Fly Away Home Snowbird It’s that time of year when the trumpeter swans disappear from our little northern Michigan lake. My family has always called the modest home on Grass Lake “the cottage.” The Canadian geese now come and go a…
Welcome back to the blog, everyone! In our latest episode, titled "Leaving Flint to See America on a Schwinn Bicycle," we delved into a truly transformative journey. It was a narrative of youthful rebellion against the backdrop of a blue-coll…
In the spring of 1970 at Kent State, the air was thick with tear gas and with a country cracking open over a war overseas. Today, in the snowy streets of South Minneapolis, the smell is rubber and gunpowder, and the war is no longer abroad; it is …
Part II – Flint at a Crossroads: From Paternalism to Flint‑First Leadership In Part I, the focus was on how broken systems, economic decline, and racial segregation have battered Flint’s ability to govern itself and plan for the future.…
Part I – Flint at a Crossroads: Broken Systems and Lost Trust Flint begins each new year with a paradox. The city is both a national symbol of failure and a place full of people who refuse to give up. Once a thriving industrial hub, Flint has…
Leaving Home: Wandering Wheels It was early June 1972. In a few weeks I’d walk in a graduation line and collect a high school diploma. Life in Flint had finally started to click. I had a girlfriend, my own car, and a decent job. For a seven…
Demolition alone will not save Flint. On the west side, the hulking shell of Westwood Manor used to loom over Clio Road—a burned‑out, vandalized complex that neighbors had to live with for years. The Genesee County Land Bank finally took it…
In Michigan living rooms, from Flint to Saginaw, older residents turn on the news. They often see something they never asked for: aging men turned into a spectacle. The screen shows familiar figures like Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or John Fet…
Originally published on December 29, 2020 Memories of Detroit Tiger Baseball Announcer Ernie Harwell: The late Ernie Harwell might be considered baseball's version of iconic Americana artist Norman Rockwell with a microphone. There is litt…
Much of the telling of Flint, Michigan history has revolved around the rise of the transportation industry. Flint played a leading role in putting America on wheels. The city also has a rich small history. Many of these businesses help…
We make our history. It is a good thing that history is recorded. Written history has a good purpose. Today, journalists, documentarians, and courtroom stenographers record Flint, Michigan's environmental history. It is of no consequence that…
Civil War Song "Peach Tree Creek" Memorializes Flint's Contribution to Civil War This past summer in West Branch, Michigan, I witnessed an off-road pickup circling the City with two large confederate flags placed in the stake holes of a…
Neil Woodward is a Flint, Michigan instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, and folk historian who helps preserve musical traditions. He holds the title -- Michigan troubadour. In 2003, the State of Michigan Legislature officially named Ne…
Sometimes In life, you meet people doing some fantastic and exciting things for other people. You know, the kind of stuff that just blows your mind. Barb Barton is one such person for me. A couple of months ago, I asked Michigan State U…
Is GM Buick City Site An Environmental Crime Scene? This dribble of disturbing and frightening news raises one question in my mind: Where are the General Motors managers who allowed this to happen? Why isn't there a criminal investig…
Safetyville, Flint is a special place for the Flint area baby boomers. STOP-LOOK-LISTEN remember that lesson about crossing the street in your hometown? Many Flint baby boomers received their first driver's license at Safetyville-…
Justin Townes Earle understood what Flint gave to America. There are many songs written about American cities. There is New York and Frank Sinatra, Memphis and the blues, Journey and its song about Detroit, and many others. But n…
Phillip Wise was raised in a working-class family in blue-collar Flint. Like many U.S. war veterans, Phillip Wise was a product of a working-class family and grew up in a blue-collar south side Flint, Michigan neighborhood. His values of ser…