A seemingly small but vocal and influential contingent of people in Flint Township have, for years, made so far unsuccessful attempts to change the township’s name to distance itself from the city of Flint. On the November 3 ballot, they get arguably their best chance at succeeding.
Last July the Flint Township Board approved a resolution to put a simple question before local voters, with the language reading: “The Charter Township of Flint Board of Trustees at a meeting held July 20, 2026, resolved that the name of the Charter Township of Flint be changed to the Charter Township of Oak Hills. Shall the electors of the Township approve that resolution?”
Should voters say yes, the township would then be free to explore the not-cheap process (according to reporting by Ron Fonger of the Flint Journal, one supporter, Jerry Preston, touted that the vanity project would cost “only” about $150,000, which could be more beneficially spent on literally anything else).
What are the driving factors? Well, water, of course. Here’s Preston getting in a dig about it in Fonger’s story: “There’s no other Oak Hills — not in Michigan, not in the entire United States. It’s a name that will be unique to us. When you say you’re from Oak Hills, you don’t need to explain anything about the water.” I would say in response that no one cares about anyone being from Oak Hills while more than two decades of reporting and living in Flint makes me feel confident in saying that people care a lot and have a lot of pride when they say they’re from Flint, but I digress.
Incidentally, Preston used to run Flint’s Convention and Visitors Bureau, so it would be nice if someone who played a big role in tourism in the county at one time would have a more nuanced approach to talking about the city with by far the most major destinations and resources of any municipality in the county but I digress again.
In an interview with ABC 12 earlier this year, Kevin Stiff, owner of The Dive Shop in Flint Township, claimed changing the township’s name “could only help” and that he’s lost business because of the Flint water crisis: “(They) stopped in and had wanted to cancel because they did not want to dive in a pool in the Flint water,” Stiff said. Stiff has been saying the same thing for years … literally! Here he is in an Associated Press story from 2021 with nearly the same quotes. (This could also be a commentary on the need for journalists to not all use the same damn sources, but I digress for a third time.)
Those comments about distancing itself from the water crisis don’t really … well … hold water, considering that attempts to change the township’s name date back as far as 1953. An effort to change the township’s name to Grandview Heights failed with voters in the 1970s. In the years since, the topic has regularly popped up but gained more momentum this year because the Michigan House of Representatives passed legislation making it easier for townships to change their names. In order for the latest ballot measure to pass and the name change to move forward, two thirds of township voters would have to approve it. Michigan law previously halted an effort in 2017 to get support for renaming Flint Township “Carman Hills Township.”
I’m not a Flint Township resident, and obviously voters there have the right to choose whatever they feel is best for their community. I want to try and avoid pettiness – except for maybe sharing my favorite comment from this Reddit thread about the issue with a Redditor suggesting they should change the name to Strip Mall Township. I truly have no hate in my heart for Flint Township … Carman-Ainsworth basketball great Glen Cosey is one of my favorite athletes I’ve ever covered or written about, and I’m still proudly a Miller/Linden road guy till I die for bargain shopping, I don’t need to go to Grand Blanc or Fenton for anything.
But here’s what I do feel a strong need to advocate for: being associated with the city of Flint has less than nothing to do with complex issues Flint Township is dealing with.
Waving a name change fairy wand that makes $150,000 turn into new letterhead isn’t going to do anything to change the fact that poverty and crime have grown in the township.
It isn’t going to change the fact that a huge portion of Flint Township’s business sector was built to cater to big box retailers and chain restaurants in an era when both are struggling nationally.
It also isn’t going to do anything about the fact that their business sector, once the only close major hub with that many big stores concentrated in one place, now has immense competition in southern Genesee County as well as nearby in northern Oakland County and other drivable distances.
It isn’t going to change the fact that the township’s biggest draw, Genesee Valley Mall, has been allowed to degrade into an unrecognizable ghost town while owned by a series of unresponsive, soulless, out-of-town real estate overlords who made it impossible for many small businesses and chain retailers alike to survive there over the last two decades. Seriously, I could write thousands of words about how angry about this one I am, and how little people understand how central that mall was to so many teens growing up and how much harm its decay as a hangout spot has done to young people in recent years. The food court was amazing as a kid. I even saw Jay Sean perform there once! As soon as management decided teenagers shouldn’t be in the mall, the bottom fell out fast.
There isn’t an exact precedent for this sort of thing, but the city of East Detroit officially changed its name to Eastpointe in the early 1990s to distance itself from crime and economic struggles in Detroit. A few decades later, Detroit is still one of the greatest American cities and in the midst of a revival, and Eastpointe hasn’t gained any sort of distinctiveness from distancing itself from its neighbor and the most important municipality in its county. It is an anonymous footnote of a city, if not for the fact that some reactionaries who felt a certain type of way about Detroit got their way a few decades ago.
This ballot measure certainly isn’t a significant one in a consequential election this November, but I wanted to at least mention this proposal within our election coverage because it highlights a persistent problem throughout Genesee County: a constant lack of understanding from the out-county that they need and should be rooting for Flint, not running from it. Early in my reporting career, I covered the Grand Blanc Township Board of Trustees for View Newspapers. Their treasurer at the time, Jeff Cyphert, was probably very different from me politically, but he was also kind and generous and spent time he didn’t have to explaining a lot of minutiae about municipal budgets to me that I still rely on to this day. One thing he said during a public meeting when a few public commenters were dogging Flint has stuck with me. Paraphrasing slightly, he interjected to say: “We can’t have a thriving Genesee County without a thriving Flint.” I don’t know why that sentiment seems so hard for several people in the suburbs to grasp.
Based on history of voters not seeming to have much appetite for name change, this feels like it will again be a fruitless effort. Worse, it undermines what is by far a bigger need in this county: sharing resources and expertise better across municipalities, encouraging all of our residents to participate in the unique attractions all over the county and celebrating those shared treasures that exist here, and a more respectful and understanding approach to the different types of challenges people in our communities face and the specific help each needs.
For better and occasionally worse, Flint has an amazing history and a national profile. It also has some elements that suggest we could have a bright future. Distancing from that without any hard data that it’ll fix the things supporters say a name change will seems destined to provide disappointing results if it passes.
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