I know what you mean. I never thought it would end up like it is now. When I was a kid growing up in Flint, I used to think it was the greatest city in the world. I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to live anywhere but Flint. Now I can't imagine why anybody would want to live there and I bet most of the people who do live there don't want to but just don't have a way out at the present time.
Most of those houses and buildings in this video have been demolished. Flint is looking a lot better. Downtown looks great, many changes have occurred. We are still struggling with the water issue. Come back and see us we are doing better.
After growing up in Central Michigan and the Flint Area for the past 10 years, these are pretty much everyday pictures of what youd see.. Old gas stations, bordered homes, sidewalks with weeds growing on them, large fields where homes used to be.. its sad. Not to mention the crime rates and violence during the summer is horrible.. Now im 17 and excited to experience the US outside of this area
Contrary to popular belief, Michigan didn't drown because people bought Toyota or any other "foreign" car. GM closed plants in Michigan to send them to MEXICO years ago. We, as a state, went downhill from there. People stay faithful to a supposed "American" brand but GM screwed Michigan to save a dollar and isn't any more American than Toyota. It has nothing to do with race, social status or being an American. It has to do with one decision that screwed Michigan up for decades to come. How can you remain faithful to a company that is the major reason Flint, Michigan became what it is today? Do your research.
True. Japan made great cars to be sure, and they captured a huge part of the market. But the true destruction was treason from within when that POS Roger Smith for his own selfish gain put 80,000. people out of work by selling the plants to Mexico. Fair trade is good. But that POS Roger Smith was the true killer of Flint Michigan.
icatchlife i work in Michigan, Flint doesnt speak for all of michigan, This video is about Flint! which is very sad!! i feel for people that had to deal with all of this, but Michigan does NOT take on what Flint did/does. Michigan is still a very good state, and good economically. im proof, i work with all types and we are happy! Dont believe all this stuff about things not turning around. slowly but surely....we all need to keep our heads up and get to work on whats important!!
Tru but also the church took the money look at your neighbor hoods there's a church in everyone and the houses r shit because they took the money that was supposed to keep the community up it's plain to see there's business the church owns from the offering plate were your offerings go and they don't even keep up there part
This is so sad, I left 15 yrs. ago but this is sad..I loved Flint and my friends there, worked, raised my kids thanks to GM, but this breaks my Heart...
Well, this is what happens when jobs are no longer available in the city anymore. If the factories and jobs were still up and running Flint wouldn't look like this. When the factories close and are tore down the people move out and even the people that are left are probably too poor to leave. Then when everyone moves out and there are no jobs, property value falls and then the poor people move in because housing is so cheap. And for some reason a lot of poor people have bad tendencies. They have a lot of kids they can't afford to raise, they drink, they do drugs and that's how neighborhoods get messed up. When there is no money, the stores close, and no businesses survive and then pretty much turns into a ghost town. No jobs = No money. Just like what has happened to Detroit. They relied too much on the auto industry. Detroit was once one of the greatest American cities but now it is laughed at and forgotten. Very sad to see cities like Flint turn into what looks like something out of a post war movie.
Agree. What bothers me most is that the city had money to give the car makers discounts and to build tourist traps at 100 million (AutoWorld??) and so on...bad money decisions are what does it, I think. I don't think depending on one industry is a great idea, either.
I was born and raised in Flint. It went down when the plants left. I saw the change in the city. Ppl losing their homes and businesses. One race didn't do this to the city. Ppl have to stop being blind to the fact money will change an environment if ppl were once well off are now broke. If your job (gm) pushed u to early retirement(fired) how long u think the money will last. Lottery doesn't help the schools like they suppose to. I heard that growing up. So this is the outcome of my city!!!
GM left because of the impossible demands of the UAW-every tenth union member is a "shop steward"? Management has to get "permission" from the union to re-assign workers to a different job? I remember the words of the idiot UAW reap at the SATURN Spring Hill plant "my job is to make sure that the management cannot manage"-what a moron! The UAW did this to themselves. The UAW killed SATURN because the workers were cross-trained (as in the Japanese plants). That meant that a "line down" situation could be resolved in minutes, without calling a Union shop stewards meeting. GM was only doing what it had to do, in order to compete.
GM Left because of the imports and cheap labor and cheap vehicles. We will see what the DUMP and his TRADE WARS do for the cheap junk from the Asian country's. Lease imports are junk when they come off a lease. New vehicles will be getting a $7000 tax on there vehicles making AMERICAN built (GM/FORD more affordable.
When I was 9-years old I went down to Flint Public Library 'cause I had to do some kind of report at school. Anyway, Genesee County (which is Flint) - at that time - had the 9th highest per capita income in the entire United States. Hard to believe, now. I've never forgotten reading that......
