Category: Analysis
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Five years after move, Flint Farmers’ Market thriving, addressing challenges
By Jan Worth-Nelson You can get almost every element of the good life at the Flint Farmers’ Market: fresh asparagus, triple cream brie, Michigan strawberries and tomatoes in season, premier pinot noir, flaky croissants. You can pick up locally-made honey, sauerkraut for your upset gut, Lake Superior stones to dangle from your wrists or earrings.…
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Nine hours, shouting match, two resolutions, one fail, “restoration” plans incomplete
By Tom Travis and Jan Worth-Nelson Editor’s Note: This story has been updated on July 23 to clarify that Ninth Ward Councilperson Eva Worthing was temporarily out of the room during the vote on the Goyette resolution. She said she would have noted “no,” That vote would not have changed the outcome. In a nearly…
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“Restoration” of sidewalks and lawns post-pipe replacement turns into labyrinth of delays
By Jan Worth-Nelson and Tom Travis When will the residents of Flint get their lawns and sidewalks restored following three years of water pipe excavations and replacement? The answer to that, yet another sign of how elusive “closure” can be in the years’ long community water crisis, is apparently — eventually. Like many other aspects…
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MTA specialized programs “a blessing,” offering expanding services to Flint
By Madeleine Graham My life changed when my car broke, and I did not have the funds to repair it. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) started when I missed a flight, and then I boarded a wrong bus in Washington State. Fortunately with a lot of friends and family support, I made it back to…
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Art Walk Scene: Hip-hop, pop-ups, ice cream, art–downtown’s alive
By Tom Travis Entering the Flint Art Walk Friday night at Third Street and Saginaw, you hear the sounds of hip-hop and R&B. An open mic is provided for anyone brave enough to try a song on karaoke–though nobody’s there yet in the early evening sunlight. Right away, you’re greeted by various vendors participating in…
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Kildee, Mays and Johnson discuss Flint water crisis at WDET panel
By Paul Rozycki According to U.S. Congressman Dan Kildee (5th District), obtaining justice for the Flint water crisis requires that those responsible be “held liable for the damage, that the basic water infrastructure be repaired, that residents be charged a fair price for their water and the health issues of the community be addressed.” Those…
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Book Review: “American Dialogue” offers indispensable conversation between “then” and “now”
By Robert R. Thomas In assessing the here and now, history offers an indispensable perspective. American Dialogue is an enlightening example. As author and historian Joseph Ellis puts it, “The study of history is an ongoing conversation between past and present from which we all have much to learn.” Subtitled The Founders and Us, his book’s…
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Village Life: A raptor crash heralded my life with birds
By Teddy Robertson Smack! The front legs of my chair leave the floor, my hands pop off the laptop keyboard; I jerk backward. A split second, then a tinkling sound ripples over my left shoulder. I turn and look: in the storm window beside me fissures radiate outward as if pushed by an invisible hand. …
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Commentary: A funny thing happened on the way to the election
By Paul Rozycki Note: This column has been updated for a correction via City Clerk Inez Brown: it was the city’s Finance Department that initially omitted the $320,000 in the budget for this year’s election, not the City Council–Ed. For most cities, villages, and townships, an election is a pretty routine thing. Candidates file, their…
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Education Beat: Admin shakeups, contracts highlight end of year for Flint Community Schools
By Harold C. Ford “Our buildings are not worthy of the children that enter them…There are lots of people who have been paid to do lots of things that have not done the things they were paid to do.” …Derrick Lopez, Superintendent, Flint Community Schools Administrative shakeups and the approval of ten service contracts highlighted…
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