Uptown plans $17 million residential-business complex, “The Marketplace,” at site of old YWCA
by Harold C. Ford A new, $17 million, residential-commercial project is being planned at the site of the old YWCA in downtown Flint according to Kyle McCree, director of Core Initiatives for the Flint and Genesee County Chamber of Commerce. The project is spearheaded...
Village Life: If it’s Tuesday, that means jazz at Soggy Bottom Bar
By Teddy Robertson Tuesday night in downtown Flint and that means jazz at Soggy Bottom. On this cool April evening a gust of wind propels people through the front door just as the smiling drummer John Hill grabs the mic and announces, “We’re going to do some spring...
Commentary on Flint’s water: Is the glass half full or half empty?
Oh, what’ll you do now, my blue-eyed son? Oh, what’ll you do now, my darling young one? ... I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest… Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters… And it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard, it’s a hard It’s a hard...
Three poems
Editor's note: Here is something a bit different from EVM -- a sampling of thoughtful poems from one of our young neighbors. By Ruby Spademan Pretty Girls Eat Flowers She's standing behind me. My neck in her hands and her mouth to my ear she whispers to me. She says...
Trees are good, everybody agrees, but money is scarce
By Jan Worth-Nelson One thing everybody agreed on last night at the Flint Area Public Affairs Forum at the Flint Public Library: trees are good. That was easy. But in matters of how to maintain them, how to assess them when they're in aging decline, how to...
Michigan Radio comes to Flint: good, bad, hopeful and angry narratives emerge
By Jan Worth-Nelson Is Flint a city rich with art, a beautiful recuperating river and a school district offering first-rate primary school education, or is it a traumatized community rife with fear, anger and damage, where nobody drinks the water? It turns out it's...
Calling town hall arrests “unfortunate,” Mayor disputes “separation of church and state” criticism
By Jan Worth-Nelson Responding to the discord and six arrests at a town hall last night at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, Mayor Karen Weaver said she found the events of the evening "unfortunate" but that assuring orderly process was necessary....
Commentary: Woodside pastor weighs in on town hall, separation of church and state
By Jan Worth-Nelson Following last night's town hall in a North End sanctuary, one who responded was Deb Conrad, pastor of Woodside Church. In a personal blog post shared with East Village Magazine today, Conrad said, "the building isn't the problem -- city...
Volatile town hall erupts with old wounds as officials try to explain water source decision
By Jan Worth-Nelson Near the end of the two-hour-long town hall Thursday night at the House of Prayer Missionary Baptist Church, a teenage girl, Tiara Lee Darisaw, stepped up to the mic. "I realized that the more and more we speak about Flint, the less and less you...
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...