I am a 60 year old white boy from Montana and just came back from our yearly motorcycle ride my friends and I took this year to Niagara Falls. Somehow one evening we ended near Flint at about 8:30 looking for motel rooms for the night. We took a wrong turn by the police department and ended up passing through a neighborhood fair in the streets of the worst ghetto I have ever seen (that includes even what I have seen on TV). Now, I have lived in some of the biggest cities in the western US but the rest of my riders have not and the leader steered us into a parking lot and stopped by a liquor store that looked like it came from Hell. Shit man, I can tell you I made them get the hell out of there quickly. All the way out of town I was worried we weren't going to make out of Flint alive and when we hit the interstate I was shaking so bad I could hardly control my hog. Man, Flint at night time in the wrong place is the scariest place I have ever seen. No place for northwestern white boys I can tell you!!! The places I saw looked much worse than most of the pictures posted. Stay away from Flint unless you belong there. Sad, so sad that our communities have been fu--ed over by our government.
It's what happens when industry prospers, then the local taxes and the unions make the location nonviable to do business. Who in their right mind would build a factory in a place that sucks the very life out of the business? It was mainly the left ("liberals" and "progressives"), with their batty ideas on how to force "social justice" to be implemented, that caused this. They are wreckers, but they don't see why. They're either that dumb, or just plain greedy for power and money, and unlike the factories, they produce nothing of value. Look to California, Illinois, New York, etc. to claw their way to the bottom, and join Flint, Detroit, Benton Harbor to the absolute pits.
Mahatma Kane Jeeves you smoked some flint grass too didnt you!? Those are beautiful cities?? Lmao you skipped the weed and hit the acid. Every city you mentioned is crime ridden! Get a grip! Stay liberal pal we don't want you over here!
Dear cripkilla5stunna, I was raised in Michigan and both of my parents are from Flint. I agree with you that Flint is a good town with one of the great American stories behind its history. It is only because I love the city that I made this video. I'm on your side, believe me!
I remember living there in the 1970s an 80s. Back when GM was still manufacturing some cars there, you could have a nice little life there, solid houses, decent neighborhoods. GM never forgot the 1930 Sit-Down Strike, in which the employees literally kicked management out of the plants and said, 'No, GM, we are not going to allow you to take the machinery out of this city and make our jobs evaporate.' It took 60 years for corporate masters to do it bit by bit, but there is the result.
I've walked some of the most dangerous streets in the world, The South Bronx, Watts, South Chicago. I've been in the "Third World" South America, the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere. I've even behind the former "Iron Curtain" in the bleakest cities in Eastern Europe. I would choose any of those places hands down before a life in Flint, Michigan. Vast segments are virtually uninhabitable. Why would anyone want to go on living in this squalid, hyper violent nightmare?
When houses like those shown go on the market, the Federal govt. should buy them and raze them. The cleared land should be landbanked until someone comes up with a big development idea. It is possible that Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City should all downsize very drastically. The problem afflicts Toledo and Gary Indiana.
When you show nothing but pictures of the East Side and North End, that's when i get pissed off. I love how in this video there is a total lack of showing the downtown area and how much it's been revitalized, including the Durant of the fact that Flint has one of the top 10 community colleges in the country with Mott, one the best engineering schools with Kettering/GMI, and a satellite campus of U of M. Yeah, when you show the world this, you're really doing Flint a favor there buddy.
Its sad to see what our beloved home of Flint has become. There are still shiny gems here and there and though it will never be a juggernaut like it once was, the city is not dead. The downtown area is alive on summer weekends, the East Side and North End have many great little restaurants and local stores still, the South End and West Sides are making changes. People who are not from Flint do not understand why we love our home, its something intangible and something that true Flintoids cannot describe to others or make them see why we love this Nitty Gritty City. So my fellow Flint lovers - Rock On! And all you haters - peace out!
Flintoid here. it is sad to see what has happened to our town. but maybe there is hope. let us hold the Donald Trumps and Hillary Clintons accountable for their promises.
I hope this city comes back. Some of the houses I've seen in Michigan are gorgeous, brick-boned places. They might be salvageable. In any state, if you move onto abandoned property for x amount of years, you can get ownership of it after that point, because land is made to be lived, worked on and USED. Illinois has a 20 year time frame, but some are only a few years. I'm also guessing the place is bigger than it seems? Chicago supposedly has some horrible areas, but I've lived here 44 years, and I'm in real estate and I never heard of some of the zip codes. Chicago is 4,710 miles of roads.
All of Michigan, other than Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and much of suburban Detroit, is dying, and looking worst than most of the Third World. The disease afflicts much of Ohio as well, and many Chicago neighbourhoods. Over the past 35 years, millions of high paying manufacturing jobs have been abolished. For millions of men, there are no jobs of any kind. And so many turn to drug dealing and gun violence. Property values and property taxes decline, city services go to hell.
Don't let videos like this fool you. Although Flint isn't what it once was, it's still a pretty great place. I recently moved up north because of work but absolutely loved living there. I would love to live there again someday.
Depressing. I lived there for years. We need to stop the urban blight, quit buying & building foreign & stop giving money overseas. Keep the money here, Just so messed up
I have been to the Flint Auto Auction numerous times and I was told by the security guards that if I was there at night and I heard gunshots to hit the deck or get in the guard shack.
