East Village Magazine – September 2019
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Education Beat: Flint schools test scores show modest gain, still lag behind area, state averages
By Harold C. Ford Test scores for students in Flint Community Schools (FCS) showed modest gains in 2018-2019, but lagged significantly behind “similar students” and state averages, according to data released the last week of August by the Michigan Department of...
Flint City Council chaos continues: Mays and Gilcreast’s attorney face off
By Tom Travis Meeting in committee sessions Wednesday night, the Flint City Council’s attempt to get answers from City Hall about the handling of bids and rebids for restoration work following water pipeline replacement in the city ended in a shouting match between...
This Month in the Village: September Features
In the Village, the month of September features a car show, Bikes on the Bricks, The Artwalk, and much more: Click here for a larger view
Education Beat: Flint Schools launch balanced calendar as donated AC units help mitigate heat
By Harold C. Ford “We always talk about our kids being our most valuable resource, so let’s act like it.” -- Flint Mayor Karen Weaver at Brownell STEM Academy assembly upon delivery of donated air conditioners Aug. 20 Flint Community Schools (FCS) launched its newly...
99 years of women’s right to vote celebrated at Crossroads Village
By Paul Rozycki It’s been almost a century since women won the right to vote in the United States. The 99th anniversary of the ratification of the 19th Amendment, which granted women that long fought-for right, was commemorated Aug. 31, at Crossroads Village by nearly...
Commentary: Are Flint foundations replacing city government? Does it matter?
By Paul Rozycki Editor's Note: This story was updated Sept. 3 to clarify that the C.S. Mott Foundation, in the fourth year of its five-year $100 million water crisis commitment, has awarded $93.5 million. East Village Magazine's Mott Foundation grant is...
Flint City Council OKs Chevy Commons sale to Genesee County, rescinds ZMW lease, supports bid protest
By Luther Houle The Flint City Council voted Aug. 26 to sell Flint’s Chevy Commons to Genesee County for $6.2 million in a plan to restore and improve Flint’s riverside parks. The council also passed a resolution to rescind a lease with water bottling company...
StoryCorps “Listening Event” captured powerful, moving accounts of Flint lives
By Paul Rozycki As the StoryCorps wraps up its month-long stay in Flint, a "Listening Event" at the Flint Institute of Arts Aug. 29 shared remarkable tales of life in Flint: A story about a woman who met her birth mother for the first time. A story about an ex-con who...
News Brief: City Hall closed Monday; trash delayed one day next week
Flint City Hall will be closed Monday, Sept. 2 for the Labor Day holiday, It will reopen at 8 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 3, according to the City's public information officer Candice Mushatt. Because of the holiday, trash pickup will be delayed by one day next week....
Village Life: The Flint River dumped us, but we got a story (or two)
By Jan Worth-Nelson I told Sarah Carson the river would give us solace—that was how I talked her into it, for my part always wanting an accomplice in my adventures. Two writers who revel in sedentary hours alone. Two writers—one young, one old—rampantly hopeful...
Creating Sanctuary in Pierce Park: “To heal ourselves and heal the land”
By Melodee Mabbitt When Desiree Duell’s parents divorced, they sent her to weekend classes at the Flint Institute of Arts. It was there she learned that art could be very therapeutic. Now living and working in the College and Cultural Neighborhood, Duell’s latest art...
Pierce Park out for Zero Mass Water proposal; concerns linger as ZMW eyes other sites
By Melodee Mabbitt Neighbors voicing their concerns prevented Pierce Park from becoming the location for a private company to install up to 1,000 solar panels and a bottling facility on Flint’s public land in order to produce bottled water for sale. Zero Mass Water, a...
Super volunteer, Beecher coach, labor/environmental justice priest honored with Riegle Community Service Awards
By Jan Worth-Nelson Three lifelong activists with deep roots in Flint will be honored Thursday, Sept. 12 as recipients of the 30th annual Donald Riegle Community Service Awards. The three are League of Women Voters leader Rhina Griffel, Beecher High School football...
Review: Riveting Semaj Brown “bleeds fire” at Mott Warsh Gallery performance
By Jan Worth-Nelson Facing lies, atrocities and daily affronts to self-love and spiritual peace, "we have to tap that eternal spring of regenerative light," Flint poet, artist, musician, scientist and activist Semaj Brown implored a rapt audience Aug. 21 at the...
Council gets crime summary, considers anti-bullying and pot policies and Chevy Commons purchase
By Tom Travis The Flint City Council last week considered anti-bullying and pot policies for city employees, tabled a proposal for Genesee County to purchase Chevy Commons, and heard a plea for more resources for the Flint Police Department. The work occurred as the...
Flint Public Library launches $27.6 million campaign for building renovation
By Jan Worth-Nelson When Flint Public Library facilities technician Mike McMillan looks around the 60-year-old building at the west end of Kearsley Street, what he sees is trouble. “The plumbing is falling apart,” he said at the first of a series of open houses to...
PEN America teams up with Flint Festival of Writers for September event
FLINT, Mich. – Organizers of the Flint Festival of Writers announced today that renowned literary institution PEN America will partner with the festival in September 2019 to host a free workshop with 2019 PEN/Osterweil Award for Poetry Honoree Jonah Mixon-Webster....
Zero Mass Water/Pierce Park proposal presentation cancelled for tonight
Sherry Hayden, vice president of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association, has just issued this notice: "A special meeting of the CCNA regarding the proposed use of Pierce Park Golf Course on Thursday, Aug. 22, 7-9 pm has been cancelled. "The Director of Zero...
Flint Junior High closed because of heat Wednesday
This news was just issued by the public relations firm of the Flint Community Schools: Due to high temperatures, the Flint Junior High School will be closed Wednesday, Aug. 21, as the District works to mitigate climate control issues in the building. All other schools...
Review: Paper recreations of historical fashion “amazing” at FIA through Sept. 8
By Patsy Isenberg Is fashion art? Designer Isaac Mizrahi said on the CBS News show Sunday Morning in 2016, ”Some fashion belongs in museums… some really doesn’t… sometimes you do go into a museum where they have a show of clothing, and it does feel like a store...
It’s Back to the Bricks weekend: grilles, fins, vintage cars by the hundreds shine in Vehicle City
Photos and captions by Tom Travis It's Back to the Bricks weekend in Flint -- a tribute and celebration of the automobiles that made Vehicle City famous, and anybody can figure that out -- by the hundreds of beautiful cars angled from south to north on Saginaw Street....
In another marathon session, Flint City Council acts on block grants, Chevy Commons sale, Clio Road grocery co-op
By Luther Houle As bars around town closed down and folks stepped out into the dark, so too did Flint’s City Council members at 2 a.m. Monday night after a nearly 10-hour-long council meeting. While the meeting tested the endurance of those who attended, the council...
Celebrating its first century, College Cultural Neighborhood residents gather for history and pizza
By Paul Rozycki East Court’s College and Cultural Neighborhood may be 100 years old, but it was looking pretty spry on Saturday, Aug. 10, when more than 100 friends and neighbors gathered at the Regional Tech Center, (RTC) on the Mott Community College campus for its...
CCNA is 100: pizza party to celebrate the century Saturday at MCC
The College Cultural Neighborhood Association will celebrate its 100th birthday with a pizza party from noon to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Mott Community College Regional Technology Building Veranda facing Second Street. CCNA Vice-president Sherry Hayden said the event...
