Help me get my 2nd channel to 1,000 subs by the end of the year! ua-cam.com/channels/WswLxWncDgmc106ZHId02Q.html Flint Playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLkAKbwTlGHeJEr5vsf6i-Y_lXWaiLdo5l.html Michigan Playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLkAKbwTlGHeJoyujmAhEMOusr2cLGm_jK.html USA Medium Sized Cities Playlist: ua-cam.com/play/PLkAKbwTlGHeLQLNtQlavyNJkaWxTbas37.html ==================================================================== EVERYTHING THAT I USE IN THE FIELD: Main Camera: amzn.to/3iS4vvF Side Cameras: amzn.to/2WuCYIs Media Mod for Camera: amzn.to/3j7CMGF Lav Mic: amzn.to/3lsMkz9 Drone: amzn.to/3ITcKBV SD Cards: amzn.to/3C2co9O Camera Mounts: amzn.to/2UXVR6p Cables Required for Longer Recordings: amzn.to/3BYnr3Q Computer: amzn.to/3787b2j External Hard Drive: amzn.to/3lb23Tf WHAT I USE AT HOME: Computer: amzn.to/3rKIdiN Sound Mixer: amzn.to/3C15Ubx Microphone: amzn.to/2VaCjvo Microphone Accessories: amzn.to/3v7A35Z INTERACTIVE MAP that shows you all of the places that I've made videos on: (Doesn't always work on mobile devices. Will always work on PC.) www.google.com/maps/d/u/2/edit?hl=en&mid=1Lhzf04ocimPu-ROkg4cfXEYEvKMNnlI5&ll=43.06219876674538%2C-83.82163216337808&z=10 SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTACT INFO: Email: ChrisHardenYT@Gmail.com On Twitter: twitter.com/Chris_Harden55 On Instagram: instagram.com/c_harden7/?... On Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisHardenYT/ DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!
Chris, i grew up in Flint in the late 70s and 1980s, moving to florida in 1989. for economic reasons my wife and i are looking at moving to the Flint area within the next year. what would you consider the good areas of Flint or surrounding areas to live in? BTW i grew up in the eastside village around Court St and Franklin Ave
Welcome to Flint, I'm up here in Beecher. Hard to explain, my house is registered in Genesee twp, we pay water to Beecher, but our address is Flint. I work in the city once a week, and have an Airbnb/in Beecher. I was surprised at how well the Airbnb has done since it also has a Flint address People still visit Flint, whether it's to visit family, do a job here, or go to Frankenmuth, etc...
I was born at Hurley Medical Center. My family's home was huge, traditional and located on Weich Blvd. I moved out of Flint in 1983 and moved to Troy Mich. I enjoy the videos and have a special place in my heart for the city of Flint, forever.
I became absolutely OBSESSED with Flint, and Michigan in general after i watched the whole series of Flint Town in one sitting. It started my other obsession with history of other cities like this in america, such as detroit, Gary, Pilidelphia, St.Louis, Montgomery, ect. I was very ignorant to American history, and just the country in general when i was younger. But as ive gotten older i realized its very important what happens in the states, because our countries are like brothers. And now i care as much about the States as i care about Canada. I really appreciate the information in your videoes. This was one of my favorite ones! I'll get to em all one day!
I love my city of flint lived here ny whole life. There are good days and there are bad days but endless story's and some of the strongest hearted people you'll ever meet. The city has so much to offer upu just have to sit back and imagine what it was like years ago. Beautiful!
Flint town has been ruined probably since before you was born. I’m from Pontiac and even though there are nice neighborhoods here I won’t sugar coat it by say our citizens and city is upstanding in any way. Flint actually looks worse than Pontiac.
@@sickboysikotic exactly. some of these viewers are like, hey this isn't so bad, I'm like ummm... it's important to be precise bc the truth matters so no flint isn't 'better'
I moved to Texas ten years ago from Flint, I grew up there and graduated from Flint Central. My parents and siblings still live there. I hope to move them down south with me one day. God Bless the people of Flint,MI 🙏🏾♥️
The redevelopment of Downtown Flint always gives me hope. But the truth is, it's a false hope. Downtown Flint is basically an oasis. A mile in any direction is the "real" Flint. Poverty, abandonment, blight, and liquor stores on every corner. The people of Flint are a hardy people. Abandoned by local government, no police force, poor education, the people grind it out just to see another day. But they are good people. They are wary to let in outsiders, but once you're in, you've got friends for life. I wish these downtown developers would spread some money throughout the rest of the community.
It will get Better, We took a Hard hit FLINT , PONTIAC, SAGINAW, LANSING, & DETROIT, ALL THESE cities had all the car plants headquarters.. The milked us drive & pretty much left us hanging
I love the videos my mom worked at AC back in the 60 and 70's and dad worked at Fisher body Grande Blanc. Also as a myself I graduated from Flint Central in 1970. I remember when Genesee Valley shopping was build I went to apply for a job. Come to find out my parents had planned on moving to Los Angeles in 1970 right after my graduation. I was so looking to working at Penney's now I am still in Los Angeles area wow it been some years I am now 70 years old love the West Coast but it took a while to get use to the weather. Cause you know there were a lot of cold days in Flint. Had to go over the Flint River bridge to get to Central. Great memories will treasure forever.
I loved living in Flint, and only left earlier this year because I had given up on the US as a country. Two small corrections. The street where Flint Central High School is located is named "Crapo", spelled with one P, not two. It is named for an early governor of Michigan, who was quite a story himself. Also, after driving past Flint Central, just south of it on Crapo is Whittier Middle School. They are two separate schools, both are long closed and abandoned, sadly. All three of my sons went through both schools, and our family lived in the neighborhood just to the east for many years.