Wow, this is crazy! there was a picture of a storm glass window company that was burned down when they laid off firefighters in flint. I was just shocked because I haven't seen it in years. It's 10x worse now due to all the abandoned house that where burned down well at least the east side which i where I grew up but have recently moved from because of the two unsuccessful breaking and entering attempts on my home WHILE MY FAMILY WAS THERE.
This video doesn't even show how run down most of flint is. These houses look wonderful, compared to what I have seen. The picture with the sign "this is a kid zone not a hoe zone" is still there as of yesterday on New York avenue, where houses are really run down.
I drive through the abandoned factory areas, the north side, east side, beecher and all other parts of the city sometimes when i have nothing to do just to simply look at the city. It is really amazing how you can see what once was and now how ghetto and in ruins the city is. Businesses closed EVERYWHERE, closed party stores, bars, gas stations, automotive repair shops, boarded up houses on every block, burned down houses, houses that have literally fallen to the ground... The city is Dead.
And yes Detroit GM headquarters screwed Flint Michigan. Now I am stuck living in the South where people think like idiots compared to our past engineer thinking...
Liked the sign-"why rent when you can own", gee I need to get to Flint a.s.a.p. so I could snatch up a good deal on a run-down wood-frame broken-down house!!!!!
So go there. Go from a nice place, which may be boring, and have the time of your life, nosing around in a place like Flint. Advice: Don't look them in the eye. They'll want something, and if they get close, you're toast.
I'm curious to hear from Flint natives about why the abandoned homes and buildings are still there? Is there not enough funding with the city to tear those down? It just seems it would be good for the city to tear everything down and offer the land for cheap until they get re-established. Its just sad to see a once vibrant city have to struggle so hard.
coolistgee the point is, there is no one that wants to live there. There is nothing in Flint. There is corrupt government and no decent jobs. Crime runs rampant because people have to steal to survive. It’s a democratic run City and it shows.
So sad! I was born and raised here. Flint was thriving, safe, beautiful! Then, they jobbed out all the auto work to Mexico and Asia, no work for Flint citizens, everyone dependent on the government, living off foods stamps, sixth and seventh generation welfare....and now you have this murder capitol of the U.S.! Great planning, auto companies, city leaders, local and federal government. Keep shipping out jobs to third world countries, and before long, we will be a third world nation ourselves.
There actually are nice black communites like Prince George County. its actually one of the richest counties in the United States and its 65% black. Also gaithersburg Maryland and many of the washington, atlanta, houston, and new york suburbs have large rich black communities!
They should make it a law no take care of the place then folks should be allowed to move in empty house make it there home that way it don't look so bad
This is so true, even today. I'm a college student but i grew up and stayed in flint for 18 years. Its getting worse. Yes they got more jobs but thats not helping at all. Flint, sad to say, is a dying cause. I love Flint but nothing good will come to flint because of this and the economy. I plan on leaving flint after college and alot of smart kids are doing the same and will leave the mess behind.
Outsourcing and technology are the leading causes of job loss. Why pay someone $20/h if you can find people overseas who would do the same work for $5 or less. Also automation put most factory workers out of business. U.S. citizens need higher skill sets and specialization. The world is catching up and competition is more fierce now.
This was in 2009, people. There's a corporation where GM used to be called Diplomat. It's a specialty pharmacy and they've created 100s of jobs for the people of Flint.
My son is seriously thinking about going to Kettering University At N. Chevrolet Ave and University in Flint Michigan. They seem to fixing up the area, buying up Atwood Stadium and now the old " Chevy in the hole" Property. Wondering how dangerous it is around there for the college crowd.
There are still GM plants operating in Flint. Yes many plants as time passed became old and obsolete.Your talking 100 year old plants, that if were to expensive to be retrofitted were torn down. Replaced in Canada, Mexico because it was cheaper to do business. Not to mention new technology, robotics, took away even more jobs that humans use to do in those factories. Plus companies could not keep up with the high wages, full health and dental insurance. That's a brief synopsis of what happen.
I think there is a lesson to be learned here in the folly of over optimization of a labor market densely concentrated into one area. Historically, the industry could pull in scores of unskilled laborers into it's orbit. When automation technology improved, trade conditions favored off shoring, and the foreign auto makers became more competitive, the workers were unable segue into gainful employment. It's not really a left/right issue, but a tragic subplot in the saga of creative destruction.
@AlleyCatAngels wat part of flint are u from?!! i hear shots almost every night, and i sleep to the sound of police sirens. yet the people love it here and so do i.
