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Sunny day in Flint, MI (part III)


Allan

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Here's the last of my 3 part series of downtown Flint in winter. Enjoy.

Details on Citizens Bank Building

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Right next to Citizens Bank is Churchill's, a restaurant that's been located downtown for a long time. When most of the other businesses fled to the suburbs, they stayed behind :).

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The Mott Foundation Building & Genesee Towers can be seen peaking out from these buildings.

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Bell Telephone Company Building, constructed in 1928. Unfortunately this was the best view I could get on the building on this tour.

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The old Flint Journal Building, built in 1924. The paper recently moved to their brand new building, which is right next door (but not visible in this pic).

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The Mott Foundation Building

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Above the door of the Bell Telephone Company Building. I couldn't get a good pics because all these trucks were parked out front :angry:.

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The Phoenix Building

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The downtown Halo Burger. This is a local chain (Genesee County only). This was the original location, so I'm assuming the building was built in the 1920s.

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At Halo Burger during the winter, the coffee price is determined by the temperature at 6 AM. It's really nice when it's zero or below, because then the coffee is free. On this day I had to get myself a cup of $.14 coffee.

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Sylvester Manor Apartments. This apartment building has been restored, along with one other down the street. The interiors boast original details...of course with such a low turn over rate, you might be stuck on a waiting list for a while to get an apartment there.

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Halo Burger again. The mural on the building to the left is a recent addition to downtown. A few other buildings also got murals painted on their sides.

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Looking north down Brush Alley. Northbank Center can be seen at the end.

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Zoomed in on Northbank Center.

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I snapped this pic real quick while I was waiting in a traffic jam because of the accident that had occured about 30 minutes prior to this.

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It's really hard to get decent skyline pics of Flint because downtown is linear along only one street. However after I drove around in some neighborhoods a while, I went near the river & found this to be a good time to take a couple skyline pics. The open area used to be one of GM's factories, which has long since been torn down.

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Hopefully my pics weren't too repetitive...there's not much to take pics of in Flint, other than what you just saw. There are some neighborhoods worth seeing, but I am saving those pics for another time. Other than that, Flint is mostly tract houses & strip malls.

Up next: Downtown Detroit. I'll be there on Friday afternoon for 4 hours, so if you have any photo request, just let me know.

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Glad to see that you strayed away from Saginaw St. :P

You're right that there's not much to photograph downtown, but a few out of this last set really stood out to me. I've never seen that angle from the factory at the end of your tour.

I just have one correction, though. The Vernor's mural next to the Halo Burger isn't new at all. I think it was restored some years ago, but it's been there since Vernor's occupied it. A few years ago the building was to be demolished, but was saved because of the historic significance of the mural (and thanks to GFAC for refurbing the rest of the building).

Looking forward to the neighborhood and Downtown Detroit tours.

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Thanks for the correction. I had just figured that the mural was new...as part of the streetscape project or something. I guess I had never really noticed it before. It's great to hear that the mural saved the building....the last thing we need is another hole in our downtown. We need more density, not less.

I had never seen that view of downtown either, but I was driving along and decided it would make a good pic. Unfortunately the fence is in the way. I would've stayed & taken some more from that area, but there were all these cars driving along, & I didn't want to hold people up just because I was stopped in the middle of the road taking pics. Hopefully next time I will remember to go back & get some better pics of the skyline from that angle.

The forecast on Friday is calling for 42 degrees and lots of sun, so hopefully I will be able to take some great pics of Detroit. Unfortunately I'll only have like 4 hours to take pics, & then I'll have to go back home. I'm hoping to cover as much of downtown as possible, and if time allows I will go up to New Center to take pics of Cadillac Place & the Fisher Building.

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There were many reasons, but mostly Flint declined because the automotive industry left, and the people left with it. Even before then, white flight was occuring. There are many reasons, as the downfall of the city is very complex, however, those are the two main reasons.

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These are the pics of the new Flint Journal Building I took on September 13 of last year. The building was built on a brownfield site, and was the first new construction downtown in more than 15 years.

