22 ms·
I'm glad to see this on HN. Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. I grew up there and now live outside of Flint. My dad was murdered there. But I a
by rickdale 11y ago
I'm glad to see this on HN. Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. I grew up there and now live outside of Flint. My dad was murdered there.
But I always think Flint is prime for opportunity. The people need basic essentials, water, food, shelter. But the infrastructure to build factories is there. Power, train lines, the whole deal. It's really a shame. The sad part is, the people are still hell bent on supporting the companies that destroyed the town. Michigan in general is like this, its why they don't allow Tesla vehicle sales.
Growing up my family owned a junkyard and the Flint river ran behind it. It was disgusting. Some of the guys would wade through it on their way two and from work. It was a shortcut, but you had to be a true animal to go that route.
- forrestthewoods 11y agoReally? I was just thinking the other day that I hear about Flint, Michigan all the time. Relatively speaking at least. It's not even in the top 300 for city size yet I hear about it relatively often. Certainly more than Las Cruces, New Mexico. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_b...
- jonknee 11y agoIt's frequently referred to as an example of a wasteland, but not referred to as a place of possibility.
- forrestthewoods 11y agoI swear there's something in the water in Flint. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Flint,_Michigan https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_people_from_Flint,_Mic...
- mhurron 11y ago> I swear there's something in the water in Flint. Lead apparently.
- untothebreach 11y agoAlso grew up there and live just outside of it. My favorite Flint River joke I heard when I was young, was that you didn't need to wade across it, you walked across the dead bodies. Dark, but when you're a kid, funny enough.
- vezzy-fnord 11y agoFlint is often a forgot about place in the world. Not since Michael Moore immortalized it. I wouldn't be surprised if many people upvoting this story were making an association with Roger & Me.
- rickdale 11y agoMichael Moore is great example of Michigans backwardness. Michael Moores high school won't put him in their hall of fame. As if they have had anyone else make any sort of impact as large as his. Recently the Bruins goalie skipped a visit to the white house to meet Obama. He went to the same high school as Moore. The goalie was praised and is in the hall of fame there. It's backwards. There is a lot of unreasonable hate for Michael Moore and I don't even particularly like the guy, but I definitely respect what he has accomplished.
- untothebreach 11y agoDavison actually closed the city "hall of fame" when someone put his name in as a candidate for it.
- artlogic 11y agoThis isn't as surprising as you might think. Roger and Me isn't a documentary, it's an editorial. It's actually used in film classes as an example of creative editing to make a point. I'm not saying that Flint isn't bad, but Moore did pretty much everything he could to make it look as bad as possible. The feeling of most folks from Flint I've spoken to is that Moore made a disingenuous "documentary" about Flint not to raise awareness, but to make a buck. It's understandable he's not lauded as a hero. I also think it's unfair to characterize the reaction of some residents of Michigan to a controversial figure at best as "Michigans backwardness".
- hellofunk 11y agoTotally agree. Michael Moore even won an oscar for documentary filmmaking, but he uses some pretty crafty and biased techniques to make his point. All documentaries tend to have the point of view of their filmmaker, but they often try to expose both sides of the coin in the process and at least present the evidence in a way the audience can judge on their own (at least the good films do this). Michael Moore is very skilled but not at documentary filmmaking. He is a master of propaganda.
- chestervonwinch 11y ago> The sad part is, the people are still hell bent on supporting the companies that destroyed the town. Michigan in general is like this, its why they don't allow Tesla vehicle sales. I grew up outside of Flint, and I agree. There's this weird cognitive dissonance going on there because these companies supported so many families for so long. There's a sort of one-way loyalty going on. I knew so many friends and family that worked in the auto industry for years, and were all laid off when it went downhill years back. I'm talking about lots of people with nothing more than a high school diploma (or not even) -- jobless now at 30 or 40. Yet for some reason there's still this loyalty to GM, etc... that big auto is gonna turn things around and come back to save the day.
- chrisdbaldwin 11y agoSounds like mass Stockholm syndrome.