In 2006, Flint was the 10th most liberal city in the United States, according to a nationwide study by the non-partisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research which examined the voting patterns of 237 cities with a population over 100,000 ;-)
We just got back from flint we purchassed 2 properties there and cant wait to move there there were abandoned places but Flint was Alive and jumping we loved it
These are my neighborhoods where I grew up I remeber feeling safe playing street hockey going to school having friends. It was not always this way it was once good
Plywood commercial. I was recently in McColl, SC and saw conditions like this, then driving through Philadelphia saw same but larger scale. It's everywhere.
i was born & raised in. sometimes i ask god why did he put me here & will i ever make it out. then i think about everyone & everything that i would be leaving behind. why abandon my city, my people & roots to build foundation on unfamiliar land? why not stay & build a foundation & nurture my own landscape? i would rather be the leader that cleans up those abandoned homes & become a role model to the upcoming youth. how can u down/complain about something u dont plan to help make a change in????
Imagine if we spent half as much on fixing our infrastructure as we have on wars. Imagine if we spent half as much on job opportunities as we have in corporate loans to send our jobs to other nations. Blame Unions or whatever but until you work for .50 an hour to compete with workers in third world countries, the jobs that remain will keep going away. We need to change the entire system from the top down!
That's basically true (especially about the money wasted on "defence") but in the UK our auto industry is producing more cars than it ever did and in the wake of Brexit will probably be even stronger since they will have to produce more of the components here instead of importing them from Europe.
I like that the music is reminiscent of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." This is more like Mr. Robber's 'hood. I used to work on the north end and occasionally the east side. A lot of the houses in this video have been burned down and the crackheads wander around aimlessly asking for dollar bills to catch a bus or to help a sick relative. Very interesting sociology topic here.
Reading all these comments, I see a lot of people saying that they still love Flint despite all the "decay". I wish I could agree, but I don't. I hate it here. The "decay" is steadily moving in a southerly direction. Ever since King's Lane became subsidized the south side has seen a huge spike in crime. I, for one, want OUT of this sink hole.
And then you go to a place like Windsor or Toronto, where downtowns are blooming. Toronto is building the largest amount of skyscrapers in the Western Hemisphere, and Windsor is home to the largest car manufacturing region of North America.
You could blame GM I suppose, but the real culprit here is the passage of time. The ups and downs of the economy, inflation. High wages and bad economies don't mix. Adding to it the high cost of health care, plus you have ever new technologies replacing more and more jobs. Rapid technology changes are most likely destroying jobs faster than it can create them. Robots, computer technology, is not only replacing jobs of human workers in manufacturing but in other fields and occupations as well.
if you look on craigslist, reclaimed lumber and brick, etc sells well. why dont the flint city people have a big recycling center for eveything from door hinges to bricks. i am sure there is good wood in those houses and lots of brick around other places
Damn, makes you realize how sheltered suburban kids are from real life. I live in suburban phoenix and most of the kids here wouldn't dream about being in a place like this.
Recognized a lot of the places there. Some of the houses I recognized from my old neighborhood. Once GM took most of its factories out the people moved to the suburbs. Glad I moved away from there!
@EconCat88 Right, blame it on the unions. It had nothing to do with the auto industry closing all its factories and moving to other countries so they could pay $1 an hour to employees there.
Man I feel so sorry for my hometown. Going back there to visit family is so sad & depressing
I know what you mean. I never thought it would end up like it is now. When I was a kid growing up in Flint, I used to think it was the greatest city in the world. I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to live anywhere but Flint. Now I can't imagine why anybody would want to live there and I bet most of the people who do live there don't want to but just don't have a way out at the present time.
Most of those houses and buildings in this video have been demolished.
Flint is looking a lot better. Downtown looks great, many changes have occurred. We are still struggling with the water issue. Come back and see us we are doing better.
After growing up in Central Michigan and the Flint Area for the past 10 years, these are pretty much everyday pictures of what youd see.. Old gas stations, bordered homes, sidewalks with weeds growing on them, large fields where homes used to be.. its sad. Not to mention the crime rates and violence during the summer is horrible.. Now im 17 and excited to experience the US outside of this area
Contrary to popular belief, Michigan didn't drown because people bought Toyota or any other "foreign" car. GM closed plants in Michigan to send them to MEXICO years ago. We, as a state, went downhill from there. People stay faithful to a supposed "American" brand but GM screwed Michigan to save a dollar and isn't any more American than Toyota. It has nothing to do with race, social status or being an American. It has to do with one decision that screwed Michigan up for decades to come. How can you remain faithful to a company that is the major reason Flint, Michigan became what it is today? Do your research.
***** Better a field than abandoned, half-burned houses. Sorry that your hometown has become what it is, it's really too bad.
Have you ever heard of Pearl Harbor!
True. Japan made great cars to be sure, and they captured a huge part of the market.
But the true destruction was treason from within when that POS Roger Smith for his own selfish gain put 80,000. people out of work by selling the plants to Mexico.
Fair trade is good. But that POS Roger Smith was the true killer of Flint Michigan.
icatchlife i work in Michigan, Flint doesnt speak for all of michigan, This video is about Flint! which is very sad!! i feel for people that had to deal with all of this, but Michigan does NOT take on what Flint did/does. Michigan is still a very good state, and good economically. im proof, i work with all types and we are happy! Dont believe all this stuff about things not turning around. slowly but surely....we all need to keep our heads up and get to work on whats important!!
