| Author
|
Post |
 
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
Monday, Oct 07 2013 12PM
Upmarket Michigan suburb wants to move zip-codes so they can avoid sharing with Flint - the most dangerous city in America
•Flint, Michigan has the nation's highest murder rate
•Grand Blanc officials believe sharing a zip code with Flint forces businesses to pay higher insurance rates due to Flint’s high crime rate
•Grand Blanc is a place 'people want to live'
By Alexandra Klausner
PUBLISHED: 00:54 EST, 6 October 2013 | UPDATED: 02:19 EST, 6 October 2013
Flint, Michigan has America’s highest murder rate. It also shares a zip code with a wealthier less crime ridden area called Grand Blanc Township.
Grand Blanc Township officials are disputing the U.S. Postal Service's decision not to allow parts of the 48507 zip code to be ‘Grand Blanc’ instead of Flint, according to the Journal.
Grand Blanc officials believe sharing a zip code with Flint forces businesses to pay higher insurance rates due to Flint’s high crime rate.
Business Insider reports Flint’s murder rate is 62 per 100,000 people compared to 3.8 per 1000,000 in New York City. In addition to having a high crime rate, Flint is very poor.
The abandoned house in a former thriving working-class neighborhood near downtown Flint, Michigan is a far cry from the wealthier houses in the Grand Blanc Township
According to city-data.com, 38 per cent of residents live below the poverty line. Its Median income was also less than $28,000 in 2009.
Grand Blanc Township is doing a little better with a median income of $59,000 compared to $45,000 for the entire state of Michigan.
Flint wasn’t always so destitute. In the mid-1900s it had a booming auto industry after a 1936 auto strike began an era of Union labor. GM employed 80,000 Flint workers in 1978.
In the 80’s GM set up factories in Mexico and by 2006 GM only employed 8,000 people. Flint’s lack of a major industry caused poverty rates to soar and people to leave.
Grand Blanc, Michigan is a place people want to live, according to town officials
Now in Flint Michigan, unemployment rates soar even for law enforcement officials. This lack of authority lends to Flint’s crime rate. There were only 122 police officers in 2012 down from 265 officers five years ago. That’s only one officer for every 830 people.
Drug use has also increased in Flint. Heroin use has increased in people aged 18-29 as reported by The Flint Journal in 2011.
Flint also has a reputation of being a dangerous place for women. There were 66 homicides against women in 2012 and an 87-year-old woman was raped outside of her home in the middle of the day.
As the going got tough, Flint residents got going. There were 125,000 people living there in 2000, but that number declined to roughly 101,000 by 2011. This population decline demonstrates Flint is no longer a place where people want to live.
Rob O'Lynnger, owner of Maplebrook Village Apartments in Grand Blanc, told the Flint Journal that unlike Flint, Grand Blanc was an attractive place to live.
‘We have a lot of families here and when people are deciding where they want to live, school district is important to them,’ O'Lynnger told the Journal. ‘We're proud to be part of Grand Blanc and we want residents to know we are a part of it.’
'We wanted to do everything we can to protect and attract businesses,' said Grand Blanc Township Supervisor Micki Hoffman
The 48507 ZIP code includes parts of Grand Blanc, Mundy and Flint townships, as well as a southern part of Flint.
Officials call the shared zip code 'confusing' and bad for the township's economic health.
Read more: Supporters of Grand Blanc Township ZIP code change appealing post office refusal
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2446399/Well-Michigan-town-doesnt-want-share-zip-code-crime-ridden-Flint-Michigan-anymore.html#ixzz2h2GNk3dN
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook |
|
|
Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:50 am |
|
|
untanglingwebs
El Supremo
|
The 48507 ZIP code includes parts of Grand Blanc, Mundy and Flint townships, as well as a southern part of Flint
Homes in the 48507 are listed as Flint homes on M-Live. This could be why the Master Planning group believes Flint homes are increasing in value. |
|
|
|
Mon Oct 07, 2013 6:53 am |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Register
Profile
FlintTalk.com Forum Index
> Political Talk
