“The Community Development Advocates of Detroit (CDAD), Detroit’s trade association of community development organizations, has released a statement outlining eight essential principles for the revitalization of Detroit and its neighborhoods. The eight-point statement is a product of the on-going work of CDAD’s Community Development Futures Task Force, and a precursor to the full written report expected in December 2009.” See the statement here.
It reflects the needs of the City of Flint very well. To put it in my own simple terms Flint needs:
- A BOLD, NEW VISION OF REVITALIZATION!
- A bold, new vision of revitalization FOR THE WHOLE CITY!
- A bold, new vision of revitalization for the whole city IN THE LONG TERM!
- Stabilization and enhancement of existing, viable neighborhoods.
- Crazy new ideas for vacant land and increased density everywhere else.
- Collaboration.
- Involve neighborhoods/community organizations in developing strategies to achieve this vision.
- A comprehensive, transparent and public process for the whole thing, from beginning to end.
Downtown Flint from the Stevenson Street Bridge taken in March of 2005. © Shaun Smakal
Pardon the rambling, train-of-thought styling of this post, but the topic could, literally, be edited into dozens of different topics… Kristin Longley at The Flint Journal has posted a couple of interesting article to MLive. One deals with Chevy in the Hole and the other with Buick City.
It would seem that they’re going to be forging ahead with one of the student-designed options developed by Masters of Landscape Architecture students from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. The work they did can be found here on the Genesee County Land Bank’s website under “Reimagining Chevy in the Hole.”
The students’ work fell into two categories: an ‘urban’ option and a ’state park’ option, both based in-part on the Sasaki Associates, Inc. plan for the same location. Sasaki has done a good deal of master planning (not to be confused with any city-wide master planning efforts) in Flint, covering plans for the Cultural Center, UM-Flint, downtown and the Flint River District (all of these can be found on the same Genesee County Land Bank page I referenced above) and much of it is complete crap. The rest is some of the most monotonous, unimaginative, and insipid planning and design work I’ve ever seen—and I can assure you, I’ve seen a lot—with very little evidence of how these unique places influenced the generic, cookie-cutter results. To their credit, Sasaki is very capable of producing some great work and have a considerable depth of experience in planning and design, we just don’t see any of that in what they’ve done here, and they’re fantastic at marketing themselves and their experience, because the Ruth Mott Foundation and others keeps going back to them with all this work.
One good thing that’s come out of Sasaki’s work is that they’ve at least established a base level of sorts in terms of information, presentation and design that others can take up and run with in their own way. The students did a fantastic job of doing just that. It was also one of the most transparent and engaging planning and design processes the City of Flint has ever seen and it was a pleasure being a part of it.
One of the points I made to Mr. Kildee and the students at their final presentation was that their illustrations of “urban” and “park” highlighted a limited notion of what those two things mean. Their “urban” design, in keeping with what you see in Sasaki’s plan, was really more suburban in style, form and configuration than what I would consider to be an urban development and would both figuratively and literally spread the already anemic economic and residential development (this was long before the crash, mind you) even thinner. What I suggested was that it was the “park” idea (which included not only ecological rehabilitation for the site and river, but also folded in notions of green infrastructure and sustainability which while not comprehensive, were very interesting threads to be followed) was much more urban because, like a Central Park in New York or a Forest Park in Portland, it would establish a huge asset to further economic development, giving Flint some well-defined edges, vision and infrastructure to support new ideas, development and investment in existing neighborhoods like Carriage Town, downtown, Mott Park, Grand Traverse, the Kettering campus, and others.
This topic is a huge one for the city, and I could spend weeks talking about Chevy in the Hole and the enormous potential it has for transforming the city and the many design and planning related tangents to it, so I hope that the city doesn’t blow this opportunity by rushing ahead with some cheap and quick option that does more for short-term political aspirations than it does for the long-term viability of the city, the site and it’s future.
Only knowing what I’ve read about Mayor Walling’s idea and having a general notion of where it’s coming from, I’m not really excited about the idea at all and not prepared to say much about it aside from thinking it’s better than a drag strip.
However, if that’s the qualification we’re going to start using for judging the redevelopment and future direction of the city, then we’re all doomed.
Don’t forget to come out tomorrow and check out the folks who will be setting up mini-parks along Saginaw Street!
http://www.mlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2009/09/greenhouse_gases_parking_day.html
You’ve read a lot (and will continue to read) about my comparisons and contrasts of Flint, MI and Vancouver, BC and with good reason. My four years there were…memorable…to say the least. Again, the curious and paradoxical duality of these two urban opposites is being whipped up by the happenings along Ann Arbor Street.
Vancouver is, literally, Hollywood North. If you view TV regularly, then you’re probably seeing Vancouver 6-12 times a day and not even knowing it. Film crews are as much a part of the landscape there as vacant lots are a part of Flint. But here, seeing the PA’s standing around in the circus (the off-site collection of storage trucks, actors’ trailers, catering services, moving trucks, etc.) and roads blocked off with a film crew off in the distance was too much. It brought one of those crazy cackling laughs and off-kilter smiles that make people look at you funny to my face (thankfully I was driving by in my car).
