Talk:East Village, Flint
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While I reverted the edits, I am glad that this article is finally getting a little attention. Thank you for your contribution. Please find my concerns below:
1. I am intrigued by the idea that East Village got its name from the magazine in the 1970s, but if that is the case, their must be some evidence (citation) for this fact, and a suggestion of what the neighborhood was called before then.
2. I do not favor putting "East Village" in quotes. A plurality of resident seem to prefer the name to "College/Cultural Area" (which I have only ever seen in Real-Estate Listings). Regardless of the origin of names, if we take such reasonable definitions of "neighborhood" as Big Sticks four criteria designations for Chicago, we MUST respect the POV of residents. In the case of this neighborhood, it is telling that both residents and the Flint Journal generally refer to the area as East Village. I don't believe that quotes are necessary, but if they are, they belong around "College/Cultural Area".
3. I have never seen a listing for College Cultural area property north of 2nd Street, and they're pretty rare north of Court.
4. I'm concerned that the edits made had a negative tone to them; ideally a neighborhood (as an entity) is neutral, and a Wikipedia article should not seem like it approves or disapproves of designation/changes made. The most contentious issue for this neighborhood, being the housing compacts of Woodlawn Park, have been neutrally addressed in the article.
In spite of these reservations, I do think there is room for improvement. I hope that we revisit the subject of the origin of the East Village's name. (If it did get it from the magazine, via ideas of a "global village," that's frankly a more organic start than many other neighborhoods can claim. The Fairfield Village and River Village come to mind.
Suggestions on Reorganization
editI'm reading this page, and there seems to be at least three different definitions of the boundaries in such the first couple parts of the article. Maybe I make a suggestion? In the opening paragraph, just give the most general location (leaving out the name of streets) of the area. You know, basically just say it's the neighborhood to the east of downtown across 475/UAW Freeway. In the "Location" header, I'd then give the defintions of the neighborhood using streets starting with the most expansive definition and then going down to the most strict definition. As for sub-neighborhoods or enclaves within this larger "East Village" context, I'd make subheaders for places like Fairfield Village, Interstate, Central Park, etc...Generally speaking, though, there only seems to be one major divide in the greater East Village neighborhood, and that's the divide between everything east of Mott College and Gilkey Creek, and then everything west of that boundary closest to downtown. That said, this page just needs a major reorganization. I mean, in the opening paragraph, East Village is defined as the sub-neighborhood/enclave later called Central Park in the same article. Again, to reduce confusion, perhaps Court Street should be used as the divide between the north and south parts of the neighborhood, and Gilkey Creek used as the east-west divide. How does this sound, and would anyone from Flint be interested in redoing this page to clarify it? --Criticalthinker (talk) 12:06, 4 January 2015 (UTC)