MTA plan envisions expanded routes, accessibility, cleaner rides
By Nic Custer The Flint Mass Transportation Authority is working to increase routes, make bus stops more accessible, integrate scheduling apps and electronic payment and replace 160 of its 280 vehicles over the next decade. These are essential priorities offered in...
Library Black History Month brunch to feature R&B, honor four
By Megan Ockert Detroit Motown cover band Serieux will headline the Genesee District Library’s 16th Annual Black History Month Brunch scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Genesys Conference and Banquet Center in Grand Blanc. The event also will honor four...
Analysis: Packed Water Town Hall evokes spirit of ’76, ’36 as data pours in
by Harold C. Ford “…When you have a great violation of the people and there’s a great sense of injury…you have to give people an honorable means and context in which to express and eliminate that grief and speak decisively and succinctly back to the issue. Otherwise...
Essay: Remembering the Selma March, the “grandest hour of the civil rights movement”
Editor's Note: The Selma to Montgomery Voting Rights March some 51 years ago was seen by many historians as the "grandest hour of the civil rights movement". It's also seen as the last major victory of the civil rights movement. Nearly 30,000 people marched to the...
Longway astronomy camp starts Feb. 2 for “young planetarians”
By Megan Ockert "Young planetarians" bored by winter will have an opportunity starting in February to look up to the stars. Beginning Feb. 2, Longway Planetarium, located on E. Kearsley Street, is hosting a Young Planetarians astronomy camp, available for kids in...
ReCAST federal grant aims to address water crisis trauma, build resilience
By Megan Ockert How can the city of Flint move from the community-wide trauma of the water crisis toward strengthened resilience? Coordinators of a grant from the federal government are proceeding to answer that question, and to do so, they have a million dollars a...
East Village Magazine – January 2017
Review: Idiot America by Charles P. Pierce
Review by Robert R. Thomas Reading a book by its cover is dicey business, but a cover can be enticing, both the graphic design and the title and typography. Such was the case with Charles P. Pierce’s IDIOT AMERICA How Stupidity Became a Virtue in the Land of the Free....
Village Life: Midnight run leads to handcuffs and a jolt about privilege
Editor's note: EVM editor Jan Worth-Nelson offered her Village Life column this month to Flint-based writer Connor Coyne, who has a good story to tell. By Connor Coyne Chicago in one day is always a whirlwind, but I did it anyway because in the writing life, a person...
Dayne Walling and the Flint water crisis: victim, villain or faithful servant?
Some 32 months after former Flint Mayor Dayne Walling raised a celebratory glass and pressed a small black button to switch the source of water flowing to Flint citizens from Detroit to the Flint River, he agreed to share his version of Flint’s most devastating...
Local presidential elector with deep Flint roots says Trump will help blacks
By Jan Worth-Nelson The first Republican Henry Hatter knew was his uncle from Davison -- a "prosperous-looking" man with a gold tooth and a pocket full of quarters for the kids. "He was generous and he was easy to love," Hatter, now a youthful 80, recalls with a...
Flint Fresh Mobile Market a healthy food oasis on wheels
By Megan Ockert In the face of local food deserts, lead contamination and chronic disease in the community, Amber Hasan and her Flint Fresh Mobile Market are trying to provide an oasis on wheels. Supported in partnership with the Flint Farmers’ Market, the Local...
Commentary: What’s the new normal for 2016 and 2017?
By Paul Rozycki Looking back on 2016, it is strange how quickly the abnormal became normal. One of the most worrisome aspects of the Flint Water Crisis is how normal certain things have become. I’ve gotten used to having the house littered with water bottles and...
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Commentary: Post-mortem on the 2016 election poses a “Top Ten” list of questions
By Paul Rozycki We all thought it would be over after Nov. 8. Almost everyone expected Hillary to win by a close, but decent margin. She had a half dozen ways she could win the Electoral College. Trump barely had one. Yet after the shock and dismay of this...
Flint Mayor Weaver on EM indictments: “Take away the voice of democracy, you see what happens”
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said there is another indictment in today's charges filed by the Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette of the last two state-appointed emergency managers in the embattled city: an indictment against the whole emergency manager system. "I'm...
Earley, Ambrose, last two Flint emergency managers, indicted on felony charges in water crisis
By Jan Worth-Nelson Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette today announced charges against four more people involved in the Flint water crisis: former state-appointed emergency managers Darnell Earley and Jerry Ambrose; and two former City of Flint employees Howard...
Village Life snapshots: Not everything is gloomy in Flint Town
It's been a rough year but there are so many moments of cheer available, even in Flint. Take for instance the annual Santa Run (three photos pictured here) and the much beloved Tuba Christmas at the Flint Farmers' Market last weekend. Wonderful reprieves from...
Community trust an issue in water crisis recovery, Kildee, Nelson assert
By Jan Worth-Nelson To Flint City Council President Kerry Nelson, one of the biggest challenges following approval of $170 million in federal funds for water crisis response in Flint is healing the community's doubts about its public servants. Nelson voiced...
Follow up: state official reacts to local call for more aid, recalls early federal reluctance
By Jan Worth-Nelson Contacted after Flint Mayor Karen Weaver and the city's congressional delegation called for the State of Michigan to contribute more to the city's water crisis recovery efforts, Richard Baird, senior advisor to Governor Rick Snyder and...
U.S. House Committee closes investigation of Flint water crisis
The investigation of the Flint water crisis in Washington D.C. has been closed. Here's Congressman Kildee's response. Statement by Congressman Dan Kildee on Flint Congressional Hearings Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) issued the following statement today after the U.S....
Key players for Flint celebrate federal funds, pledge speedy pipe replacement
By Jan Worth-Nelson A smiling quintet of powerful Flint champions assembled at the Riverfront Center in downtown Flint today to celebrate approval last week of a $170 million aid package passed by Congress to address the Flint water crisis. They also clearly called...
LA comics remember their Michigan hometowns in benefit for Flint
By Jan Worth-Nelson A group of comedians with Michigan roots remembered their home state Thursday night in Los Angeles, performing a benefit in response to the Flint water crisis. According to event organizer Sarah Halstead, the event at the Flappers Comedy Club in...
Water infrastructure act vote drew bipartisan support, opposition
By Jan Worth-Nelson Last night's Senate passage of the Water Infrastructure Improvement for the Nation (WiiN) Act, S.612, with a vote of 78-21 drew a mix of Republications and Democrats on each side. Runner-up primary presidential candidate Bernie Sanders of Vermont,...
Mayor Weaver celebrates federal act approval, calls for state to do more
Flint Mayor Karen Weaver released the following statement this morning following the Friday night approval by the U.S. Senate of the $170 million infrastructure act including $100 million for Flint: “I am thrilled that the U.S. Senate has passed a $170 million package...