I grew up in Flint too. 1972-2002. We moved to Flint when back in the day you had to live in the city to work for the city. Mom got a job in 72 working for the Flint housing commission. We moved in on the north end and it was pretty nice then and in 77 we moved to the Civic Park neighborhood. It all went to hell after that. So sad it was a vibrant GM town.
Hello I went to school with a Victor in Flint Central I graduated in 1970. My brother was Flint Central Indian in 1969. I still got all 3 year book. I attended Emerson Jr High 7-9 grade those were the good ole days. They changed the boundary so I went to Central instead of Northern.
Nice comprehensive tour of Flint! So my old Buick, Chevy, and GMC were originally made there.🤔 Very cool! I miss the great American motor companies in their hey day.
@@ChrisHarden I love your videos as a residence of Flint and graduate from Flint Central class of 1970. Now living on the West Coast since October 1970. I attend Emerson Jr High. I have been trying to find pictures of Emerson before they tore it down for years. I even tried Flint Board of Education, and the Flint Journal now there have to be someone with a picture of Emerson on Pasadena Ave. Oh well maybe one day I am now 70 years old I loved that Jr High. Great memories of Flint. Thanks Chris for all the time and love you put in sharing others the site of this great city. Now I am still a Flintstone.
With all the negative news and stores that I've heard about Flint The downtown was surprisingly nice! Flint has a lot of problems but it looks like they're trying which is a lot better than some cities. Another Great video Chris!
Like most cities the government in those cities only put money into the downtown. Like Detroit, one of the worst ugliest cities in America has a nice downtown.
Hi Chris! Amazing video. I work for a cluster of radio stations in Flint, Cars 108, Banana 101.5, 103.1 WQUS, WFNT and Club 93.7. I pitched to our DJ's to write an article on your video for our websites! We produce daily digital content. Incredible work here, you have truly captured the spirit of our city!
Thank you for the informative tour, I'll be looking forward to the rest of the series. I have traversed a few of the streets within the city while avoiding interstate congestion and have witnessed all of the depressing decay and abandonment firsthand myself. But I've never been downtown and based on this footage, I'll have to check it out sometime...looks surprisingly decent.
Great job!! Talk about time travel! Grew up there but left in 1967. I think follow-through with the cultural center expansion and Flint UofM plus emphasis on city center is a good formula for saving a city. Hope it has staying power. Really look forward to the other videos in this series.
Pretty cool video! I am a native of Oakland County, Southfield to be exact for half of my 70 years. I've been in Georgia for the past 25 years with a few other places in between. I have been to Flint for car shows and even had a wind up tarp mechanism installed on a dump trailer in flint. Even Sunday drives, I went to flint for various reasons from about 1969 threw the mid-'90s. I remember how cool the city was back in the day and then I watched the blight of flint develop on TV from Georgia. As I watched I remember Detroit going from a vibrant city to looking like Berlin after WW-II in less than 2 decades. So when GM abandoned Flint The people's income and the city's tax base was gone and it wouldn't be long before it became Berlin after WW-II too and then the whole water thing happened and that was just the icing on the cake. Watching the news and documentaries just reinforced that image in my mind. But this video shocked me, somehow Flint dodged the bullet of its downtown crumbling and burning to the ground! Now how is the residential area holding up? If Flint can convince the world that the water is safe and it has a solid infrastructure it might be able to lure in some 21st century corporations. Even an electric vehicle company... Like Hey Musk, maybe you should give Flint a look! Maybe an Amazon distribution center/ House flippers will start buying up derelict houses and fixing them up. The place is prime, all it takes is a billionaire or two to see the potential of the city and invest like they did with Detroit. And Flint already has a beautiful downtown to build off of.
@@ChrisHarden I like what Flint is doing what Detroit did using colleges downtown to build up around having U of M Flint, Mott and Kettering college downtown and the surrounding areas of flint are good Swartz creek, flushing, gland Blanc, Burton are good areas and the State has just started a large project to rebuild the highway infrastructure around Flint and a new state park is being planned within Flint and there already is huge beautiful parks and trails next to Flint from genesse county extending to Richfield county so the potential is there for Flint I've been impressed with what's going on for the area.
@@ChrisHarden The downtown is a good base, It has an "Oh WOW" factor, Detroit didn't even have that anymore. It was pretty much given up for dead before investors took another look, and people like Mike Ilitch decided to not let Detroit die. Detroit has a massive sprawl of suburbia that was and is thriving without Detroit, But if you get some industry willing to gamble on Flint taking advantage of the existing downtown, the flippers will come in and buy the dilapidated houses and remodel them, restaurants will come in other stores will come in and some other industries will come in and Flint would thrive again. That's too nice of a downtown to waste. Flint needs their own Mike Ilitch. If Flint started a home sale for cheap with the stipulation you fix it up within X amount of time and then live there another X amount of time, millennials that work from home would buy the homes and fix them up just like Detroit did since it is so expensive to buy homes anymore.. It's all Flint needs to thrive again. But flint needs to promote itself aggressively on a national scale to achieve this.
Another great video! Im shocked at the beautiful downtown area. I have two relatives who retired from Buick Flint. I've only been to/driven through Flint a small handful of times. I have a huge appreciation for the history! Thank you again!
Nice. I listen to videos and don’t watch them. Have seen your videos searching for MI content but thought they were driving tours with no audio. Glad I clicked and found out differently. Going to listen to all MI ones now. Good stuff
I finally found someone who can really go thru flint I'm from there but I stay in mississippi it's good to see things I haven't seen in years great job!!!!!
Flint actually looks like it wouldn't be too bad of a place to live for retired or empty nester couples. Quiet and plenty of green space. I remember driving through Flint in the 80s and there were certainly more people. Great video as always.
