For nearly half a century, Flint, Michigan (The Vehicle City) has been what we will describe as a struggling city that has been in the intensive care unit, on and off life support.
Flint earned its nickname “Vehicle City” because from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century it was a leading manufacturer of automobiles. General Motors was the city’s leading employer at the time. At its height, GM employed around 80,000 workers. Between 1973 and 1987, GM’s directors eliminated 26,000 local jobs, increasing Flint’s unemployment rate. And by 2010, GM employed roughly 8,000 workers.
The economic impact that this loss of employment caused to the city of Flint was like a ripple effect that impacted every segment of the city’s infrastructure: jobs, housing, schools, hospitals, transportation, roads, bridges, water and wastewater, energy, and cultural and social services. Pretty much everything. This devastation also impacted the morale and the mental health of the people.
As we stated earlier, the city has been on and off life support and struggling, no gasping, for air.
Many of the city’s residents were forced to leave the city in search of jobs and better opportunities to support their families. In 1960, Flint’s population peaked at around 200,000. In 2010, the city’s population was roughly 100,000. And in 2024, the population is around 80,000.
Is It Possible to Breathe New Life Into the City?
Yes, I believe it is. But it’s going to take commitment, hard work, ingenuity, innovation, and everyone working together (key word) to rebuild the city to its full potential. And what a potential I envision for the city of Flint, and its current and future residents.
I see Flint as a model for other failing cities to pattern themselves after as an example of how to bring a city back from the brink of destruction to a prosperous and successful new dawn.
I also see Flint as a bastion of innovation, entrepreneurship, cultural expression, civic and community engagement, youth leadership, and political activism.
My Family, My Story
In 1978-1979, my mom and dad packed up their young family and moved them from Memphis, Tennessee to Flint, Michigan in search of better opportunities and economic advancement.
My siblings and I didn’t know what to expect when we arrived in Flint. But we quickly adjusted to our new environment and settled into our new life in Flint. We enrolled into school, quickly found a new church home, and happily welcomed new friends into our orbit.
Flint was a bustling city around this time. As you drove around the city you were inspired by the beautiful and well-kept homes, the corner stores that my family and I loved to frequent, the many resources that were set up to keep young minds and active bodies motivated and excited, and the many schools (elementary through high school) that provided a decent education to its many young prodigies.
The public schools in Flint offered an array of skilled trade courses that were intended to supply students with tangible skills that they could utilize in finding employment later in life that would provide economic stability for them and their family. These skilled trades included things such as woodshop classes, home economics classes, and the Genesee Area Skill Center. The Genesee Area Skill Center was a career training center that provided students with hands-on learning in high-demand fields that prepared students for immediate entry into the workforce upon completion.
As I mentioned earlier, my family found a local church when we moved to Flint where we could come together and worship with fellow spiritually-minded brothers and sisters. The church is often the nucleus of the Black family, and provides one of the critical foundations for building and sustaining a stable home in the Black community.
Other critical foundations include stable jobs and businesses, physical health and wellness, mental vitality, nutritional support, along with some of the external infrastructures we talked about earlier (housing, schools, hospitals, transportation, water, energy etc.).
So, as you can imagine, after living in Flint for many years when it was blessed with a thriving economy, and having a front-row seat to witness the city’s decline into what you see today as you drive around the city was devastating for a native Flintstonian to watch. Blight, poverty, increased crime rates, abandoned structures, and a crumbling and failing infrastructure is what you are greeted with as you drive around the city.
You also see hopelessness and despair on the faces of the residents of the city. You sense that the current residents feel a sense of abandonment as they feel like their local government, the federal government, and now the entire world has abandoned them to die a slow and painful death. (I say the entire world because the eyes of the world were briefly tuned to Flint because of the Flint Water Crises that drew national attention to the hurting city. But we will talk more about this later.)
