Two of many vacant downtown buildings. Notice how half of the skyscraper is a parkade.

          One of the biggest symptoms of this problem is the eight story Durant Hotel which has sat vacant since 1970. To miss this mammoth red bricked building is impossible, it sits at the intersection of two major arteries. Despite the fact that the ground floor windows were boarded up entry was easy. Immediately upon entry I knew that time has not been kind to the building; there was no ceiling to be had in the kitchen and there appeared to be a number of burn spots in rooms.
          Coming out of the kitchen led me into a magnificent ballroom. Although time had not been kind to this room as well, its peeling gold wall paper and moldings were still making an impression on me. Even more impressive than the ballroom was the front lobby. Grecian columns held the crumbling ceiling above the debris strewn floor while a fading white spindle guard lay along the second floor. Every column and piece of wall had some sort of faded detail on it. To put it frankly, the sight was simply breath taking.           

The ballroom

The main lobby

Looking at the main lobby from the second floor.

       Unfortunately the rest of the building was not very interesting with a large majority of the rooms sitting empty and decaying.

A typical room.

The view from the roof

One of the cluttered hallways.

          After taking some landscape photo’s from the roof I headed down and walked across the street to get some lunch. While waiting for my order I asked the cashier which area’s I should avoid to keep out of trouble. Her response was almost comical had she not been serious. Her reply to my answer was simply to stay out of Flint altogether. With my lunch in hand I thanked her for the advice and headed back to my car.

         Before I could reach my car I became side tracked by a front page news article and as I read the headline a women asked me why I was in Flint. The women had overheard me ask the cashier and had become quite curious why a Canadian would visit Flint. I plainly told her about my mission and she became quite interested and wanted to help me out. With a pad of paper and a pen in her hand, she wrote down a phone number to contact a person at the Mott Foundation. (For more information about the Mott Foundation visit www.mott.org/) I was told that this contact would be able to assist me in finding various abandoned buildings throughout the city of Flint.
        After thanking her I set out to face a problem I encountered during my last trip to Michigan, finding a pay phone that actually worked. Block after block, street corner after street corner, my efforts were met with one broken phone after another. It took nearly a half an hour but finally I found a payphone that worked, albeit at the lowest audible volume possible. With one hand in my ear and the other dialling the number I was finally able to reach my contact. After some brief chit chat I explained my situation and we began talking about buildings. While Flint may not have many abandoned factories, it does have a number of abandoned schools. With the rough directions on my map I began to set out to find these schools.
         There was one major problem with the addresses, none of them were correct. Once again I was forced to randomly drive around the city in the hopes that I would come across the schools my contact had told me about. Eventually I came across a large red bricked school that unfortunately had a more interesting exterior than interior. The only redeeming value of the building was the gorgeous woodworking found throughout the building. But even this had been altered in the form of carpeting over the beautiful hardwood flooring. With nothing left to interest me I left in search of greener pastures.

Some of the beautiful woodwork.

Curious George inspects elementary sized showers.

       As I continued to drive around I came across some bizarre patterns of urban development. Within the vast tracts of urban decay were isolated pockets of revitalization. It was a confusing sight to see with the such change occurring over the width of an intersection.
Eventually I came across another red bricked school , though this one was far larger than my previously explored school. Although there were a number of elements made the school look vacant there were also a number of elements that made the school look inhabited. In conjunction with knowing that these signs were mostly ploys of CPTED and asking local residents about the status of the school, I parked my car and began to find a way in.
          To gain entry I used a Winnipeg technique and once inside I quickly searched for any motion sensors. Finding none I stepped out of the small closet and began to search the rooms. Each classroom had maps remaining and wood working that would make people drool. The hallways had some lockers and unlike many previous schools I had explored, they were still standing in their original position. With nothing else to explore I headed down to the second story.

All of the classrooms looked extremely similar to this.