Noo hunny no, I'm 17 and live on the east side and it's worse than u think kids get kidnapped everyday. Couples get robbed. Woman who live alone fear for their lives... Please
My college roommate was one hell of a football player at Kearsley High about 20 years ago. He ended up losing his battle with mental illness in 2012 and drowned himself in the harbor on Mackinac Island.
Flint actually looks... decent? Quite a few streets that if you showed me a picture I wouldn't feel to be out of place in Ann Arbor (where I'm from). Might pay it a visit myself at some point.
Flint has many great areas but alot of rundown ones. And it's probably one of the last city's in the country you're want to raise a family due to its poor schools, and or lack there of.
I can only imagine the old timers turning in their graves as what has happened to America and the squeezing out of our blue collar workforce for corporate greed…everyone could of had a great job and raised a family on 1 job and the moms stayed home and took care of family (if you were a married family). I can only imagine how society would of turned out now as kids would have grown up better due to the intact family unit…were so screwed now, and this had been going on for 40 years or so….
Yes. I have 9 siblings and Mother worked at home taking care of home, cooking, cleaning, etc., and the children. I miss my life that I had when I was a little girl. Holidays were always a huge event. Buick Town really did it up right regarding decorating for Christmas.
I've never seen a video like this about Flint. After watching, "Roger and Me" years ago, I always figured the place was a dump. Nice to see a more positive perspective.
I will say this for Flint. For the condition that most of the city is in, it does have a very nice downtown full of what look to be thriving businesses. Unlike other cities of similar size and fortune such as Youngstown, Ohio, where the downtown area is mostly all YSU, with OH WOW! (children's museum), two or three restaurants, and basically nothing else. Erie, Pennsylvania is another example. If it weren't for the lake and the bayfront, Erie would be a ghost town like Youngstown.
Hey! I am a filmmaker from the Lapeer County area and wanted to reach out to you regarding your footage of Flint. I am working on a detective webseries that takes place in and around Flint starting next year and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if your video was used in different episodes in snippets? I’ll credit you at the end of each video as a thank you if you’re cool with me using it.
The Flint Planetarium was the Largest in the US! It had to be remodeled with smaller Dome and digital star generator so it cud use more common size programs and Laser Light shows!
@ChrisHarden is there any way to include on your new videos the manufacturing/industrial companies still running in neighbourhood Detroit. Detroiters source of living to be exact
I currently live here. Gonna be homeless soon. Service connected Vet. Living the American dream baby. Find me on Lynch St. I'll say that camera you're using is one smooth operator. Viewers couldn't even tell the bricks on Saginaw were rattling your car apart. Just for fun, you should've made a comparison video, one take with the smooth camera, and one take without. Really submerse the viewers, let em really feel the roads through their screens, you know.
Interesting, I had a summer job making deliveries to the GM plant in 1977, it was impressive, my boss used to say GM has more money in chain link fence than most companies are worth, it's breathtaking to see the changes. I will have to watch Roger and Me, didn't know what that was about, even though I'm not a fan of Michael Moore 🤪 thanks again.
While watching this I went to ebay and found and bought an old postcard called "Chevy In The Hole." Thanks for posting, hope your car gets good milage with the price of gas the way it is...... Just waiting for the red wave to get here.........
@@elli6220 The blues "dem's" drove the price up and the Reds "GOP" will drive it back down again. We paid about $2.59 with Trump as president, then came along sleepy-joe and his $6.00 plus prices. The dems also gave us "defund the police" "no cash bail" "ungodly inflation" and a big fat open border letting in enough fentanyl to kill every American over 9 times. Really looking forward to the big red wave. Go W0KE---go broke.....
@@jetsons101 Gas isn't $6 anywhere and it hasn't gotten that high anywhere other than California lol. Oil is a global market and not controlled directly by the president -- you'll need to point to specific policies that would affect gas prices. "Defund the police" is mostly a bogeyman that 90% of Dems don't support. Biden's campaigning on funding the police, and has indeed increased funding for police. Ending cash bail is good. People are either a danger or they aren't; I'm not a fan of letting rich people out of jail while keeping poor people locked up. The inflation is a global issue and almost everywhere else has been hit worse than the USA. It's not Biden's fault, and he's done everything he can do to decrease it. As for the border... just lol. I live in Texas nowadays. It's not that bad.
At 21:33 my Hubby put 30+ years in Chevy in the Hole. When GM moved most of it's plants out of Flint, They forced My hubby into retirement at the age of 53 years old.
I like your videos, l wonder if you can do a video of the car hauling business in the Detroit area in the 80s I was a driver with E&L Transport with Dearborn being it's HQ I worked at the Lorain,Ohio terminal (the former Ford Lorain Assembly plant) with terminals in Woodhavèn,MI (main terminal)Louisville,KY Chicago,IL ( Ft. Eric, Ont and Windsor,Ont were railheads) Jeeps in Toledo,HO, AMC's in Wisconson, to My buddy fellow driver Calvin Cloptongive me a shot, C. Covington
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv I’ve seen much worse run downs and poverty in red states like Alabama or Mississippi, so what’s your point? ghettoization happens pretty much all over.
Hi Chris I am trying to change Crack alley into urban arbor community. Both names are more colloquialisms than recognizable locations. The idea is to promote stewardship of the forest and wood working for fun and profit. Like what if we redesigned golf carts as Flintstone go-carts for flint commons? Delusional I've been told. Lol 😆
I think it’s funny how they will say medium income of 30k when in reality it’s like 18k and that’s a full time employee at average 10-11$ a hour for the ones that actually work
The reason downtown is so nice is it is owned by the Downtown Development authority. Which includes the current head of the Mott family and some investors. They updated infrastructure, including those lead pipes long before the crisis, and have walking security guards patrolling the area, among other improvements. During the Flint water crisis my husband worked for one of the restaurants the DDA owned, their water was always fine and tested regularly. However the MOST dangerous place in Flint is the Downtown bus terminal. Period. Right by the fantastic farmers market and nice little shops. Such a juxtaposition. That's just Flint for you. A blue collar town to the end. Beautiful community here, poverty and death one street over.
