Back to the bricks

Many of you may know that Flint Michigan was the birthplace of General Motors. Many of the automotive pioneers have lived here, such as Walter Chrysler, Albert Champion, Billy Durant and many others. In the past several years, Flint has fallen on hard times with the decline of the auto industry. The thriving economy of our city has suffered with the pul-out of GM. The entire Chevrolet Manufacturing complex near downtown Flint is now a brownfield, and the "Buick City" complex is gone too. AC was torn down about 2 years ago and now is just a huge empty field. The huge Fisher Body plant where Buick Bodies were assembled was torn down years ago and replaced with a large Gm Tech Center, which was later abandoned by GM and now sits largely vacant. The V8 engine plant where millions of the small block engines we use in our hot rods were built is also now just an empty field. You can imagine the number of jobs lost.

But Flint is coming back! New industry is moving in and the University of Michigan has established a campus here that has revitalized the city. Things are looking up!

Most of the downtown Flint city streets were paved with bricks in the old days, and the main part of Saginaw Street is still that way. An attempt to bring people back to Flint was a car show meant to highlite our automotive heritage. Hence, BACK TO THE BRICKS! It has been wildly successful, growing from a one day event to a week long extravaganza that draws cars and fans from all over. It wraps up today with another exciting display of all things automotive. Cars, Trucks, Bikes, Fire Trucks, Hearses, and anything else that rolls!

Check out this video and see for yourself! This clip is from the '09 event.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_Z2DI9V9IA