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Another great video. I graduated from Flint Southwestern in 1970. It's nice to see the old neighborhoods again. Your assessment of the Flint area and it's problems are very good. Life in Flint for me was wonderful. Lot's of great things to do with many opportunities. Sad to see it's decline. The very nice neighbor hood on Parkside drive was called 'the rich district' by by me and my friends while we were young. We went to school with many people from there. All good nice people. We had a good mix of cultures at Southwestern. It was a great school to be a part of in the 60's and 70's. Go Colts!
Hello John I graduated from Flint Central in 1970. Southwestern was very nice I remember you all had the driving range. Where I learned to drive, I remember the Buick Skylar and other cars. My parents moved the family to Los Angeles in October of 1970 in which I still reside. But will always be a Flintstone, Now at 71 years old have great memories of Flint.
Living in the middle of the East Court neighborhood, we (my identical twin and I) walked through the "rich district" almost every day to and from Whittier Junior ("The Voice," underground newspaper) and then Central High Schools (class of '73). We always wondered who lived in those huge homes, we never saw anybody.
It's like Flint is trying to come back but when they go 1 step forward they get knocked 2 or 3 steps back. This was a great video though, it's always good to see you highlighting parts of Flint & Detroit and giving us details into the history of those places.
On the right at 28:45 on Ballenger HWY, you pass by Flint Community Players which has been around in Flint for 94 years and been in that building since 2012! Right between the Unitarian Church and the UHAUL :) As someone who frequents shows and volunteers at the different theatres in Flint, you've gotta appreciate the talent and level of quality Flint puts into its arts. Flint Community Players, Flint Repertory Theatre, The Whiting, Dark Room Production's Parody shows in downtown, Flint Institute of Music, UofM's Theatre Department, and so much more. And thats just touching on theatre, not mentioning all the art in the town! They all offer incredible theatrical experiences, and I think it really is great how Flint constantly offers accessible high quality art to its people 💙
Born and raised in Flint, and lived in the shadow of Hurley Hospital most of my time there. Moved away in '73. Our graduating class at Flint Northern was nearly 700 students. There were 2300 kids attending that one HS. Now its down to one school. Those Sunset Apartments were considered desireable back in my day. Lots of GMI (Kettering) people lived there. My grandfather worked at "Chevy in the Hole" from 1942 until 1966. Floods of memories came from watching your video. Thanks for posting it, but its sad to see how badly Flint has deteriorated.
West side, Mott Park. This is where I was born, grew up, and worked downtown. You drove through my old neighborhood, my husband's old neighborhood, and the neighborhood of our first home. 😉 Didn't move out until 2004 😮 It was bad then, so much worse now.
Thanks for your video of Flint. I grew up there, whent to 4 high schools, graduated in 73. I left in 94 for Texas. Sunset Village was my ace in hole in late 70s early 80s for work, sad to see what it's become. I had the chance to walk the property and other places in June 22. How depressing. Thanks again. Bill
Great video, Chris! 1. Lake effect snow stops before it gets to Grand Rapids. 2. I grew up in, Swartz Creek, but had to leave right after graduating from HS. 3. I think you will find Swartz Creek to be much nicer. Apartment complexes are older, but well kept. A few degreed youngsters are moving in.
Great job, Chris! I love Flint and I think your videos have treated her fairly. I lived there for the glory years and the beginning of the downward trend. I appreciate your videos very much!
Great videos. Love the style of Detroit Techno in the background with the ruin porn element backed up with real-time location information as you drive and with historical and other information. I drive to relax, like techno, like stats, dry, straightforward sometimes ironic humor - your videos fill these niches well. Appreciate the effort. Keep going. Subbed, liked, sharing around.
I'm leaning towards Cat for the parking lot critter. As usual, your videos are serving as a good reminder that I need to get out and photograph places like this before they are gone.
Awesome video that apartment complex was the bed bug capital of the world. One of my cousins lived there. One of the main reasons they had to shut it down.
For anyone who has never read Jim Abbott's book "Imperfect," I recommend it highly. Not only is it a great sports memoir, there are also a lot of references to Flint people and places.
Those Apartments you passed at 9:00 often have junkies and dealers in them. They crawl in through unboarded windows on the first floor and driving by you see the foot traffic often. This part of Flint has some of the most contrast in wealth out of most of Flint. Going West a few miles there are some of the nicest homes I've seen in the state.
The Crim runs by there, (Sunset apartments)Bradley hills! It used to be a beautiful place to live! I lived in this area for 25 years, off Miller rd and Ballenger hwy….
Actually the taxes are more expensive because they’re in Flint! As soon as you leave the city the tax rates drop. Vise versa, the property values are less than what they should be because they’re in Flint, but the property values rise once you’re outside of the city limits.
City government has been trash for years. The water was just the breaking point. I waited 2 days for a police officer to show up for a home invasion. I moved 4 years ago and now I sleep like a baby.
I was born and raised on the westside of Flint, Court St. and Ballinger area. Went to Zimmerman Jr. HS in the late 60’s and Southwestern in the early 70’s. That area was a really nice area during that time. Started going downhill in the mid 70’s. Moved away in the early 80’s when my son was about to start school. It’s hard to believe how the area as well as the rest of Flint has been totally destroyed.
High taxes on the few that own livable homes in Flint are another reason not many folks choose to move there. I live in Burton and my taxes are very high as well, and no industries coming to the area to hire people..
