https:\/\/www.metrotimes.com\/detroit\/why-theres-no-end-in-sight-for-highland-parks-water-affordability-crisis\/Content?oid=21757556<\/p>\n
I’ve been thinking about this MetroTimes article a lot recently by Eleanore Catolico. It’s called “Why there’s no end in sight for Highland Park’s water affordability crisis” and covers the history and present moment of the water shutoff crisis in Highland Park. It is very connected to the work I’m doing at Soulardarity because it shows how large utilities can go completely awry when people in the city do not have control over their utilities. Just like the energy shutoffs that Soulardarity is trying to stop through making alternatives to DTE energy and reducing DTE rates, water shutoffs are a huge problem in Highland Park. When people don’t have access to the basics they need, like water, it is really dangerous for their health. How did the water shutoffs happen? \u00a0Basically, the Highland Park water plant was shut down in 2012 because it needed huge repairs the city couldn’t afford. The city switched over to\u00a0Detroit’s Water and Sewerage Department for water, but during the switch no bills were issued. After a year of no bills, DWSD started charging the city for unpaid bills (bills that were never issued) and to cover the debt, the city charged residents exorbitant amounts of money. When people couldn’t afford it, their water was shut off.<\/p>\n
This article makes me think about how it is completely unethical to treat water like a commodity that can be bought and sold– when money is put before people’s needs this is what happens. I’m also thinking about this quote from the article-\u00a0“The same year Highland Park’s water treatment plant was closed, Ann Arbor, a prestigious college town and burgeoning tech hub, was approved for a $109 million loan to fix its plant. This was under then Gov. Rick Snyder’s leadership.”<\/p>\n
Rick Snyder’s governance and crimes in Flint showed that he is incredibly racist and classist and does not care about majority Black communities. This decision to give Ann Arbor the money needed but not approve Highland Park reminds me of redlining policies because Ann Arbor is a majority white, wealthy city and Highland Park is a majority low-income, Black community. There’s no good reason Ann Arbor residents should be able to have access to the utilities we need but not Highland Parkers.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
https:\/\/www.metrotimes.com\/detroit\/why-theres-no-end-in-sight-for-highland-parks-water-affordability-crisis\/Content?oid=21757556 I’ve been thinking about this MetroTimes article a lot recently by Eleanore Catolico. It’s called “Why there’s no end in sight for Highland Park’s water affordability crisis” and covers the history and present moment of the water shutoff crisis in Highland Park. It is very connected to the work I’m doing at Soulardarity because […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1683,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1683"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14089"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15308,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14089\/revisions\/15308"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/dcerp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}