May 20, 2013 - 10:40am
Figuring Out Flint: Master planning
BY HARSHA NAHATA
Flint is a city that once thrived on a bustling car industry. What was once the center of transportation has become the center of crime, blight and poverty. When General Motors got up and left, a huge hole was created. A hole that still hasn’t been filled.
But that’s not to say people aren’t trying. There is a whole host of initiatives underway to try and bring Flint back, to find the next big thing, the next GM. The city is currently working on the process of creating a master plan for the city, the first time this has been done since the 1960s. This master plan addresses everything from infrastructure to financial to economic issues.
One of the major ideas proposed in this plan is rezoning Flint and creating different sectors that would emphasize industries based on their strength. It’s the notion of creating enterprise zones — for example inviting alternative energy companies to make use of the abandoned brownfields, or inviting restaurants and retail to the up-and-coming downtown area. What’s most significant about this plan is the fact that it recognizes there isn’t one universal solution for Flint. Instead, each area of the city has its own strengths and those should be built off of.
While this theory is being applied on a micro level — to all the individual areas and neighborhoods within Flint — it can also be thought of on a larger scale, especially in terms of the city. Last semester, a class I took focused on economic revitalization in Flint. The thought that kept occurring to me was what is the end goal of efforts in Flint, what do people want cities like Flint or Detroit to look like? In a year, five years, 10 years? And what hit me was that Flint and Detroit don’t have to be the next New York, L.A. or Chicago. They don’t have to be bustling or overflowing with people and money. They simply need to be sustainable, and build off of their individual strengths — in this case their community, resilience and homeliness.
Harsha Nahata can be reached at hnahata@umich.edu.