I was born in Flint, Michigan back in 1963, but only lived there till 1969. Didn’t realize how big Flint is! Thanks for uploading this video, it brings back some memories for me. PS., The Flint River was probably polluted back in the 1960’s, it must be really rancid by now!
My college house there on the right in the opening scene. Fortunately I didn't get lost on any of my walks home late at night on the way home from Rube's.
I attended Kettering University from 2004-2008. This was really the area most of the students spent time in. The area right around the school is much nicer than back then, but the Corunna Rd corridor is way worse than it was at the time. The store at the corner at Glenwood Ave and Court Street was known as "stab n grab" to us, the crime there was outrageous. Never went in but drove past constantly (the bypass road in front of Power HS was not there at the time). The apartments at Bradley and Sunset you covered were alright back then too. The area probably needed more of the "flic" music honestly. Great video, you missed the opportunity to show the Little Caesar's Pizza with Little Caesar on the roof on Ballenger near Corunna. I don't think you'll see that anywhere else. They also have a bulletproof glass pizza turnstyle.
Seems like just yesterday the Flint series started. Very well put together and like your Detroit series I think it’s very balanced and fair. Doesn’t look like Flint has seen much snow this year so far?
Thank you, and southeastern Michigan has had back to back very mild winters. Only 2 accumulating snowfalls that I remember last season, and only 2 so far this season. The snow has melted quickly whenever it has... mostly due to a warm front coming through and some rain. The highs have often been in the mid to upper 30's with a few days here and there in the mid 40's. Maybe climate change is real.
29:40 You skipped over the Flint Rock there on the intersection. I know you can't get every part but that rock is special. There's always a different painting on it every week and since it was placed there it has accumulated 4 inches (I believe) of paint.
Notice the blue painted line along some of the streets? That designates the Bobby Crim 10 mile road race course. Ran it several years when I live in the Flint area.
Secondary school = high school. Grades 9 thru 12. Its not a traditional high school but it is a high school. And Miller Rd. was closed earlier in the year while it was being fixed and repaved. Thats why its so nice. Its brand new. Also have enjoyed this series on Flint and Beecher.
You missed a significant part of west side ! Kettering university , Atwood Stadium, carriage Town , Hurley Hospital area , Ballenger park & Longfellow Jr H S Area’s ! Equals at least 1/3 of West side ! I’m 3 rd generation , raised on 6 th ave between wolcott &prospect a block & a half from Hurley Hospital 🏥 highest point in flint and genesee co . If you would like a tour let me know.
Just before 8 minutes into this video you went by two Kettering University fraternity houses, the first one was my home for sophomore year onward at General Motors Institute back in the early 80s. Flint had a high unemployment rate back then and the attitudes around the Flint GM plants made setting up new plants in non-auto areas where there wasn't strong union versus company attitudes. It seemed like the news was "Times are bad, layoffs are coming" or "Times are good, it's time to go on strike". The news and weather were quite gloomy. I knew "Chevy in the hole" as "Chevy Happy Valley". I believe there was a monument to the first sit down strike of the UAW. We had a Labor Relations professor, Dicky Dean, who was one of the sitting strikers. He would still stop by fraternity parties well into his 70s.
That's what is rough about that education percentage you bring up - the data doesn't show the true picture of what's happening in Genesee County as a whole. Flint has the University of Michigan - Flint and Kettering, both of which are graduating about 1k people a year with bachelor's degrees. The issue... there aren't many high-paying jobs in Flint outside of medical, so most people leave the county for areas that have jobs. It's a vicious cycle of brain drain.
Flint is typical of other rust belt cities. Loss of good paying manufacturing jobs for unskilled laborers (like myself) coupled with white flight to the suburbs. This is killing Milwaukee. The added water in Flint problems certainly didn't help. We had our own water problems in the early 90s with Cryptosporidium. What we're seeing here is crime expanding out of the city into the suburbs. This causes major issues for suburban police departments which tend to be much smaller and can't keep up with the crime.
When comparing Rust Belt cities of comparable size, Erie is probably the best off in terms of diversification of the local economy as well as property upkeep. We've largely been able to avoid the problems that plague Flint, Youngstown, Johnstown, and East St. Louis, thanks in large part due to massive growth of the medical industry as well as the presence of Lake Erie funneling in millions of tourism dollars every summer. Obviously there is some abandonment and urban blight here as 40,000 residents have left the city in the last sixty years, but you really won't find entire neighborhoods in Erie that are abandoned and blighted like you will in Flint or Youngstown.
Flint's problem is it never capitalizes on the two universities and community college within its city limits. Their city council never asks "What can we do to keep those with degrees and journeyman cards in the city?" I grew up in the 1980s and 90s in Flint and my mental image was a mayor and city council praying to the altar of GM at a church.
Yup… the economy never diversified. It’s ok to have so many manufacturing jobs through GM… as long as you develop foundations for other industries to thrive as well… but… Flint never did that.
I'll be honest. In my opinion, the water crisis and subsequent fallout is what continues to bog Flint. Had that never happened, I really think Flint would have been in a better position to reinvent itself. Youngstown, on the other hand, is a city that as you mentioned, IS actively capitalizing on the presence of Youngstown State University, yet people are STILL leaving the city hand-over-fist and young people who go to school there leave town as soon as they get their degree. And most Youngstown suburbs not named Canfield are either almost as bad or even just as bad as the city.