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And the mural on the side of the old Flint Journal Building

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm glad you liked my pics. :)

Haha, we have snow like that the whole winter. We are finally done seeing snowstorms...I think. This is Michigan though, so you never know. ;)

I liked the Brush Alley shot too. I have a few other interesting pics lurking around on my computer somewhere. I'll see if I can find them.

The Halo Burger is certainly an interesting building. I wish they'd build new fast food places like that!

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nice thread, I really like the Mott Building and I wish they those antennas of the top of it. Any word on that other tower, next to it, thats in danger of being torn down? I'd really like to see someone come in, renovate it, and give it a new exterior so it will be an asset to the skyline.

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I haven't heard anything more on Genesee Towers. Uptown Development Corporation & the city still want it torn down, while the owner says that he has made improvements to it, and wants to lease space out to companies. However the city won't let him do that because they condemed the building until he makes more improvements (which he says he has made). So now he says the city is discriminating against him because of his ethnic background. I have a feeling that this will be tied up in court for a while.

I think the building would look much better with a new skin. The current one is definately showing its age (it dates to 1968), and it has not been properly maintained in many years. If Flint looses this building, someone better build a few new taller buildings or there won't be any skyline.

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  • 2 months later...

The downtown Halo Burger.  This is a local chain (Genesee County only).  This was the original location, so I'm assuming the building was built in the 1920s.

No, there was one in Saginaw but it closed in the 80s and i think there is still one in Birch Run.

BTW Halo Burgers are my personal fav, and they have been voted the best in Michigan.

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There is a site somewhere I believe dedicated to the upcoming progress in Flint, but I don't think it has been updated in awhile. I'll post it if I find it. These are great pics Allan! Usually when I pass through Flint I don't go beyond Saginaw Street. BTW, do you have any photos of Atwood Football Stadium? The last time I was there was when my high school football team was in the playoffs and played a team in Flint, but that was six years ago. I heard the stadium was getting a major renovation. That made me REALLY happy because for years, many people thought it was doomed to demolition because the city was so far in debt.

Also, don't be shy to come up to the Tri-Cities area to see other similar cities like Saginaw. I'd be happy to show you around.

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I didn't realize that there was a Halo Burger in Saginaw or Birch Run. I don't get up that way very often....

Atwood is hard to get photos of because it is sunken into the ground. You can drive right by it and not even know that you just drove by a football stadium. It's in really bad shape though. There is a group that wants to fix it up, since it just turned 75 years old, but only time will tell if that actually happens.

I'll PM you if I ever get a day to go up to the tri-cities area. I'm preparing to move to Southfield, it would have to be before I move down there...either that or fight the northbound 75 traffic. It took nearly two hours for me to go 60 miles on 75 this afternoon.

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I thought they were going to start doing work on Atwood, at leat that is what I heard on the local news.

BTW, I've been going to Tigers games nearly every weekend, and on this particular one, I-75 from 8 mile to Downtown was closed. The reroute is on 8 Mile to Woodward, which was all great and fun, except the traffic was extra terrible and I was a half hour late for the game. :( So enjoy I-75!

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I didn't think that they were starting on Atwood yet. But I never watch the Flint news, so I could be wrong.

Actually, I-75 south of 8 Mile is not that bad traffic wise. Between 696 & M-59 seems to be the worst. Oh well, I can just take Woodward or Telegraph if 75 is jammed up really bad. I'll be just a couple miles from both of those roads.

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They've been working on Atwood for quite some time. It has just been going slowly as they don't have all of the money yet.

Yeah, I-75 being closed caught me by surprise. Traffic wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, though. I don't know why they had to close on both the northbound and southbound sides. I'm guessing they're just doing this on the weekends?

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Close it forever.

Yay! Now Detroit is less automobile oriented!

It was great heading north getting on 75 from 8 Mile because the freeway of course is closed from behind. I loved the feeling of crossing all three no passing lanes without even having to look in my mirrors or over my shoulder.

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