Flint Improvements

[tropolis]

cool. you also got dnast here too. He likes to talk about flint stuff.

[Allan]

I am regretting not doing one final Flint photo tour before I left for school. I have to get up to Flint sometime to do that. I'm just not looking forward to all the traffic I'll encounter on the way. I always seem to get stuck in traffic jams. It took me 45 minutes to get to the grocery store once!!

[tropolis]

do you think the flint public library should be located closer to downtown? the current location is not perfect because central high school students clog up the parking lot. Moving it downtown can bring a lot of pedestrians downtown and a downtown revolution.

[Allan]

The library is outdated anyway, so I think it would be a good idea to move it downtown. Most cities have central libraries in their downtowns, so why not Flint? The only issues with this would be money and parking. Parking could be in a ramp, as well as on the street. The money issue is the next obstacle. Who is going to pay for this? A slight tax increase would easily pay for a new library, but I don't know that the citizens of Flint would vote in favor of this.

[tropolis]

perhaps mcc and u-of-m could pay for a portion of it as grants. It might lower the tax hike for the people of flint. And the new library would have a small 2 small bus depots, one for MTA and one for bookmobiles.

more bookmobiles means expanded resources. Expanded resources means more people will like the idea.

[dnast]

It'll be hard to move the library right now. I think it was just last year voters approved a tax hike for the library. Also, with Michgan's budget crisis, most colleges and universities don't have much extra money to spare. Another thing is that the library is located in the Cultural Center, so it's not like it's in some isolated area.

The building is outdated though, and I wouldn't mind it being downtown. But I think it'd be a big blow to the neighborhood considering they'll probably lose Central soon. I don't know.

A library on top of a bus station would be pretty nice.

[dnast]

Oh, hey Tropolis. I kind of thought you were megatower, but I forgot to mention it before. Quit disappearing and share some more ideas and opinions

[tropolis]

well, i sorta like the library idea, but i just wanted to throw that one in the air for debate. There should be a MAJOR rennovation projevt along the river, including an IMAX theatre and a large plaza that will be the 'centerpiece' of pedestrian and cultural activity of the downtown area. Let's not forget to put an amphitheater to boot. How's that for an idea?

as a note: these aren't very strong opinions, I just throw these ideas to debate. I may not be on as much.

[Allan]

Doing anything with the riverfront is a good thing! The current riverfront is the most pathetic thing I've ever seen!!

[dnast]

Those would be great for downtown, except for the IMAX. There was one downtown when Autoworld existed, and it obviously didn't fare too well. I don't think there's a big enough market for it in the area.

Now, the plaza and ampitheater would be great upgrades to what downtown has now. The plaza would take the place of main surface lot (between Uni. Pavillion and the Mott building); the ampitheater would take the place of Riverbank Park and its live music events.

Good ideas!

[tropolis]

well, the only reason the IMAX was not doing well in the past was because the park it was in was not very good. People just didn't want to go to a car themed museum-park. They wanted thrill rides, and auto world wasnt a contender in that field. But an IMAX allby itself for the locals should do great. Good to know the plaza and amphitheater ideas were good.

[tropolis]

what they should have done was keep the autoworld buildings and made the bigger, square one into the IMA again and used the one with the glass spikes on top as the IMAX theatre.

No six flags.

No themes.

No problem.

the new IMA, or perani arena, is not that good in seating compared to the old one.

[dnast]

I'm not too familiar with the old IMA. I would've thought that the newer one would have had better seating at least. Not that I care for that one.

I'm all for an IMAX if someone wants to bring one. I just would think of it as too risky if I was a developer, myself.

[Allan]

I don't remember the old IMA myself. I was too young at the time. I was probably only 10 years old when the building came down. So the only thing I remember is when we watched it come crashing down...although as I remember, it didn't work as well as they thought it was going to.

[tropolis]

its great to hear about Rowe inc. wanting to be downtown. Now we just have to hurry up on that parking structure project. The rebirth of flint has begun.

[Allan]

I sure hope so! Flint has been going downhill long enough!

[tropolis]

i thought of a great idea: i noticed that many kids cross holly road between the local high school and the strip mall with subway and little caesars. They like to go over ther every day( is pizza everyday even good fo your health?) anyway, i think the city should make a pedestrian tunnel that goes from the high school sidewalk to the sidewalk by the bank by subway. Then the kids wont have to jaywalk in heavy traffic( it gets really bad at 2:30)

[Allan]

That might work. A girl in my high school class got hit jaywalking there. Fortunately she was not hurt too bad.

