East Village, Flint - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The East Village is a neighborhood located on the East Side of Flint, Michigan

Flint, Michigan

Flint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, northwest of Detroit. The U.S. Census Bureau reports the 2010 population to be placed at 102,434, making Flint the seventh largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the...

, bounded on the west by Downtown Flint, north by the Eastside (State Streets)

Eastside, Flint

Eastside, sometimes known as the State Streets, is a large neighborhood in Flint, Michigan. It is not to be confused with East Flint in which it resides. The neighborhood is bounded on the west by University Park and Buick City, the north by the Northeast Side, the east by Thrift City, and the...

, east by Thrift City and the south by Kent Park and Sugar Hill. It is the site of Flint Central High School

Flint Central High School

Flint Central High School was one of the Flint Community Schools, located in Flint, Michigan, USA. Flint Central was the city's oldest school. Its first building was built in 1875, and the school moved into the present building in 1923. It was called Flint High School until Flint Northern High...

, Mott Community College

Mott Community College

Charles Stewart Mott Community College is a publicly supported post-secondary institution located in Flint, Michigan. Its district is the same as the Genesee Intermediate School District and is governed by an elected board of Trustees...

, the Flint Cultural Center

Flint Cultural Center

The Flint Cultural Center is a campus of institutions located in Flint, Michigan. It is dedicated to promoting area residents with an array of cultural, scientific, and artistic experiences and promotes understanding of the diverse cultures reflected in the Greater Flint community. Dr...

and their affiliated institutions. The neighborhood is occasionally confused with the Eastside, due to their proximity and similar names. Along these lines, East Villagers sometimes identify themselves as East Siders.

Location

There is some ambiguity as to specific neighborhood boundaries. Broadly speaking, the neighborhood is bounded on the north by Robert T. Longway, the south by I-69

Interstate 69

Interstate 69 is an Interstate Highway in the United States. It exists in two parts: a completed highway from Indianapolis, Indiana, northeast to the Canadian border in Port Huron, Michigan, and a mostly proposed extension southwest to the Mexican border in Texas...

, the west by I-475

Interstate 475 (Michigan)

Interstate 475 is an Interstate Highway in the US state of Michigan. I-475 is a bypass route that serves the downtown area of Flint while its parent, I-75, passes through the west side of the city...

, and the east by Dort Highway

M-54 (Michigan highway)

M-54 is a state trunkline highway approximately long in the US state of Michigan that bypasses the city of Flint. It is named "Dort Highway" in much of its length, in honor of Flint carriage and automobile pioneer Josiah Dallas Dort, the business partner of General Motors founder William C. Durant...

. Within this area, however, there are several smaller neighborhoods that some consider separate from East Village. These include the area north of Court Street and west of Crapo Street, named Central Park

Central Park, Flint

The Central Park neighborhood in the City of Flint, Michigan is as follows; east of Caeser Chavez avenue, south of Kearsley street, west of Crapo street, and north of East Court street. Many of the houses in this neighborhood date back to the late 19th century, when the city of Flint was...

, and the area south of Court Street and west of Gilkey Creek, known as the Interchange Neighborhood and Fairfield Village. The affluent enclave within this area is referred to as the "College Cultural neighborhood" by its residents and is centered off Court Street East of Crapo Street and West of Dort Hwy, bordered by Mott Community College, Pierce Park and Woodlawn Park. In the narrowest sense, then, "East Village" consists of the neighborhood bordered on the west by Gilkey Creek and Mott Community College, and on the other sides by Longway, Dort, and I-69.

The Name "East Village"

This title came about as an informal designation by area residents after the 1976 founding of East Village Magazine. Editor Gary Custer has stated that the name first appeared July 3, 1976 on the initial issue of the publication. Being east of somewhere, specifically downtown, and following Marshal McLuhan's ideas that advanced communications had created a "global village," the name was born. Custer said that the whole concept was that East Village was a state of mind, not a physical place.

History

Proximity to Downtown and scenic locales like Woodlawn Park and Thread Lake helped transform the early East Village into an enclave of the wealthy, particularly south of Court Street. The area went through a troubled period in the 1960s during the successful challenge of housing compacts that prevented African Americans from moving into the area. In the 1950s and 60s, construction of I-69 and I-475 somewhat isolated the community from its neighbors; in particular, Lapeer Road and Dort Highway are now the only connections between the East Village and Kent Park and Sugar Hill to the south.

Present day

Today, the East Village is one of Flint's better known smaller neighborhoods, being the site of Mott Community College, Central High School, and the Flint Cultural Center. While the area suffers from the same population exodus that has affected Flint generally, housing values have remained fairly stable. This is partly due to the expansion of Mott Community College, which took advantage of the recent demolition of St. Joseph Hospital to build a Regional Technology Center. The East Village is more racially integrated than much of the city, but remains predominantly white.

External links

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