The East Village is a neighborhood located on the East Side of
Flint, MichiganFlint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, 66 miles northwest of Detroit. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 124,943, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the Flint/Tri-Cities...
, bounded on the west by Downtown Flint, north by the
Eastside (State Streets)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 SchoolFlint 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 CollegeCharles 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 CenterThe 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.
There is some ambiguity as to specific neighborhood boundaries.
The East Village is a neighborhood located on the East Side of
Flint, MichiganFlint is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and is located along the Flint River, 66 miles northwest of Detroit. As of the 2000 census, the city had a population of 124,943, making it the fifth largest city in Michigan. It is the county seat of Genesee County which lies in the Flint/Tri-Cities...
, bounded on the west by Downtown Flint, north by the
Eastside (State Streets)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 SchoolFlint 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 CollegeCharles 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 CenterThe 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-69Interstate 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-475Interstate 475 is an Interstate Highway in the U.S. 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. Many area motorists prefer it to the mainline I-75, as it carries far less traffic and is less...
, and the east by
Dort HighwayM-54 is a state trunkline highway approximately long in the U.S. state of Michigan that bypasses the city of Flint. It is named "Dort Highway" in much of its length, named after Flint's carriage and automobile pioneer Josiah Dallas Dort...
. 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, and the area south of Court Street and west of Gilkey Creek, known as the Interchange Neighborhood and Fairfield Village. The area is sometimes referred to as the "College Cultural area," but this is an informal designation rarely used outside of real-estate listings. 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.
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