@@ChrisHarden ....yes! we went to Munising from St. Ignace and took the pictured rocks cruise, it was gorgeous, my first time ever at Lake Superior, the UP is so awesome 🙂
Nafta didn't /doesnt help manufacturing or any other farging thing ,in this country. Love your videos ! KEY TAKEAWAYS: The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in 1994 to encourage trade between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada. NAFTA reduced or eliminated tariffs on imports and exports between the three participating countries, creating a huge free-trade zone. ****Two side agreements to NAFTA aimed to establish high common standards in workplace safety, labor rights, and environmental protection, to prevent businesses from relocating to other countries to exploit lower wages or looser regulations.******* The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was signed on Nov. 30, 2018, and went into full force on July 1, 2020, replaced NAFTA. NAFTA was a controversial agreement: By some measures (trade growth and investment), it improved the U.S. economy; by others (employment, balance of trade), it hurt the economy.
It's so sad to see what has become of the west side, because that was once the best side. And if the west side has fallen as far as the east or the north back in the day, then what kind of a state are the east or the north in today? Has the east side returned to wilderness and forests? Is there any kind of community left on the north side? I'm very saddened because this is my hometown. I've been here since crack hit in the 80s.
So many places in America are like that where the urban core is just a tiny portion of the total metro. In Atlanta for example the actual city is a lot less than 10% of the population of the metro area. There are 4 counties in the metro area with over 700,000 people and two that are over 900,000 but the city itself is less than 500,000.
Cincinnati is another good example. When you count the Kentucky suburbs and small portion of Indiana that make up the metropolitan area, Greater Cincinnati is home to about 2.1 million people, yet only about 300,000 of them actually reside in the city limits of Cincinnati proper. Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville are great examples of the exact opposite trend. Those cities have expanded their boundaries through takeovers of other municipalities and/or consolidation with the county they are in, thus the urban population still makes up a large percentage of the overall metropolitan population.
At 1:04, the light brown house before the two color house on the left, I lived there 1993-1994. 3:00 Ambassador Bar - got drunk for the first time there one hour after midnight the day I turned 21. 5:54 Asked my wife to marry me while walking in the woods in 1996. This was a golf course if I remember right. 27:21 I spent so much damn money at that Taco Bell in the mid 90s.
I know it wasn't significant, but maybe you should have mentioned "The Rock" at the corner of 12th & Hammerberg just before Flint Southwestern Academy......
Nice to see my city on YT, but it is pronounced St. John V-en-ie. - An former SJV Viking. Anyways, Mott Park (the first neighborhood this video shows) does have its nice parts, but it is not what it was when I was growing up. A lot of the homes are rental properties now and not the friendly lives across the street sort of renter like what my grandma had when her parents rented in Flint in the 30s, but out of state people who could not care less about the property. There are still people who care, and I hope they hold on, and I hope one day I am able to be the sort of home owner who shows some pride in his home, but for now I am stuck seeing the city I love continue to die. Thanks for showing off my city, I think some of my fellow Flintstones need a reality check if they think that everything is just fine and we are not facing an uphill battle.
At 17:20 there was a pimp daddy caddy using the left turn lane to pass everybody. That’s a majority of the Flint drivers. No regard for the law. I’m glad you didn’t get hit.
Question? and of the 1million dollar water bill was somehow paid, what pray tell would the city of Flint do with that money? just a question? humor me?
Well, you forgot NBA player Charlie Bell... Terry Crews went to and graduated from the original Flint Academy, which was old Flint Northern High School..
Pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal early one morning while out for a run near Sunset Village. Kind of jarring for a white boy from the dirt roads of Ottawa County.
That Subway that you mentioned passing by "twice" on Miller Road is recently re-opened and operated by Black people which is awesome for the city. I wish you had stopped in and bought some food. I don't agree with everything you say about Flint some of it is a bit sarcastic and not accurate but it was interesting to say the least.
@@thomasyoung5013 I’m honestly confused about why it’s a big deal to stop in a subway and buy food. But hey, maybe I’m the only one. Most of what I have said about Flint is facts. Not opinions. But ok. What do I know.
Until this series i never really understood the gravity of the Flint Water Crisis . . . i had other things to do ! Now i appreciate the outrage of the whole snafu ~ and if their experience doesn't serve well as a Bad Example , then no one has learned anything & all has been lost
With as low an average income as it is, can you imagine the real numbers if you took out that one rich neighborhood's numbers? In fact drop that neighborhood from all Flint numbers and Flint turns into a Haiti city. But that's the way they like it. By that, I mean the ones who run the city, county and state of Michigan. They instituted President LBJ's Great Society Program and now 5 generations into it, Flint has been reduced to graduating 200 high schoolers city wide yearly. The city, county and state don't care but encourage it as they now have complete control over the voters, voter harvesting and infamous mail ins. It guarantees the Flint residents have become so dumbed down they will vote for their own increase in misery every election. It is now no longer necessary to fix up anything in the city.
When you hear some of these old school uaw guys talk it sounds scary. They literally thought it was GMs responsability to support them and their family for life, then provide their kids with jobs. Cradel to the grave they said. Its no wonder gm shuttered all those plants.
