ABSTRACT
Flint is located some seventy miles northwest of Detroit and covers a thirty-two-square-mile area. In 1900, some 100,000 horse-drawn vehicles were made in Flint, roughly eight times the population. Flint in 1977 remains a blue-collar company town, the largest company town in the country. In the decade of the 1960s, population in the Flint metropolitan area increased by almost 25 percent, while the population of Flint proper declined by 2 percent. Flint is more than GM’s “mark of excellence.” Flint is the birthplace of the community school—a facility used throughout the year by all residents of the community for athletics, adult education, special classes, and almost anything else eight or more people desire to do. With a better understanding of Flint’s conditions and characteristics, the chapter provides an examination of ways to improve the performance of its city government.
