[drro]

Originally Posted by Jimmy252

Back to the Bricks, The Crim, The Firebirds, UofM, Mott, Kettering...

Those universities may be halfway decent but putting them near the hoods in Flint was still a pretty bad idea.

By the way, what brings a Dutchmen like yourself to the Michigan forum?

Detroit, Flint, Saginaw. They are interesting in their own special way.

[North 42]

Originally Posted by jaynarie

Trolling. He regularly trolls the Flint threads, for whatever reason.

He also trolls the Detroit forum. He has some sick obsession with Detroit's fall and almost never says anything positive about the city or state!

[jaynarie]

Originally Posted by North 42

He also trolls the Detroit forum. He has some sick obsession with Detroit's fall and almost never says anything positive about the city or state!

And never answers when you ask if he's actually been here. Or even within 2000 miles of here.

[uchi90]

Originally Posted by jaynarie

Yeah, I posted that.

But Flint will bounce back. It may take 30 years, but it will happen.

I've also begged for you to stop commenting without knowing actual facts. I don't sugar coat- it is far from a perfect, crime-free place. But there are great things about/in Flint.

Not a chance. Most of Flint will be prairie-land in 30 years. Bear in mind Miller & Linden Roads are Flint Twp. Downtown Flint (Mott, UM-F, MSU, Kettering, Powers) to Flint Twp's Miller Rd will stabilize, but 95% of the city is toast.

[jaynarie]

Originally Posted by uchi90

Not a chance. Most of Flint will be prairie-land in 30 years. Bear in mind Miller & Linden Roads are Flint Twp. Downtown Flint (Mott, UM-F, MSU, Kettering, Powers) to Flint Twp's Miller Rd will stabilize, but 95% of the city is toast.

I am well aware of the boundary lines in Genesee County, thank you.

[Darnell Richardson]

The real question is. What needs to be done to make Flint a great city again? It is easy to ***** about BUT what can we do as a community to make it better?
1. fix the water issue.
2. Attract companies to flint that will hire more people.
3. Improve the educational structure of flint.
4. crack down on crime and provide incentives for people getting off of public assistance.
5. crack down on the drugs.
This is just a short list. What else need to be added

[Geo-Aggie]

Originally Posted by Darnell Richardson

The real question is. What needs to be done to make Flint a great city again? It is easy to ***** about BUT what can we do as a community to make it better?
1. fix the water issue.
2. Attract companies to flint that will hire more people.
3. Improve the educational structure of flint.
4. crack down on crime and provide incentives for people getting off of public assistance.
5. crack down on the drugs.
This is just a short list. What else need to be added

I've posted this in other threads, but I want to rehash it for anyone who stumbles across this in the future:

The water issue is not an issue unique to Flint, nor is it really even much of an issue at all. Things could have been much worse if not for whistle-blowers, state intervention, and a whole lot of people trying to make it right, but all of that happened and today it is right.

The reality is that you CAN safely drink the water in 95% of the homes in Flint - which is probably about the same as the percentage of homes in Birmingham or Royal Oak in which you can safely drink the water. In fact you can drink the water in those 5% of homes with elevated lead levels if you take a simple precaution of attaching a filter to your faucet. This whole bull crap obsession with bottled water is nothing but a media-manufactured controversy in order to tug at your heart-strings and make you feel bad. And please don't get the assumption that I'm a Snyder crony or something. I am definitely more liberal than conservative, and I loathe the way the guy tried to throw the MDEQ under the bus with this whole thing. I do not like him, but personally I believe there was nothing criminal about this whole fiasco.

The sad reality is that our nation's infrastructure is not that great and has issues whether you're in a wealthy suburb or a poor inner-city. Stop trying to pretend that the water in Flint is the same as it was 18 months ago. Significant progress has been made to the bring it back to the state it was in 5 years ago - not great, but typical for America. Regarding the rest of the issues in Flint, having spent a lot of time there getting to know the community the issue is obvious. People don't have anything to do. There's no meaningful work. Go walk around a neighborhood on a Tuesday afternoon and you'll see 23 year old guys sitting around with their buddies just shootin' the breeze. This obviously leads to an issue where there's widespread poverty, and when you mix widespread poverty with way too much free time you're going to get crime. This drives out people with the economic means to leave, and creates a feedback loop where what you end up with is Flint, MI. If Flint (or Saginaw) ever want to thrive again they need some real leadership who will court investors that will bring in real economic activity. Flint needs to remake the city around Kettering, Mott, and UM-Flint, (which is being done to a point). Flint needs to invest in a fun, hip downtown scene with restaurants and pubs. What Flint most definitely does not need is some stupid boondoggle obsession over replacing water pipes. Nobody benefits from that garbage.