Just what Flint needs, someone to find the worse things about it. The water crisis is something Flint may never live down, and still people want to get attention by pointing out everything wrong about the area. Here's some great things about Flint, The 33 acre cultural center, includes a Science center, music hall, planetarium, theater, and more Its is one of the best in the nation U.M. Flint has a huge campus downtown Flint. The Flint Farmers Market ranks one of the top 10 in the nation The Crim race which is a yearly event brings visitors from all over the world Back to the bricks which is a yearly car show is so successful surrounding cities try and copy it What your showing in this video can be found in most large cities U.S.A But there are still great things about Flint
@@ChrisHardenMaybe you should add in each video that there are great things about Flint that are shown in other videos, that what you're showing is only part of Flint, not the whole.
@@Eileen49654 I think most people understand that what I’m doing is a series of videos that show the entire city. The good and the bad. Thanks for watching and for your comments Eileen.
I’ve been talking about the Flint area having not enough jobs throughout all of my Flint videos. And covid affected every city in this country so that’s a non-factor when it comes to Flints decline.
The water crisis was a far greater contributor to Flint's continued population decline than the pandemic was. Had that not happened, there's a very good chance that many people who left the city of Flint during that time otherwise may not have.
Flint had the world by the tail with GM there. Billy Durant brought GM to Flint one company at a time. There's not an attractive reason for an industry to move there now. Michigan is geographically isolated for physical distribution. So Flint shot themselves in the foot by not treating GM better. I grew up in Genesee County and the area was a fantastic place to live, however now it's not. I still live in Michigan, but farther north.
Please pronounce names a bit better. Ballenger has an A it’s not Bollinger. Swartz Creek doesn’t have a C in Swartz and there is no C sound (not Schwartz). Speak like a native. Now pronounce Lake Orion or Schoenherr Ave if you’re from Metro Detroit.
@@ChrisHarden My sister and two nephews live there and pronounce it “creek” but I have heard “crick” used. Many people in the Flint area, both White and Black, have Southern roots and sometimes those dialects pop up with how they pronounce place names.
Flint Playlist: ruclips.net/p/PLkAKbwTlGHeJEr5vsf6i-Y_lXWaiLdo5l
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Again, very well done. Thank you!
Not well done ! Missed so much of west side !
Another great video. I graduated from Flint Southwestern in 1970. It's nice to see the old neighborhoods again. Your assessment of the Flint area and it's problems are very good. Life in Flint for me was wonderful. Lot's of great things to do with many opportunities. Sad to see it's decline. The very nice neighbor hood on Parkside drive was called 'the rich district' by by me and my friends while we were young. We went to school with many people from there. All good nice people. We had a good mix of cultures at Southwestern. It was a great school to be a part of in the 60's and 70's. Go Colts!
Hello John I graduated from Flint Central in 1970. Southwestern was very nice I remember you all had the driving range. Where I learned to drive, I remember the Buick Skylar and other cars. My parents moved the family to Los Angeles in October of 1970 in which I still reside. But will always be a Flintstone, Now at 71 years old have great memories of Flint.
@@robertearllee9880 Flint in the 60's and 70's, a good place to be. Today, a good place to be from. Thanks for reaching out.
Living in the middle of the East Court neighborhood, we (my identical twin and I) walked through the "rich district" almost every day to and from Whittier Junior ("The Voice," underground newspaper) and then Central High Schools (class of '73). We always wondered who lived in those huge homes, we never saw anybody.
It's like Flint is trying to come back but when they go 1 step forward they get knocked 2 or 3 steps back. This was a great video though, it's always good to see you highlighting parts of Flint & Detroit and giving us details into the history of those places.
I live in Flint and I am glad you are bringing this out in the open
On the right at 28:45 on Ballenger HWY, you pass by Flint Community Players which has been around in Flint for 94 years and been in that building since 2012! Right between the Unitarian Church and the UHAUL :) As someone who frequents shows and volunteers at the different theatres in Flint, you've gotta appreciate the talent and level of quality Flint puts into its arts. Flint Community Players, Flint Repertory Theatre, The Whiting, Dark Room Production's Parody shows in downtown, Flint Institute of Music, UofM's Theatre Department, and so much more. And thats just touching on theatre, not mentioning all the art in the town! They all offer incredible theatrical experiences, and I think it really is great how Flint constantly offers accessible high quality art to its people 💙
Born and raised in Flint, and lived in the shadow of Hurley Hospital most of my time there. Moved away in '73. Our graduating class at Flint Northern was nearly 700 students. There were 2300 kids attending that one HS. Now its down to one school. Those Sunset Apartments were considered desireable back in my day. Lots of GMI (Kettering) people lived there. My grandfather worked at "Chevy in the Hole" from 1942 until 1966. Floods of memories came from watching your video. Thanks for posting it, but its sad to see how badly Flint has deteriorated.
They're finally starting to rebuild Sunset it's a start!
West side, Mott Park.
This is where I was born, grew up, and worked downtown. You drove through my old neighborhood, my husband's old neighborhood, and the neighborhood of our first home. 😉 Didn't move out until 2004 😮 It was bad then, so much worse now.
Swartz not Schwartz. Bal-enger not Bowlenger. Just correcting the pronunciations. Great videos, BTW.
Thanks for your video of Flint. I grew up there, whent to 4 high schools, graduated in 73. I left in 94 for Texas. Sunset Village was my ace in hole in late 70s early 80s for work, sad to see what it's become. I had the chance to walk the property and other places in June 22. How depressing. Thanks again. Bill
Great video, Chris!