Tru but also the church took the money look at your neighbor hoods there's a church in everyone and the houses r shit because they took the money that was supposed to keep the community up it's plain to see there's business the church owns from the offering plate were your offerings go and they don't even keep up there part
This is so sad, I left 15 yrs. ago but this is sad..I loved Flint and my friends there, worked, raised my kids thanks to GM, but this breaks my Heart...
Love how the music captures the charm and excitement of urban decay
lol
That oddest choice of music ever....
Well, this is what happens when jobs are no longer available in the city anymore. If the factories and jobs were still up and running Flint wouldn't look like this. When the factories close and are tore down the people move out and even the people that are left are probably too poor to leave. Then when everyone moves out and there are no jobs, property value falls and then the poor people move in because housing is so cheap. And for some reason a lot of poor people have bad tendencies. They have a lot of kids they can't afford to raise, they drink, they do drugs and that's how neighborhoods get messed up. When there is no money, the stores close, and no businesses survive and then pretty much turns into a ghost town. No jobs = No money. Just like what has happened to Detroit. They relied too much on the auto industry. Detroit was once one of the greatest American cities but now it is laughed at and forgotten. Very sad to see cities like Flint turn into what looks like something out of a post war movie.
Agree. What bothers me most is that the city had money to give the car makers discounts and to build tourist traps at 100 million (AutoWorld??) and so on...bad money decisions are what does it, I think.
I don't think depending on one industry is a great idea, either.
I was born and raised in Flint. It went down when the plants left. I saw the change in the city. Ppl losing their homes and businesses. One race didn't do this to the city. Ppl have to stop being blind to the fact money will change an environment if ppl were once well off are now broke. If your job (gm) pushed u to early retirement(fired) how long u think the money will last. Lottery doesn't help the schools like they suppose to. I heard that growing up. So this is the outcome of my city!!!
GM left because of the impossible demands of the UAW-every tenth union member is a "shop steward"? Management has to get "permission" from the union to re-assign workers to a different job? I remember the words of the idiot UAW reap at the SATURN Spring Hill plant "my job is to make sure that the management cannot manage"-what a moron! The UAW did this to themselves. The UAW killed SATURN because the workers were cross-trained (as in the Japanese plants). That meant that a "line down" situation could be resolved in minutes, without calling a Union shop stewards meeting. GM was only doing what it had to do, in order to compete.
GM Left because of the imports and cheap labor and cheap vehicles. We will see what the DUMP and his TRADE WARS do for the cheap junk from the Asian country's. Lease imports are junk when they come off a lease. New vehicles will be getting a $7000 tax on there vehicles making AMERICAN built (GM/FORD more affordable.
When I was 9-years old I went down to Flint Public Library 'cause I had to do some kind of report at school. Anyway, Genesee County (which is Flint) - at that time - had the 9th highest per capita income in the entire United States. Hard to believe, now. I've never forgotten reading that......
I am a 60 year old white boy from Montana and just came back from our yearly motorcycle ride my friends and I took this year to Niagara Falls. Somehow one
evening we ended near Flint at about 8:30 looking for motel rooms for the night. We took a wrong turn by the police department and ended up passing through a neighborhood fair in the streets of the worst ghetto I have ever seen (that includes even what I have seen on TV). Now, I have lived in some of the biggest cities in the western US but the rest of my riders have not and the leader steered us into a parking lot and stopped by a liquor store that looked like it came from Hell. Shit man, I can tell you I made them get the hell out of there quickly. All the way out of town I was worried we weren't going to make out of Flint alive and when we hit the interstate I was shaking so bad I could hardly control my hog. Man, Flint at night time in the wrong place is the scariest place I have ever seen. No place for northwestern white boys I can tell you!!! The places I saw looked much worse than most of the pictures posted. Stay away from Flint unless you belong there. Sad, so sad that our communities have been fu--ed over by our government.
It's what happens when industry prospers, then the local taxes and the unions make the location nonviable to do business. Who in their right mind would build a factory in a place that sucks the very life out of the business? It was mainly the left ("liberals" and "progressives"), with their batty ideas on how to force "social justice" to be implemented, that caused this. They are wreckers, but they don't see why. They're either that dumb, or just plain greedy for power and money, and unlike the factories, they produce nothing of value. Look to California, Illinois, New York, etc. to claw their way to the bottom, and join Flint, Detroit, Benton Harbor to the absolute pits.
soco13466 Portland Oregon, Boston, San Francisco, blah blah- all liberal voting cities- all thriving and beautiful.
k1j2f30 calm down bro... Ffs did you get some good ol flint weed and get paranoid or what?
Get out alive... Lmao!
he can be the new 'mad hatter"~~SW '73!!
Mahatma Kane Jeeves you smoked some flint grass too didnt you!? Those are beautiful cities?? Lmao you skipped the weed and hit the acid.
Every city you mentioned is crime ridden! Get a grip! Stay liberal pal we don't want you over here!
Great upbeat music for such depressing scenes. Bad mismatch,dude.
