Flint, Michigan: Government Considering Abandoning Parts of City, Cutting Off Police & Fire Service

Flint, Michigan: Government Considering Abandoning Parts of City, Cutting Off Police and Fire Service

www.mlive.com

Look in any direction from Bianca Bates' north Flint home, and you'll see graffiti-covered siding, boarded-up windows and overgrown lots.

About half of the homes on her block are burned out or vacant magnets for drug dealers and squatters. It isn't where she thought she'd end up, but it's all she can afford to rent.

"It's a dangerous place to live," said Bates, 21, who lives on East Russell Avenue. "Everywhere you look, these houses are empty around here."

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 made the off-the-cuff suggestion Friday in response to a question at a Rotary Club of Flint luncheon about the thousands of empty houses in Flint.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.blacklistednews.com

[edit on 1-4-2009 by News And History]

Flint is simply defined as a ghetto. The military loves to recruit poor folks, who live in cities like that because folks living in ghettos are more likely to serve the occult-government/military to get private bank-notes/dollars, than wealthy ones.

To learn about the rise & fall of Flint, Michigan, you may watch this documentary: Roger & Me (Playlist) at: TopDocumentaryFilms.com...



Minions of the government, such as Barry Soetoro have tried very hard to lead the inhabitants of Flint, Michigan & other deplorable communities to believe everything is going to change in their favor:

Barack Obama on Change in Flint, Michigan


Change that Works for You: Flint, MI


www.mlive.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 1-4-2009 by News And History]

I live about 100 Mi SW of Flint and can tell ya it ain't pretty in a lot of Michigan.

In my City Unemployment is over 12% and climbing weekly.

City services are being cut...Police and County workers laid-off or out right fired.

The 5 Prisons surrounding my City are TRYING to consolidate, to save money, but, will end up giving earley releases to hundreds, maybe thousands.

Local schools are also consolidating to save on staffing and utilitys.

Housing in Michigan took a pretty big hit...not as bad as out west, but enough...

Good luck Flint...from a fellow Michigander...

The Detroit Flint area has +25% un-enployment, We in Michigan are screwed.

Hey, doesn't Michigan have lots of miltias? Not sure, but I have heard such things. The local governemt doesn't protect you? Maybe there is some way to entice a milita to come clean up these neighborhoods. It worked for the whores in a little town in a Clint Eastwood movie, Unforgiven. When the justice system failed them, they hired avengers to bring justice for them. I'm must being a bit, I hope, humorus.

But, maybe there is something to this. Hmm? The government fails you? Find a way to seek redress on your own, perhaps.

Sad isn't it? Not enough economic base to support a neighborhood. No soup for you! What about the banksters? They own these house don't they, since homes have been foreclosed? Don't they pay property tax? Don't they want their investments to be protected? Obama! Save us!!

Whatever happened to the Gibson Guitar Company/the Auto Industry & several other high end industries up there, I don't know. But there must be a powerful Mojo Hand at work for sure. I can see losing some Cereal & some cars but to lose the legendary Gibson Guitar company who is the standard by which all others are judged....Maybe bad luck was meant to be.

Originally posted by smokehouseslim
Whatever happened to the Gibson Guitar Company/the Auto Industry & several other high end industries up there, I don't know. But there must be a powerful Mojo Hand at work for sure. I can see losing some Cereal & some cars but to lose the legendary Gibson Guitar company who is the standard by which all others are judged....Maybe bad luck was meant to be.

Gibson was bought out in the 70s by Norlin, a conglomerate interested in generating short-term profits. They moved operations from Kalamazoo to Memphis in an attempt at labor arbitrage. Several of the original factory workers stayed behind, bought the building and fixtures/tooling for cheap and have operated as Heritage Guitars, Inc. since 1985. If you are looking for the "real deal," you'll find it still being made in Kalamazoo by four guys who built the 'famous' and sought after late 50s Les Pauls.

At any rate, Norlin eventually ran it into the ground. Henry J., a Harvard trained MBA, took the company over and increased prices. He admired the way Harley-Davidson turned itself around and patterned the Gibson "lifestyle brand" marketing on theirs. Now that he's taken the company into the lofty heights of being a 'luxury brand,' it will be interesting to see how they do in a depression and customers don't have the discretionary income they had during the boom times.

The lesson that I think gets missed in the Norlin-era Gibson story (the mid-70s through the mid-80s) is that the business purpose (and I do mean The Business Purpose...maximizing shareholder value over the long term) was neglected in favor of short-term profits. This short-sightedness on the part of management ran a solid, industry leading company in to the ground. The focus was not on maximizing shareholder value over the long term, but maximizing share price in the near term so as to justify executive bonuses, salaries and perquisites. If Norlin management had been dedicated to the shareholders and not their own greed, they likely could still be nursing at the golden teat. Instead, they had to dump the company and move on. History is pregnant with examples of the very same thing....short term thinking centered on instant gratification leading to long term losses.

To bring this back to the topic at hand...it is this same sort of short-term thinking that has bankrupted the City of Flint. The city management is no better than the company execs that strip mined the people and resources of that area (I live some distance northwest of Flint). The petty bureaucrats get their silver coins the same way that the greedy, shortsighted execs do...by squeezing them out of the everyman.

That is crazyyyyy

there should be no women in that city anymore if this goes through

will this make msn?