1. Lake effect snow stops before it gets to Grand Rapids.
2. I grew up in, Swartz Creek, but had to leave right after graduating from HS.
3. I think you will find Swartz Creek to be much nicer. Apartment complexes are older, but well kept. A few degreed youngsters are moving in.
Hey bro, I appreciate your videos. I’ve been a fan of yours since the pandemic first started.
I'm a Flint resident and i love watching your videos
Awesome! Thanks for watching
Great job, Chris! I love Flint and I think your videos have treated her fairly. I lived there for the glory years and the beginning of the downward trend. I appreciate your videos very much!
GM just announced a $570 million investment into Flint today. Also $270 into bay city.
No new jobs. But it secures the ones there.
Flint will not see any of that money....Truck n Bus is not in flint
My family and I used to go sledding down that hill on Nolen St all the time when I was younger. We also used to go to the nearby Rocket Ship Park.
you mean Mott Park???
I live in the 48504 Good job Chis 👍🏾
Great videos. Love the style of Detroit Techno in the background with the ruin porn element backed up with real-time location information as you drive and with historical and other information. I drive to relax, like techno, like stats, dry, straightforward sometimes ironic humor - your videos fill these niches well. Appreciate the effort. Keep going. Subbed, liked, sharing around.
I'm leaning towards Cat for the parking lot critter. As usual, your videos are serving as a good reminder that I need to get out and photograph places like this before they are gone.
Thanks! Your Flint series was great!
Great job again. Haters will be haters.
Awesome video that apartment complex was the bed bug capital of the world. One of my cousins lived there. One of the main reasons they had to shut it down.
For anyone who has never read Jim Abbott's book "Imperfect," I recommend it highly. Not only is it a great sports memoir, there are also a lot of references to Flint people and places.
Those Apartments you passed at 9:00 often have junkies and dealers in them. They crawl in through unboarded windows on the first floor and driving by you see the foot traffic often. This part of Flint has some of the most contrast in wealth out of most of Flint. Going West a few miles there are some of the nicest homes I've seen in the state.
The Crim runs by there, (Sunset apartments)Bradley hills! It used to be a beautiful place to live! I lived in this area for 25 years, off Miller rd and Ballenger hwy….
Those are some gorgeous homes near that golf course. Wonder if the taxes are cheaper because they are in Flint? Thanks for the tour Chris!
Actually the taxes are more expensive because they’re in Flint! As soon as you leave the city the tax rates drop.
Vise versa, the property values are less than what they should be because they’re in Flint, but the property values rise once you’re outside of the city limits.
Yes taxes are much cheaper than say Grand Blanc or Flushing.
They aren't. I pay $1800 per year to live in a dysfunctional ghetto.
keep filming. sad that our cities look so bad. what went wrong. love your videos
Great job thank you
Good work detective
City government has been trash for years. The water was just the breaking point. I waited 2 days for a police officer to show up for a home invasion. I moved 4 years ago and now I sleep like a baby.
Great video chris.I graduated from Flint southwestern in 72
Thank you!
I was born and raised on the westside of Flint, Court St. and Ballinger area. Went to Zimmerman Jr. HS in the late 60’s and Southwestern in the early 70’s. That area was a really nice area during that time. Started going downhill in the mid 70’s. Moved away in the early 80’s when my son was about to start school. It’s hard to believe how the area as well as the rest of Flint has been totally destroyed.
High taxes on the few that own livable homes in Flint are another reason not many folks choose to move there. I live in Burton and my taxes are very high as well, and no industries coming to the area to hire people..
I would love more drone shots! Great job!
I was born in Flint, Michigan back in 1963, but only lived there till 1969. Didn’t realize how big Flint is! Thanks for uploading this video, it brings back some memories for me.
PS., The Flint River was probably polluted back in the 1960’s, it must be really rancid by now!
I don't know why urban blight is so fascinating, I guess it's like watching a train wreck, and having been to Flint in the 1970's it's shocking 😐
I only wish there was more footage that showed what these places looked like before all of the blight
My college house there on the right in the opening scene. Fortunately I didn't get lost on any of my walks home late at night on the way home from Rube's.
I attended Kettering University from 2004-2008. This was really the area most of the students spent time in. The area right around the school is much nicer than back then, but the Corunna Rd corridor is way worse than it was at the time. The store at the corner at Glenwood Ave and Court Street was known as "stab n grab" to us, the crime there was outrageous. Never went in but drove past constantly (the bypass road in front of Power HS was not there at the time). The apartments at Bradley and Sunset you covered were alright back then too. The area probably needed more of the "flic" music honestly.
Great video, you missed the opportunity to show the Little Caesar's Pizza with Little Caesar on the roof on Ballenger near Corunna. I don't think you'll see that anywhere else. They also have a bulletproof glass pizza turnstyle.
Seems like just yesterday the Flint series started. Very well put together and like your Detroit series I think it’s very balanced and fair. Doesn’t look like Flint has seen much snow this year so far?
Thank you, and southeastern Michigan has had back to back very mild winters. Only 2 accumulating snowfalls that I remember last season, and only 2 so far this season. The snow has melted quickly whenever it has... mostly due to a warm front coming through and some rain. The highs have often been in the mid to upper 30's with a few days here and there in the mid 40's. Maybe climate change is real.
