Flint Public Art Project, Spencer’s Art House leadership changes in Carriage Town
By Lori Nelson Savage The February meeting of the Carriage Town Historic Neighborhood Association focused on a review of the community improvement projects affecting the area. Projects discussed included Chevy Commons, Hamilton Dam, Spencer’s Art House, the Statue...
City water bill refunds to start soon: 65% from April 2014 “until the water is safe to drink”
Within the last few days, Flint residents received text messages announcing the launch of the $30 million water bill refund program recently approved and funded by the state legislature and signed by Governor Snyder Feb. 26. Here is the text as it was sent on Sunday,...
Street light upgrades, zoning changes, water supply highlight CPNA meeting
by Nic Custer The Central Park Neighborhood Association discussed grant applications for lighting upgrades, mobile meetings, Riverside Tabernacle playscape improvements, Kearsley Street zoning and water distribution updates at their February meeting Norma Sain,...
Syracuse, New York galvanizes city-wide response to Flint’s water woes; Buffalo joins, too
By Stacie Scherman Four hundred miles away from Flint, Daren Jaime, pastor of the People’s AME Zion Church of Syracuse, New York, recently “had a vision in the middle of the night” about helping Flint residents cope with the water crisis. The next morning he reached...
“Rebuild Flint” marchers pass by Karegnondi Pipeline, call for infrastructure, justice
By Nic Custer In the shadow of the former Buick City industrial complex and passing by pipes waiting to be installed in the Karegnondi pipeline, hundreds of diverse local and out of town activists marched a mile from the Metropolitan Baptist Church to the Flint Water...
Coneys and Vernors in Beverly Hills: Hollywood comes through for Flint
By Jan Worth-Nelson About 200 people, half of them declaring they were from Flint, came together Sunday afternoon at Spaghettini's in Beverly Hills, California, to raise money for Flint in the wake of its water disaster. By the end of the evening, which featured...
Byrd Competition stars 26 stringed-instrument musicians March 5
By Anne Trelfa Violins, violas and cellos will star March 5 at the Flint Institute of Music in a day of performance by 26 young musicians that is free and open to the public. The 45th annual international William C. Byrd Young Artist Competition will run from 8:45...
Politics of water: blame game, grandstanding, incompetence — and a turning point?
By Paul Rozycki At the end of last year, after our mayoral election, our switch back to Detroit water, and the progress on the Karegnondi pipeline, it seemed that the Flint Water Crisis has peaked. This month I was expecting to say a few words about the primary...
Water crisis not a “death blow,” Ananich tells neighborhood group
By Lori Nelson Savage Flint’s water emergency, its effect on neighborhood housing and a need to upgrade the tennis courts at Woodlawn Park ignited discussion at the January College Cultural Neighborhood Association (CCNA) meeting. “I don’t think this is a death...
Fluttered away like a pack of cards: reflections on Alice in Wonderland and adulthood
By Teddy Robertson When I was about eight years old I was very sick with a fever that must have been unusually high. What caused it or what my mother and grandmother surmised it might be, I don’t remember now. But I was in bed in a dark room, restless and confused....
As city-wide lead pipe mapping begins, UM-Flint prof explains how to test your water lines
By Nic Custer Two household items – a key and a magnet – and a set of simple observations may help worried Flint residents determine what their water pipes are made of. UM- Flint professor, Martin Kaufman, Department of Earth and Resource Science, told East Village...
Village Life: Can water be made holy again?
By Jan Worth-Nelson In the bleached and bleak light the morning after the Rachel Maddow show, I wake up torpid and head-achey with depression. I know the signs. When I get so down, the molten lava flowing just under that lethargy usually comes down to one hot origin:...
At Luigi’s, Eastsiders “incensed,” “Flint Strong” as Dan Kildee offers hope
Editor's note: EVM board member and contributing writer Bob Thomas was at Luigi's for the "after party" following the Rachel Maddow taping. Above...
Flint’s Water Crisis Followed Us Across the Country
Here is a piece Jan Worth-Nelson submitted to The Daily Breeze in L.A. after arriving in San Pedro last week. .http://www.dailybreeze.com/environment-and-nature/20160119/flints-lead-water-crisis-weighs-on-san-pedro-snowbirds
Literacy Tutor Training Sessions Set
By Anne Trelfa An opportunity to become a certified literacy tutor is being offered by the Genesee County Literacy Coalition starting Jan. 30. The Coalition will train volunteers to help adults learn to read, finish their GED process or learn English as a second...
Free course on water crisis offered by UM – Flint
By Anne Trelfa A free course focused on the Flint water crisis begins Thursday Jan. 21 at 4:30 in the UM – Flint Northbank Center. The UM-Flint Department of Public Health and Health Sciences is offering 8 sessions initially throughout the winter semester. Planners...
Global Film Festival resumes, also features Kildee, Ramsdell, Rao
By Andrew Keast The Global Issues Film Festival continues as usual this month, with another set of cinematic views on people and problems not often covered in the popular media. This, the second half of the Festival’s 14th season, will be held at the McKinnon Theater...
Book Review: Demolition Means Progress: Flint, Michigan and the fate of the American Metropolis by Andrew Highsmith
By Robert R. Thomas Like a twisted love affair in which things are not what they seem, living in Flint can be an extremely disorienting hall of mirrors. For 10 years I have been researching Flint’s history, trying to understand my hometown roots and my current...
Cultural Center plan: Sarvis demolition, Sloan expansion, downtown links
By Nic Custer The Flint Cultural Center Corporation (FCCC) recently updated its master plan with recommendations to demolish the Sarvis Center and several underutilized buildings, connect the street grid, renovate the Sloan Museum, and redesign public spaces between...
Wat’er we expecting for Flint’s water in 2016? Words for the good news and bad
Let’s hope 2016 is the year we drain the lead out and mop up the water mess – so we won’t be flooded with washed-up water metaphors. (Maybe they’ll just dry up and blow away?)
Village Life: One sign leads to another, but does “Love Trump Hate”?
By Jan Worth-Nelson Just to be clear, I can’t stand Donald Trump. Back in the late 80s when I’d just started working at UM-Flint, a colleague of mine and I bonded over our extreme disdain for The Donald – we called him The Fat-fingered Vulgarian. We used to stop each...
“Tens of thousands” damaged by Flint water crisis, class action lawsuit attorneys contend
By Stacie Scherman A class action lawsuit against key figures in the State of Michigan and the City of Flint is likely to ultimately include up to 30,000 households and tens of thousands of residents seeking compensations and damages from the Flint water crisis,...
Village Life: There’s no avoiding family life this season
Column by Jan Worth-Nelson The trouble with holidays, really, is families. The trouble with holidays is how society arm-wrestles us into facing who begat us. Sitting around various dining room tables, the menu rife with clichéd dishes and family histories – and so...
ISIS: What it is–and what it isn’t
By Paul Rozycki Editor's Note: Paul Rozycyki offered EVM this "bonus" column as a local response to the Paris attacks. In light of what happened in San Bernardino and the President's remarks in his Sunday night address to the nation, Rozycki's comments take on even...
The 12 (or 13) Days of Christmas: a wish list for Mayor Weaver
By Paul Rozycki As Mayor Karen Weaver begins her first 100 days in office with a list of ambitious plans for the city, she and the citizens of Flint have a long list of hopes for the upcoming holiday season and beyond. In that light, here’s a proposed wish list...