Even though the city and residents have been abandoned, the infrastructure is crumbling, and the local economy is barely surviving, I see hope. I see hope for the restoration and the revitalization of the city of Flint, Michigan. And I see Flint becoming a thriving and bustling city again that its residents, and the world, can be proud of.
I Propose a 6-Point Strategy to Get Flint Started on The Road to Restoration.
1. Investment In The People
In business, you need people (customers) to make a business run. You need a great product or service, and you need the infrastructure in place by which to provide your product or service to the customer. Without either of these, your business will not be successful.
Likewise, for a city to be successful you need people (residents), you need something tangible in place (your product or service) that the residents want and need in order to keep living and investing in the city, and you need an infrastructure in place to meet the needs of the residents, and to sustain the city.
Just like my family, many people packed up their lives, and their family, and made their way to Flint, Michigan in the 19th and 20th century in search of opportunities, and stability for their family. Flint was once the envy of many. It had a growing economy, promise of a good job and stable housing, and the potential for a good education for students enrolled in the Flint school system.
So, people are one of the foundations on which to grow and sustain an amazing city, and even a great country. Therefore, I feel that money and resources invested properly into people will never be a bad investment.
The primary focus with people should be in wealth building, education, skilled trades, technological training, innovation, conflict resolution, nutritional support, mental and physical health, community engagement, and building a strong family structure, to name a few.
I see in people the ability to create, to innovate, to invent. I am always in awe of people’s ability to come up with concepts and ideas that no one has ever thought of before. I am often awe-inspired when I see someone create a clever and useful invention that either solves a problem or makes someone’s life, or a specific task, easier.
If I can be completely transparent with you, I’ve been driving now for over 35 years. So, I’m very familiar with automobiles. But every now and then when I get into my car, I think about how amazing it is that I can get into my car, put my key into the ignition and start it up, put my car in drive, press my foot on the gas pedal and drive anywhere I want to go. I think to myself that it is simply amazing that someone came up with the idea to create a device that someone can use to transport themselves from Point A to Point B. Before the invention of the automobile, we had the original “horse power” that we used to transport ourselves from Point A to Point B. The kind we let graze in our field, and sleep in our barn.
And then you have that great invention called the airplane. Someone decided that travel by ground was not good enough. They had the bright idea to make it possible for people to be transported by air travel. Hence, they started tinkering with ways to come up with a contraption to accomplice this feat. And after trial and error they were successful. We are now able to be transported with greater speed through air travel. Simply amazing.
This shows you that with the right mindset, a good amount of imagination, the right amount of resources, the right amount of time, and the desire to create something new and different there is no limit to what the human mind can create and accomplish.
I am often inspired by hearing someone’s story of having a dream and then one day being able to make that dream a reality, completely changing the trajectory of their lives, and their finances (usually from lack to plenty). This kind of imagination, motivation, and drive needs to be encouraged. And, it needs to be invested in.
We should seek to attract, and keep, these kinds of imaginative, motivated, innovative, creative, hard-working, and driven-to-succeed people to our city. This is definitely what is needed in Flint to help us change the downward spiral of Flint into a fast-moving, upward-moving city full of progress and growth, for the good of the city and its residents.
The truth of the matter is that not everyone is wired for college. Not everyone is wired to work a 9 to 5 job for the rest of their lives (however, we will talk about jobs next). As a matter of fact, to be brutally honest, some of us have worked these kinds of 9 to 5 jobs all of our lives and have very little to show for it. We find ourselves working hard on these jobs, and some of us are often mistreated on these same jobs. Some of us find that we are making considerably less that our co-workers doing the same job as us. And, not to mention you work all of your life making someone else rich, when you could be working extra hard to build your own wealth, to build your own business or brand.
We need to encourage people to be entrepreneurs, business owners, innovators, inventors and creators. Not only can you build generational wealth for yourself and your family, you can also find satisfaction in doing the work that most inspires you and motivates you to get out of bed every morning, and that keeps you working hard at it until you succeed. Because, there will be times when you are not successful in a business endeavor. But as all successful entrepreneurs will tell you, you have to fail your way to success.
