Commentary: Looking back and looking ahead — Will 2022 be better than 2021?
By Paul Rozycki Looking back This past year was supposed to be the year when we put the COVID pandemic, the 2020 election, and the turmoil in the Flint city council behind us. So far only one of those three things might be true, and even that remains to be seen. The...
Pierce Park restoration underway with community collaboration
By Jan Worth-Nelson An 80-acre park in Flint which had been overrun by neglect, arson and invasive species is getting a big dose of love and hoped-for restoration from a partnership between the College Cultural Neighborhood Association (CCNA), the Genesee...
Genesee Health Plan receives grant for $219,492 to help people enroll in health care
By Tom Travis Genesee Health Plan (GHP) has received a three-year federal Navigator Cooperative Agreement Award of $219,492 from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). The grant will fund what are called Support Navigators in Federally-facilitated...
Council aims to hold “community listening meetings” for ARP funds, as rules for use emerge
By Tom Travis In a 5-0 vote Wednesday city council voted to hold four community listening meetings throughout the city for residents to say how they think the $94 million federal stimulus American Rescue Plan allocated to the city should be spent. The first half of...
Education Beat: Pontiac School District officials share their fiscal recovery story with Flint Board of Education
“It doesn’t look good when you’re divided … it makes you look dysfunctional.” --Shaquana Davis-Smith, treasurer, Pontiac Board of Education “We’re not going to present a united front as if everything is OK, because it’s not OK.” –Laura MacIntyre, treasurer, Flint...
Council votes to establish a Revenue Estimation Commission
By Tom Travis The Flint City Council passed a resolution, on a 8-0 vote Monday night to establish a Revenue Estimation Commission (REC). The REC is required by the city's charter (Section 7-104). The REC's responsibilities include, "reporting to the public, the Mayor...
City considers spending $3.9 million for “compliance and implementation” consultant for American Rescue Plan stimulus funds
By Tom Travis The City of Flint is considering contracting with compliance consultant Ernst & Young of Detroit for compliance and implementation of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) stimulus money. According to a pending resolution by the Flint City Council, the...
Ward boundaries redrawn for all nine of Flint’s wards; public review open over the next 90 days
By Tom Travis The Flint city council and community members have 90 days to discuss and review the city's redrawn ward boundaries, according to City Attorney Angela Wheeler. The city council will give final approval to the new boundaries. The city's nine wards are...
Education Beat : Flint School Board selects Kevelin Jones as superintendent
By Harold C. Ford This article has been updated to show the correct date Anita Stewart became FCS Superintendent which was June 2020 and not as we originally reported as being January 2021. EVM Editors. The Flint Board of Education (FBOE) named Kevelin Jones...
Averill Ave and Lapeer Road area site of this week’s mobile COVID vaccine unit – COVID third dose and booster information
By Tom Travis A mobile COVID-19 and flu vaccination unit will be in the neighborhoods surrounding Averill Avenue and Lapeer Road from noon to 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 18 and Saturday, Nov. 20. A new community collaboration is bringing COVID vaccines, water, meals and...
Eric Mays and Allie Herkenroder elected president and vice-president of city council
By Tom Travis The newly elected Flint City Council held their first meeting Monday night since last week's election. In line with the rules of the charter, the City Clerk, Inez Brown called the meeting to order and chaired the meeting until a president was chosen. The...
Hostile Terrain 94 art exhibit displayed at Farmer’s Market brings awareness to more than 3,200 immigrant deaths at U.S.-Mexico border
By Tom Travis Hostile Terrain 94 is an art exhibit on display at Flint Farmer's Market until Nov. 27. Created by UCLA anthropologist Jason De Leon the exhibit aims to raise awareness about the realities of the U.S-Mexico border, focusing on the deaths that have been...
The East Village Magazine – November 2021
The latest edition of The East Village Magazine is available for download here: [pdfjs-viewer url="https://www.eastvillagemagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/EVM_Nov_2021.pdf" attachment_id="24932" viewer_width=100% viewer_height=800px fullscreen=true...
