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Litany of troubles left Flint's foundations crackedBy James M. Miller
On 1981, trucks were hard to find at national rental companies in the area; they all seemed to be in Texas or heading south, carrying Michigan residents in search of jobs. Houston newspapers with fat “help wanted” sections were in high demand at Flint libraries and book stores.
By the numbers, there didn’t seem to be much reason to stick around the area in the 1980s: Inflation was up, interest rates and unemployment were soaring, crime rates were up in Flint. Car sales were down. Supposedly sweet would-be solutions � AutoWorld, Windmill Place, Water Street Pavilion � turned sour. And lest the bad old days ever be forgotten, an audacious local journalist and gadfly named Michael Moore captured his version of them on film, editing together a damning portrait of a betrayed and clueless General Motors company town. Picked up for theatrical release, Moore’s unconventional documentary, “Roger & Me,” spread news of Flint’s woes far and wide. Back then, an old axiom was rarely clearer: When the auto industry caught the sniffles, Flint got pneumonia. The area’s unemployment rate was the highest in the nation � more than 17 percent � for a few months in mid-1980, and again in early 1982, with rates of 22 or 23 percent, January through April. Reporters came here from around the nation � and from West Germany and London � to write about the plight of the unemployed in the city hit hardest by the recession. In many ways, the ’80s were the worst of times for the Flint area: •Money Magazine declared Flint the worst place to live among the 300 it surveyed. •Smith-Bridgman, J.C. Penney and Montgomery Ward closed their downtown stores in 1980 � the end of major retail business downtown. •Residents worried about water and air pollution from the Berlin & Farro solid waste disposal site, the Metamora Sanitary Landfill
and other dumps found to contain hazardous wastes. •Crack cocaine drove a record-high wave of homicides in Flint: 61 in 1986, 57 in 1989, 52 in 1987. •The AIDS epidemic spread fear of a new plague. •Genesee County’s population declined by about 20,000, to 430,459. •Interest rates soared. The picture was so dismal that it was considered good news when interest rates for home mortgages in 1982 were down to 13 percent � from 18 percent in 1981. Car interest loans peaked at around 16.5 percent in 1981. Bright spots There was, however, another side of the story: •The development of the Miller Road area of Flint Township, which started in the 1970s, continued briskly in the 1980s. •The Great Lakes Technology Centre was created from some of the factory buildings at the former Fisher Body No. 1 complex on S. Saginaw Street. •Flint area colleges expanded during the decade. •Sports Creek Raceway opened in Swartz Creek, giving area horse racing fans a venue closer than the Detroit tracks. •Showcase Cinemas opened a six-screen theater in Burton, the first of several multi-screen theaters. •An estimated 100,000 people toured area factories and a big crowd packed downtown to celebrate the 75th anniversary of General Motors in 1983. Another big celebration was held in 1985 for the UAW’s 50-year anniversary. Some of the bright spots faded fast. AutoWorld opened with great hoopla on July 4, 1984. Water Street Pavilion opened in June 1985. Backers touted them as projects that would save downtown Flint. AutoWorld had immediate problems, and closed down in January 1985. Water Street struggled a little longer, but it, too, became a victim of unrealistic economic expectations. Most of its stores
closed within two years of the opening, and the popular Figlio’s restaurant closed in 1989. “I think that there’s a serious question over whether government can or should get involved in these kinds of economic development activities,” said Albert Price, professor of political science at the University of Michigan-Flint. “If there’s a profit in it, the private sector will do it on its own.” Laid off Unemployment figures are released monthly, and there were several months in the early 1980s when the Flint area � then defined for study purposes as Genesee and Shiawassee counties � led the state. Unemployment in the area hit a peak of 23.7 percent in March 1982, and the unemployment rate in the city of Flint was always a few percentage points higher than area figures. From January 1980 through January 1989 there were only four months when the area’s unemployment rate was less than 10 percent; there were 12 months during the period when it was more than 20 percent. GM laid off