There is always room for one more successful entrepreneur, one more successful business, and one more game-changing invention. So, an investment in people often pays great dividends in the end. This is what Flint needs to help boost its economy. That being said, let’s talk now about jobs.
2. Investment In Good Jobs
I am in no way anti-jobs. I believe that any good city needs a variety of good jobs where people can have the assurance of a steady paycheck, and the ability to provide support for their family. A good paying job keeps a roof over your head. A good job keeps food on your table. A good job makes it possible to provide needed healthcare for your family. A good job keeps money flowing through the community, which helps stabilize the local economy.
But jobs are not generally the vehicle to build generational wealth. Entrepreneurship and business ownership is the tried-and-true method that is most likely to help you build generational wealth (along with homeownership).
My experience with jobs and wealth building has always been a slow and tedious process. You may be able to save up one day for a down payment to purchase a home, but then you almost always have to take out a mortgage to do so. Now the thing I am “anti” is anti-debt. I hate debt. Because debt is often suffocating, and it puts you in a subservient position to the lender. In fact, the Bible clearly states that the borrower is servant to the lender. The lender pretty much owns you, and the item they are holding as collateral, until you can pay off the debt. And God forbid you lose your income, have a medical or health crisis, or something else catastrophic happens while you are still indebted to the lender. This could turn your whole world upside down, and put you in financial ruin. So, I’m really in favor of having multiple streams of income; and that could include a 9 to 5 job.
People are always looking for good jobs. If the word gets out that there are good jobs in a certain city this is usually the thing that will attract new workers to your city. This is what happened in the 19th and 20th century when word spread across the country that there were good factory jobs in Flint. These people helped contribute to the booming economy that Flint enjoyed for many years.
Flint had the look of a successful city back in the day. People were working those good factory jobs at General Motors. And the thing about it is that you didn’t need a college degree at the time to get in. This made it possible for people to pull themselves up and make their ascent to the middle-class. This made people feel good. Being able to support yourself and pay your bills does a lot for your psyche. People were able to live a comfortable life in Flint, and the city prospered because of it.
The days of Flint being the auto capital of the world are over. But there is an opportunity for new industries to take root in Flint. All we need is the proper leadership, imagination, partnerships, capital investment, and hard-working people to make it happen.
I am a firm believer that nothing is impossible. We can, and will, move Flint in the right direction. Are there any other believers out there?
3. Investment In Fixing The Infrastructure
I never said that any of this would be easy. Nothing in life ever really is if you think about it. But with a good plan in place, people willing to roll up their sleeves and work together, and an influx of capital investment we can make it happen.
We talked earlier about Flint’s crumbling infrastructure. Flint is becoming a food desert in certain parts of the city. Several years ago, my family had at least three or four grocery stores near us that we could choose from to purchase our groceries. Today, certain parts of the city have witnessed the grocery stores in their neighborhood close one by one. So, in order to get the food they need to feed their family, instead of maybe driving two to five miles to the nearest grocery store, the nearest grocery store is now at least 15 to 20 miles away, or more. So, if you are not blessed to have a car to travel the 15+ miles to the nearest grocery store, you have to struggle to find a way to get the food you need for your family’s nourishment. For many, it’s a pain trying to catch a city bus across town just to get groceries.
So what do you do? What are your other options? The residents of Flint deserve to have access to food. We need to do all we can to re-establish affordable grocers in the neighborhoods in Flint to meet the needs of a growing nourishment-starved city.
Growing up in the ’80’s, Flint had multiple public schools to service the community. But many of those public schools have since closed their doors as students, and their families, have moved away in search of jobs and stability. I’m not really sure how many public schools are in Flint today but reports are that you can count them on one hand.
There needs to be a resurgence in educational training in Flint, and in providing Flint students with a quality education to help propel them to greatness. An investment in young minds early on will pay off in the end.
