Flint Playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLkAKbwTlGHeJEr5vsf6i-Y_lXWaiLdo5l American Hoods Playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLkAKbwTlGHeLYlKLyBm1dGc7MRpNhCBZX Michigan Playlist: ru-vid.com/group/PLkAKbwTlGHeJoyujmAhEMOusr2cLGm_jK 0:00 - 8:03 Saginaw Street 8:03 - 10:13 What is Beecher's future? 10:13 - 12:28 Beecher Tornado of 1953 12:28 - 14:43 Coldwater Road 14:43 - 15:52 Detroit Street 15:52 - 18:43 Beecher High School 18:43 - 32:51 Hoods Help me grow my 2nd channel! www.youtube.com/@chrishardenarchives ==================================================================== EVERYTHING THAT I USE IN THE FIELD: Main Camera: amzn.to/3iS4vvF Side Cameras: amzn.to/2WuCYIs Media Mod for Camera: amzn.to/3j7CMGF Lav Mic: amzn.to/3lsMkz9 Drone: amzn.to/3ITcKBV SD Cards: amzn.to/3C2co9O Camera Mounts: amzn.to/2UXVR6p Cables Required for Longer Recordings: amzn.to/3BYnr3Q Computer: amzn.to/3787b2j External Hard Drive: amzn.to/3lb23Tf WHAT I USE AT HOME: Computer: amzn.to/3rKIdiN Sound Mixer: amzn.to/3C15Ubx Microphone: amzn.to/2VaCjvo Microphone Accessories: amzn.to/3v7A35Z INTERACTIVE MAP that shows you all of the places that I've made videos on: (Doesn't always work on mobile devices. Will always work on PC.) www.google.com/maps/d/u/2/edit?hl=en&mid=1Lhzf04ocimPu-ROkg4cfXEYEvKMNnlI5&ll=43.06219876674538%2C-83.82163216337808&z=10 SOCIAL MEDIA & CONTACT INFO: Email: ChrisHardenYT@Gmail.com On Twitter: twitter.com/Chris_Harden55 On Instagram: instagram.com/c_harden7/?... On Facebook: facebook.com/ChrisHardenYT/ DISCLAIMER: Links included in this description might be affiliate links. If you purchase a product or service with the links that I provide I may receive a small commission. There is no additional charge to you. As an Amazon Associate I do earn a small commission on qualifying purchases. As always, thank you for supporting my channel!
This video makes me Sad. The memories of all the Good Times I had growing up, I was raised in Beecher, I left in 1988. One thing not mentioned in this video is the Pride of the people who Live/ lived here. We used to come together every year ( Covid stopped it) at the old High School and have a “Tailgate Party“. NO Violence, just LOVE! I LOVE Beecher, it will Forever be a part of me!
Yup, I lived there too. I graduated in 1970 and was in the 1st graduating class to us that new auditorium. Yup, I also attended that school on Detroit street that is gone.
Both of my parents grew up in Beecher in the 1950's. Their parents built homes there during the Depression. My grandmother's home on East Downey Avenue is seen at the 9:28 mark. I have not been to Beecher since 1991, when my grandmother died. I grew up with stories about the 1953 tornado, which destroyed parts of the high school. Interesting note, if the tornado would have hit a week earlier, June 1, 1953, it would have hit during graduation ceremonies and the death toll would have been much higher, including my mother's entire family, who were at the ceremony. Excellent video. It brought back a lot of memories of my childhood.
That doesn’t tell you how the people are. Look at all of the mess that comes from so called good neighborhoods. Mass School shooters and a bunch of racist wacked out people,
I was raised in Beecher we owned our home on carpenter and Detroit st ..I got family that still own homes there...and they're well kept nice homes...my best memories are in Beecher...it was so much better years ago but my heart will always be there...❤️
Both of my parents were in the Beecher Tornado. Listening to them describe it, it was horrifying. They went to different schools, but both lost friends in the tornado
Beecher was one of our rivals in high school. Full of grit and strength. Seems like a wasteland now. It looks even worse than Flint actually. But it wasn't back in the day. Great video! You covered all the high points of this decimated community.
Wow! My Mom taught in Beecher community schools for 31 years. I moved away from Flint in 2010. This video makes me sad. Some of the places you drove by used to be thriving 😩.
I was born in Flint, raised in Swartz Creek, friends in Beecher and lived a few years in Grand Blanc. Now I’m Arkansas. I’m so sad about the ruins of Flint and the area.