I was born and grew up in Flint North side. It was nice back then (1975) since the decline I moved south.
I feel sorry for the good people that live there.
Dear cripkilla5stunna,
I was raised in Michigan and both of my parents are from Flint. I agree with you that Flint is a good town with one of the great American stories behind its history. It is only because I love the city that I made this video. I'm on your side, believe me!
I remember living there in the 1970s an 80s. Back when GM was still manufacturing some cars there, you could have a nice little life there, solid houses, decent neighborhoods. GM never forgot the 1930 Sit-Down Strike, in which the employees literally kicked management out of the plants and said, 'No, GM, we are not going to allow you to take the machinery out of this city and make our jobs evaporate.' It took 60 years for corporate masters to do it bit by bit, but there is the result.
I've walked some of the most dangerous streets in the world, The South Bronx, Watts, South Chicago. I've been in the "Third World" South America, the poorest places in the Western Hemisphere. I've even behind the former "Iron Curtain" in the bleakest cities in Eastern Europe. I would choose any of those places hands down before a life in Flint, Michigan. Vast segments are virtually uninhabitable. Why would anyone want to go on living in this squalid, hyper violent nightmare?
When houses like those shown go on the market, the Federal govt. should buy them and raze them. The cleared land should be landbanked until someone comes up with a big development idea. It is possible that Detroit, Flint, Saginaw and Bay City should all downsize very drastically. The problem afflicts Toledo and Gary Indiana.
When you show nothing but pictures of the East Side and North End, that's when i get pissed off. I love how in this video there is a total lack of showing the downtown area and how much it's been revitalized, including the Durant of the fact that Flint has one of the top 10 community colleges in the country with Mott, one the best engineering schools with Kettering/GMI, and a satellite campus of U of M. Yeah, when you show the world this, you're really doing Flint a favor there buddy.
Praying for what is left of my city.........
Pull down all the houses, and turn it into a big nature reserve using plants that are indigenous to the area....reclaim the earth.
Its sad to see what our beloved home of Flint has become. There are still shiny gems here and there and though it will never be a juggernaut like it once was, the city is not dead. The downtown area is alive on summer weekends, the East Side and North End have many great little restaurants and local stores still, the South End and West Sides are making changes. People who are not from Flint do not understand why we love our home, its something intangible and something that true Flintoids cannot describe to others or make them see why we love this Nitty Gritty City. So my fellow Flint lovers - Rock On! And all you haters - peace out!
FLINT CAN MAKE IT
+Jay Breeze Without Flint
you wouldn't be so comfortable at night.
Flintoid here. it is sad to see what has happened to our town. but maybe there is hope. let us hold the Donald Trumps and Hillary Clintons accountable for their promises.
I hope this city comes back. Some of the houses I've seen in Michigan are gorgeous, brick-boned places. They might be salvageable.
In any state, if you move onto abandoned property for x amount of years, you can get ownership of it after that point, because land is made to be lived, worked on and USED.
Illinois has a 20 year time frame, but some are only a few years.
I'm also guessing the place is bigger than it seems? Chicago supposedly has some horrible areas, but I've lived here 44 years, and I'm in real estate and I never heard of some of the zip codes. Chicago is 4,710 miles of roads.
This is just so terrible. I do not know how these people here were so completely abandoned by the government. Just criminal !!
cause they don't give a shit about us
All of Michigan, other than Ann Arbor, Grand Rapids and much of suburban Detroit, is dying, and looking worst than most of the Third World. The disease afflicts much of Ohio as well, and many Chicago neighbourhoods.
Over the past 35 years, millions of high paying manufacturing jobs have been abolished. For millions of men, there are no jobs of any kind. And so many turn to drug dealing and gun violence. Property values and property taxes decline, city services go to hell.
Don't let videos like this fool you.
Although Flint isn't what it once was, it's still a pretty great place. I recently moved up north because of work but absolutely loved living there. I would love to live there again someday.
Flint is where actor TERRY CREWS was born, for those who didn't know.
And he even left it too.
Terry Knight as well :-)
Depressing. I lived there for years. We need to stop the urban blight, quit buying & building foreign & stop giving money overseas. Keep the money here, Just so messed up
I have been to the Flint Auto Auction numerous times and I was told by the security guards that if I was there at night and I heard gunshots to hit the deck or get in the guard shack.
Still Love this after so many yrs!!! I remember all this...
Wow, this is crazy! there was a picture of a storm glass window company that was burned down when they laid off firefighters in flint. I was just shocked because I haven't seen it in years. It's 10x worse now due to all the abandoned house that where burned down well at least the east side which i where I grew up but have recently moved from because of the two unsuccessful breaking and entering attempts on my home WHILE MY FAMILY WAS THERE.
what video maker software did you use
Love the music 😚
This video doesn't even show how run down most of flint is. These houses look wonderful, compared to what I have seen. The picture with the sign "this is a kid zone not a hoe zone" is still there as of yesterday on New York avenue, where houses are really run down.
