City Council approves one year contract for ARPA compliance firm
By Tom Travis In an 8-0 vote the City Council Monday approved a one-year contract for $1,150,650 with compliance firm Ernst & Young for the disbursement of the $94 million American Rescue Plan (ARP) stimulus money. Councilperson Dennis Pfeiffer had left after the...
Remembering and Honoring Oaklin Mixon
By Jan Worth-Nelson Editor's note: East Village Magazine (EVM), along with the Flint community, mourn the loss of Oaklin Mixon due to COVID. Oaklin was an entrepreneurial force and friend to all. To honor Oaklin EVM offers this brief narrative written in 2017 by Jan...
Guest Commentary: Thanks for the early Christmas gift – air pollutants and toxins
By Ted Zahrfeld Thank you for the early Christmas “gift,” Governor, Michigan “EGLE” Director, Genesee Township Zoning, and Ajax CEO, of allowing a polluting asphalt plant in our poorest Flint neighborhood. This “gift” will bring and keep on giving air pollutants,...
Re-greening Flint: New city trees coming next spring via Mott Foundation grant
By Jan Worth-Nelson Last year, in light of threats from an aging tree canopy in the city, the C.S. Mott Foundation contributed $208,000 to the Genesee Conservation District (GCD) to remove more than 330 dangerously cracked and dead trees in the traffic islands,...
Behind the Walls: Inside the criminal justice system to hold town hall meeting
By Tom Travis The Behind the Walls: Inside the Criminal Justice System organization will be hosting a town hall zoom meeting from 12 noon to 1 p.m. (EST) Saturday, Dec. 18. The town hall will be hosted by Michael Anderson, founder and executive director of Behind the...
COVID, public safety, finances highlight Mayor Neeley’s State of the City Address
By Paul Rozycki Beginning by saying that he was “a simple guy born and raised in Flint” and concluding by urging city residents to “keep building a stronger Flint together” to fight blight, crime, improve infrastructure and public services, Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley...
Opinion: A new offense – water settlement objections denied by federal judge
By Rev. Deborah D Conrad A new offense has insulted Flint this week, in the form of a court ruling -- this time from District Judge Judith Levy. At issue was the Flint Water Settlement, the financial compensation for the residents of this city of 90,000 poisoned by...
“Please don’t divide our neighborhood up,” residents plead in discussion about redrawn Flint city ward boundary map
By Tom Travis "Please don't divide our neighborhood up. We are a strong neighborhood. Please don't do it," pleaded Seventh Ward and College-Cultural Neighborhood resident Chris Gardner. She was one of about 10 residents, mostly from the Seventh Ward College Cultural...
Caring for some of the world’s finest art at the Flint Institute of Arts: magnifying glass, flashlight and tablet are tools of the trade
By Tom Travis In the deafening silence of the dimly lit Johnson Gallery at the Flint Institute of Arts, Heather Jackson bends over a late-19th century painting, Albert-Emile Artigue's Spring Flowers. She holds a magnifying glass in one hand and a flashlight in the...
Public meeting on city ward redistricting set for 1 p.m. Wed Dec. 8 by Flint Election Commission
By Tom Travis The Flint Election Commission will hold a public meeting regarding the redrawing/redistricting of Flint's nine wards at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 8 in the City Council Committee room on the third floor of City Hall, 1101 S. Saginaw St. according to a...
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...
