Opening Day!

 

     The Flint Farmers Market (www.flintfarmersmarket.com) had its grand opening at the new location in downtown Flint last Saturday and it was.....grand!  I went, but couldn't stay very long because there were a bazillion people there and it got very claustrophobic for me inside.  Outside was packed, too, but at least I could breath out there.  I was able to stay long enough to see that the new location is AWESOME!  I knew it would be.

 

    

     Aerial view of the new location downtown.  The building is the old Flint Journal printing press building and it is HUGE inside.  The roof in the lower left corner is the outdoor pavilion which is also huge. 

 

     Out of the picture frame:  U of M - Flint (www.umflint.edu) is on the left side of the market and the city buses' central station is on the right (http://mtaflint.org/guide/fixedRoute.php).  If you are a U of M student, you can just walk across the street to get what ever your heart desires; Flint residents can take a bus from just about anywhere to get to the market.

                                                                                                      

 
     They moved the sign from the old location, which I was hoping they would do.  It's mosaic, and some of my nieces and nephews helped make it. 

 

 

The ribbon cutting!

 

 

 

Flint Mayor Dayne Walling (second from left in blue suit jacket) just after the ribbon cutting.

 

 

 

 The outdoor pavilion, used primarily by local produce growers.

 

 

  

                                                            

 

    

               YUM!

 



Inside.  Wall to wall people as far as the eye could see!

 

           

Fresh food isn't the only thing at the market!

Beautiful flowers!

 

     Literally thousands of people showed up on Saturday for the grand opening and, despite grave concerns by the naysayers, there was plenty of parking.  I arrived around noon - it was already packed - and it only took me five minutes to find a parking space. 

 

     I had a great time, but didn't get to see everything.  I can't wait to go back during the week, when it won't be as crowded, so I can take my time to really explore it all. 

 

     The market originally started downtown, and to have it moved back there is very exciting and a boon to Flint.  It's a really big deal and I am happy that I got to be there on opening day to see this historic event. 

 

Until next time,

Robin in Flint

 

To learn more about the city of Flint, visit www.cityofflint.com

 

 

A History of Buying Music in Under Five Minutes

     My history of buying music...

 

 

 

My 45 records and the box I kept them in;
collected when I was in elementary and
 junior high school (early to mid '70's)

   
     When I was in elementary school, I got my music on 45's, also known as singles (a single song on each side). 

    


    

   The first Stones album I ever bought 

   when I was in 7th grade.  One of the

   many albums I bought from the mid-70's

   through the early-to-mid  '80's.

     In junior high school, I discovered FM radio and record albums. 

The short-lived
8-track tape layer



  

The short-lived 8-track tape.

      Remember these extinct  dinosaurs?  I only ever had a few of these.  For about five minutes in the mid-'70's.
                            

 

The more popular cassette tape.

    

AM/FM radio/cassette player

     The cassette tape dominated from the mid-'70's through the early '90's.  I had a ton of tapes.  We all did, and we played them on portable radio/cassette players which we carried with us everywhere (and later morphed into the Walkman).  Even in school.  Especially in school. 

       

Some of my favorite albums from
my compact disc collection: Concrete Blonde,
Guns-n-Roses, Dread Zeppelin, and U2.

     The CD first appeared in the mid-80's and dominated all the way through the early '00's.  At last count, I close to 550 of these (give or take). 





 

iTunes Store


And now, there is iTunes and the iTunes Store! 









Buying from iTunes a single off the new
Afghan Whigs album.

It's all come full-circle.  I'm back to buying singles again.  Just like I did over forty years ago.   




 

 

The Afghan Whigs on Letterman last week,

performing the fabulous song I just bought on iTunes

(www.afghanwhigs.com)

(www.cbs.com/shows/late_show)

 

 

And there you have it.  Welcome to the 21st century.

 

 

Until next time,

Robin in Flint

 

 

Holy Melted Jellybeans, Part II

Big ideas!

     A spark of an idea.  It started out small and is taking on a life of its own in my mind.  It's like a runaway freight train; all clank and rattle and rumble in my brain.  The whistles are sounding.

     I can realize my dream of being a used bookstore owner.  I can do it on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, downtown at the Flint Farmers Market.  (www.flintfarmersmarket.com)

     Time for research and fact-gathering! 

Until next time,
Robin in Flint


    

Holy Melted Jellybeans!

Jellybeans Book Store.  One of my favorite places.

     I am so bummed!  My favorite local used book store, Jellybeans (www.jellybeansonline.com),  got hit by lightning and was destroyed last week!        
Firefighters said the lightning bolt went right through the roof, through the floor, and into the basement.  Luckily, the place was closed. 

 

                    View of fire at back of the store; and front of store after fire was extinguished. 


