The Poisoned City

The Poisoned City
Author: Anna Clark
Publisher: Metropolitan Books
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2018-07-10
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1250125154

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.

Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism

Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 467
Release: 2021-08-24
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9004446176

Urban Emergency (Mis)Management and the Crisis of Neoliberalism: Flint, MI in Context examines the malfeasance and mismanagement that poisoned a city’s water. The authors emphasize the structural forces that engendered the water crisis, and, especially, the long history of racial oppression, racist government policies, and everyday forms of inequality, that shape the life chances for Flint’s residents.

City in Crisis

City in Crisis
Author: Robert M. Kvasnicka
Publisher:
Total Pages: 30
Release: 1970
Genre: Detroit (Mich.)
ISBN:

Flint Fights Back

Flint Fights Back
Author: Benjamin J. Pauli
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2019-05-14
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 026235294X

An account of the Flint water crisis shows that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water is part of a broader struggle for democracy. When Flint, Michigan, changed its source of municipal water from Lake Huron to the Flint River, Flint residents were repeatedly assured that the water was of the highest quality. At the switchover ceremony, the mayor and other officials performed a celebratory toast, declaring “Here's to Flint!” and downing glasses of freshly treated water. But as we now know, the water coming out of residents' taps harbored a variety of contaminants, including high levels of lead. In Flint Fights Back, Benjamin Pauli examines the water crisis and the political activism that it inspired, arguing that Flint's struggle for safe and affordable water was part of a broader struggle for democracy. Pauli connects Flint's water activism with the ongoing movement protesting the state of Michigan's policy of replacing elected officials in financially troubled cities like Flint and Detroit with appointed “emergency managers.” Pauli distinguishes the political narrative of the water crisis from the historical and technical narratives, showing that Flint activists' emphasis on democracy helped them to overcome some of the limitations of standard environmental justice frameworks. He discusses the pro-democracy (anti–emergency manager) movement and traces the rise of the “water warriors”; describes the uncompromising activist culture that developed out of the experience of being dismissed and disparaged by officials; and examines the interplay of activism and scientific expertise. Finally, he explores efforts by activists to expand the struggle for water justice and to organize newly mobilized residents into a movement for a radically democratic Flint.

What the Eyes Don't See

What the Eyes Don't See
Author: Mona Hanna-Attisha
Publisher: One World
Total Pages: 386
Release: 2018-06-19
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0399590838

A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK • The dramatic story of the Flint water crisis, by a relentless physician who stood up to power. “Stirring . . . [a] blueprint for all those who believe . . . that ‘the world . . . should be full of people raising their voices.’”—The New York Times “Revealing, with the gripping intrigue of a Grisham thriller.” —O: The Oprah Magazine Here is the inspiring story of how Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, alongside a team of researchers, parents, friends, and community leaders, discovered that the children of Flint, Michigan, were being exposed to lead in their tap water—and then battled her own government and a brutal backlash to expose that truth to the world. Paced like a scientific thriller, What the Eyes Don’t See reveals how misguided austerity policies, broken democracy, and callous bureaucratic indifference placed an entire city at risk. And at the center of the story is Dr. Mona herself—an immigrant, doctor, scientist, and mother whose family’s activist roots inspired her pursuit of justice. What the Eyes Don’t See is a riveting account of a shameful disaster that became a tale of hope, the story of a city on the ropes that came together to fight for justice, self-determination, and the right to build a better world for their—and all of our—children. Praise for What the Eyes Don’t See “It is one thing to point out a problem. It is another thing altogether to step up and work to fix it. Mona Hanna-Attisha is a true American hero.”—Erin Brockovich “A clarion call to live a life of purpose.”—The Washington Post “Gripping . . . entertaining . . . Her book has power precisely because she takes the events she recounts so personally. . . . Moral outrage present on every page.”—The New York Times Book Review “Personal and emotional. . . She vividly describes the effects of lead poisoning on her young patients. . . . She is at her best when recounting the detective work she undertook after a tip-off about lead levels from a friend. . . . ‛Flint will not be defined by this crisis,’ vows Ms. Hanna-Attisha.”—The Economist “Flint is a public health disaster. But it was Dr. Mona, this caring, tough pediatrican turned detective, who cracked the case.”—Rachel Maddow

Shrinking Cities and First Suburbs

Shrinking Cities and First Suburbs
Author: Anirban Adhya
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 101
Release: 2017-03-03
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 3319517090

This book examines Warren, a suburb of Detroit, Michigan, as a shrinking city facing a crisis of economic downturn, automotive restructuring, high unemployment, and real estate foreclosures. The author explores Warren’s attempt to develop planning strategies, culturally-based initiatives, community design projects, and creative partnerships in the region in order to address the challenges of shrinkage and foreclosures at multiple scales. Global urban development is currently characterized by varied combination of metropolitan growth and urban core shrinkage. While much of the shrinkage is concentrated in central cities, first suburbs are now facing the same problem. The Warren case illustrates opportunities for flexible policies combining rightsizing, shared maintenance, and incremental development in struggling first suburban communities, which are less studied and often ignored.

Demolition Means Progress

Demolition Means Progress
Author: Andrew R. Highsmith
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 399
Release: 2016-12-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 022641955X

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."