Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City (Hardcover) (ISBN-13: 9780520270527)

After living in San Francisco for fifteen years, journalist Gordon Young found himself yearning for his Rust Belt hometown: Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors and the "star" of the Michael Moore documentary Roger & Me. Hoping to rediscover and help a place that had once boasted one of the world's highest per capita income levels but had become one of the country's most impoverished and dangerous cities, he returned to Flint with the intention of buying a house. What he found was a place of stark contrasts and dramatic stories, where an exotic dancer could afford a lavish mansion, speculators scooped up cheap houses by the dozen on eBay, and arson was often the quickest route to neighborhood beautification.

Skillfully blending personal memoir, historical inquiry, and interviews with Flint residents, Young constructs a vibrant tale of a once-thriving city still fighting--despite overwhelming odds--to rise from the ashes. He befriends a ragtag collection of urban homesteaders and die-hard locals who refuse to give up as they try to transform Flint into a smaller, greener town that offers lessons for cities all over the world. Hard-hitting, insightful, and often painfully funny, Teardown reminds us that cities are ultimately defined by people, not politics or economics.

Author: Gordon Young
ISBN-10: 0520270525
ISBN-13: 9780520270527
Publisher: University of California Press
Language: English
Published: 06/28/2013
Pages: 288
Format: Hardcover
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 9.20h x 6.40w x 1.00d
Award: Michigan Notable Books - Winner

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 06/15/2013
Booklist 07/01/2013 pg. 8
Publishers Weekly 07/15/2013