Commentary: Time to jump-start the new city charter
By Paul Rozycki Last August Flint voters set the city on a new course when they approved the city’s new charter—the first since 1974. In the turmoil over the Flint water crisis, successive emergency managers, and recall elections, the charter sometimes seemed lost in the shuffle. Yet, the Charter Commission produced a significant and important document. Over a period of many months the Commission met with community groups on...
Village Life: Just another drag queen bingo night in Flint cheering things up
By Jan Worth-Nelson Can Flint be any more itself than combining a crowded bookstore, bingo, and a curvy six-foot tall drag queen in red sequins hollering out “B-8, bitches!”? I’ve been here more than 35 years and by now there is nothing much that could surprise me about my adopted hometown. The energy at Totem Bookstore’s Drag Queen Bingo night makes me think no matter how pissed we get at the world, no...
Review: Sloan exhibit captures persistent intertwining threads of race and housing in Flint history
By Dylan Doherty “An Equal Opportunity Lie,” a new exhibit highlighting the intertwining influences of race and housing in the history of Flint, opened at the Sloan Museum on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Jan. 15 and runs until May 28. The title is a quote from Floyd McCree, Flint’s first black mayor, who resigned in 1967 after the Flint City Commission voted down an embattled proposed fair housing ordinance. As the exhibit...
Gerrymandering Part Three: going to court
By Paul Rozycki Just when you thought you’ve heard enough about gerrymandering, and the ballot proposals to end it—there is one more line of attack. Now the courts are getting involved. Two previous columns in past issues of East Village Magazine (Part One here, Part Two here) have outlined the problems and history of gerrymandering, drawing oddly shaped election districts to favor one party over another. A second column also...
Commentary: Fixing gerrymandering–Michigan’s ballot proposal
By Paul Rozycki “Politics is more difficult than physics.” – Albert Einstein Last month’s column took a look at the history and techniques of gerrymandering and its impact on American politics. It’s not hard to see that the process of drawing odd-shaped and unfair election districts favoring one party over another is a major problem and distorts our politics in many ways. Seeing the problem is the easy part. Fixing it may prove...
Village Life: Flint moves beyond ghosts as autumn whispers in
By Jan Worth-Nelson It’s a lovely cool morning, clear and fresh, reminding me of why it’s good to be in the Midwest. It feels like the first day of fall, the light turning slightly mellow, even though it’s only the first of September, and I’m up early going next door where new tenants are moving in today to what was our first home on Maxine. The empty house looks beautiful to my sleepy eyes, a classic Flint colonial with warm wood...
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