Monday, March 28, 2011

Michigan Cuts Unemployment Benefits

Does anyone out there still consider Michigan a bastion of union liberalism?

Michael Cooper of The New York Times reports:
Michigan, whose unemployment rate has topped 10 percent longer than that of any other state, is about to set another record: its new Republican governor, Rick Snyder, signed a law Monday that will lead the state to pay fewer weeks of unemployment benefits next year than any other state.


Sunday, March 27, 2011

Flint Photos: Self Portrait in the Paterson-Sutherland House



Flint Photos: The Genesee Valley Shopping Center Frog at Rest


It appears the old Genesee Valley mall frog goes into some deep hibernation on the Applewood Estate during the winter.


Saturday, March 26, 2011

Carl Crow's Tortured Prose

I've been reading a comically bad history of Buick and Flint called The City of Flint Grows Up, authored by Carl Crow in 1945. The writing is entertainingly awful:
"It is not far-fetched to say that the relationship between the city and the industry has been like that of a self-sacrificing father and a successful son. The people of Flint dug deep into the toes of their financial socks to bring the puny Buick enterprise to this community. They coddled and nurtured it through infancy and adolescence, and when it grew Flint also grew, and was rewarded with security and prosperity."
Crow was an interesting guy, judging by his Wikipedia entry, which may be more reliable than some of the things Crow wrote:
"Carl Crow arrived in Shanghai in 1911 and made the city his home for a quarter of a century, working there as a journalist, newspaper proprietor, and groundbreaking ad-man. He also did stints as a hostage negotiator, emergency police sergeant, gentleman farmer, go-between for the American government, and propagandist."
Not exactly a bio that gives you confidence in his objectivity. He spends a chunk of the book's forward explaining why, even though Buick paid him to write the book, he had "complete freedom of expression...with no restriction" on what he wrote.

Yeah, Carl. Sure. Whatever you say.


Detroit's Racial Divide

Think the Detroit area isn't racially segregated? Check out this map.


Monday, March 21, 2011

Flint Photos: Homedale School Demolition



Flint Photos: Sidewalk Writing at the Corner of Milbourne and Hamilton

"W.B. Rogers & Son July 1917"


"R.I.P. Quack"


Sunday, March 20, 2011

Daewoo Comes to Jane Avenue

Something tells me this is a resourceful use of a billboard by a Jane Avenue resident and not an example of guerrilla marketing by Daewoo.


Flint Photos: Corner of Jane and Iowa Avenues



Thursday, March 17, 2011

Flint Photos: Pot of Gold Run on St. Patrick's Day