The Oakland Motor Car Company was purchased by GM in 1909 and thrived in Pontiac as one of GMs leading brands. But by 1929, and the onset of The Great Depression, Pontiac Motor Cars out sold the Oakland models and Oakland was closed.
Urban walkable authentic downtowns are the desired location of high tech businesses. Chances to live-work-play & learn in a single location allows for random interactions among otherwise unrelated people. These random contacts lead to innovation.
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Our daughter was safely settled in Chicago for her freshman year of college. We leased our Birmingham home and moved to a urban loft in downtown Pontiac after receiving our Italian citizenship and passports. My wife, Lynn and I, had long planned this adventure - drive the boot, bottom to top, 1,800+ miles in a Fiat, for 28 days and really get to know our new country Italy. We wanted to 'get a new perspective', 'get away from it all' - for me this meant taking a break from trying to revitalize downtown Pontiac. I had begun to doubt whether it was futile, after all, it had been a crime ridden, depressed city for a very long time. We started our trip in Napoli, an old city known for great pizza and dangerous crime. My dad was stationed here in the US Navy, everyone warned us it was a rough port town. Reputations are earned, but crime is always exaggerated. Still, I booked a room in advance at the safest hotel I could find - The Church. The owner had just purchased a large stack of 1980's photography magazines off Craigslist.org and encouraged me to 'read them'. I insisted I did not read Italian well, he persisted. It was a strained conversation, still I found one with an interesting cover and took it up to our rooftop veranda. Halfway thru a glass of Chianti, I found a picture I couldn't believe. 3 years prior I had purchased 31 N Saginaw, Pontiac - a historic building with a view down mainstreet. My office window looked at ONE WAY and DO NOT ENTER signs that I had threatened to cut down numerous times. There has been a Government plan to make the streets of downtown Pontiac two-way and more friendly. This plan has not had action for a VERY long time, maybe since the 1980s according to the pictures in this Italian photo magazine. The article was about an out-of-work 1980s auto worker named "Joe". A picture shows Joe sitting on my front porch at 31 Saginaw. The article says "someone should help Joe". I was in disbelief for what I was seeing. Pontiac was pulling me back from the other side of the world. Telling me I could run, but I could not hide from these signs. Coincidence? |
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