The grey, overcast sky just seems to do the Beecher video the right touch. The kids raised here are tough and the lucky ones find basketball as an outlet. Despite the area and the cards seemingly stacked against them, the kids get great coaches and mentors to help them succeed in life. God love those men and women who come back and give and help those who need it. Another great video, Chris!
I was a baby when the Beecher Tornado hit and have no memory of it. We lived in Flint Twp at the time. As late as the ‘60’s and early ‘70’s you could drive along Coldwater Rd in Mt Morris Twp and Beecher district and see the remains of mangled trees and slabs of where houses and buildings used to be. Interestingly, I have family in Joplin MO where an EF 5 tornado killed 158. My cousins house suffered significant damage and the house my uncle lived in before he died a few years before was destroyed. None of my family was hurt.
That resulted in the "Tornado Warning Siren" that consistently woke me out of slumber during tests.. never needed it the many years I lived there but that didn't stop the testing
@@its_shonda_b_3158 People talk about “duck and cover “ drills in the 50’s and 60’s. I have no memory of those. We did have numerous tornado drills at school. We have the occasional tornado in the area but they are usually weak EV 0 or 1’s. That EF 3 that hit Gaylord last year was pretty unusual.
@@opal92nwf Not that I know of but a resident of the area may know more, I just live a few miles from where it first touched down. Houses and businesses have long been replaced and downed trees removed and new ones have grown tall. There may be some remnants that locals know about in out of the way areas. I visited family in Joplin in 2019 and the rebuilding was well underway then. The main damage I saw were trees missing branches and empty lots where houses once were.
Wow, the weather really set the table for this tour. Grey and cloudy... Seems that is the best metafor for this sad little community. As for the crime stats I always wonder if as the population goes down the criminals just figure the pickings are getting a lot less profitable. Thanks for spending your cyber Monday riding around Beecher, Michigan and then going back on Groundhog day for the brief "snow day" intermission.. 😉
I use to live in Beecher when I was younger. When to middle school there. Lived there from 1995-1998. Beecher was nicer back in day. It really was. But now. Omg! I don't know want happen to it. The house and neighborhood we use live in there looks a mess now. I guess times we live in.
Bedroom community for Buick city and turnstead back in the hay day . This place and all of south East Michigan was an absolute BOOMTOWN but one day GM slammed it's briefcase shut and left town. Recently the said bringing in 2 billion . And Buick town has a buyer so things are looking up.
WHOA !! i was born that Weekend Of the Tornados 🌪🌩 - but down in Detroit 'Guess you can see how that has influenced me . . . AND it reveals just how frikkin' OLD i am 🦕
At first I thought that you were right. I can see the confusion. So in 2007 the fujita scale replaced the old F-5 with an EF-5. (EF stands for enhanced fujita.) since the Joplin tornado hit in 2011, that tornado was an EF-5, not an F-5. And that one did cause over 100 deaths. I probably wouldn’t of listed that as a fact if I caught that before hand to avoid confusion… even though it technically still is a fact. More reason to not always trust local media outlets when they say that an event that happened in their area was “the best” or “the biggest” or “the worst.” My sources were local media articles and an undated article from the National weather service, so the later one could’ve been published before 2011, or they could’ve just been assuming that most people that read that already knew about the fujita scale changes.
Hit the settings on the bottom and select a better resolution to watch the video. If you have slow Wi-Fi or slow cellphone data you’re not always able to.
@2:21 used to be a Kmart (closed in 1992) Between it and the high school used to be a Kroger. (With the round roof) at the next corner behind the store used to be a "Yankee store" @5:10 used to be a McDonald's.
I miss these small three homes road towns.. as the only resident I elect myself to mayor and as a mayor I appoint myself to the chief of police and as the chief of police I'm throwing a big party for myself. :)
History!!! Michigan Just Don't Know!!! Hell Yeah Im Laughing!!!! Cause Im Fighting 4 My Money!! They Saying! That Ahit Late!!! James Washington!! Apt U know it Know It
Most of your Detroit area videos typically show block after block of post WW2 homes, aka "mid-century modern", abandoned and run down. How sad to see so many communities that were established and thriving during my lifetime, now discarded like roadside trash. Maybe they should all be flattened and reverted back to farmland. There will always be a market for food.
Beecher folks have never known how to act! But my biggest surprise of this clip was no mention of the Ternstedt/Fisher Body plant. It in itself carried Beecher piggyback for years.
Come on now, let's be factual, Beecher was a great place years ago, and it's a lot of great people whom came from Beecher, but just like the rest of the area....those that could leave moved, those who couldn't afford to move stayed. Would you say the folks in Clio never knew how to act....after all the kids at Beecher have never been accused of throwing rocks over the expressway killing an innocent man.
