The Poisoned City

The Poisoned City PDF

Author: Anna Clark

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Published: 2018-07-10

Total Pages: 321

ISBN-13: 1250125146

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"Recounts the gripping story of Flint's poisoned water through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town, but could also be about any American city, all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure"--

The Flint Water Crisis

The Flint Water Crisis PDF

Author: Michigan Civil Rights Commission

Publisher: Createspace Independent Publishing Platform

Published: 2017-02-17

Total Pages: 138

ISBN-13: 9781546646402

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In January 2016, a series of states of emergency for the City of Flint were declared by the Mayor, the Governor and even the President. These declarations turned the attention of the state and nation to the Flint water crisis. As a result, the state, local and federal governments sprang into action. The National Guard was tasked to assist. FEMA1 sent representatives. Community organizations and non-profits from throughout the state, and even nationally, responded by volunteering, and sending bottled water. The Governor formed Mission Flint, which brought key members of the Administration together weekly, and the Legislature authorized a supplemental budget. Bottled water and water filters were distributed and residents were provided information in multiple languages. It was all hands on deck. From all accounts, the government was operating the way we would expect it to operate in response to an emergency. What then, was the problem? The timing. Preceding this flurry of "state of emergency" activity, Flint residents had been reporting heavily discolored and bad tasting water for well over a year. This report is triggered by the Flint Water Crisis, but in many ways is not just about Flint. This report seeks to outline a broader framework to explain why the crisis occurred and to propose a set of recommendations that minimizes and safeguards against similar crises in the future. Our report is not meant to assess blame, but to help ensure that such a crisis does not occur in the future and to address shortcomings that continue to persist over time.

The Poisoned City

The Poisoned City PDF

Author: Anna Clark

Publisher: Metropolitan Books

Published: 2018-07-10

Total Pages: 288

ISBN-13: 1250125154

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When the people of Flint, Michigan, turned on their faucets in April 2014, the water pouring out was poisoned with lead and other toxins. Through a series of disastrous decisions, the state government had switched the city’s water supply to a source that corroded Flint’s aging lead pipes. Complaints about the foul-smelling water were dismissed: the residents of Flint, mostly poor and African American, were not seen as credible, even in matters of their own lives. It took eighteen months of activism by city residents and a band of dogged outsiders to force the state to admit that the water was poisonous. By that time, twelve people had died and Flint’s children had suffered irreparable harm. The long battle for accountability and a humane response to this man-made disaster has only just begun. In the first full account of this American tragedy, Anna Clark's The Poisoned City recounts the gripping story of Flint’s poisoned water through the people who caused it, suffered from it, and exposed it. It is a chronicle of one town, but could also be about any American city, all made precarious by the neglect of infrastructure and the erosion of democratic decision making. Places like Flint are set up to fail—and for the people who live and work in them, the consequences can be fatal.

Midnight in Vehicle City

Midnight in Vehicle City PDF

Author: Edward McClelland

Publisher: Beacon Press

Published: 2021-02-02

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 0807039683

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Winner of the 2021 Midland Authors Book Award in History In a time of great inequality and a gutted middle class, the dramatic story of “the strike heard around the world” is a testament to what workers can gain when they stand up for their rights. The tumultuous Flint sit-down strike of 1936-1937 was the birth of the United Auto Workers, which set the standard for wages in every industry. Midnight in Vehicle City tells the gripping story of how workers defeated General Motors, the largest industrial corporation in the world. Their victory ushered in the golden age of the American middle class and created a new kind of America, one in which every worker had a right to a share of the company’s wealth. The causes for which the strikers sat down—collective bargaining, secure retirement, better wages—enjoyed a half century of success. But now, the middle class is disappearing and economic inequality is at its highest since before the New Deal. Journalist and historian Edward McClelland brings the action-packed events of the strike back to life—through the voices of those who lived it. In vivid play-by-plays, McClelland narrates the dramatic scenes including of the takeovers of GM plants; violent showdowns between picketers and the police; Michigan governor Frank Murphy’s activation of the National Guard; the actions of the militaristic Women’s Emergency Brigade who carried billy clubs and vowed to protect strikers from police; and tense negotiations between labor leader John L. Lewis, GM chairman Alfred P. Sloan, and labor secretary Frances Perkins. The epic tale of the strike and its lasting legacy shows why the middle class is one of the greatest inventions of the 20th century and will guide our understanding of what we will lose if we don’t revive it.

Demolition Means Progress

Demolition Means Progress PDF

Author: Andrew R. Highsmith

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-12-30

Total Pages: 399

ISBN-13: 022641955X

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Flint, Michigan, is widely seen as Detroit s Detroit: the perfect embodiment of a ruined industrial economy and a shattered American dream. In this deeply researched book, Andrew Highsmith gives us the first full-scale history of Flint, showing that the Vehicle City has always seen demolition as a tool of progress. During the 1930s, officials hoped to renew the city by remaking its public schools into racially segregated community centers. After the war, federal officials and developers sought to strengthen the region by building subdivisions in Flint s segregated suburbs, while GM executives and municipal officials demolished urban factories and rebuilt them outside the city. City leaders later launched a plan to replace black neighborhoods with a freeway and new factories. Each of these campaigns, Highsmith argues, yielded an ever more impoverished city and a more racially divided metropolis. By intertwining histories of racial segregation, mass suburbanization, and industrial decline, Highsmith gives us a deeply unsettling look at urban-industrial America."