Most of the time I read Andrew's column and wonder if he hadn't just finished off a dime bag of weed. But, after reading this article. I'm inclined to believe he is one of the few sane people left in Flint.

We in Flint have got to stop talking about the old days, talking about what Flint has to offer. knuckle down and work at changing this well deserved image we've allowed to be created.

Unfortunately, Flint doesn't seem to be willing. They are like the out going Paul Keep. Talks about what Flint has to offer. then come to find out. He didn't even live here. (LOL) Let's talk about how people here should be excited to live here and what potential it has. But, won't live here themselves. Ironic, wouldn't you say?

Keep on pecking at Flint's woes

FLINT JOURNAL COLUMN

FLINT

THE FLINT JOURNAL FIRST EDITION

Sunday, April 30, 2006

By Andrew Heller

JOURNAL COLUMNIST

They had one of those well-intentioned "fix Flint" brainstorming sessions the other night.

It was called "Extreme Makeover: What the Flint Area Must Do to Improve Its Image."

A bunch of good people, including my boss here at The Journal, rose to the podium and spoke passionately, I presume, on the theme.

I wasn't there - I was, uh, washing my socks, yeah, that's it, my socks - but I'll bet I can come close to the gist of what was said:

1) "Flint has a horrible reputation, thanks to that darned Michael Moore and GM and Autoworld and crime and unemployment and layoffs and down-sizing ... and have we mentioned Michael Moore?"

2) "But we also have a lot of good things that, gosh darn it, people just don't seem to know about. You know, like the Flint Farmers' Market and the Crim and the Mott Foundation and, hey, how about the Cultural Center? That's pretty neat! And don't forget our people! We have wonderful people! Salts of the earth!"

3) "Conclusion: If we do a better job (flog, flog) of telling people about all those good things (self-flagellate, self-flagellate) then our image will improve, business will come back and things will be hunky-dory again, just like they were in the '50s. Hey, remember Smith-Bridgman's, wasn't that great? Man, I miss the dances at the old IMA. ..."

If that's not how the discussion went, I apologize. Like I said, I didn't attend because I couldn't bear to. I've lived here since 1989, and I've heard it all before. If you burned all the reports and studies and analyses done on Flint's image over the years, we could heat the city for a century.

The same conclusions - see above - were reached by them all. Each made valid points. Each was correct about the good stuff we have hereabouts. Each was dead wrong, though, that it's our image that we should be worried about.

Yes, we have a bad image. But it's not an undeserved image. To the contrary, it's very deserved, through little fault of our own.

Flint is ground zero. A nuclear bomb of economic change landed smack upon our formerly fair city. Manufacturing jobs, as they have all over the country, were vaporized in the blast. Nothing new has replaced them.

As a result, we lead the league in a whole host of social ills. Poverty, drug use, crime, obesity, joblessness. You name it.

What's worse is there's little we can do about many of our troubles. Move Toyota or Honda in here, sure, we'd improve quickly. Poverty would drop, crime would fall and so on. But that's not bloody likely to happen, now is it?

Good people don't want to hear it, and smart people should never believe it, but it's true: Our problems aren't going away. Barring a miracle, the Flint you have now is largely the Flint you'll have five years from now.

Pessimistic?

No. Realistic.

That's not to say we shouldn't work on our problems. You don't give up in life. You fight the good fight, no matter the odds. You peck away.

I may roll my eyes at the people who worry about our image when we have so many better things to pour our energies into, but let me assure you that Flint would be a whole lot worse off without them. They are the very same people who are behind so much of the good in our community.

Why they worry so much about our image is beyond me. To heck with our "image." It is what it is. It's irrelevant.

We keep assuming that if we change the perception of Flint, the reality will somehow follow. That's not true. Image is created by what you are, not by a zippy slogan or an upbeat attitude or some nifty new signs pointing the way to the Cultural Center.

What we are is a town with more than its share of troubles.

The only way to change that is, as I said, to pour our hearts and sweat and toil into peck, peck, pecking away at what ails us.

Anything else is a waste of time.