I drive through the abandoned factory areas, the north side, east side, beecher and all other parts of the city sometimes when i have nothing to do just to simply look at the city. It is really amazing how you can see what once was and now how ghetto and in ruins the city is. Businesses closed EVERYWHERE, closed party stores, bars, gas stations, automotive repair shops, boarded up houses on every block, burned down houses, houses that have literally fallen to the ground... The city is Dead.
And yes Detroit GM headquarters screwed Flint Michigan. Now I am stuck living in the South where people think like idiots compared to our past engineer thinking...
4:31 A diamond store catering to a culture where only 25% of kids have a dad in the house. I wonder how they did.
obviously not well.
Liked the sign-"why rent when you can own", gee I need to get to Flint a.s.a.p. so I could snatch up a good deal on a run-down wood-frame broken-down house!!!!!
This is so beautiful. I like when cities and towns are a little ruff around the edges. In the town i live everything is so clean and green
So go there. Go from a nice place, which may be boring, and have the time of your life, nosing around in a place like Flint. Advice: Don't look them in the eye. They'll want something, and if they get close, you're toast.
soco13466
sarkasm anyone?
Galimah homie aint playin its grimey out
I'm curious to hear from Flint natives about why the abandoned homes and buildings are still there? Is there not enough funding with the city to tear those down? It just seems it would be good for the city to tear everything down and offer the land for cheap until they get re-established. Its just sad to see a once vibrant city have to struggle so hard.
coolistgee the point is, there is no one that wants to live there. There is nothing in Flint. There is corrupt government and no decent jobs. Crime runs rampant because people have to steal to survive. It’s a democratic run City and it shows.
who is the music by?
So sad! I was born and raised here. Flint was thriving, safe, beautiful! Then, they jobbed out all the auto work to Mexico and Asia, no work for Flint citizens, everyone dependent on the government, living off foods stamps, sixth and seventh generation welfare....and now you have this murder capitol of the U.S.! Great planning, auto companies, city leaders, local and federal government. Keep shipping out jobs to third world countries, and before long, we will be a third world nation ourselves.
Nice! Looks like my next family vacation spot.
What an array of horrible houses, Is this whole state a mess? I just saw a video on Detroit, or is Michigan located in Central America?
GM should be ashamed of what they did
Is the factory of plywood in Flint?
brought you by Michigan Tourist Board.
There actually are nice black communites like Prince George County. its actually one of the richest counties in the United States and its 65% black. Also gaithersburg Maryland and many of the washington, atlanta, houston, and new york suburbs have large rich black communities!
They should make it a law no take care of the place then folks should be allowed to move in empty house make it there home that way it don't look so bad
Working Class people are not represented by our Government in any way. This could only happen in America.
It's sad but funny to see ruined houses with For Sale signs on them.
This is so true, even today. I'm a college student but i grew up and stayed in flint for 18 years. Its getting worse. Yes they got more jobs but thats not helping at all. Flint, sad to say, is a dying cause. I love Flint but nothing good will come to flint because of this and the economy. I plan on leaving flint after college and alot of smart kids are doing the same and will leave the mess behind.
Outsourcing and technology are the leading causes of job loss.
Why pay someone $20/h if you can find people overseas who would do the same work for $5 or less. Also automation put most factory workers out of business. U.S. citizens need higher skill sets and specialization. The world is catching up and competition is more fierce now.
hurts my heart
True, moving, cruel, more significant than hundreds of articles or tv reports about the actual financial/industrial/social situation. The music!
this what looks like Democrat party in control
Donald Key very very true
i grew up on the eastside. joined the navy to get away 8 yr later i move back i is a lot worse than when i left.
I heard they where closing Grand Blanc Metal Fab in June?
This was in 2009, people. There's a corporation where GM used to be called Diplomat. It's a specialty pharmacy and they've created 100s of jobs for the people of Flint.
My son is seriously thinking about going to Kettering University At N. Chevrolet Ave and University in Flint Michigan. They seem to fixing up the area, buying up Atwood Stadium and now the old " Chevy in the hole" Property. Wondering how dangerous it is around there for the college crowd.
Look up the band king 810 and watch an interview and you will find out how bad it is
+Michael Sera it's bad REAL BAD
There are still GM plants operating in Flint. Yes many plants as time passed became old and obsolete.Your talking 100 year old plants, that if were to expensive to be retrofitted were torn down. Replaced in Canada, Mexico because it was cheaper to do business. Not to mention new technology, robotics, took away even more jobs that humans use to do in those factories. Plus companies could not keep up with the high wages, full health and dental insurance. That's a brief synopsis of what happen.
I think there is a lesson to be learned here in the folly of over optimization of a labor market densely concentrated into one area. Historically, the industry could pull in scores of unskilled laborers into it's orbit. When automation technology improved, trade conditions favored off shoring, and the foreign auto makers became more competitive, the workers were unable segue into gainful employment. It's not really a left/right issue, but a tragic subplot in the saga of creative destruction.