         Unfortunately an old nemesis of mine was waiting for me in the stairwell. As I came down the first flight and began to come down the second I noticed a small red light in the corner. Upon a quick inspection I found that the source of the red light was the motion sensor I set off. Wasting little time I hightailed it out of the building and drove off in my car.
         As I continued on my search I came across a church that showed some signs of neglect. Curious, I drove around the building to further inspect it and came across a man standing by the side entrance. Although I now knew that the church was in use I wanted to talk to the man and find out some more information about abandoned buildings and Flint itself.
        It turns out the man (whose name was Nik) was the pastor of the church and was quite willing to talk with me about the struggles he and the city faces and show me the interior of the church. He had a unique perspective on the role of the church; not only did it have to serve the needs of the soul, but it also needed to serve as a voice for the community economically and politically. These three pillars are the foundation for Nik’s master plan slated for the area adjacent to the church.
        Early on in his plan, the church is already becoming the economic focus of the neighbourhood. With the church’s beautiful oak interior restored, weddings and receptions are now being held with local residents employed in the kitchen and in the dining room. But this is just the start; where vacant fields grow and houses rot, a green mixed use neighbourhood will soon emerge. The original red bricked streets which have been paved over will once again see the light and wind turbines will stand where Buick City once did. The grinding poverty and hopelessness that have suffocated the area will be eradicated as new life is breathed into the neighbourhood and its residents.
        As far fetched as Nik’s plan is, the possibility of it succeeding is quite probable. The area under his supervision have been designated as an Enterprise and Renaissance Zone. Both designations give generous tax breaks to all private residences and businesses within the zone for a 15 year period. The most powerful force that will keep the plan going is Nik himself. Time and time again grand plans have failed because its leader was not able to keep the course. Nik however is committed not only to his plan but to his flock and community. This solidarity is what will ensure that his plan gets off the drawing board and onto the red cobblestone streets.
        It was nearly an hour later when I said goodbye to Nik and Aaron and started on my way to Detroit. But just as I was about to turn on the freeway I spotted a massive vacant building just to the south of me. Without thinking I cranked the wheel and turned in the direction of the building to do some quick scouting. While it was on the grounds of an active GM engine plant there was a large amount of space between the active section and the vacant building…enough time for me to make a quick escape should trouble arise.
        After scaling the fence I entered through an open door and to my disappointment found that the warehouse was full of random but boring objects. With nothing to take pictures of I hopped back over the fence and headed south towards Motown.

The courtyard of an abandoned pool

Basketball courts from the now vacant school in the background.

An abandoned plaza.

         One of the things I did not notice as much on my last trip was the vast amount of urban sprawl surrounding Detroit. For almost 30 miles from the Detroit city limit low density dwellings spread out across the Michigan plains. It really is no wonder why the city of Detroit is as decayed as it is, particularly when you see the enormous Chrysler headquarters just outside of Pontiac and the large manufacturing plants scattered throughout the edge cities. In a slow growth region such as this, sprawl is the enemy for any city in the region.

          Before calling it a night I felt that a downtown foray was in order. I hopped in the car and began to travel south towards Detroit. Despite the fact that there are no architectural or urban layout differences between the cities of Warren and Detroit, it becomes painfully clear when the change has occurred. The most obvious signs are the boarded up houses which at first are scattered and then quickly become clustered. As the progression continues the boarded up homes disappear and are replaced with overgrown fields and empty streets. For these areas, the cruel fate of white flight, de-industrialization and sprawl have taken their most devastating toll; they have simply reached the “end of the line”.

Who abandons a boat? (Note: these pictures were taken the next day)

More vast tracts of former neighbourhoods

"Insert your typical beauty in the ruins quote here."

        In comparison to its surroundings, the downtown is actually beginning to turn around. Numerous buildings had renovation signs on them and many of the major streets had intensive street scaping. There was still one thing missing from this picture, people. Even at 8:00 in the evening one could fire a gun and not hit a single pedestrian. While this was a bad thing for urbanism it was great for trespassing.
           After sizing up a large target I found an absurdly easy entry and began my way to top. Like many abandoned skyscrapers, the majority of the rooms in the building were void of anything interesting. While there were a few exceptions such as the recording studio filled with 80’s Billboard Magazines, a dance studio and a room filled with depression poetry the majority of the building bored me.
           With the sun setting I increased my pace up the endless flights of stairs so that I would be able to get a landscape photo in the twilight of the evening sky. After much running I eventually reached the roof and became enamoured with the spectacular view before me. As I stood 34 stories above the street and watched the sun set below the horizon I said to myself that Megan would love this view. Then in my moment of clarity I realized what I had been missing on this trip, the company of my dear friend. In that moment Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here” came on my MP3 player and perfectly fit my mood high above the deserted streets. Although I felt a shade of sadness I had to chuckle when I remembered how much she hated walking up one flight of stairs, never mind 68 flights.

Wish you were here Eadie.

        After listening to the song a couple of more times and exploring the mechanical rooms I headed back to the hotel room to try and get some sleep before another day of exploring came to fruition. \

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