I grew up in Beecher, that are was an absolute best Neighborhood to grow up in, once They built I-475 it divided the who Communities. The Saginaw st. Was the Miller Rd. Back then. It make me sick to my stomach seeing a place that once Boasted 7000 Students in 1976. Beecher is a Metropolitan Water District with is divided right down the middle west of Saginaw st. Is Mt. Morris Twp. And East of Saginaw st. Is Genesee Twp. So it’s still a Metropolitan Water District. The very last one in Michigan. They have their own elections they also have the Power to Create theirOwn City by itself.
Thanks Chris. It will take a couple more generations for Beecher to recover. I have a couple of good friends who grew up and graduated from Beecher in the 70s. Both are in west Michigan, but both would have contributed greatly to the community if there had been something to stay there for.
I doubt that Beecher (and many smaller communities like it) will even exist a few generations from now. I can't see many younger people wanting to stay there. Why would they? There's nothing there anymore.
I live in Flint Michigan, moved from Burton and now live very close to Beecher but you should come check out “the peoples church” at garland and 2nd Avenue. It’s right across the street from the U of M campus and is horrible. The church is trying a “only help” attitude, which would be great but the homeless drug addicts take total advantage. People are OD’ng and dying from fentanyl and crack. And I (and sadly my children) literally watch it out my bedroom window 24/7. The people who own the church live in Grand Blanc. So they have no clue what actually goes on here all of the time and it is beyond horrible.
One of its most unfortunately named businesses "Beecher Tool & Die "(a juvenile joke but amusing) If Burton can have "Burtucky" than Beecher can have "Beat your tool and die"
I'm surprised that was even mentioned (flintstone) "always 4life" I grew up in beecher lived there early 70s to late 80s. Only the tough survived . I witnessed so much I still think of it often . I also lived on dort hwy by the old contos bar that was another craze place to live . I remember all of the gang wars when they built the catwalk crossing over the 475 I even remember them building that. we use to ride dirtbikes when it was still a dirt path being constructed..
I know Beecher and Flint are depressed and declining. But to be honest, even the more prosperous Detroit suburbs are such classic, depressing, examples of strip commercial. The National Automobile Slum. But hey…lots of free parking. And those massive signs make it easy to find your way in between texting on your phone!
@@Lukie2131 And that is great. My comment was actually focused on how awful American suburban strips are. Not really just Detroit. most midwestern highway strip suburbia is awful. However, I have read that one of Detroit’s challenges is how blah it’s suburban arterials are. Six lane highways with no landscaping and gaudy signs. Even in nicer burbs. West Coast and Texas and some New England suburbs are just more attractive, so elites prefer those regions. Of course, the Grosse Pointes are nice, they were built before the East Motoring Above All era.
The houses in this town currently on Zillow are shockingly cheap for mid century ranches. I like the snow trick you did there. Poor town seems cursed. 🤷🏻♂️
Wonder what a nicer home with three bedrooms, two baths and 2-3 car garage goes for. Sad that people worked their entire lives to see their investment go down the drain and stuck there because they can't afford to move and get decent home for today's average prices. No reason to fix it up if there are no jobs and nobody wants to move there.
Beecher is a school district and metropolican district,. It has no governing board. You either live in Mt. Morris Twp or Genesee Township. Only Flint mailing addresses south of Coldwater Road, Mt. Morris addresses north. If yoy live on a street that goes inside the city, you have a 'G' in front of your address. It doesn't seem like you know everything there is to know about Beecher.
Beecher is not a good neighborhood. Had family lived there. So bad that their own county pawns them off to Genesee County. Which makes it hard to get help for the people's who live in Beecher.
I was Summit Junior High class of 81. I had a lot of fun growing up in that area. I am currently living in Lake Havasu Arizona oh, what a world of difference. To my high-school sweetheart Susan Hopkins if you're out there hello.
Born and raised on the east side of Flint on Arizona ave. just east of Western rd., not so bad here yet but sad to see the city the way it is and with no new jobs that pay well there's no hope for the future.
Correction. Genesee Co saw a growth from 1980-1990, 1990-2000. It wasn't till 2000-2010, 2010-2020 it had a decline and obviously from 1970- 1980 also decline.
Jesus! What a depressing looking place. Has that same Cairo, Illinois feeling to it. If I was a young person living in Beecher I'd definitely be looking to get out.
Not sure. I saw something somewhere that said that if someone has notifications set for multiple channels, and if multiple channels that someone has notifications set for all upload videos at the same time and day, then maybe that could be the reason why?