Thank you for your videos, even if other people condemn you for sharing them. You are realistic and factful with your info, rarely sharing opinions and I have yet to hear a negative one. Matter of fact, you state that you're a fan of the historical facts of how many of the cities in southern Michigan began the true industry of America and how growth and economic changes have caused the strife of many of these communities. I appreciate your depiction of these cities depicting from start to finish almost a timeline of the historical facts and how and why each city is how it got to where it is today. I am a Michigan native and many of my extended family still live there today, many of them including my Grandparents raising my father and aunts in Detroit and then Pontiac throughout their lives and my cousins beginning their families in these areas and a few still residing in Pontiac and Flint areas. Besides historical knowledge your videos could give purpose to try and make a movement for change in these cities. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and your prospective on these places.
I will reopen Central high school as a destination, with good restaurants, clothing, stores and shoe shops, and as a gymnasium destinations for semi pro and amateur championships. The building is already set up for elder care. The only problem has been the bugaboo of asbestos, which I know how to solve through encapsulation, negative air, pressure, and heap of filters, so that no asbestos escapes. The center for my presidential campaign, and where I will be making the Avon based upon the work I did with NASA in the 70s.
Southwestern Northern, Central and Northwestern were the 4 traditional high schools in flint in the 90's so if S.W.A. is the only one still open then how is your statement true?
Unfortunately, the anger quotient in Flint is palatable. Off the charts. Must be something in the water. Folks drive, using their cars as weapons. It is stunning.
Flint is a Ghost Town now that GM Left here, it’s now a run down City that was once the Wealthiest City in the Country in 1969 but the Population has Steadily declined since the 1969 Census until today where it’s a Total Dump. There isn’t anything in the Malls anymore.
Everyone should watch “Roger and Me”. There’s a free full movie posted on UA-cam. Pretty good insight into when Flint really hit rock bottom (and is pretty funny).
That's where I am! Walk up to the Davison Marathon almost every day. You may occasionally hear the mentally unstable woman yelling at absolutely no one or nothing. Found out she's been helping out the Davison Rd Market guys, so at least she's got that going for her.
Great video….. I don’t understand how these big investors want to see a high collage graduation rates. Don’t they understand that not everyone has the means or desire to go to college. I mean college is kinda a rip off if you ask me. Go in to major debt with college loans then not find a job because the investors don’t want to invest. Personally I think we need more people to learn simple things like construction,metal fab,automotive. And everything connected to those trades. I hate hearing how a person invested years of there life to get a degree in something that isn’t really in demand. Because a college advisor suggested it and made it sound like a very prestigious job that doesn’t require a lot of labor.
Help me get my 2nd channel to 1,000 subs by the end of the year! ua-cam.com/channels/WswLxWncDgmc106ZHId02Q.html
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DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!
Excellent work sir especially on the flint video I’m born n raised here and highly impressed 👍🏾
Chris, i grew up in Flint in the late 70s and 1980s, moving to florida in 1989. for economic reasons my wife and i are looking at moving to the Flint area within the next year. what would you consider the good areas of Flint or surrounding areas to live in? BTW i grew up in the eastside village around Court St and Franklin Ave
I recently moved to Flint from Alabama. I must say, I love this city and county. ❤
Welcome to Flint, I'm up here in Beecher. Hard to explain, my house is registered in Genesee twp, we pay water to Beecher, but our address is Flint.
I work in the city once a week, and have an Airbnb/in Beecher. I was surprised at how well the Airbnb has done since it also has a Flint address
People still visit Flint, whether it's to visit family, do a job here, or go to Frankenmuth, etc...
I was born at Hurley Medical Center. My family's home was huge, traditional and located on Weich Blvd. I moved out of Flint in 1983 and moved to Troy Mich. I enjoy the videos and have a special place in my heart for the city of Flint, forever.
Still no Hurley Hospital !
I became absolutely OBSESSED with Flint, and Michigan in general after i watched the whole series of Flint Town in one sitting. It started my other obsession with history of other cities like this in america, such as detroit, Gary, Pilidelphia, St.Louis, Montgomery, ect. I was very ignorant to American history, and just the country in general when i was younger. But as ive gotten older i realized its very important what happens in the states, because our countries are like brothers. And now i care as much about the States as i care about Canada. I really appreciate the information in your videoes. This was one of my favorite ones! I'll get to em all one day!
I love my city of flint lived here ny whole life. There are good days and there are bad days but endless story's and some of the strongest hearted people you'll ever meet. The city has so much to offer upu just have to sit back and imagine what it was like years ago. Beautiful!
So if you live in flint, let’s say just north of carriage town for instance, where would your kid go to high school?
@@alexanderphillips3697Probably International Academy of Flint. It's a K-12 school.
One morre thing.. Thanks for not running Flint down. You'r a stand up guy.
Thanks, you might think otherwise with my other Flint videos to come though.
Flint town has been ruined probably since before you was born. I’m from Pontiac and even though there are nice neighborhoods here I won’t sugar coat it by say our citizens and city is upstanding in any way. Flint actually looks worse than Pontiac.
@@sickboysikotic exactly. some of these viewers are like, hey this isn't so bad, I'm like ummm...
it's important to be precise bc the truth matters so no flint isn't 'better'
@@ChrisHarden 😁😁😁😁
I grew up in Flint I still go there time to time. God bless all my brothers and sisters still living in Flint.