The did rebuild that whole intersection, but I have not seen it since it has been completed. I would imagine that that intersection is even worse now than it was before. Now it's gridlocked most of the day, it seems like. It never used to be that way. Stupid sprawl....

[tropolis]

i read about the GM expansion. That is very good news for flint. It would bring a few jobs along the way.

[dnast]

i read about the GM expansion. That is very good news for flint. It would bring a few jobs along the way.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Most of the new workers will just be transferred from other plants and some from the job bank, but Flint could use all the jobs it can get. It'll improve the city's finances as well.

[Allan]

It would be nice if the city could create some non-automotive related jobs though. Sure, GM jobs are nice high-paying jobs and all, but the reason Flint is in such bad shape is that it never bothered to diversify its economy.

Then again, how would you convince people owning high tech businesses to move to Flint?

[tropolis]

yeah, thats true. Flint relies too much on automotive industries.

[dnast]

Unfortunately this won't be creating any new jobs. It's supposedly all transers. Kettering is probably the only thing that could bring some high-tech jobs to the city. I wonder how well its small business incubator program is going.

[BitAddict]

Hello, I have recently joined this forum specifically for this topic. I live 15 min. south- east of Flint. I am 21 years old. I know many people from Flint and the surrounding areas. My opinion reflects many of the people around my age group(18-25)

Frankly, Flint is a scary place exspecially after 6pm. The college campuses are the only true draw of Flint durring the day and at night it seems to be the small bar/concert scene. Flint has soooo much potential!

As stated above, tech business are not attracted to Flint(Michigan for that matter). I believe making the Downtown area better is a great start! Unfortunatly, that prospect is moving at a snails pace because the burden is largely held by the City of Flint. Saginaw street has gotten much more alive, but both streets on either side are completely dark at night. Why only light one street for a 300yrd stretch?! If you turn down any alley at night anything can happen. Its called LIGHT THE CITY UP FOR GODS SAKE! There are plenty of people already willing to support the local social scene, but there is hardly anything there except 3 bars and a concert hall. A movie theater (like the size of cinema 10 )would be an excellent addiction to bring more people out, just don't put it directly on Saginaw street. Placing It strategically located off of saginaw street could enlarge the commercial zone. A small "farmer's market" idea could also bring a lot of people out. Maybe the city could work on Both the Saginaw street area and the Kettering area at the same time while lighting the way inbetween. The flint skate park is also an excellent idea! This would bring so many people out to the area, but why hide it in a secluded area of the city? I could go on an on about this but I have work in the morning. I check back to see who bashes

[Allan]

Flint is actually planning an entertainment block on the block directly south of the Mott Foundation Building. There is an old theater there...the whole block is boarded up. I'm not sure what the timeline on the project is.

Downtown seems to have gained some momentum in recent months, with the Atwood Building renovation, Republic Bank Lofts, and new streetscape project all under construction or recently completed. Additionally, there are plans to bring in some more restaurants, as well as the Rowe, inc. headquarters to downtown. These plans sound solid, and I wouldn't be surprised to see some action on them sometime within the next year. The conversion of the upper floors of the Dryden Building into lofts will begin in the near future. The city council was set to approve the plans at a recent meeting.

That said, I would have to agree that downtown development does move at a snail's pace. Part of it has to do with all the red tape developers have to go through to get anything done. However, a large part of the problem is that banks are unwilling to lend money to individuals looking to develop properties downtown. Downtown Flint is not a proven market, so finding financial backing can be very difficult, especially for large projects. There are many tax credits and incentives that are being used to bridge the financial gap between what banks are willing to lend and what developers have, so financing projects is becoming easier than it was in the past.

I personally don't find downtown to be that scary after dark. I've seen much worse areas. It definately need to be more well lit up though. Put some lights on some of the key buildings. There is definately some nice historic architecture there, although some of it needs to be cleaned up a bit.

There are still three things that bother me though.

1) Durant Hotel. The building has been bought by an actual developer, but I've heard of no concrete plans. All I know is that it is going to be apartments. Renovating the building would erase the blight from that area and add much-needed street life to an area that has very little.

2) Genesee Towers. Tear it down!! It is hideous. Put up a large public parking ramp to serve downtown. Then plow up that surface lot on Saginaw and put in a 3-4 story building on some sort. Another parking garage could be integrated into the plan, just as long as they don't put in curb cuts right on Saginaw.

3) The Concrete Riverfront. It might have looked nice 20 years ago, but not anymore. Tear it out and make it look nice. Then clean up the river. Right now it's smelly and has trash floating in it. yuck!

BTW, where are you from, BitAddict? I am also from about 15 minutes south of Flint, although I am in Southfield for school now, and I don't know that I really want to move back up there, LOL.