Next, there must be an investment in blight removal in the city of Flint. Several years ago, there was a move to tear down abandoned and crumbling homes and buildings throughout the city of Flint. Some residents were forced to live next to homes that were either burnt out, or just so badly neglected that the home just started falling down around them. This does nothing for the beautification of the neighborhood, or for your property value to have boarded up and burnt-out structures next to your home, or in your neighborhood. We must jumpstart the economy in Flint, and start that money flowing through the community again so that we can do things like build and maintain the beautiful homes Flint was once known for.
I lived in Illinois for a few years. And I just remember the contrast in the two states when you crossed the state lines from Illinois to Michigan, and from Michigan back over into Illinois. I knew immediately when I had crossed over into Michigan because the roads were noticeably worse than the roads in Illinois. You got the sign welcoming you to Michigan, and you also got the bad roads welcoming you to Michigan, with a great rumble. I had learned to brace myself, and my car, to travel on Michigan roads. The roads were awful.
The roads, and a city and state’s infrastructure, are a reflection on that city and state. And Michigan’s bad roads spoke volumes about the condition of Michigan’s economic wellness at the time. People notice things like the condition the roads are in when they are thinking about relocating to a particular city or state. Let me just say, the roads were not very welcoming. And, it left a negative imprint on me. A good infrastructure matters. And having safe roads to drive on matter. Flint roads matter!
This is one of the things we have to address when we start rebuilding Flint into the powerhouse I see it becoming in the future. Safe roads for all! Anybody with me?
I worked at Hurley Medical Center for several years in the late ’80’s and early ’90’s. This was a job I had fresh out of high school. Hurley was one of the city’s main hospitals, and still is today. Every city needs a fully-functioning hospital and medical care facilities to provide valuable, and often life-saving, care to the people of the city.
Health and wellness are critical to keeping a city’s residents healthy and well. We need to make healthcare affordable and accessible to ALL – not just the privileged few. In addition to providing affordable healthcare, we also need to focus on mental health, environmental health, air quality, and clean and safe drinking water (which Flint is currently lacking, 10 years out from the nationally-known Flint water crisis). This all factors in when we talk about desiring for our city to be a healthy city, which is my desire for Flint.
Since I briefly touched on it, I think now is a good time to talk about clean water – which everyone deserves. In 2014, there was a crisis brewing in Flint, Michigan. It was uncovered by residents that their water was not safe when they started noticing the color, and odor, of the water coming out of their taps.
Flint had been put under Emergency Management in 2011, and it were these emergency managers who made the fateful decision in 2014 to switch Flint’s water source from the Detroit water system, to the Flint water system – which was a system that had not been operable for many years, and in no way ready to take on the responsibility of providing safe drinkable water to the residents of Flint.
Flint’s water was not treated, and the people who made the decision to use this unclean water source were well aware of it, in my opinion. Yet, they made the switch anyway and started using the Flint River as the city’s water source. And this was what was being sent through the pipes and into the homes throughout the city of Flint, for a year and a half until the switch was made back to the Detroit River. But by then the damage had been done. The people had been using, drinking, bathing and cooking with this poisoned water for almost two years. And to this date, 10 years later, no one has been held accountable for this deadly action. Side note: BUT THEY WILL BE!! I know that it looks like everyone responsible were allowed to skate free from the responsibility of their actions, but I firmly believe that ALL responsible parties will be held accountable in the end.
The people of the city of Flint matter. These are real people, with real lives, that no one really gave a darn about because to them these people were insignificant and dispensable. Well, the people (the human beings) of Flint are not dispensable. And, they deserve to have restitution for the harm that was done to them. And restitution includes accountability for the ones responsible for this crisis of humanity.
So, Flint needs to repair all the lead service lines, all the water lines under the streets, and all the plumbing in the homes. Because all of this was affected by the poisoned water that was sent so haphazardly and recklessly into people’s homes. Until this is done, the problem has not been resolved. And 10 years later, this still has not been done.