Flint water crisis settlement of $626 million finalized by federal judge
By Tom Travis "This is a remarkable achievement," said U.S. Federal Judge Judith Levy, in her ruling handed down this week in the $626 million Flint Water Crisis settlement, one of the largest in Michigan history. "The settlement reached here is a remarkable...
Flint public schools’ confrontations with race and inequality inadequate, part of history and still an issue, Tendaji panel participants contend
By Jan Worth-Nelson Three generations of Flint residents who've been students in the Flint public schools agreed in a Tendaji Talk event Tuesday evening that they had not been adequately introduced to race or inequality issues in their education, and that they...
Commentary: “We all have to do better” when it comes to Flint and Genesee County government
By Paul Rozycki Last Monday, the new members of the Flint City Council were sworn in at City Hall, with much ceremony and celebration. Family, friends, and supporters attended and congratulated the new council members on their election victories, and their new...
“Both the city and the county messed up” on “invalid” Flint council swearing-in, according to County Clerk Gleason
By Tom Travis "We all have to do better. Both the city and the county messed up," County Clerk John Gleason told East Village Magazine (EVM) in a phone interview Wednesday afternoon after declaring Monday's swearing-in of the new Flint City Council "invalid." "The...
E. Pierson Road and Dort Highway neighborhoods site of this week’s mobile COVID and Flu vaccination unit: free lunch, shots offered Thursday and Saturday
By Tom Travis A mobile COVID-19 and Flu vaccination unit will be in the neighborhoods surrounding E. Pierson Road and Dort Highway from noon to 3 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 11 and Saturday, Nov. 13. A new community collaboration is bringing COVID vaccines, water, meals and...
Majority female Flint City Council sworn in; first meeting cancelled as County Clerk declares ceremony “invalid”
By Tom Travis For the first time in Flint's history, the city council is majority female. Of the six female councilpersons four are serving for the first time: Ladel Lewis (Ward 2) Judy Priestley (Ward 4), Tonya Burns (Ward 6) and Allie Herkenroder (Ward 7) joining...
Incumbents Galloway, Fields, and Griggs defeated; Flint City Council to have six new members
By Paul Rozycki Flint voters turned out in low numbers but made some big changes as they elected their new city council, defeating three incumbents, and electing three new members in wards where incumbents were not running again. The turnout for Genesee County was...
Education Beat: Flint School Board fiscal scrutiny of Williams legal services and Lambert public relations firm intensifies
By Harold C. Ford “It’s going to get ugly … I’m ready for the fight … This man here [former Flint school board attorney Kendall Williams] making a million dollars. Unbelievable.” –Joyce Ellis-McNeal, Oct. 13, 2021, Flint school board meeting Fees charged to Flint...
Commission aims to give residents a voice – no more gerrymandering as voting districts are redrawn
By Tom Travis Residents stood up and spoke up Tuesday at a public hearing at The Dort Federal Event Center on Lapeer Road with their thoughts and comments about redistricting in Michigan. Standing at a podium, residents addressed the new 13-member Independent...
Village Life: Memories burned into Washington School’s demise: “This one hurts the most”
By Gary Fisher She was nearly half a century old by the time I showed up. Creaky wooden windows, stifling forced heat, so thick you could taste it, zero air conditioning, lead paint everywhere, and asbestos-covered pipes. The ancient bathrooms with the old radiators...
Tendaji Talk: “The Deep Sting of Slavery”
By Harold C. Ford “It’s really not enough to say, ‘Those were horrible days and let them pass.’ Uncovering this buried history … could also help ease the kind of intergenerational trauma that silence can mask, trauma that can seep through entire communities.”...
Education Beat: Flint School Board votes unanimously to talk with Mott Foundation CEO Ridgway White about abandoned Central-Whittier campus
By Harold C. Ford On Wednesday, Oct .20, near the end of another long meeting (four hours and 22 minutes), the Flint Board of Education (FBOE) voted 6-0 to invite C. S. Mott Foundation CEO Ridgway White to visit and talk about the future of the long-abandoned Flint...