No, it hasn't
3:03 my Dad played softball for a team that was sponsored by the Ambassador Bar. White Horse Tavern was another bar sponsoring a team.
27:10 That segment of Ballenger between Court and Corunna is so bad that I always stay in the inner lane on my daily commute to work through there
29:40 You skipped over the Flint Rock there on the intersection. I know you can't get every part but that rock is special. There's always a different painting on it every week and since it was placed there it has accumulated 4 inches (I believe) of paint.
Notice the blue painted line along some of the streets? That designates the Bobby Crim 10 mile road race course. Ran it several years when I live in the Flint area.
Ah. Was wondering about that
Secondary school = high school. Grades 9 thru 12. Its not a traditional high school but it is a high school. And Miller Rd. was closed earlier in the year while it was being fixed and repaved. Thats why its so nice. Its brand new. Also have enjoyed this series on Flint and Beecher.
You missed a significant part of west side ! Kettering university , Atwood Stadium, carriage Town , Hurley Hospital area , Ballenger park & Longfellow Jr H S Area’s ! Equals at least 1/3 of West side ! I’m 3 rd generation , raised on 6 th ave between wolcott &prospect a block & a half from Hurley Hospital 🏥 highest point in flint and genesee co . If you would like a tour let me know.
Ice skating at ballenger park! So fun.
In his first video he did
Just before 8 minutes into this video you went by two Kettering University fraternity houses, the first one was my home for sophomore year onward at General Motors Institute back in the early 80s. Flint had a high unemployment rate back then and the attitudes around the Flint GM plants made setting up new plants in non-auto areas where there wasn't strong union versus company attitudes. It seemed like the news was "Times are bad, layoffs are coming" or "Times are good, it's time to go on strike". The news and weather were quite gloomy.
I knew "Chevy in the hole" as "Chevy Happy Valley". I believe there was a monument to the first sit down strike of the UAW. We had a Labor Relations professor, Dicky Dean, who was one of the sitting strikers. He would still stop by fraternity parties well into his 70s.
It would be so depressing to live there. You'd see all the abandoned buildings on your commute.
As an update, in 2023 Sunset Village has been going under a major renovation, Ballenger Apartments are in line to be torn down finally.
15:20 used to be a very prominent church when i was younger. Very nice people there, though now its totally abandoned
That's what is rough about that education percentage you bring up - the data doesn't show the true picture of what's happening in Genesee County as a whole. Flint has the University of Michigan - Flint and Kettering, both of which are graduating about 1k people a year with bachelor's degrees. The issue... there aren't many high-paying jobs in Flint outside of medical, so most people leave the county for areas that have jobs. It's a vicious cycle of brain drain.
Flint is typical of other rust belt cities. Loss of good paying manufacturing jobs for unskilled laborers (like myself) coupled with white flight to the suburbs. This is killing Milwaukee. The added water in Flint problems certainly didn't help. We had our own water problems in the early 90s with Cryptosporidium. What we're seeing here is crime expanding out of the city into the suburbs. This causes major issues for suburban police departments which tend to be much smaller and can't keep up with the crime.
I have to correct you on your lake effect snow... Genesee county eastward gets lake effect snow from lake Hurons moisture. Especially a noreaster
Grand Rapids snowfall for the year 2022: 116 inches.
Flint snowfall for the year 2022. 60 inches.
When comparing Rust Belt cities of comparable size, Erie is probably the best off in terms of diversification of the local economy as well as property upkeep.
We've largely been able to avoid the problems that plague Flint, Youngstown, Johnstown, and East St. Louis, thanks in large part due to massive growth of the medical industry as well as the presence of Lake Erie funneling in millions of tourism dollars every summer. Obviously there is some abandonment and urban blight here as 40,000 residents have left the city in the last sixty years, but you really won't find entire neighborhoods in Erie that are abandoned and blighted like you will in Flint or Youngstown.
im from flint and i moved to NYC in the 90s and never looked back!
What's worse now? Both are pits.
Your going to do saginaw,lansing.
One day
Flint's problem is it never capitalizes on the two universities and community college within its city limits. Their city council never asks "What can we do to keep those with degrees and journeyman cards in the city?" I grew up in the 1980s and 90s in Flint and my mental image was a mayor and city council praying to the altar of GM at a church.
Yup… the economy never diversified. It’s ok to have so many manufacturing jobs through GM… as long as you develop foundations for other industries to thrive as well… but… Flint never did that.
Flint city council contains a drunk, ex con and egoistic members. Lets no forget this all started when hoodrow Stanley was in office.
I'll be honest. In my opinion, the water crisis and subsequent fallout is what continues to bog Flint. Had that never happened, I really think Flint would have been in a better position to reinvent itself.
Youngstown, on the other hand, is a city that as you mentioned, IS actively capitalizing on the presence of Youngstown State University, yet people are STILL leaving the city hand-over-fist and young people who go to school there leave town as soon as they get their degree. And most Youngstown suburbs not named Canfield are either almost as bad or even just as bad as the city.
amazing how these neighborhoods turn like this, sad.
Agree. Just curious, is that one of the Great Lakes from your recent trip in your profile picture?
@@ChrisHarden ....yes! we went to Munising from St. Ignace and took the pictured rocks cruise, it was gorgeous, my first time ever at Lake Superior, the UP is so awesome 🙂
@@laurafoote214 It really is. I've done that Pictured Rocks cruise myself. Glad it turned out well!
