198 replies to this topic

[Pachuco]

Well every other city has one, why not good ole Flint. Please talk about anything in Flint.

[wyattt]

Pachuco, on Aug 21 2005, 04:32 PM, said:

Well every other city has one, why not good ole Flint. Please talk about anything in Flint.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I am really excited to be back in Flint.  Most peopel look at me like I am crazy but I think that my wife and I are moving at a time where tremendous changes are about to happen and it will be exciting to be in the thick of it.  

My wife commented today how much she enjoys the downtown area.  She is from Corunna and had only been down here when we were younger for 432 concerts and the church we went to.  I have to agree with her.  The culture is something to be enjoyed if you can see it with the right pair of lenses.

[Allan]

I agree that Flint is on the verge of a major change.  You can see it already if you look around downtown and some of the other neighborhoods.  Even the little things, like a neighbor painting his house, help.  Once one neighbor makes an improvement, the others will follow.

[wolverine]

Last year was the first time I had been in downtown Flint in probably almost a decade.  The last time I had seen anything close was driving along I-475, but you can hardly see anything downtown from there.  So one day, I was going with friends to a Pistons game and one of them wanted to just drive by U of M flint to see what it was like since we had a lot time before we had to get to the game.  Driving downtown, I was quite suprised.  I had expected a lot worse.  After that, I began making frequent trips to stop by and take photos.  I want to find a day sometime where I can spend nearly a whole day downtown, taking my time to get really good photos.  Unfortunately, it will be awhile until this day comes, since I'm heading back to A2.

Although Flint has been hit pretty hard economically, I can see even more revival for the city in the future.  Flint still has enough downtown density to be a really interesting place.  

Despite living just over a half hour away, I really don't know too much about life in Flint.  I've driven around a lot of the neighborhoods, and of course have walked around the entire downtown to take pictures, but I have a few questions.

What are the schools like?  
I know there will be the few that are really good, but in general, how do they compare with schools in surrounding towns and suburbs.

What is the crime like?
It's really hard to tell with Michigan cities.  Sometimes I think people underestimate the crime in Michigan's smaller cities.  Few people have heard of the gang wars, riots, and intense shootings that are killing people every week in East Saginaw.  It seems like Flint is pretty well spread and not as bad, but I could be wrong.  Up in Saginaw, everyone is so divided.  Each side of the river is a completely different place, and crime is definitely a problem on the eastside.  What is it like in Flint?

My last question is about architecture.
Does Flint have a particular location where there is a lot of 19th century architecture? (particularly commercial buildings)
I was thinking about the collections of 19th century buildings various cities across the state have.   Grand Rapids has a bunch, Ann Arbor, Bay City, Saginaw's Oldtown and hamilton square.  I know Detroit lost a lot to skyscrapers and parking lots, but where are Flint's?  I see a lot more 20th century architecture in the downtown.

[dnast]

Wyatt:

I'm glad you and your wife are enjoying the city. I hope the idea of people moving back to the city becomes a trend.

If it's not too personal, where part of Flint did you two end up moving to?

wolverine, on Aug 21 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

What are the schools like?

Like most inner cities, Flint's schools on average have lower scores than most of the suburban districts. But the schools have been improving in terms of AYP (average yearly progress) every year for the past few years, and I hope it continues.

wolverine, on Aug 21 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

What is the crime like?

Flint is divided by the river just like Saginaw. Most of the major crime occurs on the north side, especially the parts near Saginaw St. and MLK. The murder rate had been steadily dropping until last year when it went up a bit. I'm not sure what the count is so far this year, but it seems comparable to last year, unfortunately.

wolverine, on Aug 21 2005, 08:39 PM, said:

My last question is about architecture.
Does Flint have a particular location where there is a lot of 19th century architecture? (particularly commercial buildings)

Good question. I can't think of anywhere where there is much concentration of 19th century commercial buildings. Carriage Town has a lot of 19th century houses, but Flint seemed to be very much into destroying and building new even before it started declining.

[Pachuco]

There is couple of 19th century building throughout the entire city, in the grand traverse district, the cultural neighborhood around Mott College, in the western section of greater downtown, around the cultural center, but there is very few around the county.

[Allan]

The vast majority of the buildings downtown are from the 1920s.  There are a few isolated examples of 19th century architecture here and there, but because Flint didn't really take off economically until the late teens and early 1920s, there isn't much.  Most of the 19th century commercial buildings were only two stories, and being located downtown, were eventually plowed over to build taller buildings.

[VeeFan]

There should be an asterisk next to the Flint school system denoting the number of schools that have had to close due to financial problems within the past few years.

