Fly Away Home SnowbirdIt’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 LeadershipIn 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 TrustFlint 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 WheelsIt 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, 2020Memories 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…