How dare you not show the rock
yeah....i was looking too
I was going to say the same thing. And it's Ballenger rhyming with challenger, not Bahlenger. And it's Swartz Creek, not Schwarz Creek.
Nafta didn't /doesnt help manufacturing or any other farging thing ,in this country. Love your videos !
KEY TAKEAWAYS:
The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was implemented in 1994 to encourage trade between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada.
NAFTA reduced or eliminated tariffs on imports and exports between the three participating countries, creating a huge free-trade zone.
****Two side agreements to NAFTA aimed to establish high common standards in workplace safety, labor rights, and environmental protection, to prevent businesses from relocating to other countries to exploit lower wages or looser regulations.*******
The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), which was signed on Nov. 30, 2018, and went into full force on July 1, 2020, replaced NAFTA.
NAFTA was a controversial agreement: By some measures (trade growth and investment), it improved the U.S. economy; by others (employment, balance of trade), it hurt the economy.
It's so sad to see what has become of the west side, because that was once the best side. And if the west side has fallen as far as the east or the north back in the day, then what kind of a state are the east or the north in today? Has the east side returned to wilderness and forests? Is there any kind of community left on the north side? I'm very saddened because this is my hometown. I've been here since crack hit in the 80s.
So many places in America are like that where the urban core is just a tiny portion of the total metro.
In Atlanta for example the actual city is a lot less than 10% of the population of the metro area. There are 4 counties in the metro area with over 700,000 people and two that are over 900,000 but the city itself is less than 500,000.
Yup. Atlanta is the prime example of that.
Cincinnati is another good example. When you count the Kentucky suburbs and small portion of Indiana that make up the metropolitan area, Greater Cincinnati is home to about 2.1 million people, yet only about 300,000 of them actually reside in the city limits of Cincinnati proper.
Columbus, Indianapolis, and Louisville are great examples of the exact opposite trend. Those cities have expanded their boundaries through takeovers of other municipalities and/or consolidation with the county they are in, thus the urban population still makes up a large percentage of the overall metropolitan population.
That apartment building had burnt down and someone reroofed the shell. Now bums have campfires in there. It's a place holder on some bank ledger.
At 1:04, the light brown house before the two color house on the left, I lived there 1993-1994.
3:00 Ambassador Bar - got drunk for the first time there one hour after midnight the day I turned 21.
5:54 Asked my wife to marry me while walking in the woods in 1996. This was a golf course if I remember right.
27:21 I spent so much damn money at that Taco Bell in the mid 90s.
I walk those very neighborhoods they are all within 10 blocks of my house the Estate you showed in the nice area is owned by an adult dancer LOL
🤣
I know it wasn't significant, but maybe you should have mentioned "The Rock" at the corner of 12th & Hammerberg just before Flint Southwestern Academy......
The nice area Was called Miller road mansions when I grow up in the seventies that's where we would go tricker treating to get full candy bars
Nice to see my city on YT, but it is pronounced St. John V-en-ie. - An former SJV Viking.
Anyways, Mott Park (the first neighborhood this video shows) does have its nice parts, but it is not what it was when I was growing up. A lot of the homes are rental properties now and not the friendly lives across the street sort of renter like what my grandma had when her parents rented in Flint in the 30s, but out of state people who could not care less about the property. There are still people who care, and I hope they hold on, and I hope one day I am able to be the sort of home owner who shows some pride in his home, but for now I am stuck seeing the city I love continue to die.
Thanks for showing off my city, I think some of my fellow Flintstones need a reality check if they think that everything is just fine and we are not facing an uphill battle.
Wish that you would have driven through some of the neighborhoods in this video. other then that I loved the flint videos
I went through neighborhoods. Check out the upload on my 2nd channel tomorrow if you want to see more neighborhoods.
Would you consider covering Clio Mi in a video?
At 17:20 there was a pimp daddy caddy using the left turn lane to pass everybody. That’s a majority of the Flint drivers. No regard for the law. I’m glad you didn’t get hit.
So true ,I was a Lyft driver in Flint for 3 yrs and the west side has some of the worst drivers .
Gotta do Lake Fenton Michigan and Swartz creek too bro
Or just Fenton,Michigan
Or just Fenton,Michigan
Fenton one day. Did Swartz creek.
Question? and of the 1million dollar water bill was somehow paid, what pray tell would the city of Flint do with that money? just a question? humor me?
Getting their freak on along Dort Highway.
CLASS OF 1970 SOUTH WESTERN.
76 here
Well, you forgot NBA player Charlie Bell... Terry Crews went to and graduated from the original Flint Academy, which was old Flint Northern High School..
I didn’t forget anything. Bell and Crews went to Southwestern.
The Flint Northern High School on the Westside was the new Northern not the old.
Flint > Highland Park
True
I live right by the abandoned complex shouout my hood
Gotta do Atwood stadium fam
Did
We don't have ferrets. We have weasels. They're similar but not the same
Do one on beecher
what do the blue lines on the right side of the road mean?
That marks the route of the Crim 10K Race run every year in August, I believe. It used to attract big name runners from all over the world.
When you film these, are you listening to these songs as well?
Pretty sure I witnessed a drug deal early one morning while out for a run near Sunset Village.
Kind of jarring for a white boy from the dirt roads of Ottawa County.
You probably did.
