Flint, Michigan - the next ghost town

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

The view through an abandoned house's broken window looks out on a boarded-up house across the street on East Russell Avenue in Flint.

Property abandonment is getting so bad in Flint that some in government are talking about an extreme measure that was once unthinkable -- shutting down portions of the city, officially abandoning them and cutting off police and fire service.

Temporary Mayor Michael Brown ... said that as more people abandon homes, eating away at the city's tax base and creating more blight, the city might need to examine "shutting down quadrants of the city where we (wouldn't) provide services."

He did not define what that could mean -- bulldozing abandoned areas, simply leaving the vacant homes to rot or some other idea entirely.

...

City Council President Jim Ananich said the idea has been on his radar for years.

The city is getting smaller and should downsize its services accordingly by asking people to leave sparsely populated areas, he said.

http://www.mlive.com/news/flint/index.ssf/...wn_offthec.html

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You see a lot of abandoned and dying towns in the West. All it takes is for the main highway to be improved, and bypass the town, or a major employer shuts down. Normal stuff out west. The east and midwest will just have get used to it.

[Ken y Leidys 20]

You see a lot of abandoned and dying towns in the West. All it takes is for the main highway to be improved, and bypass the town, or a major employer shuts down. Normal stuff out west. The east and midwest will just have get used to it.

Imagine a 5 mile section of Oakland being shut down, and this is what this article is reaching at. My exwife comes from Durand which is an all-white exburb of Flint. Not sure how the people there are doing, since portions of that city commute to Lansing, the state's capital. But, if you want a 1st hand account on racial discrimination in Durand, I'm you're go-to guy.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

You see a lot of abandoned and dying towns in the West. All it takes is for the main highway to be improved, and bypass the town, or a major employer shuts down. Normal stuff out west. The east and midwest will just have get used to it.

Imagine a 5 mile section of Oakland being shut down, and this is what this article is reaching at. My exwife comes from Durand which is an all-white exburb of Flint. Not sure how the people there are doing, since portions of that city commute to Lansing, the state's capital. But, if you want a 1st hand account on racial discrimination in Durand, I'm you're go-to guy.

I get down to Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernadino once in a while, and there are parts that are dust bowls now. Industry moves farther out to cheaper real estate, and leaves behind brown fields, and depressed neighborhoods.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

And it will get worse as the Big Three collapse, but that will make a lot of people here happy.

[NickD 203]

And it will get worse as the Big Three collapse, but that will make a lot of people here happy.

Did some some homes for sell in Detroit for a buck, asked my wife if we should buy that, but also said ha, we probably would both get killed walking in that neighborhood.

[peejay 327]

I saw on ABC news that Houston is once again touted as the place to go to now for jobs. This along with the situation in Detroit reminds me of the 1970's when "Yankees with U-hauls" flooded into Houston by the thousands. Then oil price collapse in the mid-1980's sent the exodus elsewhere. People left Houston as fast as they had arrived earlier.

I guess history does repeat itself somewhat.

[Nagishkaw 510]

And it will get worse as the Big Three collapse, but that will make a lot of people here happy.

Did some some homes for sell in Detroit for a buck, asked my wife if we should buy that, but also said ha, we probably would both get killed walking in that neighborhood.

Yes, and you better believe it.

[Ken y Leidys 20]

I get down to Los Angeles, Riverside, and San Bernadino once in a while, and there are parts that are dust bowls now. Industry moves farther out to cheaper real estate, and leaves behind brown fields, and depressed neighborhoods.

I agree. San Bernardino and Rialto have their share of ramshackle sections. Where I live in central Riverside is completely built out. People are pretty cool here, too.

[웃 910]

And it will get worse as the Big Three collapse, but that will make a lot of people here happy.

Did some some homes for sell in Detroit for a buck, asked my wife if we should buy that, but also said ha, we probably would both get killed walking in that neighborhood.

Yes, and you better believe it.

I went to an auction in Detroit last fall (my first and only time). The house was small and crummy. Basement was terrible. It was really old. To make a long story short I left before the auction started because I figured it wasn't worth my while. There were only 5 or so people there to bid on the house. I told the auctioneer I would call him later in the day cause I was curious about the closing price. The house sold for $1,400.

[Sprailenes 47]

On the way to Chicago from Canada a few years ago, I drove through Flint, it is a sad looking place.

Edited March 28, 2009 by Sprailenes

[SpiritAlight 1]

I recently drove through Flint, too.

It was truly sad.

Edited March 28, 2009 by SpiritAlight

[SpiritAlight 1]

And it will get worse as the Big Three collapse, but that will make a lot of people here happy.

Did some some homes for sell in Detroit for a buck, asked my wife if we should buy that, but also said ha, we probably would both get killed walking in that neighborhood.

Yes, and you better believe it.

Detroit terrifies me.

I have not been there and a friend from there told me that when it gets dark, if she is running low on fuel, she will not go out to gas-up. She will stay at her friend's place and go home in the morning.

I cannot even imagine that.

What a naive Canadian I am.

[Trompe le Monde 1,107]

It's so cold in the D.

If comments on Facebook are to be believed, parts of Livonia, Westland and Redford are now considered "ghetto." Nagishaw, is this true? I guess that means I'm from the 'hood.