Further, I think that the residents of Flint should receive free universal healthcare to address all the health issues that resulted from drinking and using the poisoned water. There also needs to be a system in place to zero out the past due water bills that backed up because either the people couldn’t afford to pay it, or because they refused to pay for poisoned water. (Would you want to pay for water you couldn’t use?) And the city needs to remove the liens they recently placed on people’s homes due to them having past due water bills. This is nothing more than a government scheme to steal people’s homes, as the government has been known to do to certain groups of people.
The residents of Flint need to be made whole. And we won’t stop, or shut up, until they are. To find out more about the Flint Water Crisis, go here, and here for more.
There also needs to be an investment in rehabbing the emergency 911 system, city emergency vehicles, and in providing a fully-staffed, fully-trained police department. Residents often complain about calling 911 for police to show up to either a shooting or some other emergency and no one ever shows up. Or, they show up several hours later. This is unacceptable. If an emergency is occurring right now you need emergency services right now, not several hours later.
And my understanding is that Flint currently only has one ambulance in which to provide services to the entire city of Flint. And if that wasn’t bad enough, the personnel who staff the ambulance are not even certified to dispense medicine. So if you are having a health emergency, and you are so lucky to have the ambulance show up the only thing they can do is transport you to the nearest hospital. They are not equipped to administer to you any life-saving drugs, which could often be the difference between life and death. So in essence, they are just a cab service; a high-priced Uber service.
Flint needs a police department they can trust, and emergency services that they can depend on. There needs to be an investment in recruiting, training, and keeping quality officers. Now this isn’t too much to ask, is it?
Flint is also in desperate need of city services such as trash pickup, sidewalk and street repair. These are basic things you need to keep a city running. Again, there needs to be an investment in water and sewer services. Any great city needs a way to provide clean water to homes and businesses and dispose of wastewater.
Flint’s infrastructure has been neglected for too long, and is in desperate need of a little TLC.
4. Investment In a Qualified and Fully-Functioning Local Government
The current leadership in place in Flint has proven itself to be corrupt, and have a total disregard and distain for the people. The very people they, as public servants, are supposed to serve. But many, as in any corrupt government, have been busy serving themselves, their friends, and their benefactors with the tax-payers’ hard-earned money. This money could be used to better some of the city services we talked about earlier, and make the lives of the residents better, but instead they seem to be only focused on making their own lives better, at the expense of the people.
It’s like the residents are being violated over and over again. First, with the pull out of General Motors from the city, and the city falling into economic decline; then with the man-made and very deliberate water crisis; and now with the continual violations, including civil rights violations, human rights violations, misuse and mismanagement of city resources, and the total disregard for the human capital in Flint.
Now, how many of you think that if Flint were a predominantly white city that any of this would have happened? I’ll wait… We all know it wouldn’t have happened, and certainly not to the scale that it happened in Flint. But Flint is a predominantly Black city, and a poor city. So people feel really comfortable treating Black people in a way that they would never treat white people.
It’s almost like the previous mayor, emergency managers, and the current local government felt (feel) almost certain (confident, cocky) that they could do this to Black people and not suffer any consequences. They knew, and know, that Black people are in fact the least protected class in the United States. Black people have had to endure unimaginable suffering, for 400 years, in America at the hands of racist white people who have tried to diminish Black people as inferior, inhuman, and therefore dispensable.
This is why I make the case for making Black people of African descent a protected class in America (read more here). We need to stop this type of entitled disregard for the suffering of Black people. And the monetary gain that is made, and passed down from generation to generation, off the suffering of Black people. But my question is: does our government have the courage to provide these types of desperately needed protections to Black people?
The local, state, and federal governments have all neglected Flint. It’s almost like they are trying their best to kill us off and starve us out so they can take (steal) all of our homes and land (this is a pattern of racism) in order to enrich themselves even more off the backs of Black people in America.
