Flint, Michigan :: essays research papers

Flint, MichiganA strong culture is one that has addiction upon itself along withoutside resources. The economy is hard if nearly impossible to predict, andthis puts severe origin on a community that is dependent on one employer.Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Flint are examples of these types of communities.When a manufacturing process or company pulls out of a city, some problems arise.Flint is a city which has had a significant portion of an industry leave. GMused to be the heart of Flint, until the decision to downsize was made. Thiscaused approximately 40 gramme of the 80 thousand GM employees to loose theirjobs. Recently there was a debate pitting two sides of an issue. The questionconsisted of the decline of General Motors in Flint. Is it a catastrophe ordoes it provide an opportunity for the community. Members of the panel includedBill Donahue (pro-opportunity), Larry Thompson (pro-opportunity), DorothyReynolds (catastrophe supporter) and Ruben Burks (catastrophe supporter).In the beginning, there were many advantages of having GM as thedominate employer in Flint. The bill of GM jobs in Flint provided for aneconomic boom town in the 1960s and 1970s. Money from General Motors trickleddown from the workers to every part of the economy of Genesse county. Thepopulation was on the rise which meant more homes, roads, and businesses. Itwas all to good to be true. When Roger Smith (then President of GM) decided torelocate numerous jobs from the Buick City, it was time for Flint to pay thepiper. The large dependency on GM brought upon a rapid decline in the economyunparalleled by any city in United States history.The removal of jobs from GM caused many problems in Flint. DororthyReynolds gave many statistics which proved how much the decline of GM hurt Flint.She pointed out that since the removal of GM jobs, Flint has become the 2nd nigh dangerous city in America while being the 6th most segregated. The lack ofeconomic development since the early 1980s has also had a solemn impact onthe children of Flint and Genesse county. Thirty percent of the children inGenesse county live at or below the poverty level where the graduation rate inthe schools has shrunk to 57%. Mrs. Reynolds also pointed out the fact thatonly three new home developments have been started in the last 18 months. RubenBurks was also invited to share his opinions on the catastrophe surroundingFlint. Unfortunately for the audience, his relationship with the United AutoWorkers was at a level to where he couldnt expand on his negative GM opinions.