Ballenger Square Community Association

Crime wasn’t unusual on Campbell’s block. Her neighbors on either side and across the street had all been broken into, but it was still shocking for it to happen to her. More shocking, though, was when a man from down the street returned with her television. “That’s when I realized that people cared, and that people will get involved. That was just amazing to me,” she says.

Campbell started the block club by passing out fliers just to the people on her street. She wanted to talk about what to do about the blight and crime. About 13 people came over — not bad for a neighborhood where many of the homes sit unoccupied. A few months later, after more fliers and finding a home for meetings at the church, about 45 people showed, wanting to know what they could do.

It’s a familiar story in Flint, a city strapped for cash and struggling with park maintenance and vacant properties. But where the city’s capacity falters, residents, in the form of community groups large and small, are picking up the slack. Block clubs are vital in that mix, bringing focused determination and advocacy to the neighborhood level, street by street.

“In a sense they ensure that basic municipal services are provided that cities like Flint don’t have the manpower for,” says Kevin Schronce, Flint city planner. “It’s interesting because you go to other cities, even in Michigan, and there’s an expectation as it relates to city government. I think in Flint it’s basically the MO that, we can’t rely on them … they know they have to rely on other things.”

Between 2015 and 2017, Flint citizens have mowed more than 94,000 properties (the city’s population is just under 100,000) and boarded 1,300 vacant buildings — a combined effort worth about $4.3 million. In 2013, community groups removed 1,305 tons of garbage from blighted areas.