Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City
Fifteen years into his life in San Francisco, journalist Young and his wife finally bought a small house that provoked in him nostalgia for the sense of belonging he had growing up in Flint, Michigan. Should they trade their overpriced home for better bargains available in hard-pressed Flint and make a major contribution to a struggling city? Inspired by a blog he started for Flint expatriates, Young spent two summers indulging his nostalgia and seriously considering a return to the birthplace of General Motors and subject of Michael Moore’s documentary, Roger & Me. He meets real-estate speculators, hearty urban pioneers, politicians, and city planners pushing the idea of shrinking cities like Flint that have suffered deindustrialization and depopulation. Beyond the harrowing facts of staggering crime and diminishing services, Young saw a city fighting mightily to reclaim its glory days as a solid, middle-class town. Young compares youthful memories of Catholic schooling and free swimming lessons to the grim present of abandoned houses and shuttered schools in this poignant, often funny look at an iconic Rust Belt city struggling to recover. --Vanessa Bush