FCC execs offer further detail on arts millage: as donor base shrinks, how to assure a “feel good” place
By Jan Worth-Nelson NOTE: We've moved this to the top as a reminder: Citizens for A Better Genesee County, the volunteer group which proposed and is promoting the proposal, has scheduled town halls for 7 p.m. Thursday, July 19 at the New McCree Theater, 2040 W....
City Council approves brownfield abatement plan for site of proposed downtown hotel
By Meghan Christian Flint City Council (FCC) approved a brownfield abatement plan as part of a proposed downtown hotel development project along with three job descriptions and qualifications at their meeting July 9. They also unanimously approved a plan for repaving...
As two big endorsements back county-wide arts millage for Aug. 7 vote, advocates address citizen concerns
By Jan Worth-Nelson The Flint & Genesee Chamber of Commerce (FGCC) and the Board of Education of the Genesee Intermediate School District (GISD) both endorsed the proposed Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment millage proposal up for a county-wide...
Commentary: Arts millage advocates need to answer basic questions to help voters decide
By Linda Pohly The Genesee County ballot for Aug. 7 will include a proposal for an Arts Education & Cultural Enrichment Millage. If the millage passes, according to Citizens for a Better Genesee County, the group behind the millage campaign, the County--through...
Masters of the macabre: Flint Horror Collective brings entertainment and love of the scary to town
By Jeffery L Carey, Jr. As a kid Paul Counelis was obsessed with the book Christine by Stephen King. He liked the atmosphere, the characters, and how much he could relate to King's obsession. “It made me want to be a writer,” he said. Years later, Counelis, now a...
East Village Magazine – July 2018
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
$30 million HUD Choice grant comes through to replace Atherton East public housing
By Jan Worth-Nelson A longstanding and continuing effort to relocate the crime-ridden Atherton East housing complex received a major boost today with the announcement that a $30 million federal grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has been...
Hot day but few fireworks at Bluebell Beach 49th District candidate forum
By Paul Rozycki It was the morning of the Fourth of July, when most people are preparing for picnics, hot dogs, and fireworks, and it was hot and humid on Mott Lake. But that didn’t prevent four of the six Democrats running for the 49th state House of Representatives...
Flint Registry, built to monitor, link and advocate for community health, gears up for September launch
Flint Water Advisory Task Force Final Report, presented to Gov. Rick Snyder, March 21, 2016 Recommendation #7 to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services , p. 10: "Establish and maintain a Flint Toxic Exposure Registry to include all the children and...
Commentary: A primary primer for the Aug. 7 election — REMEMBER TO VOTE
By Paul Rozycki In less than a month, in the midst of summer vacations, art fairs, festivals, and car shows, Michigan will hold its regular primary, and the turnout is likely to be low, as it has been for years. That’s unfortunate because, for most officials, the...
Review: Connor Coyne’s “Urbantasm: The Dying City” original, dark, magical, and infused with Flint
Urbantasm Book One: The Dying City by Connor Coyne Review by Robert R. Thomas Connor Coyne’s Urbantasm is the most original take on Flint I have read to date. Set in the fictional Rust Belt city of Akawe, Michigan, “an hour’s drive north of Detroit,” Coyne’s...
Hundreds gather downtown to protest migrant separations, Donald Trump
By Jan Worth-Nelson On a 90-degree Saturday, hundreds of poster-toting citizens convened at the Flat Lot in Flint and marched back and forth on Saginaw Street to protest separations of children from their parents at the U.S.-Mexican border, an action triggered by the...
Village Life: Why I moved to Flint
By Ted Nelson My first experience of Flint was Bishop International Airport. I still wonder about the “International” part. Could it be that Flint itself is another country? Perhaps there are secret flights here in the dark of night — aliens sneaking...
Arts millage up for a vote Aug. 7 could add $8.7 million per year to county’s “good news stories”
By Jan Worth-Nelson and Patsy Isenberg A proposed county-wide millage that could bring in up to $8.7 million/year for the arts in Genesee County for the next ten years will be on the Aug. 7 ballot. Backers of the proposal say it would guarantee substantial support and...
Flint council approves two-year city budget and 10 of 11 appointees for overdue ethics panel
By Meghan Christian The Flint City Council approved 10 appointments to the Ethics and Accountability Board and approved the Mayor’s biennial budget for the city of $55.8 million for 2018-19 and $56.6 million for 2019-20 at their June 25 meeting. Formation of an...
Ground broken for Flint Cultural Center K-8 charter school, C.S. Mott commits $35 million, FCS said no
By Harold C. Ford An array of Flint area nonprofit and political leaders gathered Tuesday on the campus of the Flint Cultural Center (FCC) to break ground for a new...
Dr. Mona charms SRO audience, calls for “radical reckoning” on nation’s child-care values
By Jan Worth-Nelson Hurley Medical Center pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, for the past three years regarded as one of the stand-out whistleblowers and heroes of the Flint water crisis, turned the tables on the hometown standing-room-only crowd who came to celebrate...
Three years after devastating fire, Whaley House re-opens with top-to-bottom restoration
By Jan Worth-Nelson For staff and historians of the only Victorian home left from the row of mansions that once graced Kearsley Street, the fire of 2015 was a crushing blow. One November day, a welding torch left by roofers working on copper gutters at the Whaley...
Animal groups aim to abate dog, cat problems with spay/neuter clinics at Franklin Ave Mission
By Jan Worth-Nelson The East Side of Flint may have fewer unwanted kittens and puppies to contend with soon, following a free spaying and neutering clinic from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. tomorrow and Thursday at the Franklin Avenue Mission, 2210 N. Franklin Ave. A mobile...
Proposal cuts gay rights, Roe v. Wade, climate change, NAACP from public school standards: hearing Monday
by Harold C. Ford EVM staff writer Ford, a 44-year veteran of public education, now retired, surveyed the 138-page draft proposal described below and which is available for perusal in full here. The Michigan Department of Education (MDE) is holding a series of nine...
Flint declared “Tree City USA”–300 seedlings planted
By Jan Worth-Nelson Flint is one of 3,400 city nationwide to be named a 2018 "Tree City USA" by the Arbor Day Foundation. It was the 18th year in a row for the city to receive the designation. To celebrate, staff of the Genesee Conservation District, managers of the...
Commentary: Water shutoffs do no one any good
By Laura Sullivan In 2015, Dr. Sullivan, a Kettering University professor of mechanical engineering, worked with other activists as part of the Coalition for Clean Water to return the city of Flint to Detroit for its water supply. Since then, she has helped to...
City Council fails to override Weaver’s budget veto: next steps uncertain
By Meghan Christian Flint City Council (FCC) did not have the six votes needed to override Mayor Karen Weaver's veto of the amended budget they proposed at a special city council meeting at 11 a.m. today. The proposed budget included eight amendments, totaling a...
Review: Flint welcomes “The Moth” in celebratory night downtown
By Patsy Isenberg and Jan Worth-Nelson Perhaps the biggest stories of all about last Thursday’s performances of “The Moth” storytelling show at the Capitol Theater weren’t about “The Moth” at all. There are at least four other options: That the performance was in the...
Mayor vetoes City Council budget on $267,000 difference, override vote attempt set
By Meghan Christian and Jan Worth-Nelson A version of a 2018-2019 city budget proposal calling for eight amendments approved six to three June 4 by the Flint City Council was vetoed Monday by Mayor Karen Weaver. The $267,000 difference in what the council wants and...