Stockton House, the “secret” location for the shoot, is the first to be used outside of Huckleberry Village and the first (if I remember correctly) since Semi-Pro to shoot downtown. Ironically, I missed that one because I was in Vancouver for several weeks.
So seeing this here, in Flint, is rather intriguing. It adds a new, if fleeting, layer to parts of the city that they’ve never seen before.
Updated September 5th, 2009
So apparently Flint, will soon be getting a thin, hot battery injection of French/Quebecois love, and I honestly couldn’t be more flabbergasted.
The Flint Crepe Company has its very own fan page, with 1,021 fans. at the time I post this. It’s suggested that the stand will be set up at the corner of Saginaw Street and 5th, most likely in conjunction with the newly set up Flint Area Chamber of Commerce.
The very idea is absurd in the extreme. And I love it. It’s too ridiculous an idea, too fancy and smacks of the rightfully haughty and presumptuous restaurant culture of Vancouver, whose Cafe Crepe restaurants fortified the masses of tourists (and occasional masters candidate) and helped fuel the nearly boundless excess and spectacle that is Robson Street. Ironically, it’s said that the cart itself is actually from Vancouver! But, with a considerable excitement, locally-sourced products and a location that puts it within easy reach of the many lawyers and professionals near the Civic Center (and on a future walking route to work) this effort seems to have a lot more of the Midwestern, down-to-earth, get your hands dirty sort of entrepreneurship and dedication than you’d find in Vancouver.
All that said, I wish this endeavor much success and can’t wait to see (and taste!) its impact on such an important intersection in the downtown.
My apologies for the long absence.
Much of it is due to simply being too busy and distracted by other aspects of work and life in general.
It’s certainly not because there isn’t anything to talk about. The downtown continues making baby steps toward establishing a more cohesive and deliberate sense of urbanism. Several huge events—Back to the Bricks and the CRIM marathon—continue to grow and not only have an interesting impact on the form and scale of the city, but frequently leaves a positive impression in the minds and eyes of all those suburbanites who come to Flint for these events and then quickly leave. The potential auction of the Motors Liquidation Company property (the so-called “bad assets” that General Motors so easily sloughed off) like the Chevy-in-the-Hole and Buick City sites continues to drive further speculation and dire warnings concerning the future of their redevelopment and the future of the city. Then there are, as always, the countless little things and happens that come and go with the any city, that present intriguing questions, give rise to new ideas or just make for a nice photo…
But I’ve also taken a very deliberate break to give more thought to the nature of this blog, its tone, content and perspective. I very much want this to be a positive, engaged and thought-provoking exploration of design, landscape and urbanism in the City of Flint. But I’ll be honest—I find it extremely difficult to remain very positive when turning a critical eye towards some aspects of design and development I see in Flint and my passion gets the better of me. With that in mind, I’ve been attempting to establish how to better balance the perspective of this blog can tackle these issues without turning away anyone interested in reading it.
I look forward to posting soon…
This post was originally posted in response to Frank Gruber’s July 23rd article in The Santa Monica Lookout News, via The Huffington Post.
Where’s the value in establishing any urbanism that so completely excludes such a broad and comprehensive range of cities?
I’m an urban/landscape designer and I live and work in Flint, MI, so I’m more than a little biased. I’ve also lived in Vancouver, BC, for 4 years before moving back home to Michigan in 2006. Crazy, I know. I happen to believe that these two cities–more than any other in North America–have the most potential for changing (for the better) the future of sustainable and vibrant urbanism. They’re also both failing miserably, for different reasons. Vancouver is replicating and faking itself into mediocrity with its creation of vertical suburbanism–it’s the poster child for how dense, “livable” citys don’t make for great urbanism. Flint is what it is–the poster child for Fordism, modern Euclidian planning, and the continued failure of strong leadership, vision and diversity.
There’s enough cappuchino urbanism in the world already. We need thought, design, and action that builds on urbanism–whether it’s in Flint or Vancouver. Because they both need it BADLY. Just because it’s shrinking, right-sizing, or whatever you want to call it, doesn’t mean Flint isn’t a viable or necessary application of urbanism that can influence and inform, for the better, that of other cities. The opposite is true for Vancouver, just because it’s ranked so highly as a livable city doesn’t make plowing tower-podiums through historic neighborhoods or block-sized parking ramps the answer to every city’s woes.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
This blog will be growing and adding a lot more content based on my understanding, experiences and observations of Flint in the near future. Right now, I’d like to invite everyone to check out the About page and take a look at the general sort of foundation that I’ll be approaching this blog with, and the rationale behind it’s name.
I’ll be letting you know a bit more about myself, and I hope, this city, in the coming days. Thanks for reading.
