Coal tar coming out of Flint River as Consumers’ remediation, re-naturalization proceeds
By Meghan Christian Remediation and re-naturalization of the Flint River between Fifth Avenue/Robert T. Longway and the Hamilton Dam downtown has begun, with removal of all vegetation on the river banks paving the way for expected extensive summer work. Consumers Energy and Michigan Department of Environmental Quality representatives held an information session followed by a public hearing at the Flint Farmers’ Market on Tuesday,...
Neighborhood tree replacement plan hits city roadblock: permits to plant denied
By Jan Worth-Nelson Members of the College Cultural Neighborhood Association, many of whom love their venerable green canopies, recently raised $4,000 in a matter of days to buy saplings to replace the 180 trees cut down by the city on parkways in their neighborhood last year. They have a plan in place for volunteers to put in the trees. But so far, the city is denying permits to plant them. Mike Keeler, president of the CCNA, voiced...
Flint schools chief Bilal Tawwab facing challenging course
by Harold C. Ford The year 2020 is the target date for a new, consolidated Flint high school at the site of the now-abandoned Flint Central High School campus, Flint Community Schools Superintendent Bilal Tawwab said in a wide-ranging recent interview with East Village Magazine. Reflecting upon the close proximity to Flint’s college and cultural center that Flint Central students once enjoyed, Tawwab deemed the possibility an...
Some young buyers find Flint houses make good homes
By Megan Ockert Andrew Chambers, a 28-year-old studying early elementary education at UM-Flint, has a lot to celebrate. On Oct. 1, 2016, he was finally able to move into his own downtown Flint home he bought in July. Chambers is one of a number of young Flint home buyers combating skepticism from others while finding surprising benefits by taking a chance on the city. Hoping to buy a house at an affordable price from the Genesee...
When they’d “had enough,” Mott Park Blight Squad stepped up to save their neighborhood
By Teddy Robertson On Father’s Day, Sunday, June 19, NBC-25 aired a local news segment that showed a group of Mott Park residents as they cleared brush, cut dangling branches, boarded up windows, and mowed overgrown grass at a vacant house in the neighborhood. Six volunteers, including an eager three-year-old helper named Jack, worked fast in the bright, increasingly hot, sunlight because one Mott Park resident, Bobbi Wray, had put...
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