But, have you noticed how resilient Black people are? 400 years of racial oppression – and we’re still standing. Our ancestors being stolen from their land and families and brought in chains to this hateful and racist land to be forced to work for free for others as they enrich themselves off of our blood, sweat, and tears – and yet, we’re still standing.
Being begrudgingly released from almost 250 years of enslavement only to have to suffer the horrors of the Jim Crow era, predominantly in the South – but we’re still standing. Being treated more harshly in the American justice system (and often for crimes we knowingly did not commit) than our white counterparts – but we’re still standing.
Having our wealth, property, intellectual property stolen from us for many years, stripping away from us billions of dollars’ worth of generational wealth – and yet, we’re still standing.
Everything that was done to us, in the name of empowering and enriching the white man at our expense, to destroy us has actually made us stronger. We’ve been conditioned through the systemic racism to be stronger, more resilient, and more courageous despite our chains. It hasn’t killed us at all, it’s only made us stronger.
This whole racist system needs to be torn down. Dismantled. And put to death once and for all. Because not only has it hurt Black people, it’s also hurt white people, in my opinion. Even though they’ve made off with a boatload of stolen loot, this evil system can’t stand forever, as we see it slowly being dismantled. But if this is the only thing white people have to stand on what are they going to do when it finally comes crashing down, for good? What will they have then to hold them up? If you’ve been given everything through a corrupt system, what will you do when you actually have to earn what you get on your own merit? With the same blood, sweat, and tears that Black people have had to earn everything they have, which is so little because of a racist system?
Because of racism white people haven’t been conditioned for strength and perseverance through hardship the way Black people have. They haven’t had to build up their resilience while being forced to use the resistance of oppression, like resistance bands around their ankles. They haven’t had to build up their mental strength the way Black people have. Because sometimes when your physical strength wanes your mental strength kicks in and helps you to get over that last hurdle.
So in this way, white people have been harmed by this system of racism just as much as Black people have been harmed by it. Again, it’s time to tear down this hateful system. America could be much further ahead, and not falling back in the world, if it wasn’t so doggedly clinging onto the system of racism, like a school of fish lying on the beach, violently thrashing around gasping for their last dying breath.
But I digress a little, now back to Flint. The local government in Flint has proven itself to be corrupt, fueled by the same racist system that has dominated the United States since its conception. And for the record, racism often has a white face to it, but we all know that sometimes it can have a Black face attached to it. Anyone, no matter your race, can subscribe to the system of racism in order to enrich themselves. But what doesn’t change are the faces of the oppressed. They are always Black and brown faces. This never changes.
The current hustle in Flint is 501(c)(3)s. People know they can set up a 501(c)(3) in the name of “helping the community,” and funnel hundreds, thousands, and millions of dollars of taxpayer dollars through them.
Flint, Michigan received $94.7 million in ARPA funding by the federal government. The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was provided to certain poor and underserved communities to aid public health and economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The money was intended to be used by local governments to aid their communities’ growth and recovery from the devastating effects of COVID. But it seems the current mayor and his administration, and the city council apparently had other plans for this money.
Very little, if any of the ARPA money actually reached the community. It seems it was being used for payoffs, bribes, political favors, and some of it was seemingly even stuffed into the pockets of local government officials. You can watch the Flint City Council meetings online, and you will see the public pleading week after week with their council representatives for help.
There is no doubt that the residents of Flint have been badly impacted by the man-made water crisis, and then the COVID-19 pandemic. And the federal government sent those ARPA funds to the community to provide assistance to the community, but sadly very little, if any, of that money has reached the community as of this date. The Flint city government seems to have a total disdain and disregard for the people they swore to represent and serve. They seem to get pleasure in watching them suffer. Not to mention the many documented civil rights violations being inflicted on the residents inside city council chambers, and on government property. This needs to change. The residents of Flint deserve better. And we are going to do all we can do to make sure that they get better representation from their public servants. So help me God.
Bottom line: we are going to take back our city from those who have no desire to serve the people, root out the corruption, and hold everyone accountable for all the harm they have inflicted on the people of Flint. Everyone will be held accountable because in that you’ve done it to the “least of these,” you’ve done it to God.