I moved to Texas ten years ago from Flint, I grew up there and graduated from Flint Central. My parents and siblings still live there. I hope to move them down south with me one day. God Bless the people of Flint,MI 🙏🏾♥️
The redevelopment of Downtown Flint always gives me hope. But the truth is, it's a false hope. Downtown Flint is basically an oasis. A mile in any direction is the "real" Flint. Poverty, abandonment, blight, and liquor stores on every corner. The people of Flint are a hardy people. Abandoned by local government, no police force, poor education, the people grind it out just to see another day. But they are good people. They are wary to let in outsiders, but once you're in, you've got friends for life. I wish these downtown developers would spread some money throughout the rest of the community.
We’ll have to see how the future plays out. That’s all we can do.
It will get Better, We took a Hard hit FLINT , PONTIAC, SAGINAW, LANSING, & DETROIT, ALL THESE cities had all the car plants headquarters.. The milked us drive & pretty much left us hanging
Thank you for your true description of us, we are good people generational roots. And we deserve a change.
Nobody is going to do it for you. You got to do it for yourselves. The sit around a wait approach, is how you throw away your life.
@paris castalano i think the opposite is true, local politicians thought the money would never end and didn't plan for when it did
Been here my whole life. Love this town. Many kind and cool people.
I love the videos my mom worked at AC back in the 60 and 70's and dad worked at Fisher body Grande Blanc. Also as a myself I graduated from Flint Central in 1970. I remember when Genesee Valley shopping was build I went to apply for a job. Come to find out my parents had planned on moving to Los Angeles in 1970 right after my graduation. I was so looking to working at Penney's now I am still in Los Angeles area wow it been some years I am now 70 years old love the West Coast but it took a while to get use to the weather. Cause you know there were a lot of cold days in Flint. Had to go over the Flint River bridge to get to Central. Great memories will treasure forever.
I loved living in Flint, and only left earlier this year because I had given up on the US as a country. Two small corrections. The street where Flint Central High School is located is named "Crapo", spelled with one P, not two. It is named for an early governor of Michigan, who was quite a story himself. Also, after driving past Flint Central, just south of it on Crapo is Whittier Middle School. They are two separate schools, both are long closed and abandoned, sadly. All three of my sons went through both schools, and our family lived in the neighborhood just to the east for many years.
I attended Whittier "Junior High" back in the '70's lol.....And yes Central High School was next door.
Did any of the members of Grand Funk Railroad go to those schools??
I grew up in Flint too. 1972-2002. We moved to Flint when back in the day you had to live in the city to work for the city. Mom got a job in 72 working for the Flint housing commission. We moved in on the north end and it was pretty nice then and in 77 we moved to the Civic Park neighborhood. It all went to hell after that. So sad it was a vibrant GM town.
@@Tonymanero1960 i think terry cruze did.
Hello I went to school with a Victor in Flint Central I graduated in 1970. My brother was Flint Central Indian in 1969. I still got all 3 year book. I attended Emerson Jr High 7-9 grade those were the good ole days. They changed the boundary so I went to Central instead of Northern.
Nice comprehensive tour of Flint! So my old Buick, Chevy, and GMC were originally made there.🤔 Very cool! I miss the great American motor companies in their hey day.
Most likely!
@@ChrisHarden I love your videos as a residence of Flint and graduate from Flint Central class of 1970. Now living on the West Coast since October 1970. I attend Emerson Jr High. I have been trying to find pictures of Emerson before they tore it down for years. I even tried Flint Board of Education, and the Flint Journal now there have to be someone with a picture of Emerson on Pasadena Ave. Oh well maybe one day I am now 70 years old I loved that Jr High. Great memories of Flint. Thanks Chris for all the time and love you put in sharing others the site of this great city. Now I am still a Flintstone.
Excellent video and narration. This obviously took you some time to produce. Thanks much for sharing. So sad.
With all the negative news and stores that I've heard about Flint The downtown was surprisingly nice! Flint has a lot of problems but it looks like they're trying which is a lot better than some cities. Another Great video Chris!
Like most cities the government in those cities only put money into the downtown. Like Detroit, one of the worst ugliest cities in America has a nice downtown.
thank you for showing my city in a positive light!
Hi Chris! Amazing video. I work for a cluster of radio stations in Flint, Cars 108, Banana 101.5, 103.1 WQUS, WFNT and Club 93.7. I pitched to our DJ's to write an article on your video for our websites! We produce daily digital content. Incredible work here, you have truly captured the spirit of our city!
Didn’t see this until just now, thanks for the kind words!
Use to listen to WTAC, CKLW, WILS. 60S EARLY 70S BEFORE Army.
I just came across this channel and I’ve found myself binge watching
Good content Chris. Keen eye for detail and very well shot and narrated. Thanks for all your work
Thank you for the informative tour, I'll be looking forward to the rest of the series. I have traversed a few of the streets within the city while avoiding interstate congestion and have witnessed all of the depressing decay and abandonment firsthand myself. But I've never been downtown and based on this footage, I'll have to check it out sometime...looks surprisingly decent.
Great job again, Chris! Nice to see my old hometown of the 1960s. It was such a great place to grow up, back in the day.
BRAVO! Thank You, Chris, Very fair and well-balanced approach to "Flint". Love your channel. Peace.
Great job!! Talk about time travel! Grew up there but left in 1967. I think follow-through with the cultural center expansion and Flint UofM plus emphasis on city center is a good formula for saving a city. Hope it has staying power. Really look forward to the other videos in this series.
