Bees, water, herbs, healthy food star at Farmers’ Market Earth Day event
By Jan Worth-Nelson The stars of the show today in the Ramsdell Room at the Flint Farmers' Market were healthy water, organic food, endangered bees, essential oils, recycling and more -- with the biggest honoree being Mother Earth herself. Kettering University, Mott...
Flint mayor turns away from KWA pipeline, opts to keep water from Detroit
By Jan Worth-Nelson The City of Flint's twisted path to the Karegnondi Water Authority pipeline appears to have changed today, with Mayor Karen Weaver announcing the recommendation that the city stay with water from the Great Lakes Water Authority -- what has been...
Coal tar coming out of Flint River as Consumers’ remediation, re-naturalization proceeds
By Meghan Christian Remediation and re-naturalization of the Flint River between Fifth Avenue/Robert T. Longway and the Hamilton Dam downtown has begun, with removal of all vegetation on the river banks paving the way for expected extensive summer work. Consumers...
Review: Poet/pot activist John Sinclair comes briefly home, still paying dues in “Trumpville’
By Jan Worth-Nelson Of course, the reading at Totem Books was scheduled to start at 4:20, cannabis lovers' cocktail hour, but traffic out of Detroit on a rainy Thursday held him up. The crowd, many in ponchos, chunky jewelry, braids, flannel shirts and gray beards,...
East Village Magazine – April 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Neighborhood tree replacement plan hits city roadblock: permits to plant denied
By Jan Worth-Nelson Members of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association, many of whom love their venerable green canopies, recently raised $4,000 in a matter of days to buy saplings to replace the 180 trees cut down by the city on parkways in their neighborhood...
Flint schools chief Bilal Tawwab facing challenging course
by Harold C. Ford The year 2020 is the target date for a new, consolidated Flint high school at the site of the now-abandoned Flint Central High School campus, Flint Community Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab said in a wide-ranging recent interview with East...
Some young buyers find Flint houses make good homes
By Megan Ockert Andrew Chambers, a 28-year-old studying early elementary education at UM-Flint, has a lot to celebrate. On Oct. 1, 2016, he was finally able to move into his own downtown Flint home he bought in July. Chambers is one of a number of young Flint home...
When they’d “had enough,” Mott Park Blight Squad stepped up to save their neighborhood
By Teddy Robertson On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 19, NBC-25 aired a local news segment that showed a group of Mott Park residents as they cleared brush, cut dangling branches, boarded up windows, and mowed overgrown grass at a vacant house in the neighborhood. Six...
“Beating the Lead Crisis”: Flint forum probes water science, gardens, help for kids
By Nic Custer Experts answered questions about water infrastructure, nutrition, education and donations at a Flint Area Public Affairs Forum panel discussion March 7, titled “Beating the Lead Crisis: Where are we?” Laura Sullivan, Flint’s board member on the...
Commentary: Flint’s taxes 2017–any happy returns?
By Paul Rozycki If you drive a car, I'll tax the street, If you try to sit, I'll tax your seat. If you get too cold, I'll tax the heat, If you take a walk, I'll tax your feet. George Harrison, The Beatles, "Taxman" Like many at this time of the...
Village Life: Hoop house project seeds rebirth of community ed at Pierce School
By Jan Worth-Nelson Sometimes the news is good. As the country emerges from a bruising winter and Flint struggles out of a three-year water crisis, some of the best neighborhood news this spring, like a little bunch of bright crocuses, is exquisitely quiet,...
CCNA continues tree campaign, debates pipe replacement bids process, laments Flint Journal “litter”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Editor's note: this story has been corrected to reflect that the meeting at City Hall about the parkway trees is set for 5 p.m. Thursday, March 23. Residents of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association (CCNA) heard news on a potpourri of...
Calling for “a season of civil disobedience,” Barber says Flint is “the Selma of the 21st Century”
By Jan Worth-Nelson Calling for "a season of civil disobedience," North Carolina social justice icon and preacher the Rev. Dr. William Barber roused an emotional Flint crowd Monday night, saying the city's water crisis is another in a centuries-long trail of American...
East Village Magazine – March 2017
The latest issue of the East Village Magazine is available for download here:
Commentary: Flint Huddle, “nasty women” inspire hope
By Robert R. Thomas Fittingly, revelation occurred in the sanctuary of Woodside Church, where I was photographed grinning like a Michigan loon in the company of 60 or so "nasty women" and men of all ages, persuasions and races. But it was "nasty women" who had...
CCNA residents stumped by tree campaign; 7th Ward cutting stops, talks go on
By Jan Worth-Nelson A group of College Cultural Neighborhood residents concerned about the recent disappearance of 180 trees from the parkways of their leafy neighborhood have been getting a tutorial on Flint city bureaucracy and politics in a water-crisis-dominated,...
Charter revision on track for Aug. 8 ballot; public weighs in
by Harold C. Ford A draft of the first Flint city charter revision in 43 years was reviewed by about 100 Flint citizens at a 4 ½--hour community meeting Feb. 25 at Flint’s Bethel United Methodist Church. The draft represented two years of work by the nine-member City...
Review: “Where do we go from here?” Art in the era of Trump at MW Gallery
By Harold C. Ford “It is our responsibility to visit studios and to seek out artists who are often overlooked because of their racial and ethnic backgrounds.” …Irena Jurek, visual artist, Huffington Post, Nov. 17, 2016 MW Gallery, located in the heart of downtown...
Commentary: Trees, transparency and trust in Flint
By Paul Rozycki "Except during the nine months before he draws his first breath, no man manages his affairs as well as a tree does." - George Bernard Shaw “A hypocrite is the kind of politician who would cut down a redwood tree, then mount the stump and make a...
Commentary: When it comes to Trump, it may be time for Plan B
By Paul Rozycki We’ve been doing it all wrong. For those of us who have greeted Donald Trump’s election with fear and loathing, we have spent the last year and half pointing out his egomania, his "alternate facts," his boorish attacks on almost every group under the...
View from the Coast: “Indivisible” group well underway to resist, combat Trump
By Teddy Robertson It’s Feb. 16 and a big rainstorm is predicted for California tonight. It is also Day 27 of the new administration of the 45th President of the United States. I’ve come out for the first meeting of San Pedro, California, residents interested in a...
CCNA neighbors act to save parkway trees; city council president pledges help
By Jan Worth-Nelson This story has been modified from its original version to include further comment from Angela Warren, administrator of the Genesee Conservation District, and followup comments from CCNA president Mike Keeler -- Ed. When Mike Keeler, president of...
Tendaji Talks finish season with “Alchemy of the Soul” by “Dr. P,” Joyce Piert
By Robert R. Thomas “Alchemy of the Soul: An African-Centered Education,” the title of the final Tendaji Talk of the current series, is also the title of a 2015 book by Joyce Piert. Dr. P, as she is affectionately called, was the evening’s principal speaker. Donna...
Mayor welcomes 33 new firefighters-in-training; Station #8 expected to reopen
By Jan Worth-Nelson Thirty-three firefighters-in-training made a surprise stop at City Hall today as Mayor Karen Weaver conducted a press conference in the lobby about water credits. The prospective addition of the firefighters-- thirty-one male, two female -- whose...