5. Investment In Racial Equity and Creating a “No Gentrification Zone”
None of what happened in Flint would have happened without the codification of racism into our laws – specifically against Black people. This kind of institutional, and state sanctioned, racism has done more to target melanated people for racism, bigotry, and discrimination. White people feel comfortable targeting melanated people with their racial animus to make themselves feel big and more powerful. This is all evil and ungodly. It goes against everything God stands for, and represents. Yet it is the prevailing mood of the country, that gets passed down from generation after generation, without any human-like regard for the people it harms. Where does this type of evil come from?
I mentioned earlier that I envision Flint being a shining example to the rest of the country of what a premier city can look like if we would work strategically to right all the wrongs that have been done to the former and current residents of the city of Flint. To turn Flint from a hopelessly failing city to a city of hope robust with economic stability, innovation, industrious and revolutionary new industries, and a community of like-minded people who work together, with pride, to make their city an overwhelming success.
In order to do this, we must be committed to rooting out, and keeping out, institutional racism. Flint must have the mantra: “Not In Our Town. Not Ever.” when it comes to racial hatred and discrimination, and mean it to the point where we are committed to doing something about it when we see racism rear its ugly head in our town. Because racism is harmful to everyone! It does more to hold us back as a city, and a country, than anything else man could ever think of.
I watch countries like China start to pull away and pull ahead of us in the U.S. when it comes to technological advancement, and educational standards. We’re so busy trying to keep people from reading certain books that we consider “harmful” rather than encouraging people to enlighten themselves through reading; and reading lots of books on different perspectives as a way to broaden their own perspectives of the world.
A brief note on book banning: with the book banning movement I see them trying to make white people the new “slaves.” And what I mean by this is that during the period when America had Black people of African descent enslaved on this land, the enslavers strictly forbade Blacks from reading – as a way to keep them ignorant, uneducated, and therefore easily manipulated. Today, whites are being forbidden to read certain books as a way to keep them ignorant, uneducated, and therefore easily manipulated. It’s just another form of modern-day slavery, but this time with white people as the intended target. If you are ignorant, it’s hard for you to be free. And who wouldn’t want to be free? Everyone wants to be free!
I believe Flint should be a city where we have a “no gentrification” zone. The evil strategy to gentrify Flint should be banned from within our city borders. What is gentrification? Gentrification is the process of displacing current residents out of poor urban areas and moving in wealthier people, improving housing, improving schools/education, and providing access to essential things like food, clean water, good jobs, and desirable housing.
There is a belief that there are plans underway to gentrify the city of Flint. With the idea being to starve out, and kill off, the current poor Black residents that remain in the city. The poisoned water that was pumped into the city for almost two years being one of the attempts to kill off the current Black residents in order to take over (steal) all of their land, and move wealthier, more desirable, white people in. Evil. Pure evil. (The love of money is the root of all evil.)
I am committed to making Flint a no gentrification zone. We will rebuild the city, but we will not allow it to be rebuilt without the Black residents who contributed a lot to make Flint what it once was. Black people have just as much right to live comfortably in Flint as anyone else. Enough of the racist practices of gentrifying a city, to the destruction of Black and brown people. We need to find a way to keep the current residents residing in the city of Flint, and invest in them to help improve their lives. And both of us, Black and white, can work together harmoniously to rebuild the city of Flint into a shining city upon a hill.
Not in our town! Not ever!
6. Investment In Righting the Wrong and the Irreparable Harm Caused By the Man-Made Disaster, the Flint Water Crisis
Here we are, 10 years out from the Flint Water Crisis and you have some leading voices trying to convince everyone that the damage caused by the water crisis has been fully repaired. And, they try and silence everyone inside, and outside, the city who are screaming with loud voices, “No, the water is not fixed.”
