Teardown

Gordon Young grew up in Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors, where his accomplishments included learning to parallel park the family's massive Buick Electra 225. After reaching an uneasy truce with the nuns in the local Catholic school system, he went on to study journalism at the University of Missouri and English literature at the University of Nottingham. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Utne Reader, and numerous other publications. Young has published Flint Expatriates, a blog for the long-lost residents of the Vehicle City, since 2007. He is a senior lecturer in the Communication Department at Santa Clara University and lives in San Francisco.

"A journalist living in San Francisco decides to move back to decrepit Flint, Mich., where he was born and raised... It matters because: As cities like Flint go, so goes much of the nation. Perfect for: The amateur urbanist who wants to go to Flint without actually having to leave the backyard." -- Alexander Nazaryan Atlantic Wire "A poignant, often funny look at an iconic Rust Belt city struggling to recover." -- Vanessa Bush Booklist "Teardown is a story, readable and affecting, sad and funny, animated by human impulse and the American preoccupation with real estate values ... it is a remarkably intereting read that is likely to resonate with anyone who has ever left home." -- Philip Martin Arkansas Democrat Gazette "Young has written this love poem to his arson-prone, deindustrialized hometown and its impoverished and traumatized citizenry using a snappy yet journalistically skeptical style... Even casual readers who have no experience with Rust Belt cities or real estate investment will find Teardown compelling and worth their attention." -- Jim Schulman Washington Independent Review of Books "Young shines a spotlight on a broken city and the efforts of those desperate to save it, but this is also the story of a man confronting a crisis of identity and finding hope where there seemed to be none." Publishers Weekly "The style of Teardown is Rolling-Stone-style journalism, relatively informal, strongly first person, loosely organized. But there is modern history, too, and wide-ranging inquiry into economics and (especially) politics. The strongest narrative interest, though, springs from Gordon's contacts with Flintites old and new, people doing what he is contemplating." -- Randall Mawer Lost Coast Review "While scholars and urban planners throughout the US and Europe debate strategies for revitalising former industrial cities that are "shrinking", "forgotten" or "failing", Young reminds us that storytelling, including the kind of inconclusive ending we might find in a contemporary novel, sometimes reveals more than the most careful study can. Better yet, a good story shows us why we should care, even if it doesn't provide any solutions." -- Sherry Lee Linkon Times Higher Education "One does not have to be from Flint to appreciate this book." -- Stephen High Middle West Review

• Prologue: Summer 2009 Part One 1 Pink Houses and Panhandlers 2 Bottom-Feeders 3 Bourgeois Homeowners 4 Virtual Vehicle City 5 Bad Reputation 6 The Road to Prosperity 7 Bar Logic 8 Downward Mobility 9 Black and White 10 The Forest Primeval 11 The Naked Truth 12 The Toughest Job in Politics 13 Urban Homesteaders Part Two 14 Quitters Never Win 15 Burning Down the House 16 Emotional Rescue 17 Get Real 18 Living Large 19 Fading Murals 20 Gun Club 21 Bargaining with God 22 Psycho Killer Part Three 23 Winter Wonderland 24 Home on the Range 25 California Dreamin' 26 Thankless Task 27 Joy to the World Epilogue: Summer 2012 Updates Acknowledgments Notes Sources and Further Reading Index