East Village Magazine – January 2018
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
City-wide youth basketball league launching in January
by Harold C. Ford A boost for basketball in Flint is arriving in 2018, with the launch of a new city-wide youth basketball league starting Jan. 6. For some, the announcement sets off hopes for a return of Flint's faded reputation as a formidable basketball town. But...
Health in their hands: Flint’s sixth graders share “community action” science projects
by Harold C. Ford More than 200 sixth graders from six Flint Community Schools shared results of their “community action projects” with peers, parents, press, and others Dec. 12 at Flint’s Riverfront Banquet Center. The students had been studying Type 2 diabetes in...
City Council appoints MTA directors, clears step for culinary institute, names street administrator
By Meghan Christian The Flint City Council approved two appointments, unanimously voted for four resolutions, and designated a new street administrator at their Dec. 19 meeting. Quincy Murphy and Chief Recovery Officer Jameca Patrick-Singleton were appointed to the...
Review: Christmas favorites, talented performers highlight “A Merry, Merry McCree Christmas”
By Patsy Isenberg The dress rehearsal for “A Merry, Merry McCree Christmas” Wednesday promised a worthwhile way to spend some holiday time this weekend. The production, which opened Thursday evening, features 27 numbers performed by a big group of enthusiastic local...
Educare Flint a model for education reform: “What kids need…what kids deserve”
by Harold C. Ford A broad coalition of public and private organizations—led by the Flint-based Charles Stewart Mott Foundation—publicly launched a dazzling new state-of-the-art school that will provide early childhood education for 220 Flint children from birth to age...
Race played significant role in water crisis, civil rights director asserts in Tendaji Talk
By Patsy Isenberg The underlying issue in the Flint water crisis was “the role of race,” Agustin Arbulu, director of the Michigan Department of Civil Rights, asserted in a Tendaji Talk at the Flint Public Library Dec. 12. In summarizing the work of the Michigan Civil...
Re-opened Capitol Theater draws rave reviews, praise for city’s “momentum”
By Jan Worth-Nelson On a chilly, windy Thursday night, downtown Flint celebrated as a cherished 90-year-old landmark, the Capitol Theater, once almost given up for dead, lit up into a brilliant new life. Hundreds of bundled-up Flint folks, savoring nostalgia and...
Amy Cuneaz, Judge Thomas Yeotis named Sybyl Award recipients
By Jan Worth-Nelson Amy Cuneaz, who has served more than 8,000 victims of domestic violence and sexual assault, and Thomas Yeotis, beloved former Genesee County Circuit Court judge, were named recipients of Sybyl Awards Thursday night at the Genesys Conference and...
East Village Magazine – December 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Commentary: Fixing gerrymandering–Michigan’s ballot proposal
By Paul Rozycki “Politics is more difficult than physics.” - Albert Einstein Last month’s column took a look at the history and techniques of gerrymandering and its impact on American politics. It’s not hard to see that the process of drawing odd-shaped and unfair...
YMCA Santa Run fills downtown with holiday red
By Jan Worth-Nelson The annual YMCA Santa Run filled downtown Flint with a sea of red Saturday--close to 2,000 walkers, runners, dogs, wheelchairs, strollers setting off a wave of holiday cheer past the Farmers' Market and UM - Flint. The combination of 5K Fun...
“Where are the journalists?” Part Three: As pixels replace paper, journalism still aims to hold powerful to account
This three-part series, concluding with this installment, aims to explore, analyze and lament how many forces challenging the Fourth Estate are playing out in our own community – specifically in a close look at changes in The Flint Journal, now dwindled to a local...
How the Flint Journal helped oust a Socialist mayor: recapturing a look at Flint’s “yellow journalism” past
by Harold C. Ford Ed. note: this historical analysis originally appeared in the September, 1983 issue of The Michigan Voice, (Vol. 7, No. 6). We are reprinting it with Harold Ford's permission to complement and offer it as background to his current series "Where are...
“Flint and the Rock Daughter”: Women of the water crisis inspire a new myth
By Jan Worth-Nelson "Mother Flint, my daughters said, we will be your courageous truth tellers...Mother we are your bedrock daughters, your breathing water, and your living fire. We will not rest until you are restored. Until you are healed. We are your radical...
It’s “Detroit water” for 30 years: Flint city council approves GLWA contract 5-4
By Meghan Christian After a week of marathon-like meetings, the Flint City Council approved Resolution 170354.3, a 30-year contract with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA), with a close vote of five to four on Tuesday, Nov. 21. Those in favor were Eric Mays (First...
Online “MapFlint” project offers mass of data for public use
By Jan Worth-Nelson An interactive, open-access mapping project that offers data about the city on everything from educational attainment to median household income to locations of schools, medical services and locations for meal services is now online at...
CCNA hears proposal for Pierce Park, pitch for ending gerrymandering
By Patricia Isenberg The news and implications of the City of Flint’s changing city council membership and the marathon closed-door and public discussions deciding on Flint’s water source this week didn’t deter about 60 College Cultural Neighborhood Association...
Flint lead exposure “registry” aims to track water crisis health consequences, outcomes
By Jan Worth-Nelson A federally-funded registry to monitor the health of individuals affected by the Flint water crisis is about to launch, Flint pediatrician and crisis luminary Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha told the FACT Community Partners group meeting Thursday under the...
Winfrey defeats Mays for Flint city council president, Galloway elected VP as new configuration kicks in
By Meghan Christian Meeting for the first time Monday night after a swearing-in ceremony just hours before, the new Flint City Council elected two members to serve as its leaders and approved two of Mayor Karen Weaver’s appointments -- for chief financial officer and...
New Flint Council sworn in with promises of hard work and a “new day” for the city
By Meghan Christian The newly-elected Flint City Council members were sworn into office by City Clerk Inez Brown at noon Monday in front of family, friends, and members of the Flint community -- the group an altered combination of new and old that could change the...
Weaver survives recall, city council undergoes major realignment, voter turnout hits 17 percent
By Jan Worth-Nelson Incumbent Mayor Karen Weaver, two years into her four-year term, soundly overcame a recall effort against her triggered by activist Arthur Woodson with 53 percent of the vote. Her closest competitor, longtime city councilman Scott Kincaid, came in...
Flint wheat weaver makes big investment to save treasured grain for an ancient art
By Dylan Doherty In the spring of 2015, Melissa Ruboyianes of Flint got a life-changing e-mail. She learned that Dennis and Sharon Hanson, owners of Black Beard’s wheat farm in Turtle Lake, North Dakota, were retiring after 35 years in the wheat business. Ruboyianes,...
“Flint Fit” project to combine water bottles, art, fashion and jobs
By Patsy Isenberg Flint Fit, a creative project to recycle Flint water bottles and turn them into fabric for rainwear and swimwear, kicked off last week at Flint’s St. Luke N.E.W. Life Center. The project brings together Flint seamstresses, a fashion designer, a New...
Former Mott Park golf course tees off to new life with neighborhood energy, disc golf
By Teddy Robertson On this wet, gray evening in mid-October, the 55-degree air feels colder after several days of balmy October sunshine. Beneath the dripping trees at the former Mott Park Municipal Golf Course, closed since 2009, the parking lot---surprisingly---is...