                                        ABC News video link:
       http://www.abc12.com/story/25459265/jellybeans-catches-fire-after-suspected-lightning-strike-wednesday-night


     It must've been a hell of a fire, too, because that place was packed floor to ceiling with books, movies on a variety of formats; records and CDs; magazines and comic books; and video games.  It was a giant bonfire just waiting to happen.   

     Only people who love to read and who love books as much as I do will get this, but... I sniff books like people sniff flowers, or like we used to sniff the still warm, mimeographed copies of assignments our teachers passed out to us in elementary school (remember that, people over 40?).

     To me, there is nothing like the smell of a brand new book opened for the very first time.  It's kind of like the new-car smell.  Everyone loves how a new car smells inside before it soaks up the essence of the lives of its owners.  

     It's the same for me with books.

     Even better than new-car or new-book smell, though, is the smell of a used book store and its books.  It's a little dusty and a little musty smelling from the old, well-loved and yellowing book pages, mixed in with the starchy aroma of the old hard covers on the books.  Being inside Jellybeans was aromatherapy for me.  I could easily spend most of a day there (and often did)! 

     Being in a used book store can give you the feeling you get when you're exploring a well-stocked attic - a little adventurous and a little curious about the prospect of what you might find while  rummaging around, mixed in with a bit of dread that you'll really find treasures you just can't live without (and where will you keep them when you already don't have enough room for what you have?). 

     I'm really going to miss that experience at Jellybeans.

 

                        Just a few of the treasures I found at Jellybeans, all in pristine condition.  The
                    Steve Martin book is a hard cover which looks like it's never even been read!

     Jellybeans is a classic small-business story.  It was started in 1978 with a $500 income tax refund and a newly married couple who decided they had too many books and too much music for one household and wanted to sell off some of it.  It bloomed into a family affair and has always been family-owned and operated.  It became a beloved destination for anyone around here who loved books. 


Owner Ron Samek, the morning after the fire.

     The owner, Ron Samek, is in his seventies now and  says he doesn't want to start over, and who could blame him? Since it was a family enterprise, though, I'm hoping some of the younger members of his family will decide to rebuild, or at least find a new location to start over.  I'd donate  books to help them build up a new inventory, and I'm sure other people would, as well.

     Don't quite know what I'm going to do for my bookstore fix now.  I don't even know if there are any others in my area.  I'll have to start looking and I hope I find one because there will be a huge void here without a used bookstore.  

      Really, though, I'd love to have the means to open my own used bookstore.  That's something I've dreamt of for awhile and now would be the perfect time to do it with Jellybeans gone.  But, alas, that is not in the cards right now, so I'll just  have to keep on dreaming.  

    My condolences to Ron Samek and his family on the loss of their business.  Jellybeans will be sorely missed.    



Pages from a long-time family business being scattered in the wind.

Until next time,
Robin in Flint

To learn more about the city of Flint, visit www.cityofflint.com

A Jewel of Flint





 

 

 

 

The current location.  Often, local bands
perform outside, behind the sign.

     One of my favorite places in Flint is the farmers market (www.flintfarmersmarket.com), which has been around in one form or another since its  beginnings on the corner of Beach and Kearsley streets in the summer of 1905.






A beautiful, busy day for the outdoor
 vendors at the current location.

     It was moved quite a few times before landing at its current location, in 1940, on the banks of the Flint River.  The building itself was built in 1940, and it is a good, sturdy building, but after 74 years, it's a little ragged around the edges, hopelessly outdated - and now, too small.




The indoor portion of the current location is open year-round.

  
     Good news!  It's on the move again.  On June 21st, it will open at its new site, the former Flint Journal printing press building (built in 2004) on First Street in downtown Flint.     




    
     It is going to be fabulous, and I can't wait to see it.  Weather permitting, I will be there for the ribbon cutting at the grand-opening on June 21st. 



An artist's rendering of the new location, which has its grand-opening on June 21st.

     Maybe I'll see you there, too!

 

 

 

Until next time,

Robin in Flint

 

Learn more about Flint at www.cityofflint.com

 

 

Tick Tick Boom! Imploding Stuff Is Fun.

     Two big things happened this month.  On the same day. 

This is the second one...

 

Genesee Towers (on the left)  2013

 

     On Sunday, December 22nd, the tallest building in Flint was demolished.  Finally. 

     After years of controversy and legal battles over who was responsible for the building, Genesee Towers was bought from the city for $1 in 2012 by Uptown Reinvestment Corp.   (www.uptownreinvestment.org) with the agreement that Uptown would pay for its demolition. 

 

     Built in the late 1960's, the Towers was the pride of downtown Flint when Flint was still riding high on the then robust auto industry. 

     But the '60's are long gone, and over the years Genesee Towers was sold and resold many times, steadily losing tenants along the way as businesses and population fled Flint.  Its last major tenant left in 1999.