If you talk to residents today, they will tell you that they still have brown and smelly water coming out of their faucets. They will tell you that they are still breaking out in rashes all over their body when they use the water to bathe. They will tell you that they are suffering from hair breakage and hair loss when they use the water to wash their hair. And, you will hear heart-wrenching stories of people who have been diagnosed with aggressive forms of cancer since they were first exposed to the poisoned water (there are reports that cancer in the city of Flint is up 300%). You will hear about the cases of Legionnaires’ disease, the behavioral problems kids are experiencing since becoming exposed to the poisoned water, and the decrease in the quality of life as a result of exposure to lead.
The water is not fixed until you replace all the pipes. The lead service lines leading into the homes, the pipes under the streets, and the plumbing inside the homes. All of this came in contact with poisoned water and became rusted and defective because of the problem, causing for the water flowing into the home to be corrupted. Yes, this will take time and resources. But this is the cost of making harmful and deadly decisions while playing Russian roulette with people’s lives. And they’ve had 10 years to fix the problem, and it’s still not fixed.
At this point, the federal government needs to step in. A national disaster needs to be declared in Flint, and the government needs to throw every possible resource into fixing the problem, and addressing the irreparable damage done to the people.
There needs to be independent testing of the lead levels in the water, so the local government cannot continue to manipulate the test results to fit a narrative that they are trying to put out about the condition of the water.
There needs to be a complete removal and replacement of all the pipes outside of, and the ones inside the home.
There needs to be a zeroing out of past due water bills, and a moratorium on the city’s current plans to raise the water rates for the residents to generate more revenue to make up for the mismanagement of city funds, in my opinion. And their plan to place liens on the homes of those with past due water bills (as a way to steal the homes of the residents and push them deeper into poverty).
There needs to be a complete and thorough investigation into the cover-up as to who was responsible for this man-made disaster, and those responsible need to be held accountable for their actions. Because no one is above the law. If you break the law, you should be held accountable under the law.
There needs to be free universal healthcare for all residents of Flint so that they can finally get the adequate care they need to address the many physical and mental issues they suffer from as a result of this disaster.
Flint has always been a lovely city to live and work in. Yes, it’s had its share of problems – others of which we have not addressed here in this space. But I feel that there is hope to resuscitate the city, bring it back to life, turn this city around, and start the trajectory back upwards again.
With the right minds, the right leadership, the right plan, and the right amount of resources Flint can be made whole again. I just feel that nothing is impossible once you set your mind to it, and are willing to roll up your sleeves and put in some hard work. I am invested in seeing Flint become a successful and prosperous city once again. For the benefit of all who live and work there.
I intentionally did not put a timetable on this revitalization plan for Flint, Michigan because these are just my initial thoughts and vision to get us started thinking about a more detailed plan that we can work with to revitalize and restore Flint to greatness. I definitely think that a more detailed and strategic plan needs to be mapped out where we come together and map out realistic and achievable goals by which to make the needed fixes in the appropriate stages.
This endeavor will require an “all hands on deck” approach. It’s almost like a rebirth of a city. Flint went through its initial birth in the early 19th century when early fragments of the city were first being built to make it into the automotive powerhouse that it would eventually become. And through the course of time, the disinvestment in the city, the abandonment of the city, the poisoning of the city, and then the second abandonment of the city, Flint suffered an untimely death. But, through this effort we are trying to stimulate and revive the city back to greatness. If Jesus can raise Lazarus back to life after he had been dead for three days, surely we can raise Flint back to life after it had been buried and laid to rest. I just believe that nothing is impossible. And when nothing is impossible, the possible is possible.
And when nothing is impossible, the possible is possible.
We welcome everyone who desire to help with this massive undertaking, whether you live inside or outside of Flint. There are so many people who are not residents of Flint who love Flint and want nothing but the best for it. We will need your help as well.
I am eager to hear your thoughts on the restoration and revitalization of Flint. Are you familiar with Flint? If so, in what way? And would you be willing to commit to helping us restore Flint back to greatness?
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