or transferred 3,400 workers when Fisher Body closed in 1987; other GM workers were laid off when production was scaled back at other sites. The city continued to approve tax abatements for GM, even as employment fell. Price said based on tax abatements that were in effect between 1980 and 1990, promising to maintain existing jobs or create new ones, there should have been 70,000 GM jobs in the area in 1990 � but there were less than 40,000. The layoffs and economic hardships caused a protectionist reaction from some; UAW leaders called on Japanese manufacturers to limit their exports to the United States. Unions started campaigns urging consumers to “Buy American” and “Buy Union.” The UAW International union decided in 1980 not to allow foreign cars in parking lots at three of its facilities. In 1986, some Flint area union locals followed suit. Layoffs hit others, too; nearly 400 hospital employees were laid off in 1984 from McLaren General, St. Joseph and Flint Osteopathic hospitals. In May 1982, Flint, Saginaw, Bay City, Muskegon and Detroit held half of the top 10 slots on national unemployment lists. Flint Journal photographs show a long line of job-seekers standing outside a Kessel store in 1982, waiting to submit applications. Some applicants brought lawn chairs and coolers; four women brought sleeping bags and camped out overnight. The line included some former employees of Hamady stores that had been bought by Kessel, applying for their old jobs at pay cuts averaging $4 an hour. More people found themselves out of work after the air traffic
controllers union went on strike nationally in 1981 and their members were fired by President Reagan � an act that shook the powerhouse that was organized labor. College growth Some of the unemployed went to school, and Mott Community College and the University of Michigan-Flint saw record enrollments. UM-Flint continued to expand its downtown campus, with the construction of the University Center and Murchie Science Building, and planning was under way for a grand building to replace the library weighing down the top floor of the overloaded Classroom and Office Building. In 1982, GM cut its ties with General Motors Institute, and the renamed GMI Engineering & Management Institute (now Kettering University) successfully made the transition to a private institution. Baker Junior College had such strong increases in enrollment that it bought the former Mandeville school property in Flint Township and built a new campus. In 1986, Baker dropped the “junior” from its name and became a four-year institution. As the ’80s ended, Mott Community College was about one-third of the way through a campus overhaul, upgrading buildings, parking lots, equipment and teaching materials. MCC was maintaining enrollment of more than 10,000 � near the capacity for the campus. Buildings fall, burn In the late 1970s, Flint had a plan to remodel downtown to make it more attractive to shoppers. The Center City plan suggested creating plazas and climate-controlled walkways to connect stores. The plan evolved into Water Street Pavilion. More than four blocks of commercial buildings were torn down in 1984 to make way for the Pavilion, the adjacent parking ramp and surface lot. The demolished buildings were not all vacant, either; some were home to offices and businesses that closed or moved because of the demolition. Some objectors said it was a mistake to destroy so much of downtown’s character just to create parking. Price said the proponents of Water Street claimed the restaurant-and-shopping complex would generate money for housing, but it actually ended up taking away money that could have been used for housing or other improvements in the city. Water Street was supposed to save downtown. In the end, it could not save itself and closed in 1990. The building survives only because it was taken over by UM-Flint, at the bargain price of $60,000. In all, a “Big Three” of downtown projects � Water Street, AutoWorld and the Hyatt Regency Hotel � cost more than $150 million, and the total is much higher when other related expenses are figured in. Arsonists helped the wrecking balls and bulldozers change the face of Flint. Fires destroyed the remnants of the old Flint Lumber Co., a former Durant-Dort carriage factory, Pierce furniture and the Hockstead pharmacy building, and hopes for redeveloping those properties went up in smoke. Fire investigators told The Journal that arsons in 1981 were up 80 percent from previous years. Arsons did more than $2 million in damage, according to police department estimates. There are several motives for arson, but