Pretty cool video! I am a native of Oakland County, Southfield to be exact for half of my 70 years. I've been in Georgia for the past 25 years with a few other places in between. I have been to Flint for car shows and even had a wind up tarp mechanism installed on a dump trailer in flint. Even Sunday drives, I went to flint for various reasons from about 1969 threw the mid-'90s. I remember how cool the city was back in the day and then I watched the blight of flint develop on TV from Georgia. As I watched I remember Detroit going from a vibrant city to looking like Berlin after WW-II in less than 2 decades. So when GM abandoned Flint The people's income and the city's tax base was gone and it wouldn't be long before it became Berlin after WW-II too and then the whole water thing happened and that was just the icing on the cake. Watching the news and documentaries just reinforced that image in my mind. But this video shocked me, somehow Flint dodged the bullet of its downtown crumbling and burning to the ground! Now how is the residential area holding up? If Flint can convince the world that the water is safe and it has a solid infrastructure it might be able to lure in some 21st century corporations. Even an electric vehicle company... Like Hey Musk, maybe you should give Flint a look! Maybe an Amazon distribution center/ House flippers will start buying up derelict houses and fixing them up. The place is prime, all it takes is a billionaire or two to see the potential of the city and invest like they did with Detroit. And Flint already has a beautiful downtown to build off of.
Downtown is nice, the rest of the city not even close.
@@ChrisHarden I like what Flint is doing what Detroit did using colleges downtown to build up around having U of M Flint, Mott and Kettering college downtown and the surrounding areas of flint are good Swartz creek, flushing, gland Blanc, Burton are good areas and the State has just started a large project to rebuild the highway infrastructure around Flint and a new state park is being planned within Flint and there already is huge beautiful parks and trails next to Flint from genesse county extending to Richfield county so the potential is there for Flint I've been impressed with what's going on for the area.
@@ChrisHarden The downtown is a good base, It has an "Oh WOW" factor, Detroit didn't even have that anymore. It was pretty much given up for dead before investors took another look, and people like Mike Ilitch decided to not let Detroit die. Detroit has a massive sprawl of suburbia that was and is thriving without Detroit, But if you get some industry willing to gamble on Flint taking advantage of the existing downtown, the flippers will come in and buy the dilapidated houses and remodel them, restaurants will come in other stores will come in and some other industries will come in and Flint would thrive again. That's too nice of a downtown to waste. Flint needs their own Mike Ilitch. If Flint started a home sale for cheap with the stipulation you fix it up within X amount of time and then live there another X amount of time, millennials that work from home would buy the homes and fix them up just like Detroit did since it is so expensive to buy homes anymore.. It's all Flint needs to thrive again. But flint needs to promote itself aggressively on a national scale to achieve this.
Excellent job on the video. Learn a lot and loss most of my negative thoughts about Flint!
Another great video! Im shocked at the beautiful downtown area. I have two relatives who retired from Buick Flint. I've only been to/driven through Flint a small handful of times. I have a huge appreciation for the history! Thank you again!
I learned a lot about Flint from this video. Good job!
Keep up the vids, love hearing the history! Interesting entertainment and education.
Nice. I listen to videos and don’t watch them. Have seen your videos searching for MI content but thought they were driving tours with no audio. Glad I clicked and found out differently. Going to listen to all MI ones now. Good stuff
I have live in or near Flint all my life. I look forward to the rest of your series.
Downtown Flint has improved in spite of the city council. The Mott Foundation and othered are to be credited for the improvements.
You just got a new subscriber. Love learning more about the city I live in.
I'm an eastsider (New Baltimore by birth) but downtown for many yrs. (Atwater & jos campau) hadn't been to flint in yrs. THX for piquing my interest.
I finally found someone who can really go thru flint I'm from there but I stay in mississippi it's good to see things I haven't seen in years great job!!!!!
Love your videos keep up the good informative and entertaining work, PS love the hood music especially on the detroit videos 😂😂
The Machine Shop, a great farmer's market. Yeah this city has some good stuff.
Flint actually looks like it wouldn't be too bad of a place to live for retired or empty nester couples. Quiet and plenty of green space. I remember driving through Flint in the 80s and there were certainly more people. Great video as always.
Hahahaahahahahahahahahaha bro, this place is dope fiend central. Sure, bring granny, she'll be smoking crack within the week
Noo hunny no, I'm 17 and live on the east side and it's worse than u think kids get kidnapped everyday. Couples get robbed. Woman who live alone fear for their lives... Please
I remember when Blackstones was a Mens Clothing Store.
The park looks beautiful
My college roommate was one hell of a football player at Kearsley High about 20 years ago. He ended up losing his battle with mental illness in 2012 and drowned himself in the harbor on Mackinac Island.
As a flint resident I can say this is accurate
Thanks. I try
Downtown Flint is so much better than it was when I went there 20 years ago!
there's nothing in down town flint i would wanna go to after 5 pm
Flint, Michigan is also home to the great band "The Swellers" ;)
HEY Nice BB shot. What was that in the treeline???
Factory one also serves as the kettering/GMI/GM archives. Also GM's current CEO is a kettering grad.
GM's current CEO happens to be my nephew and I still live here. We are rebuilding and my neighborhood is great.
@@pammajamma9907 your nephew is Marry Barra?
Great job on these videos.... Profound examples of a Temporal World and Humanity's role in it....
Ok, fairly new to living near Flint. Learning stuff I should see
Flint MI native hear, still living in flint. Thanks for reminding me of how much I would love to leave this place in a heartbeat of I could lol
Haha.
I have been trying to get out of Flint all my life. Never felt home here . I could never grow here. There is a is a hand full of people of power
Flint actually looks... decent? Quite a few streets that if you showed me a picture I wouldn't feel to be out of place in Ann Arbor (where I'm from). Might pay it a visit myself at some point.
Flint has many great areas but alot of rundown ones. And it's probably one of the last city's in the country you're want to raise a family due to its poor schools, and or lack there of.
lol no
I can only imagine the old timers turning in their graves as what has happened to America and the squeezing out of our blue collar workforce for corporate greed…everyone could of had a great job and raised a family on 1 job and the moms stayed home and took care of family (if you were a married family). I can only imagine how society would of turned out now as kids would have grown up better due to the intact family unit…were so screwed now, and this had been going on for 40 years or so….