Is there any coming back from this ? Doesn’t seem so
I see the blue painted lines on the curb side of the streets there. Is there a certain meaning to painting these along the streets?
Not sure, was curious about that myself. I’ve never seen that before.
The blue line is the route for the annual 10 mile Bobby Crim road race which takes place every summer.
That Subway that you mentioned passing by "twice" on Miller Road is recently re-opened and operated by Black people which is awesome for the city. I wish you had stopped in and bought some food. I don't agree with everything you say about Flint some of it is a bit sarcastic and not accurate but it was interesting to say the least.
Oh, And the La Azteca Taco House @14.14 has the best Mexican food in the city!
Would you have agreed with more of what I said if I would have provided video footage of me stopping in and buying some food?
@@ChrisHarden there you go with your lil condescending comments
@@thomasyoung5013 I’m honestly confused about why it’s a big deal to stop in a subway and buy food. But hey, maybe I’m the only one. Most of what I have said about Flint is facts. Not opinions. But ok. What do I know.
What's with the blue line on the edge of some roads?...no parking???
The blue line shows the path of The Crim Race held in Flint every year.
Schedule this week
It’s up
Do Fenton, Michigan
One day
What are the highschool graduation rates?
A few years ago, it was about 30% in Flint.
Mismanagement of city finances is not why the city is in this condition… but carry on.
A majority of it
Go to the nursing homes there few people there probably could really put you back in the hey day
Probably!
Until this series i never really understood the gravity of the Flint Water Crisis . . . i had other things to do !
Now i appreciate the outrage of the whole snafu ~ and if their experience doesn't serve well as a Bad Example , then no one has learned anything & all has been lost
You completely skipped over the Glendale Hills neighborhood.
With as low an average income as it is, can you imagine the real numbers if you took out that one rich neighborhood's numbers? In fact drop that neighborhood from all Flint numbers and Flint turns into a Haiti city. But that's the way they like it. By that, I mean the ones who run the city, county and state of Michigan. They instituted President LBJ's Great Society Program and now 5 generations into it, Flint has been reduced to graduating 200 high schoolers city wide yearly. The city, county and state don't care but encourage it as they now have complete control over the voters, voter harvesting and infamous mail ins. It guarantees the Flint residents have become so dumbed down they will vote for their own increase in misery every election. It is now no longer necessary to fix up anything in the city.
When you hear some of these old school uaw guys talk it sounds scary. They literally thought it was GMs responsability to support them and their family for life, then provide their kids with jobs. Cradel to the grave they said. Its no wonder gm shuttered all those plants.
I left in 81. I told people to get out because GM was going to bail. They just laughed.
Wait until you hit Corunna and watch how quick the scenery changes. Oh, it’s Ballenger not Bowlenger. Pretty good videos though.
@@hughjhardon8080 what gave you the insight that gm would leave?
The city has income tax that chases people out. If you have a choice who wants it?
Just what Flint needs, someone to find the worse things about it.
The water crisis is something Flint may never live down, and still people want to get attention by pointing out everything wrong about the area.
Here's some great things about Flint,
The 33 acre cultural center, includes a Science center, music hall, planetarium, theater, and more Its is one of the best in the nation
U.M. Flint has a huge campus downtown Flint.
The Flint Farmers Market ranks one of the top 10 in the nation
The Crim race which is a yearly event brings visitors from all over the world
Back to the bricks which is a yearly car show is so successful surrounding cities try and copy it
What your showing in this video can be found in most large cities U.S.A
But there are still great things about Flint
… and if you have watched all of my videos instead of just nitpicking, you would have seen that I’ve talked about all of these good things.
@@ChrisHardenMaybe you should add in each video that there are great things about Flint that are shown in other videos, that what you're showing is only part of Flint, not the whole.
@@Eileen49654 I think most people understand that what I’m doing is a series of videos that show the entire city. The good and the bad. Thanks for watching and for your comments Eileen.
Also you lied about the farmers market being in the top ten.....
Sir, have you taken into consideration how many people left Flint due to lack of jobs? How about those that died due to the COVID outbreak?
I’ve been talking about the Flint area having not enough jobs throughout all of my Flint videos.
And covid affected every city in this country so that’s a non-factor when it comes to Flints decline.
The water crisis was a far greater contributor to Flint's continued population decline than the pandemic was.
Had that not happened, there's a very good chance that many people who left the city of Flint during that time otherwise may not have.
Flint had the world by the tail with GM there. Billy Durant brought GM to Flint one company at a time. There's not an attractive reason for an industry to move there now. Michigan is geographically isolated for physical distribution. So Flint shot themselves in the foot by not treating GM better. I grew up in Genesee County and the area was a fantastic place to live, however now it's not. I still live in Michigan, but farther north.
Please pronounce names a bit better. Ballenger has an A it’s not Bollinger. Swartz Creek doesn’t have a C in Swartz and there is no C sound (not Schwartz). Speak like a native. Now pronounce Lake Orion or Schoenherr Ave if you’re from Metro Detroit.
No
@@ChrisHarden “May the Schwartz (Creek) be with you.”
It’s Schwartz “Crick.” Get it straight.
@@ChrisHarden My sister and two nephews live there and pronounce it “creek” but I have heard “crick” used. Many people in the Flint area, both White and Black, have Southern roots and sometimes those dialects pop up with how they pronounce place names.
@@lowellwhite1603 I try to pronounce everything correctly. It doesn’t always happen though.