I grew up in Flint and worked there for many years. It's done people don't want work they want handouts it's only the first of many to follow. It's a good idea to walk away from certain parts and let them die. Lawyers can't get blood from a turnip as they say. GM bailed out and 60000 jobs are gone welfare rules.Any time they mention creating jobs it's shot down. The mayor gave up and walked away because nobody really wanted to try just send money$$$$$$. Flint in the 70's was a fun place and now it's dead.

mikell

It does not surprise me that Flint’s Mayor is toying with that route of just abandoning whole sections of the city.

It would not even surprise me if there is some Federal Grant money to be had for doing that and studying the migrations of people as they take their exodus from Flint.

As manufacturing jobs all but disappear, and more businesses that cater to the middle class that is rapidly dwindling also find their markets dwindling to the point of being no longer viable, more and more areas of large and medium sized cities will see their neighborhoods become increasingly undesirable without certain readily available amenities, conveniences and luxuries. That will only cause home values to plummet, more working poor and unemployed moving in to take advantage of the cheap rents, and lack of law enforcement care, and scrutiny, which will only cause more people to leave the neighborhood and home prices plummeting further.

The return of the Ghost Towns of the wild west, in modern day form as cities dependent upon just one or two no longer viable or extinct industries, no longer have a base to generate wealth to support the infrastructure or provide economic opportunities for those who live there or wish to live there.

In the new global economy American cities like Flint are going to have to slide deep into the abyss before becoming as attractive as some still much less affluent region in China or elsewhere, were setting up a factory ensures an endless supply of the cheapest possible labor.

Over skilled and over paid, America has lost its allure to the wealthiest Americans who once saw an advantage to manufacturing and providing real economic opportunities to their own base market in America.

Those days are gone now that the new mantra is “Think global and act locally”

In Flint’s case, it’s really been think about manufacturing automobiles in Brazil, Mexico, Canada and Australia and lets cut vital services to those here local.

Ever seen the movie escape from New York?

Move everyone out, build a wall around it and turn it into a prison.



[edit on 1-4-2009 by Walkswithfish]

Being a flint resident myself, the only things really still going for it are retail and colleges. Flint is currently the home of 4 colleges: university of michigan, Baker college, mott college and Kettering university which are all doing really well currently. Manufacturing has been driven into the ground for the most part...I drive by the GM plant everyday and the parking lots are no longer as full as the once were. The only way I really see Flint turning around at any point in the future is if the local economy shifts more towards a college town styling a la Ann Arbor or East Lansing.

Welcome to the Greatest Depression my friends. Detroit is likewise packing up and being abandoned as we speak. With an unemployment rate of 20% and average home prices at $20,000 there is little left at all in that city. It looks like the depression is finally beginning to spread. The economic disintegration of Michigan is only the beginning of what looks like total systemic societal collapse.

[edit on 1-4-2009 by cognoscente]

This is a good thing. The idiot american family doesn't need a 4BR home and 3 cars and cell-phones and ipods for every family member and all the other useless crap people have been brainwashed into buying.

People need to live simply and without debt.

this intrigues me

whats the biggest reason for all of the problems in that area?

why are the majority of those people in jail, in jail?

what are the ways of making money once business move out?

drugs probably

the people probably go to jail for drugs

clog up the jail systems over drugs

lose jobs because of drugs

sell drugs because of losing jobs

interesting cycle


what would happen if the drug war ended?

prob be a load off the jails

probably have the streets cleaned up

probably have more people trying to find other ways to make money

which would probably lead to the area getting back on its feet

but that would never happen

theyd rather close the city and abandon all hope before they admit to screwing up and losing a war...the drug war

I wonder what would happen if they do create this "no-man's land." I doubt it would be anything good.

reply to post by TheComte


It's going to be like Mad Max in Michigan before long. Remove police and fire services from an area where there are still people- and things- in place, and what do you think will happen? It's Wild West time. Bring on the Thunderdome!

Can you really remove police service from an inhabited area? Does that mean the rule of law simply does not apply? Or does it mean that it's no longer a local police problem, and the State Police are responsible now?

Survivalists- this is your golden opportunity! Head on up to Flint, and put those survival strategy theories to the test!

reply to post by smokehouseslim


What happenned to Michigan????!!!!!! I'll tell you flat out !!! All of the jobs in this state went overseas.... that is unless you want to flip burgers or steal the scrap metals out of all the abandoned houses.... Its worse here than you think .... one of four homes in my twp are foreclosed or in forclosure...The factories stand abandoned and the Malls and strip malls are fields of asphalt desolation....Yes even that bastion of Americana the fastfood restaurant is closing down and being boarded up with plywood for lack of revenue.....Its not a depression in Michigan it is a total collapse of social order !!!! C'MON IN!!! Anarchy now??? Phuock Yeas!!!!!! Its gonna be a helluva ride!!! >>>>>>DIRT

Survivalists- this is your golden opportunity! Head on up to Flint, and put those survival strategy theories to the test!

Seriously, this is a good idea. I may do that this summer for 2 weeks...

And who wants to live in Michigan? Kidding. This is sad for you guys... in California it will look like that pretty soon... but in California there's the marijuana business going... you should do that in Michigan.

reply to post by Make Speed Limit 45



I cant even reply to your post rationally, it is so ILL!!!reality check dude!!!!!
C"MON IN!!!!! Please bring white rice and black powder