With a population of 81,252 (as of 2020), Flint is the eighth
largest city in the US state of Michigan. The city is about 95
kilometers northwest of Detroit on the Flint River and is the
county seat of Genesee County.
It was General Motors'
largest production site for a long time. In the 1980s and 1990s,
production was T. relocated abroad, which resulted in the
closure of the Flinter locations. With the accompanying loss of
jobs, the decline of the city of Flint was initiated after the
automotive industry had already severely damaged the environment
in Flint through its activities. Over 26% of residents now live
below the poverty line, almost 38% of under-18s are poor and 40%
of properties have been vacant since mid-2009.
Flint was
the city with the highest crime rate in the United States in the
period 2010-2012 (only cities with a population of more than
100,000 at the time are counted). Flint has by far the fastest
declining population, in the period 2015 to 2020 the population
fell by 3.5% per year, Flint currently has only about 80,000
inhabitants.
The town was founded in 1819 by a fur trader and received city status
in 1855. The future governor of Michigan, Josiah Williams Begole,
founded a wool mill.
"Vehicle City"
The community has been
shaped over time by various industries: trade, timber production,
carriage manufacture and the automotive industry. Even before Flint
became an automobile center, it was a carriage and carriage building,
and before 1905 it carried the suffix Vehicle City. The Durant-Dort
Carriage Company was the world's largest carriage builder with an output
of 50,000 units in 1901.
Flint was the first seat of General
Motors (GM), briefly Chevrolet, and was shaped by Buick for decades. The
company was brought to Flint in 1904 by James H. Whiting (1842-1919),
owner of the Flint Wagon Works. Whiting was a competitor of, but still
friendly with, William C. Durant's Durant-Dort Carriage Company. He sold
Durant his Buick shares in 1904 and thus established the company's
connection with the General Motors Company, founded in 1908. The
Marquette marque was operated by Buick subsidiary Marquette Motor
Company in 1912 and as a division of Buick (not GM) in 1929–1930.
Buick's headquarters were moved to Detroit just a few years ago.
Indirectly related to GM were the automakers Dort Motor Car Company,
Monroe Motor Company, and Whiting Motor Car Company. After his second
ouster from GM in Flint, Durant founded Durant Motors Corporation with
several brands, including Durant and Flint.
Recent history
In
the years 1936/37 the so-called Flint strike took place here, as a
result of which union organization in the US automobile industry
increased massively.
During the Second World War, the city was an
important producer of tanks, aircraft parts and other war material due
to the heavy industry that existed there.
On June 8, 1953, Flint
was hit by one of the deadliest tornadoes in the United States, killing
115 people and injuring 844.
Since the closure of the large
automobile plants and many suppliers, Flint has repeatedly been
presented in the media as a warning example of a failed industrial
monoculture. One of the city's most famous sons is filmmaker Michael
Moore, who mentions Flint's poverty in his films Roger & Me, The Big One
and Bowling for Columbine.
The city was declared a “state of
financial emergency” from 2011 to 2015. In April 2014, the water supply
was changed to save costs. Instead of coming from Lake Huron near
Detroit, the water now came from the Flint River – a river polluted by
the auto industry. At the beginning of 2016, the state-imposed austerity
measures in the area of drinking water supply led to a health emergency
due to lead poisoning, contamination of the drinking water and other
serious contamination - the "Flint water crisis". Altogether, lead was
detected in the blood of several thousand people. It is estimated that
between 6,000 and 12,000 children are affected. Miscarriages increased
by 58% in Flint from 2014 to 2017 (equivalent to several hundred
miscarriages). At least 12 people died from legionellosis as a result of
the pollution in Flint.
On January 16, 2016, US President Barack
Obama declared an environmental emergency for the affected area in order
to enable assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency
(limited to 90 days). During a visit in May 2016, Obama promised the
water pipes would be replaced. As of June 2021, the City of Flint had
checked plumbing in 27,092 homes and replaced lead plumbing in 10,041
homes, with the remaining 17,051 homes already using copper plumbing. In
his documentary Fahrenheit 11/9 about the 2016 presidential election and
Donald Trump's presidency, Michael Moore devotes an entire chapter to
the water supply crisis and lead contamination in Flint.
Thousands of residents affected by contaminated drinking water filed
lawsuits against the state of Michigan. In a settlement that became
final on November 10, 2021, the injured parties were awarded payments
totaling US$626 million.
The legal workup was not yet complete in
2022.
Education
University of Michigan–Flint (one of three campuses in
the University of Michigan System)
Kettering University, a STEM
school
Mott Community College
Michigan State University College of
Human Medicine
Traffic
Interstate 69,
interstate 75,
Interstate 475
Michigan Highways M-21 and
M-54.
Flint has
an Amtrak train station and is served by the Blue Water line.
Bishop International Airport is located at the southwest end of the
city.
James H. Whiting (1842–1919), owner of the Flint Wagon Works, at
times of Buick and the Whiting Motor Car Company, Buick President
(1903–1904) and co-founder of General Motors
Charles Wolcott
(1906–1987), music director, composer and film composer
Dale E.
Kildee (1929–2021), politician and Michigan representative in the US
House of Representatives
Stephen Smale (born 1930), mathematician
Betty Carter (1930–1998), jazz singer
Don Preston (born 1932),
musician
Nancy Kovack (born 1935), film and stage actress
Tony
Burton (1937–2016), actor
Donald W. Riegle (born 1938), business
executive and politician
John Sinclair (born 1941), anarchist
Robert Cashner (1942–2018), ichthyologist and university lecturer
Paul Krause (born 1942), American football player
Raye Birk (born
1943), actor
Craig Morton (born 1943), American football player
Mark Farner (born 1948), guitarist and songwriter, lead guitarist for
Grand Funk Railroad
Irwin Collier (born 1951), economist
Warren
Siegel (born 1952), theoretical physicist
Diane Carey (born 1954),
writer
Michael Moore (born 1954), award-winning documentary filmmaker
and author
Sandra Bernhard (born 1955), actress
Sue Novara (born
1955), cyclist
Ian Edmondson (born 1957), freestyle skier
Kathleen
Glynn (born 1958), graphic designer and film producer, owner and
executive producer of Dog Eat Dog Films Inc.
Carl Banks (born 1962),
American football player
Brent Williams (born 1964), American
football player
Terry Crews (born 1968), American football player and
actor
Chris Byrd (born 1970), boxer
MC Breed (1971–2008), rapper
Rahvaunia (born 1971), actress
Sinnamon Love (born 1973), porn
actress, fetish and glamor model
Marcus Sakey (born 1974), crime
writer
Tim Thomas (born 1974), ice hockey goalie
Seamus Dever
(born 1976), actor
Morris Peterson (born 1977), basketball player
Carol E. Reiley (born 1982), computer scientist and entrepreneur
Andre Dirrell (born 1983), boxer
Ellen Tomek (born 1984), rower
Jon Connor (born 1985), rapper
JaVale McGee (born 1988), basketball
player
Rachel DiPillo (born 1991), actress
Thomas Rawls (born
1993), American football player
Kyle Kuzma (born 1995), basketball
player
Claressa Shields (born 1995), boxer
Miles Bridges (born
1998), basketball player
Isaiah Crews (born 2005), actor
Repulsion, grindcore band
King 810, metal band
Ready for the World
R&B band