I actually think that this year has been one of the better years in terms of crime.  It's still high, but I don't think this year has been as bad as just a few years ago where it seemed like there was a murder occurring every day practically.

As for 19th-century architecture, try Crossroads Village. But Carriage Town is probably the best bet, the Whaley House, and there are possibly a few other houses scattered across the city that have managed to avoid the wrecking ball.

[dnast]

So, did The Michigan Times give up on their website? It's been broken for almost five months...

[The Berv]

I could be wrong but I think the Michigan Times stops during the spring and summer semesters.  I would assume that with the new semester starting Wednesday that the Times will start up again.

[VeeFan]

[color=blue]I think the Times still went through Spring, because I picked up a new issue in June.  But when I was up at U of M getting my books last week, it was still the same issue on the stands. I don't see why they would stop completely all of a sudden, so expect to see updates happen once the Fall semester gets under swing. [.color]

[dnast]

Was browsing the web and came across this:


That's an event on the riverfront in 2003. I had never heard about it. There's lots more pics in their gallery

The address for the site is http://www.sidehop.com/

[The Berv]

http://www.umflint.e...ay/news9_2c.php

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION
Friday, September 02, 2005
By Shena Abercrombie
sabercrombie@flintjournal.com • 810.766.6307

FLINT - The University of Michigan-Flint's planned student housing must be built on private property, not on the UM-Flint campus as long thought, Chancellor Juan Mestas said this week.

Mestas didn't pinpoint a specific site for the project. But he said cost was a chief reason why UM-Flint wants a private developer to not only build and operate student housing but to locate it on private land. That also means the developer would become more of a financial player.

"The basic reason is the numbers didn't add up," Mestas said. "When on university property, the university assumes the entire risk. We would have needed a subsidy too large."


Campus leaders had narrowed the pool of potential developers to four, and Mestas said all four had expressed interest in moving ahead with the plan.

"The university can still make it happen on private land, built and managed by private groups, but in close collaboration with the university, so students won't care who owns it. The services will be the same," he said.

For more than a year, the campus has sought developers who would locate a 250- to 300-bed apartment complex on UM-Flint property, such as a parking lot behind the Murchie Science building.

In April, more than 800 campus and community signatures were collected, protesting the potential loss of green space in the area pegged for student housing.

"The idea is to make it very close to the center of the city, as close as possible to Saginaw Street," Mestas said. "We still want student housing to be a part of the downtown development project. I'm not doing the building, so (developers) will be the ones looking at property and making those decisions."

Mestas said the university isn't relinquishing control over certain aspects of the housing projects. The site must be attractive, safety is a must, and services and cost are crucial.

Campus housing has been a lure for schools such as Saginaw Valley State University, whose residential students have tripled in the past decade. Students from Genesee, Lapeer and Shiawassee counties accounted for 14.2 percent of SVSU's freshman class last fall.

Closer to home, Baker College of Flint also may be putting pressure on UM-Flint, with almost 500 students on campus this year and a pilot program to house students and their families nearby.

UM-Flint is still betting that student housing will help reverse recent years of stagnant or slumping enrollment.

"It's going to happen," Mestas said. "I'm pretty sure."

[wyattt]

We live on starkweather  which sits just west of center and north of leith street.

[patrickom]

Toledo and Flint are similar-sized metro areas. Each is blue-collar. Each is about the same distance from Detroit, and semiautonomous as a metro area.

So could thishappen here? What would be the implications?

Reply here to talk about how Flint would fare, or on the Toledothread for more general discusison.

[ZachariahDaMan]

Violent crimes up 50%

The news about crime in Flint is bad, but maybe not as bad as you think.

Flint Journal article: http://www.mlive.com...9170.xml&coll=5

[Allan]

I'm not too worried...in all reality, the city is as safe now as it's been in recent years.  They changed how they count things, so the numbers for all cities are off this year.  The new way of counting the crimes is more accurate.  Unfortunately, this pushed Fint up to #2.  Other cities, like Detroit, fell (Detroit fell to #8).

[ZachariahDaMan]

Quincy Murphy envisions Flint as a city where drivers could travel north on Martin Luther King Avenue and turn east or west on Rosa Parks Boulevard.

Flint Journal article: http://www.mlive.com...4690.xml&coll=5

[VeeFan]

I saw that one the news yesterday, and I think it would be a good idea to name a street after her, but I agree that it should be one that isn't already named after someone (although I never knew that Pierson Road was named after someone ).

[hood]

This is just a note to the moderator(s), if posts pick up in flint, Saginaw, ect.. to where there is something new on a daily basis I really think that Mid-michigan should be seperated into the "Tri-cities" and "Lansing Metro" or something to that effect.