Your not lying, been lead astray by systemic greed. This point up to the people to make things right not corporate/government
Yes. I have 9 siblings and Mother worked at home taking care of home, cooking, cleaning, etc., and the children. I miss my life that I had when I was a little girl. Holidays were always a huge event. Buick Town really did it up right regarding decorating for Christmas.
Some cool factoids about Flint that I didn’t know. Thanks for focusing on mostly the good of the city. Most videos about Flint are doom and gloom.
Thanks, I try to be fair. I have 8 more Flint videos coming though... and as you can probably imagine they'll mostly be doom and gloom.
@@ChrisHarden Loved this one. It showed all the best places in the city of Flint. Thanks for all the positive in this video.
I've never seen a video like this about Flint. After watching, "Roger and Me" years ago, I always figured the place was a dump. Nice to see a more positive perspective.
Flint east side may look bad, but when you spread further out flint is a pretty decent place.
The Mott Foundation has provided hundreds of "millions" to Flint, not hundreds of thousands.
Yea they did a lot of great things with all that money....like AUTOWORLD.
Great video! Keep working on those 3 pointers ;)
Great video
My dad worked in flint in the eighties driving for a gas delivery truck for Ford.
Saginaw was our home town
I will say this for Flint. For the condition that most of the city is in, it does have a very nice downtown full of what look to be thriving businesses.
Unlike other cities of similar size and fortune such as Youngstown, Ohio, where the downtown area is mostly all YSU, with OH WOW! (children's museum), two or three restaurants, and basically nothing else. Erie, Pennsylvania is another example. If it weren't for the lake and the bayfront, Erie would be a ghost town like Youngstown.
I lived in Burton..6141 Nelcon Ct from 1979 to 1988. It was a great place back then.
I'm born in 88, grew up Birmingham MI. Just moved to Burton and I'm impressed with the area and huge genesse/Richfield parks
Do you remember the great Flint, Michigan Mega Bowl?
The Tropics put on a great performance.
Hey! I am a filmmaker from the Lapeer County area and wanted to reach out to you regarding your footage of Flint. I am working on a detective webseries that takes place in and around Flint starting next year and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind if your video was used in different episodes in snippets? I’ll credit you at the end of each video as a thank you if you’re cool with me using it.
The Flint City Bucks WON the NATIONAL Championship last year!
The Flint Planetarium was the Largest in the US! It had to be remodeled with smaller Dome and digital star generator so it cud use more common size programs and Laser Light shows!
@ChrisHarden is there any way to include on your new videos the manufacturing/industrial companies still running in neighbourhood Detroit. Detroiters source of living to be exact
I currently live here. Gonna be homeless soon. Service connected Vet. Living the American dream baby. Find me on Lynch St.
I'll say that camera you're using is one smooth operator. Viewers couldn't even tell the bricks on Saginaw were rattling your car apart. Just for fun, you should've made a comparison video, one take with the smooth camera, and one take without. Really submerse the viewers, let em really feel the roads through their screens, you know.
awesome video bro!
Interesting, I had a summer job making deliveries to the GM plant in 1977, it was impressive, my boss used to say GM has more money in chain link fence than most companies are worth, it's breathtaking to see the changes. I will have to watch Roger and Me, didn't know what that was about, even though I'm not a fan of Michael Moore 🤪 thanks again.
Never thought I'd see a video about where I live.
While watching this I went to ebay and found and bought an old postcard called "Chevy In The Hole." Thanks for posting, hope your car gets good milage with the price of gas the way it is...... Just waiting for the red wave to get here.........
Rental cars are amazing
A red wave won't make gas cheaper lol.
@@elli6220 The blues "dem's" drove the price up and the Reds "GOP" will drive it back down again. We paid about $2.59 with Trump as president, then came along sleepy-joe and his $6.00 plus prices. The dems also gave us "defund the police" "no cash bail" "ungodly inflation" and a big fat open border letting in enough fentanyl to kill every American over 9 times. Really looking forward to the big red wave. Go W0KE---go broke.....
@@ChrisHarden As long as the A/C works, or in the winter the heater..... lol
@@jetsons101 Gas isn't $6 anywhere and it hasn't gotten that high anywhere other than California lol. Oil is a global market and not controlled directly by the president -- you'll need to point to specific policies that would affect gas prices.
"Defund the police" is mostly a bogeyman that 90% of Dems don't support. Biden's campaigning on funding the police, and has indeed increased funding for police.
Ending cash bail is good. People are either a danger or they aren't; I'm not a fan of letting rich people out of jail while keeping poor people locked up.
The inflation is a global issue and almost everywhere else has been hit worse than the USA. It's not Biden's fault, and he's done everything he can do to decrease it.
As for the border... just lol. I live in Texas nowadays. It's not that bad.
At 21:33 my Hubby put 30+ years in Chevy in the Hole. When GM moved most of it's plants out of Flint, They forced My hubby into retirement at the age of 53 years old.
I like your videos, l wonder if you can do a video of the car hauling business in the Detroit area in the 80s I was a driver with E&L Transport with Dearborn being it's HQ I worked at the Lorain,Ohio terminal (the former Ford Lorain Assembly plant) with terminals in Woodhavèn,MI (main terminal)Louisville,KY Chicago,IL ( Ft. Eric, Ont and Windsor,Ont were railheads) Jeeps in Toledo,HO, AMC's in Wisconson, to My buddy fellow driver Calvin Cloptongive me a shot, C. Covington
Nice video about my city. Check out the Crim festival of races in August.😊
Even though Flint has been beset with so many problems in the past few decades, it is still seems like a beautiful city.