     Since that time, the building was abandoned by its last owner, and left to go the way of all abandoned properties.  It began to literally crumble.  A barrier had to be erected around a wide perimeter of the building to keep people safe from random chunks of the building which had taken to falling down onto the street without warning  (a scary thing I witnessed first hand when I was downtown on some business).  The building was condemned in the early '00's.

     Now, as Flint's revival gained traction downtown, the blight of Genesee Towers became a physical eyesore and a drag on the  healing of the city.  But no more.  Because this happened on December 22nd:

Tick tick boom!  Watching stuff implode is awesome!

 

And, in the blink of an eye, that (above) became this (below):

     Having this building come down is a long over-due relief and it removes huge barriers, both physical and psychological, to Flint's progression into a modern college town and a once again thriving city.

     There are plans for an urban plaza to be developed on the site, but this harsh winter will delay the removal of the debris, so it's hard to say when the plaza project will begin.  I can't wait to see it when it's finished, though.

     In less than a minute, a building came down, a sky-line was forever changed, and the course of a city was transformed.  I feel privileged to be here to see it all first hand and be a part of it. 

Until next time,
Robin in Flint

See more of the exciting redevelopment happening in Flint at  www.uptownreinvestment.org
Learn more about Flint at www.cityofflint.com

Ice Ice Baby

     Two big things happened this month.  On the same day.

This is the first one...

  

Trees and power lines in my neighborhood, covered in ice.

     Last Sunday (December 22nd), I woke up to find myself with no power and no heat.   
Evidently, during the night, we were struck by an ice storm.   

     It turns out, Michigan has  been hit with the worst ice storm we've seen in years!  We got a coating of between half an inch to three-fourths of an inch of ice.  On everything.  Can you imagine?  The last really bad ice storm I can remember was back around 1977 (I did live out-of-state for thirteen years after that, so if there were any bad ones in those years, I don't know of them). 
    
     States-of-emergencies are declared in multiple counties across Michigan, and utility workers are here from 13 states - all missing Christmas with their families - to help DTE (www2.dteenergy.com) and Consumers (www.consumersenergy.com) get our power restored.  God Bless them all for that.  

     Anyway, I roughed it for the first two days, staying in my freezing home with the cats, but then it just got too cold, so on Christmas Eve, I caved and spent the night at my brother's house in Lake Orion.  After our Christmas Eve family festivities, I went

A kerosene heater - something I will
 have before next winter!

home to take care of the cats, get some necessities, and then went back to my brother's house.  I ended up having to spend two nights there.  It was stressful because (a) I had to leave the cats in the house (with plenty of blankets piled up for them to snuggle down into so they could keep each other warm), and (b) I then had to drive back and forth from my brother's house to my house twice a day (45 minutes each way) to take care of them and make sure everything was okay with the house.

      No power meant no house-alarm and I was very nervous leaving my house vulnerable like that during a huge black-out.  Luckily, my neighbor stayed in his house (he has a kerosene heater - something I am determined to have by next winter so I'll be ready for the next big power outage!), and he kept an eye on things for me.

 

A lot of downed tree branches throughout my neighborhood

     People are doing dangerous things to keep warm, too.  Just in the first three or four days of the outage, there were three major house fires in my neighborhood because people are doing anything they can think of to keep warm.  I've been hearing about people bringing their gas barbecue grills inside to keep warm.  It's a miracle nobody has been killed, or even seriously injured.

     I ended up spending two nights - Christmas Eve night and Christmas night - at my brothers house.  When I came home on the day after Christmas to take care of the cats, the power miraculously came back on!  I was never so glad to hear my loud, ancient, asthmatic, clunker of a furnace kick on in my life!  It took four hours for my house to warm up.  While I was waiting for it to warm up, I went to Kroger's to replace the food I had lost in my fridge and freezer.  I lucked out.  I didn't lose much at all.  Because I never opened my freezer during the outage, I didn't lose any frozen stuff, and that shocked me.  I thought for sure I'd lose it all.

More downed branches, and everything covered in ice.

     So, it has been seven days since the storm struck, and I have had my power back on for two days.  I couldn't be more grateful.  There are still a lot of people who don't have their power back yet.  On the news they're saying some people might be without power well into next week.  I feel really bad for them.  I was only without power for three days, and it was miserable.  I can't imagine how miserable it must be for the people who are still without their power and are faced with the prospect of having to wait another three to five days before having it restored. 

     Well, it's over for me, and I am making plans for the next big power outage.  I've already ordered a lithium battery powered lantern, and I will be getting a kerosene heater before next winter.  Come hell or high water.  There will be no more sitting in the dark freezing my butt off during an ice storm!

Until next time,
Robin in Flint  

 

To learn more about Flint www.cityofflint.com