investigators said the biggest reason was to collect insurance money. Vagrants contributed, too; a fire that destroyed the old Burroughs & Son building center in 1982 was believed to have been caused by vagrants. Other empty buildings and abandoned houses also burned when vagrants or homeless people built fires for heat. Unwanted records A federal bank examiner was found shot to death at the Hyatt Regency Hotel on New Year’s Eve, 1986. It was the 61st killing in the city of Flint for the year. Another record � for the worst mass murder in the city � was set the next year, when six people were killed in a home on Flint’s Russell Avenue. The city had 52 murders that year. Among the decade’s unsolved mysteries were other killings: the 1980 homicide of a former City Council member and his wife, and the 1986 killing of a former vice-chancellor at the University of Michigan-Flint. Fred Tucker, former council member, and his wife, Louise, were killed in December 1980, their bodies found in an abandoned Toledo dump three days after they were reported missing. There was speculation that the killings could have been connected to some of Tucker’s business dealings, which included real estate, construction and insurance. Police theorized that the killers were hired, and were from out of town. Margarette Eby, former provost and vice chancellor at the University of Michigan-Flint, was killed around Nov. 8, 1986, at her home, the gatehouse at the Mott family estate bordering the Flint Cultural Center. Her nude body was discovered Nov. 9 in the upstairs bedroom by friends. Her throat had been slashed. Nothing else in the house had been disturbed; the front door was left ajar and Eby’s car was parked outside. Deadly arrival A frightening killer stalked into the public consciousness in 1980 � a new disease with a cumbersome name � acquired immune deficiency syndrome � that was soon shortened to AIDS. The virus that causes AIDS was identified in 1984, and by then it was clear that the disease was spread by sexual contact or by sharing needles. That led to education campaigns urging what was dubbed “safe sex” and promoting the use of condoms. In 1987, the Legislature passed a law requiring local schools to teach students about AIDS, and school districts scrambled to create policies and AIDS curricula. Some opted for an approach akin to the “Just Say No” campaign against illegal drugs. Fear over the spread of AIDS cut blood donations in the early 1980s, forcing Red Cross officials to explain again and again that people cannot get the disease by donating blood. A newspaper article in August 1985 said there had been no reported cases of AIDS in Genesee County, but that changed in November, when a man held at the county jail told police he had the disease. By the end of 1987, 18 cases of AIDS had been reported in the county � and 13 of the victims were dead. A notorious incident put Flint in the news in December 1985, when a man with AIDS spat in the faces of two police officers who tried to arrest him after a traffic accident. Prosecutor Robert E. Weiss charged the man with attempted murder, drawing national media attention. A district court judge ruled in July 1986 that there was insufficient evidence to support the charge; the suspect already had pleaded guilty to DUI, and other charges were dropped. ‘Money’ talked Money Magazine got itself noticed when it started ranking American cities’ liveability. Cities ranked high on the list trumpeted the news; those ranked at the bottom made a lot of noise, too. In 1987, Money ranked Flint as No. 300 out of the 300 places it surveyed. Many news accounts put it differently, saying that the study labeled Flint the worst place in America to live. Flint climbed up a few places on the list for 1988, then fell to No. 299 in 1989. Here at home, many disagreed. Tim Sprecher, then a plant manager at Buick, told the magazine, “I’ve lived in Boston, Kansas City and St. Louis. There’s not a better area in the U.S. than Flint.” Grocery changes In 1981, Albert Kessel, a former Hamady executive, bought some former Kroger stores in Corunna and Saginaw. He added five former Hamady stores in the Flint area to his chain in 1982. Some local unions attempted a boycott of the nonunion Kessel stores, but despite periodic picketing did not get enough support to have any lasting impact. Hamady � Flint’s signature grocery store chain for decades � was under the control of Alex Dandy, who had acquired it in 1974. On Oct. 18, 1987, Hamady workers went on strike, and by Oct. 27 all 27 Hamady stores were closed.
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