When city officials and community members broke ground on a new park project on June 11, it was as much about looking back as it was looking forward.
When completed, St. John Street Neighborhood Memorial Park, located at 3400 W. Boulevard Drive, will provide residents with a beautifully designed new recreation space on the banks of the Flint River with amenities that include an expanded Flint River Trail connection, a historically themed playground inspired by former neighborhood structures, a large pavilion capable of hosting educational and community programming, and historical markers. It will also remind current and future residents and visitors what was lost there.
The early 20th century neighborhood was once a vibrant, diverse working class community that many former residents and descendants of residents remember as a place where immigrant and Black families lived side by side, drawn to Flint by booming industrial jobs. The neighborhood included schools, churches, and a wide range of small businesses. By the 1970s, it began disappearing, part of nationwide “urban renewal” policies that largely displaced non-white residents. In Flint, that displacement was for the construction of I-475, an expressway project that was championed in part to help people who had moved to the suburbs get in and out of factory jobs in the city easier, at the expense of city residents who still lived here.
The neighborhood was bulldozed, residents who had lived there for generations were forced to move, and home ownership rates in the city, particularly among Flint’s Black residents, never recovered.
Speakers at the groundbreaking ceremony all acknowledged that history, and hope the $1.2 million park project will honor the past and also remind future generations of the dangers of creating public policy that leaves residents, particularly poor and minority residents, out of the discussion.
“This is a remembrance of a vibrant community where Black and immigrant residents of Flint lived and made their living,” said Mona Munroe-Younis, a former city planner and a community activist who worked alongside residents to help make the project a reality, in her remarks during the groundbreaking. “And the painful history of the neighborhood being destroyed by racist urban renewal policies that targeted Black neighborhoods.”
James Wardlow, president of the St. John Street Historical Committee, has been championing this project for about five years and shared his excitement to see it start to become a reality, saying it “represents something bigger” than just a park for the community by creating a space that brings back the vibrancy and beauty that the original neighborhood was known for.
“Soon you’ll be hearing the sounds of laughter, the sounds of enjoyment, and families using this space,” Wardlow said.
Wardlow was among the many voices featured in a documentary that aired on PBS called St. John Street: Story of a Neighborhood and originally aired in 2025. The film was made by Flint filmmakers and Mott Community College faculty members Rodney Brown and Justin Brown. It includes interviews with several people with direct knowledge of the neighborhood, its history, and what it meant to Flint.
“St. John was a vibrant community,” said Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley. “It was a rich culture with diversity and opportunity and became a fabric of Flint.”
The project required significant planning, fundraising, and collaboration between community members, local and state governmental bodies, and nonprofit organizations to become a reality. The most significant piece of funding game from a Michigan Department of Natural Resources Spark Grant. Spark grants help local municipalities create or redevelop land into public recreation space.
Riley Millard, a grant coordinator with the DNR, spoke at the event and noted that Spark grants are ultra competitive, and the St. John Street Neighborhood park project was among only a handful of projects chosen from hundreds of submissions, which he said was a testament to strong collaboration and partnerships between many champions of the project.
“It is impressive that such a grassroots project was successful (in receiving the grant),” Millard said.
The bulk of the project is funded through the Spark grant, but it also received some funding from the city’s general fund and federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds that the city received. The project has also received support from the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, the Ruth Mott Foundation, and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, among others.
The City Council and Mayor’s office approved a contract with Gross Construction to complete the work, which is expected to take approximately 6-7 months.
“The people of St. John helped shape the community,” said Dan Kildee, president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint. “This memorial park makes sure their story will continue.”
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