This is so sad, looking at this. I remember so many of these places.
How so? I don't get it.
@AlleyCatAngels wat part of flint are u from?!! i hear shots almost every night, and i sleep to the sound of police sirens. yet the people love it here and so do i.
Back in the 1920's and 1930's, those were probably some nice homes in nice neighborhoods.... try to imagine them with new paint and large shade trees
I dont care how bad it looks....i wanna go home. My best and most cherished memories are of growing up in that city
In 2006, Flint was the 10th most liberal city in the United States, according to a nationwide study by the non-partisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research which examined the voting patterns of 237 cities with a population over 100,000 ;-)
Take a good look at what Unions do to people and communities.
Lovely music for a fun town
We just got back from flint we purchassed 2 properties there and cant wait to move there there were abandoned places but Flint was Alive and jumping we loved it
Flint looks like a good place to operate a bulldozer and plywood business.
These are my neighborhoods where I grew up I remeber feeling safe playing street hockey going to school having friends. It was not always this way it was once good
Such judgemental, ignorant comments
i can't/won't ever look back. but thank you for the nice video =)
FLI-CITY Bitches!!!! 810 stand up cuz we got our pride!!! If u not from here don't speak what u don't know, and "That's what-up-doe"
I grew up there in the 60's and left in the 70's.....what a waste...
Plywood commercial.
I was recently in McColl, SC and saw conditions like this, then driving through Philadelphia saw same but larger scale. It's everywhere.
i was born & raised in. sometimes i ask god why did he put me here & will i ever make it out. then i think about everyone & everything that i would be leaving behind. why abandon my city, my people & roots to build foundation on unfamiliar land? why not stay & build a foundation & nurture my own landscape? i would rather be the leader that cleans up those abandoned homes & become a role model to the upcoming youth. how can u down/complain about something u dont plan to help make a change in????
Flint my beautiful hometown only one place isn't touched by this disease the house I spent 3;years in.
Imagine if we spent half as much on fixing our infrastructure as we have on wars.
Imagine if we spent half as much on job opportunities as we have in corporate loans to send our jobs to other nations.
Blame Unions or whatever but until you work for .50 an hour to compete with workers in third world countries, the jobs that remain will keep going away. We need to change the entire system from the top down!
That's basically true (especially about the money wasted on "defence") but in the UK our auto industry is producing more cars than it ever did and in the wake of Brexit will probably be even stronger since they will have to produce more of the components here instead of importing them from Europe.
Someone should open up a spraypaint factory there.
sweet upbeat jazz music to go with some run down depressing houses.
I live in Flint and bought my trailer for $1... I've put some work into it and it's better than it was, but still
I like that the music is reminiscent of "Mr. Roger's Neighborhood." This is more like Mr. Robber's 'hood. I used to work on the north end and occasionally the east side. A lot of the houses in this video have been burned down and the crackheads wander around aimlessly asking for dollar bills to catch a bus or to help a sick relative. Very interesting sociology topic here.
Reading all these comments, I see a lot of people saying that they still love Flint despite all the "decay". I wish I could agree, but I don't. I hate it here. The "decay" is steadily moving in a southerly direction. Ever since King's Lane became subsidized the south side has seen a huge spike in crime. I, for one, want OUT of this sink hole.
And then you go to a place like Windsor or Toronto, where downtowns are blooming. Toronto is building the largest amount of skyscrapers in the Western Hemisphere, and Windsor is home to the largest car manufacturing region of North America.
You could blame GM I suppose, but the real culprit here is the passage of time. The ups and downs of the economy, inflation. High wages and bad economies don't mix. Adding to it the high cost of health care, plus you have ever new technologies replacing more and more jobs. Rapid technology changes are most likely destroying jobs faster than it can create them. Robots, computer technology, is not only replacing jobs of human workers in manufacturing but in other fields and occupations as well.
Flintstones
if you look on craigslist, reclaimed lumber and brick, etc sells well.
why dont the flint city people have a big recycling center for eveything from door hinges to bricks. i am sure there is good wood in those houses and lots of brick around other places
Damn, makes you realize how sheltered suburban kids are from real life. I live in suburban phoenix and most of the kids here wouldn't dream about being in a place like this.
great video. nice representation.
With every shuttered home, you can almost bet their is a shuttred family dream as well. Shameful, this is richest country in the world.
Smooth Jazz and Urban Decay...like chocolate and peanut butter.
MMMmm...chocolate
a sad reminder of what circa 1950 America used to be
I know what to look forward to when I move to Flint later this year
Recognized a lot of the places there. Some of the houses I recognized from my old neighborhood. Once GM took most of its factories out the people moved to the suburbs. Glad I moved away from there!
@EconCat88
Right, blame it on the unions. It had nothing to do with the auto industry closing all its factories and moving to other countries so they could pay $1 an hour to employees there.
How the heck did they manage to get an OHL team?
They won't be there for long if they continue to suck this historically bad though...
It's the most dangerous city to live in by 2011 standards.
This is why Grind everyday Sill Love my city...