Complete An Unabriged History Of Flint – Well, Alm Essay, Research Paper

Complete an Unabriged History of Flint: well, almost! The history of Flint is perhaps as long and complex as the federal bureaucracy. OK, maybe not. The first white man to visit Flint was the famous fur trader Jacob Smith. He was the first to settle in the area and established his lucrative trade here. His trading post was the cornerstone of the city, that is until it was torn down to make room for a parking ramp. The social life of this time was not great. In fact, the husky, rugged guy to girl ratio was about 10-1. This does not include the women who could have been men. These numbers are not good in anyone’s book. Then, out of the utter despair came a beacon of hope…the first tavern in the Flint area was established. Contrary to popular belief this oasis in the desert was not Paddy McGee’s, but Todd’s Tavern, founded in 1830’s. Although the settlers still had no women, at least they now had a place to go where everyone knew their name. Things ran pretty smoothly, but the city didn’t boom until the entrepreneur WilliamDurant came to town and established Flint as the vehicle city, with his production ofcarriages. “Carriage town” as the area was termed still stands today. It is one of fewremaining historic areas left in the city. The others being Todd’s Tavern. Oops, that wasdone away with when women came to town. But we still have “the hole” where the first sitdown strike in the nation occurred…Oh, wait, they just tore that down didn’t they? Well atleast there’ s still AutoWorld…I forgot, that’s going down, too, isn’t it? Thanks to the Irish folk we still have one historic place left…Italia Gardens. (Just Kidding). Around this time William Durant began to notice a new up and coming gizmo, knownas the automobile. Along with Charles Stewart Mott, Dallas Dort, who was himself veryfond of the Vu, Louis Chevrolet, David Buick, Charles Nash, Walter Chrysler, and HenryFord, William Durant turned the carriage town into the horseless carriage town. When Flint boomed, the social life went right with it. Dort highway sprung up andthere were now “hussies” on every street corner, not silver bells, as the carol leads you tobelieve. There were now a whopping three watering stations in the city, but nothingprepare the townsfolk for what was to come next. A young desperado strolled into town,some hotshot who just graduated from some Irish school in the midwest. He bought, andconverted an old, run down place into a location that was to be treasured and revered forseveral generations to come. This was not your average Cheers. This was a full-fledged, beer battered, deep-fried, big juicy hamburger, green beer drinking Irish pub. This wasPaddy McGees. This was the good life. Today, the passion and the glory of Flint may have faded, but two landmarks stillremain, Dort Highway and Italia Gardens. And some other Irish place on Flushing Road. 4. The City GovernmentThe Mayor Woodrow StanleyThe City Council The Judicial Branch Budget Office The Ombudsman Friend of the Court Treasury Department City ClerkZoning Committee Internal Revenue Service Public Works and Utilities Water Supply and Pollution Controls Building and Safety Inspection Committee Waste Distribution Center City Engineers Parks and Recreation Community Development Office Traffic Engineers Street Maintenance Fire Department Police Department 5. The Flint City Government has many parts and divisions, as you can see. Each has itsown set of goals and duties to perform. The Mayor, Woodrow Stanley, is the head of theoperation. He has a lot of power over the committees and departments in the city. He getsto appoint several key figures. The Ombudsman, Daryl Baker, acts as the mayor’s voice to the people and thedepartments when the mayor can not be present. Along with these duties, the ombudsmanalso conducts investigations to determine that city services are being delivered properly andto make certain that the power or the rights of the city are not being abused by elected orappointed officials. It is the job of the city clerk, Louis Hawkins to see that all the “busy-work” is done forboth the mayor and the ombudsman, as well as any other city official. The City Council holds meetings which suggest and enact rules and zoning disputes, asadvised by the zoning boards. See the City Council Meeting Section. Each memberoversees his district and voices the complaints of the people of that area. The City Councilmembers are elected by the voters in each district. The councilmember from my district,

