke and Hemphill Roads. The parking lot was filled beyond capacity; some 50 cars overflowed into adjoining parking lots. The fenced-in outdoor terrace was abuzz with 40 to 50 happy, imbibed patrons while many more were inside. The juxtaposition of a rollicking packed pub and an empty movie house showing a film about the deadliest civil rebellion in Michigan history, one that unfolded a mere 65 miles down the highway, was dispiriting.

Read the rest here.

Flint Photos: Flint Springs Water and Ice Co. Wagon

Adventure

Flint Artifacts: Chevy Logo

The Need for Narrative

This got me thinking about Flint, and all the stories written about the place, by me and many others.

"As far as I could tell, stories may enable us to live, but they also trap us, bring us spectacular pain. In their scramble to make sense of nonsensical things, they distort, codify, blame, aggrandize, restrict, omit, betray, mythologize, you name it. This has always struck me as cause for lament, not celebration."

— "The Red Parts" by Maggie Nelson

GMC Diesel and The World's Greatest Parking Job

If you're going to own a GMC Diesel like this one in San Francisco, it goes without saying you better have some serious parking skills. And the ability to climb out the rear window when you're done.

Flint Photos: Jim Cunningham's Retirement from Buick

When Jim Cunningham retired from Buick, they gave him a starter motor mounted on a plaque, like the thousands he had bolted on to engine blocks every week for 32 years at Factory 36. Thanks to Joe Cunningham for the photo of his father.

Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Alvin Chang at Vox explores those who stay in their hometown and those who leave.

Those who stayed in their hometown tend to be less educated, less wealthy, and less hopeful. 

They tend to be less open to other cultures and less open to immigrants. 

Ultimately, they tend to be more likely to support Donald Trump. 

But putting those sentences next to each other implies there is something wrong with people who don’t leave home. After all, there’s nothing wrong with people who want to stay close to their family and friends — people who “really value kinship and close ties," as Cromartie put it. 

Still, there are real disparities — political and economic — that emerge from the decision to move away from home, or not. And like so many other disparities, this split is the culmination of several systemic factors that sort us into these groups.

Read the rest here.

Flint Photos: Joel Rash at the Soggy Bottom Bar

Flint Fashion

The Flint Expatriates editorial team always finds some good stuff in San Francisco's consignment shops. Flint fashion for babies.