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munnbreslin
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FLINT (WJRT) -- (01/22/10) -- By this time next year, there could be another 300 students living in downtown Flint.
The Riverfront Residence Hall, formerly the Character Inn, has received a $7 million repayable grant from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.
That money will be used to renovate the remaining floors of the former hotel to bring the bed count up to 541, making room for 298 more students. The $7 million will also help improve the on-site conference center and ballroom.
Planners expect the project to be completed in time for the Fall 2010 semester.
The Riverfront Residence Hall opened last September. The initial construction was funded by a similar Mott Foundation grant totaling $20 million.
That renovation included converting floors 3-8 into apartment-style housing for college students, creating spaces for entertainment, group activities and studying. Heating, cooling and electrical systems were also updated.
This new grant will jump-start the final phase of renovations.
Project Manager Ridgway White says work is already underway. "We've started just some slow demolition. What we did is we demolished all of the walls on the 9th and 10th floor already, so it created a buffer of silence. Our current residents living here shouldn't know construction is going on."
White says about 200 students are living in the building now. Kelly Steibel is one of them. "It's amazing," she said.
Myra Mahmud, another resident, agrees. "It's very livable."p
Renovations are already underway on floors 9-16.
"This is the final phase, and it will also take on the ballroom and it'll bring the ballroom up to a sort of state-of-the-art convention center," White explained.
The Crim Health and Fitness Expo is held in that room.
White says they were laying carpet the hour before it started last year.
(Copyright ©2010 WJRT-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)
Great News for Flint! Now lets see how quickly you flint talk trolls can make it a bad story hahaha. Ill give it 4 to 5 posts. Go! |
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Sat Jan 23, 2010 4:30 pm |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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| Giving 7 mil to a relative? How about giving some to the non-elite neighborhoods? We're people, too. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sat Jan 23, 2010 6:07 pm |
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munnbreslin
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| BAM! One Post! New record for pessimism flinttalk! But dave I do understand your complaint but for investors to come to flint, a revitalized downtown is essential. If an investor sees that a city's CBD is weak, the rest wont matter to them. Plus these funds were already coming when the 20 mil was being given for the first phase of renovations last year. Its great to see 300 more people coming downtown! |
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Sat Jan 23, 2010 9:19 pm |
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Adam
F L I N T O I D
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Sat Jan 23, 2010 10:40 pm |
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Dave Starr
F L I N T O I D
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quote:
munnbreslin schreef:
BAM! One Post! New record for pessimism flinttalk! But dave I do understand your complaint but for investors to come to flint, a revitalized downtown is essential. If an investor sees that a city's CBD is weak, the rest wont matter to them. Plus these funds were already coming when the 20 mil was being given for the first phase of renovations last year. Its great to see 300 more people coming downtown!
At one time, the Mott Foundation helped all of the city. Their summer programs were a national model. The boys baseball program was fantastic. Every school had dozens of classes on every conceivable topic. Then, all of a sudden, they just stopped. Why?
What good is a CBD if there's no neighborhoods?
Sounds like some areas get the gold mine & others get the shaft. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 8:18 am |
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munnbreslin
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Dave the problem is that the foundation has to invest in areas where they feel their loans will be repaid. Rougher neighborhoods are less likely to return the grants and thus the investment is not logical. And flint still has good neighborhoods(Woodcroft, College Cultural, Freeman School Area) but the foundation can't help them all due to a simple lack of that kind of money. They are funding after school programs trough Flint Community Schools and local churches, but these downtown programs are so high profile and noticeable from across the county and state, they kickstart redevelopment in surrounding areas (Carriage Town for example). If you would like grant dollars for your area, apply repeatedly to Mott, but also the Ruth Mott Foundation and the Community Foundation of Greater flint. All of these groups are donating to the city extensively. Its just when a high profile grant is given you hear of it. You dont hear of the grants to neighborhood churches to do plays or to run after school programs, which all of these institutions do. But the best way to really get improvement in your neighborhood is to be personally motivated. Apply repeatedly and make your case seem undeniable. Its a foundation, not a charity. Also, these organizations are tied directly to stocks so with the stock market improving now, this is a good time to apply for neighborhood improvement grants.
P.S. If your neighborhood has poor parks (which is almost garunteed) try kaboom.org. They are extremely helpful nd basically guide you th whole way o building a new park. Mott Park and Brennan Park are in the process now and the more neighborhoods with nice parks the better. |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 1:58 pm |
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FlintBeerMan
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| they are corrupt ass holes |
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Flint is a place where people live cause they can't afford any place else to live. |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 6:17 pm |
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back again
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hmmmmmm. that was informative breslin...  |
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even a small act of goodness may be a tiny raft of salvation across the treacherous gulf of sin, but one who drinks the wine of selfishness, and dances on the little boat of meaness, sinks in the ocean of ignorance.
P.Y. |
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Sun Jan 24, 2010 11:16 pm |
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Dave Starr
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back in the day, the insert in the Journal listing the Mott summer classes was 50 pages long. The baseball program was at every school, playground & park that had a ball diamond. Every kid that wanted to play was put on a team. Every kid played at least one inning in the field & got at least one at bat. What there is today isn't even a shadow of what there was.
I think munnbreslin is mixing grants with loans. Grants are not repaid, except by the good they do. We have looked into grants to put a yard light in front of every house on our block. There are none. The Keep Genesee County Beautiful offers a $500.00 grant to plant flowers along the street. The application is 13 pages long. It requires a list of how much "volunteers" will be paid to plant the flowers. HUH? They list what flowers you will be allowed to plant -- THEIR choice, not yours. With 25 houses on this block, that's 20 bucks per house. We do it ourself, out of our pockets.
Personally motivated, munnbreslin? We've had an active block club for 5 years. We've cleaned up every yard on the block. We mow the grass around the empty houses so it's hard to tell they're empty. We edge every yard & paint the curbs. We sweep along the curbs weekly. We know each others schedules & keep an eye on their homes when they're away. When we see something going on, we call 911.
When we asked a land bank rep if they could mow the 3ft tall grass on their properties in the block to the west of us, we were rudely told to do it ourself. Last summer, the land bank had a crew come down our block. They mowed the front yards of as couple empty houses that we take care of. The next day, a city crew came through & posted citations on those houses because the back yards hadn't been mowed the day before.
We're just ordinary folks, trying to keep up our neighborhood. But, because we're in the near north end and not politically connected, we do it on our own, without outside help. |
_________________
I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Mon Jan 25, 2010 8:36 am |
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