the 6th, is John W. Northrup. 6. The City Council Meetings, a.k.a., lash out at the City Government hour I attended the city council meeting on the night of November 25th. The meeting beganas most meetings do, with the call to order. To get it out of the way, the meeting was re-arranged so that the award for the soccer team would be first. We received a certificate ofrecognition from the members of the council and were commended for our achievement. After this was done, the meeting officially began. My first observation was that there were not a lot of people in the room. I understandthat Flint is not the biggest of cities, but the room was virtually empty. Even some of thepeople who had proposals were not there to speak on behalf of the proposal. A couple wasthere to speak in favor of granting a liquor license to their “shop and rob”, as Winchestersays, but they must have gotten bored during the course of the meeting, because they leftbefore their proposal was called. The meeting began with a review of all former proposals; those which the council hadalready voted upon. The floor was open to discuss the proposals, but no one stood up. After this was done, all new proposals, those which hadn’t been finalized, or those whichwere previously postponed were called. Again the floor was open for anyone to speak. This time a group from the outskirts of Dort Highway, a.k.a. the drag, spoke to get actionon a particular dump zone in the neighborhood. As much as the councilpeople tried toconvince these people that they were working on the problem, the people would have noneof it. Each and every one stood up and commented on the pile. Some proposed 24 hourpolice patrols in the area. Others proposed that the city should install cameras to catch the”dumpers”. Still others, thought that a nearby paint and chemical plant was the problem. These people proposed re-zoning the building to get rid of the shop. 7. It seemed endless. In the vote on the issue, the council members exercised their right touse bureaucratic red tape by deciding to postpone their vote until more information couldbe gathered. Each and every issue had to be voted upon, no matter how crazy the proposal. A few ofthe more outlandish include: a liquor license for a private residence and granting a liquorlicense to a business which had just lost its license. Coincidentally, the committee whichhandled the matter recommend approval for the latter. Fortunately, Northrup brought outthe point that the city had fought hard to rid the store of its license and it would seem sillyto give it right back. The council then voted to postpone their vote until furtherinformation was gathered. After endless proposals the meeting was turned to future endeavors. This included aproposal to mount cameras in various locations throughout the city, to deter and monitorcrime. After a debate on the legality of such a measure in accordance with civil rights, thecouncil,…you guessed it…postponed the debate until further information was gathered. Another future proposal concerned forcing landlords to pay a lump sum for the removal oftrash, from the curb, after an eviction. I did not agree with this proposal, and it isdiscussed in my interview with Councilman Minore. 8. The Interview Note: this interview was cut short due to a prior engagement of the councilman Councilman Jack Minore did not plan on becoming a city councilman until late in life. He was studying to become an architect, but then realized one day that he loved to designhomes, but he hated to measure and count parts. This is a very big problem if one is tobecome an architect, so he figured he needed to find another career. He then decided thathe wanted to impact the community in some way, so he chose to run for office and won. When asked about his major concern, Mr. Minore overwhelmingly believed that crimewas his overriding concern. He was a big proponent for the use of cameras. Financialmatters tie into crime because a main cause of major crime, such as selling drugs, isdespair. When people are desperate, they will do almost anything. I then brought up the point that I believed that the way they were handling the landlordissue was wrong and unjust. Councilman Minore backed his position stating that it maynot be right, it may not be fair, but it is the best way to go handle the issue. I asked himwhy it was such a big problem, and he responded by stating that several landlords ownhomes within the city and live outside the boundary. They only come to town to clean upafter an eviction and end up throwing the trash on the curb, no matter how large a pile, andhow large a mess it makes. I responded that my father owns a few homes within a threeblock radius of our own, and he, too places the trash on the curb after an eviction. Ipointed out that most people are evicted because they are slobs or behind on rent. It isoften hard on the owner to evict this person in the first place, and event harder to clean upafter them. 9. For instance, we had a friend of the family living in one of our homes who fitboth criteria for eviction, but he had just gone through a divorce, so we were very lenientand finally were forced to throw the man out. The house was a mess after this and we hadalready lost several months rent in the process, and to h