ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Monday, October 10, 2016
Ann Arbor, Michigan
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Design: Katie Spak
Source: Associated Press
One year later: Flint residents reflect on lasting impact of crisis While high profile donations and attention have slowed, issues remain RIYAH BASHA
Daily Staff Reporter
The water in Laura MacIntyre’s home still comes out murky. Or sometimes, likely thanks to cityinstalled tap filters, it doesn’t come out at all. MacIntyre, a University of Michigan-Flint sociology professor, was born and raised in Flint and moved back in 2008. She’s lived through recessions and subsequent proclamations of the city’s return from funding gaps and what she called a history of neglect. But the discovery of lead in the city’s water more than a year ago was the last straw for her. “There’s just something about this that’s just, it’s … it’s finally worn me down,” she told local camera crews back in April. Nearly six months later, life in
Flint has carried on fairly normally for MacIntyre — or as normal as it can be. Her family still drinks, bathes in and washes clothes with bottled water. Her children receive coloring pages at school reminding them to improve their nutrition and hygiene. Her home’s pipes continue to disintegrate into the walls, and daily life, she says, is rife with a lack of clarity from the government. “We’re not getting straight answers,” she said in an interview. “We’re scared all the time.” A large number of Flint residents, including MacIntyre, do not believe local officials’ assurances that city water — now sourced from Lake Huron through Detroit’s water supply — is safe to drink, though crews of construction workers under directions from Mayor Karen Weaver are working to
replace houses’ piping systems. Cases of water bottles are still common sights everywhere in the city, as are citizens coping with infectious diseases; just as headlines of a deadly two-year spate of Legionnaire’s disease seemed to stop, a recent outbreak of shigellosis made the news earlier this month. Throughout the water crisis, institutional acknowledgement of health issues stemming from the water supply was often delayed. Government officials from Weaver to Gov. Rick Snyder (R– Mich.), all the way to President Barack Obama, who visited in May, have appeared before audiences drinking glasses of Flint water in bids to prove its safety. “We have all sorts of people coming in for a hot minute,” MacIntyre said in reference to the
parade of activists and politicians rolling through Flint. “The story being told now, though, is that we’re fine.” For residents, what’s most toxic in the city runs deeper than any network of pipes, and can’t be fixed by chemical treatments — many say over the last two years, they’ve lost what little trust remained in city and state government. Local activist Nayyirah Shariff cited demographics in explaining the bleak conclusion she and her neighbors have reached about Flint, where 57 percent of residents are Black and 40 percent live under the poverty line. “It’s a dangerous public policy model,” she said. “If you’re poor, you lose access to democracy.” What went wrong The timeline of the water crisis, See FLINT, Page 3A
Professors and students work to find houses with lead pipes
Google and University of Michigan partner to find vulnerable locations BRIAN KUANG
Daily Staff Reporter
When approached by Google and the University of MichiganFlint to collaborate on a mobile app advising Flint residents on lead risk levels in their homes, assistant prof. of Engineering Jacob Abernethy and Business prof. Eric Schwartz saw both a critical gap between available data and the city’s recovery efforts — and a way to fix it. Of the approximately 35,000
occupied structures in Flint, only about 7 to 10 percent are estimated to be affected by lead contamination, largely due to the usage of private water service lines with lead in the pipes which connect individual homes to citywide water mains. However, Schwartz said records on service line composition were incomplete, tests were unreliable and no specific pattern of lead contamination could be discerned from maps. See DATA, Page 2A
More than 2,000 participate $4.1 million grant for Wolverines Detroit raises questions in eighth MHacks competition lay historic
STATE
FOOTBALL
University students and professor express concerns over local impact MATT HARMON Daily Staff Reporter
The U.S. Department of Commerce announced last Monday that the city of Detroit and the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation, a nonprofit organization consisting of public authorities that manage economic development efforts in the city, will receive a $4.1 million grant to improve the I-94 Industrial Park on the city’s east side. City officials, including Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Detroit City Councilmember Scott Benson, have stated these efforts are meant to attract manufacturers to the industrial park and create more jobs for Detroiters. However, research conducted by Margaret Dewar, professor of Urban Planning at the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban planning, has cited that the jobs are not guaranteed to eligible local workers — a
concern echoed by University of Michigan students from Detroit. The grant allocates $910,000 for the hiring of an Economic Recovery Coordination Team to oversee industrial site renovations and support manufacturing branches making the move to Detroit. Additionally, almost $3.2 million is slated for renovations to redevelop and expand Georgia Street, a key access point in the area that could be utilized by large trucks to ship goods. Dewar said the money does come with notable positives, noting that the city would benefit from having the federal government front the amount for the infrastructure, and that the grant is capable of creating positive effects for Detroit’s immediate economy. “I think it’s terrific that the city got that grant because what has to happen in that industrial park is that the infrastructure needs to be updated,” Dewar See DETROIT, Page 3A
Student-run event features wide range of tech. projects KEVIN LINDER
Daily Staff Reporter
Hackers from all over the country gathered in downtown Detroit on Saturday to code,
design, collaborate and invent for MHacks 8, a 36-hour event run by University of Michigan students. Part of Major League Hacking, a national collegiate hackathon league, the event provides a
platform for individuals to come together to build or code projects within the 36-hour period. According to event organizers, about 2,000 people attended — See MHACKS, Page 3A
beatdown on Rutgers
No. 4 Michigan scores 11 touchdowns, goes for two on one in 78-0 win MAX BULTMAN
Managing Sports Editor
GRANT HARDY/Daily
MHacks participants begin creating their projects, which will be completed in 36 hours, at midnight Friday at the Masonic Temple in Detroit.
PISCATAWAY — There was a turning point, Jim Harbaugh said. That’s not something you often hear in a game like Saturday’s. In fact, it’s not often you see a game like Saturday’s. The Michigan football team scored 78 points, twice the number of total yards it allowed to Rutgers. In case it doesn’t go without saying, the Wolverines shut out the Scarlet Knights (0-3 Big Ten, 2-4 overall) on their own field Saturday, winning 78-0 and driving out a heavy majority of the fans well before the final whistle. But about that turning point. Harbaugh said it came when Jabrill Peppers — his redshirt sophomore See FOOTBALL, Page 3A
Jersey Score Jabrill Peppers found the end zone twice in his homecoming game, and Michigan rolled to a 78-0 rout in Piscataway
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INDEX
Vol. CXXVI, No. 8 ©2016 The Michigan Daily
NEWS......................... 2A OPINION.....................4A CLASSIFIEDS..............5A
SUDOKU.....................2A ARTS..................5A S P O R T S M O N D AY. . . . . . . . . 1 B