I was born in Hurley Hospital!! Hometown blues😢😢
I can see how Flint, and Rockford are very similar cities, due to it's proximity to much larger cities, alongside having runned down inner city areas.
Both in blue state too (yes Michigan is less blue than Illinois but it's still mostly a blue state)
@@AdamSmith-gs2dv I’ve seen much worse run downs and poverty in red states like Alabama or Mississippi, so what’s your point? ghettoization happens pretty much all over.
I went to the middle school right next to Central but haven’t seen it in years, man is it over grown
Hi Chris I am trying to change Crack alley into urban arbor community. Both names are more colloquialisms than recognizable locations. The idea is to promote stewardship of the forest and wood working for fun and profit. Like what if we redesigned golf carts as Flintstone go-carts for flint commons? Delusional I've been told. Lol 😆
Hahaha it’s an idea
I think it’s funny how they will say medium income of 30k when in reality it’s like 18k and that’s a full time employee at average 10-11$ a hour for the ones that actually work
Hi Chris how come part 6 of your Flint series is hidden?
I haven’t made video 6 yet. Video 4 is being uploaded in 14 minutes.
Flint does have a public high school and a host of public charter high schools as well.
Flint does not have a public high school, nor does it have a host of public charter high schools.
Yeah only southwestern academy left...
great vid thanks
You drove past it twice, but didn’t say a word about the Flint Farmer’s Market.
Flint Tropics "sponsor" jokester is like Jeff Foxworthy performing at a Ice T concert
My dad worked at Chevy in the hole. Also one of the worst contaminated water in Flint.
So sad what has happened to this city
Definitely
If they held a beauty contest in that town nobody would win
The lack of traffic is disturbing
@chrisharden u should visit the west end north end of Flint it has more to offer
Great ending!
Corps (as in Corps of Engineers) is pronounced the same as "core."
The reason downtown is so nice is it is owned by the Downtown Development authority. Which includes the current head of the Mott family and some investors. They updated infrastructure, including those lead pipes long before the crisis, and have walking security guards patrolling the area, among other improvements. During the Flint water crisis my husband worked for one of the restaurants the DDA owned, their water was always fine and tested regularly.
However the MOST dangerous place in Flint is the Downtown bus terminal. Period. Right by the fantastic farmers market and nice little shops. Such a juxtaposition. That's just Flint for you. A blue collar town to the end. Beautiful community here, poverty and death one street over.
Thank you for your videos, even if other people condemn you for sharing them. You are realistic and factful with your info, rarely sharing opinions and I have yet to hear a negative one. Matter of fact, you state that you're a fan of the historical facts of how many of the cities in southern Michigan began the true industry of America and how growth and economic changes have caused the strife of many of these communities. I appreciate your depiction of these cities depicting from start to finish almost a timeline of the historical facts and how and why each city is how it got to where it is today. I am a Michigan native and many of my extended family still live there today, many of them including my Grandparents raising my father and aunts in Detroit and then Pontiac throughout their lives and my cousins beginning their families in these areas and a few still residing in Pontiac and Flint areas. Besides historical knowledge your videos could give purpose to try and make a movement for change in these cities. Thank you again for sharing your knowledge and your prospective on these places.
I will reopen Central high school as a destination, with good restaurants, clothing, stores and shoe shops, and as a gymnasium destinations for semi pro and amateur championships. The building is already set up for elder care. The only problem has been the bugaboo of asbestos, which I know how to solve through encapsulation, negative air, pressure, and heap of filters, so that no asbestos escapes. The center for my presidential campaign, and where I will be making the Avon based upon the work I did with NASA in the 70s.
LET'S GET TROPICAL!
Southwestern Northern, Central and Northwestern were the 4 traditional high schools in flint in the 90's so if S.W.A. is the only one still open then how is your statement true?
Because it’s not called southwestern high school anymore. It’s called flint southwestern classical academy. It’s not a high school.
Chris! The link to your new channel doesn’t work??? Is that curly hair a wig?
Oh dang thanks for letting me know, and yes it is haha. Here's the link ua-cam.com/channels/WswLxWncDgmc106ZHId02Q.html
@@ChrisHarden thanks curly mop head. 😂 Subscribed and will watch and like them all. Cheers!
Unfortunately, the anger quotient in Flint is palatable. Off the charts. Must be something in the water. Folks drive, using their cars as weapons. It is stunning.
Flint is a Ghost Town now that GM Left here, it’s now a run down City that was once the Wealthiest City in the Country in 1969 but the Population has Steadily declined since the 1969 Census until today where it’s a Total Dump. There isn’t anything in the Malls anymore.
Amen to this fact
Both malls are in surrounding suburbs Flint township and burton. The city it’s self has had a really good recovery
Everyone should watch “Roger and Me”. There’s a free full movie posted on UA-cam. Pretty good insight into when Flint really hit rock bottom (and is pretty funny).
It's a paradise, if you enjoy gunfire and loud music all day long and keeping you awake with helicopters chasing the locals until 3AM.
Grew up in the east side in the 60's franklin/Davison and dort hwy areas. Those areas are run down now!
Sure are
That's where I am! Walk up to the Davison Marathon almost every day. You may occasionally hear the mentally unstable woman yelling at absolutely no one or nothing. Found out she's been helping out the Davison Rd Market guys, so at least she's got that going for her.
Great video….. I don’t understand how these big investors want to see a high collage graduation rates. Don’t they understand that not everyone has the means or desire to go to college. I mean college is kinda a rip off if you ask me. Go in to major debt with college loans then not find a job because the investors don’t want to invest. Personally I think we need more people to learn simple things like construction,metal fab,automotive. And everything connected to those trades. I hate hearing how a person invested years of there life to get a degree in something that isn’t really in demand. Because a college advisor suggested it and made it sound like a very prestigious job that doesn’t require a lot of labor.