- theandrewbailey 11y agoThe Midwest is full of people whose entire careers consist solely of one company. Those jobs were good ones with great benefits, so the loyalty was both ways. Turns out when they get dumped, people still remain loyal. They just don't understand that money talks, and most of it has walked overseas. My dad was in the Ohio state employee union. I remember going to other union's rallies and protests, especially the Middletown steel lockout: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK_Steel_Holding_Corporation#Middletown_Works_lockout https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AK_Steel_Holding_Corporation#M... I've seen a lot of good things rot and rust (I'm not even 30!), and Flint is just another of many places.
- andrelaszlo 11y agoI wanted to see what Flint looks like, so I dropped the little yellow streetview guy randomly. I ended up on Asylum Street (!). I'm at a loss for words: https://goo.gl/maps/UuPPKQK5MoF2 https://goo.gl/maps/UuPPKQK5MoF2 https://goo.gl/maps/KunFSxxRFWA2 https://goo.gl/maps/KunFSxxRFWA2 https://goo.gl/maps/yg1NH6ZMkFJ2 https://goo.gl/maps/yg1NH6ZMkFJ2 https://goo.gl/maps/xVi2n8muHV32 https://goo.gl/maps/xVi2n8muHV32 https://goo.gl/maps/pAQEyZSAEw92 https://goo.gl/maps/pAQEyZSAEw92 https://goo.gl/maps/ssGZRAdiQak https://goo.gl/maps/ssGZRAdiQak (memorial garden?) https://goo.gl/maps/B2waNiVfeut https://goo.gl/maps/B2waNiVfeut https://goo.gl/maps/8Wx2gQ6z8up https://goo.gl/maps/8Wx2gQ6z8up https://goo.gl/maps/nAY5Kb73PkM2 https://goo.gl/maps/nAY5Kb73PkM2 https://goo.gl/maps/kTqzqGXQqmF2 https://goo.gl/maps/kTqzqGXQqmF2 https://goo.gl/maps/xWkvXRdACWR2 https://goo.gl/maps/xWkvXRdACWR2 As a Swede, I guess I didn't really realize how bad things really got in parts of the US. The last 50 years is just one crisis after another for this place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint%2C_Michigan#History https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint%2C_Michigan#History To me, there's something really heartbreaking about abandoned and decaying houses. It's all too easy to imagine the hopes and dreams that didn't play out they way they should have.
- evmar 11y agoThe way I try to understand it is that the US is about the same size as the EU, has the same magnitude of population, and generally has less interest in equality of its citizens than EU countries. So there are parts of the US comparable to all the parts of the EU -- rich countries and poor ones.
- maratd 11y ago> generally has less interest in equality of its citizens than EU countries. Based on what? > So there are parts of the US comparable to all the parts of the EU -- rich countries and poor ones. The US is far more diverse and mixed than the EU, in every respect. You have those that are poor living blocks away from the wealthiest people in the world. My own state of New Jersey is one of the most affluent, but also has one of the most dangerous cities in the whole country. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey#Crime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camden,_New_Jersey#Crime
- geogra4 11y agoWest Virginia is like that too with the mining companies.
- _pbfr 11y agoI grew up there too, on the east side. It was interesting if nothing else, but I was pretty happy to leave the minute I turned 18. I think 90% of the people I knew growing up have left. You're right about the infrastructure, they even have an airport. Somehow I doubt it will come back. At least occasionally people talk about Detroit revitalization, but you never hear that for Flint. This lead in the water thing is shameful and makes me very sad and angry.
- mercer 11y ago> Flint is often a forgot about place in the world. At least this Dutch boys knows about Flint through Sufjan Steven's song "Flint (For The Unemployed And Underpaid)"[1]: It's the same outside Driving to the riverside I pretend to cry Even if I cried alone I forgot the start Use my hands to use my heart Even if I died alone Even if I died alone Since the first of June Lost my job And lost my room I pretend to try Even if I tried alone I forgot the part Use my hands to use my heart Even if I died alone Even if I died alone Even if I died alone Even if I died alone Even if I died [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAJCUGD6FtM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAJCUGD6FtM (I rather like this fan-made video)
- Kalium 11y agoI'm from Michigan. The unhealthy adherence to the golden days of yore is one of the reasons I left. I won't waste time and energy trying to help people who really, really don't want the kind of help that might actually accomplish something.