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Flint, then and now

1937

On the historic maps, click on an area to see the appraiser's description, which will appear on the right. To enlarge those descriptions, click on it and it will appear on the left. Scroll around to see how they identified the neighborhood and its inhabitants and how appraisers felt about the area's long-term prospects.

2015

Like Detroit, Flint is now a majority black city. Still, the 1930s-era HOLC maps reveal that those areas considered “desirable” were where the white population was, including the Woodlawn Park neighborhood on the east side (shaded green in the 1930s map) and on the west side of town (shaded blue and green). Those areas have higher white populations today (shaded yellow in 2015) and the parts of town where blacks lived in the 1930s, predominantly to the north of downtown, have the highest proportion of blacks today (shaded red on the newer map).

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