News from Flushing

[VeeFan]

I think this should finally tell dnast who I am, if he hadn't assumed already from three other posts.

Grand Blanc does get all the attention because it has a booming township, but the other suburb cities are completely ignored. As far as I know, Flushing is the next most active of the suburb cities. This never made the Flint Journal, but there's a proposal right now that will double if not triple Flushing's CBD. The first council hearings are going to be taking place soon, if it didn't happen already. It's about time Flushing began making a push to develop away from Main St.

Also happening in Flushing:

*The new City Hall is so close to being completed, but problems are still persisting with the construction crews and the manager...proof of why you always stay local.

*Plans are finally starting to get underway to build a Victorian-styled clock tower in downtown. It's planned for an ideal location along the river.

*Just heard this one today, there's talk of an Applebee's coming to Pierson Road. How convenient finally!

*New Junior High is well underway now, probably won't be completed until this Fall or even Spring 2006.

*New Bueche's opened a few weeks ago, and it has a facade that makes it look like it's made up of smaller buildings. Kind of like what's planned for the H&H building in downtown Flint.

*Going back to Pierson Road, it's looking like there's going to be an expansion southward along Elms Road. A few houses have already been bought out, and a few more have commercial sale signs in the yard.

This hopefully is just the beginning of many more projects to come.

[dnast]

Great news. It seems like there is a lack of restaurants and shopping destinations near Flushing. I'm still waiting on the sketch of the clock tower, too.

Hey, maybe we'll extend the 5th Ave./Flushing Rd. line of our streetcar system to Flushing

Edit: Oh, and welcome to the forum, Celli!

[Allan]

It would be cool to see Flushing's downtown expand. Be sure to keep us updated!

[VeeFan]

Speaking of restaurants, there actually was a new barbecue place that opened this year downtown. I haven't been in there yet, but I've only heard good things about it. There actually used to be a lot more restaurants on Pierson Road just before you get into Flushing, but many of them have closed down.

[tropolis]

welcome celli! great to have you here.

[VeeFan]

I hate how this is happening; one little incident happens between two students, one white and the other black, and suddenly Flushing has a problem with racial tension. It was just a normal fight, no racial undertones to it, but somehow it's still a dilemma. How come no one is focusing on the fact that everyone else is getting along well in the school district?

I'm just mentioning this because there was an article in the Flushing Observer about the "incident" and apparently Flushing has the highest minority growth (161%) out of all cities in Genesee County.

[Allan]

It's not that surprising to me, really. The media has a tendency to blow everything way out of porportion. That said, race is still a major issue in this country. Look at how many of our cities are still racially segregated. Race relations will improve over time, but the segregation that exists in many areas makes that an extremely difficult obstacle to overcome.

[VeeFan]

New round of bidding set for City Hall project

FLUSHING TOWNSHIP

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION

Wednesday, February 23, 2005

By Elizabeth Shaw

[email protected]

[tropolis]

I heard about the contractor problem on the Bobo leonard show, as well as the bus incident.

[VeeFan]

Building activity holds steady in Flushing, Clayton Township area

FLUSHING

THE FLUSHING OBSERVER

Sunday, February 27, 2005

By Rene A. Rosencrantz

[email protected]

[VeeFan]

Construction on the clock tower is set for this August. I can't to see how it's going to look.

City Hall should finally be finished by this summer. It's been taking long enough. lol

The old Bueche's has been torn down, and I'm not sure what's going up in its place. I think it might be Flushing Lumber, but not 100% positive.

The Junior High has been coming along really well, despite some setbacks from all the snow. My brother's company is doing the glass installation, and he said they were one of only a few companies to submit bids for the glass because it's really complicated. lol

[dnast]

Where exactly is the clock tower going? And did you find out how tall its going to be?

Yeah, City Hall has been taking forever. At least it's not the city's fault. About how far along was the project before that company quit?

I'll have to drive through and see what's changed. I don't think I've been in Flushing since last Fall.

[VeeFan]

I don't think any of the dimensions for the clock tower have been released right now. It's going to be on Main Street, just before you cross the bridge.

I think most of city hall was finished, and it's most interior work and landscaping that need to be completed.[/color[

[wolverine]

I could really go for some Flushing pics. It has been over a decade since I have been there last.

[dnast]

Don't know if you already knew about this page, but I was looking at various school websites and accidently came across this yesterday: http://www.flushing.k12.mi.us/middleschool.html

Looks like it's going to be a nice-sized school. I'm guessing its a lot further along, now.

Edit: I guess I was thinking faster than I was typing. I left out a lot of words, lol.

[VeeFan]

Thanks for the link, dnast. I hadn't seen pictures of it from that close up before. It looks like some of those classrooms (even after the duct work, electricity, etc. is put in) are going to be huge!

Since those were taken in the Fall, the second floor as been added on. And it looks like my brother's company has a ton of glass to install! lol

[VeeFan]

It's beena while since there's been something to report from Flushing. lol

The new Junior High (I guess they're going to call it a Middle School now, even though it's still going to keep just 7th and 8th grade) is moving along pretty quickly and the workers look to have made up for the bad weather this spring.

And finally more news on the clock in downtown. I thought it was going to be a clock tower like what's on the Grand Valley or U of M - Ann Arbor campus, but it's going to be smaller than that.

It's going to have a four-faced clock with lion-head details, roman numerals, spade-shaded hands, an ornamental post, and a height of 16 feet, 7 inches. It'll probably be more like the Citizen's Bank clock in downtown Flint.

What else have I missed? City Hall still isn't finished, unfortunately, but I think the city is in the process of finding a new contractor.

The new Bueche's has been open for a few months now, the old one has been demolished, and a new set of shops (unknown right now) are being built on the location, in the same style as the new Bueche's. It's giving a whole new look to the western half of downtown. And it doesn't hurt that other businesses on that side have started giving themselves facelifts.

[Allan]

I thought the city found someone to finish work on the city hall. I saw something on the news about it sometime within the last week. I think they said that they'd start wrapping up the work on city hall in the next two weeks. I should've been paying closer attention to what the news was saying....

[VeeFan]

I hope they did find someone so it can be finished already. It's been well over a year and a half since they started building it. I have no idea what's supposed to happen to the current city hall though once they move into the new one. There was talk of the library moving into there, but I don't think that's going to happen.

[VeeFan]

Just an update on something I mentioned a long time ago.

It sounds like the City Council is still planning on rezoning much of the land on the west side of the Flint River to double the size of the CBD and to place emphasis on the river as the center of downtown Flushing (and sounds like there are plans that the city has for the river itself).

[VeeFan]

More news from Flushing. Or just outside of Flushing anyway.

It's starting to look like more homes on Elms Road just south of Pierson Road are starting to be sold for commercial development. Another sign just went up this week for another house to be turned into commercial property. This area is really starting to redevelop and no one's taking much notice of it. Just since 2001-2002 so many new businesses have come into the area, while others have been doing well enough that they could afford to tear themselves down and rebuild in drastic make-overs. lol

The city of Flushing should just pass a resolution already that absorbs Flushing township into the city limits. It'd be much more profitable to do so.