Life Remodeled redevelops neighborhoods, rebuilds communities using neighborhood schools
Sonya Mays, Develop Detroit, on mission to create affordable housing in city’s neighborhoods Page C1
Page B1 POWERED BY REAL TIMES MEDIA
Volume 80 – Number 47
michiganchronicle.com
August 2-8, 2017
The Michigan Chronicle
endorsements MAYOR: Mayor Mike Duggan
The only fair way to grade Mayor Mike Duggan over the past four years is on a curve. And not a small curve. In short, we need to remem ber the condition the city was in when he took office. And we also need to re member how long it took for this city to get in that condi tion.
Michigan Radio photo
Water shutoffs pose serious risk to public health
By Roz Edward Detroit public health department of ficials, specifically former director and current DPH director Dr. Joneigh Khal dun, are coming under intense scrutiny and considerable criticism for remaining silent on what leading health experts around the country are calling a public health crisis in Detroit. Community ac tivist representatives and health advo cates from around the world gathered at Wayne State University’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights recently to sound the alarm and call out public health offi cials for not coming clean on the health consequences associated with the city’s continued residential water shutoffs. The Detroit Water and Sewage Depart
ment (DWSD) and water shutoffs have been the subject of worldwide news as word spread regarding the unprecedent ed numbers of water shutoffs over the past decade. Peter Hammer, director of Wayne State University’s Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights, called for more studies surrounding the effects of the current government-imposed shutoffs and the immediate return of water for De troit residents currently without water. “This is not a matter of people just choosing not to pay bills, this is about the most vulnerable populations — the poor — who every month must decide be tween buying food, paying rent, paying a bill, going to the doctor and purchasing gas to get to work,” said Hammer. It is estimated that 85,000 households in De
troit are currently without water. “Right now in Detroit you have some of the worst health indicators in the country,” said Dr. Wendy Johnson, who spoke on the impact of the lack of access to running water in distressed house holds in Detroit. Johnson, who is medical director of La Familia Medical Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and former medical director of the Cleveland Department of Public health, said that the public health fallout attributed to water shutoffs is nothing less than criminal. “The water shutoffs are a public crisis of enormous dimensions, and to me it is astonishing and unconscionable that I
See WATER SHUTOFFS page A-7
To begin one’s term of office in the midst of the largest munici Mike Duggan pal bankruptcy in history is slightly more than a minor bump in the road. It’s a moun tain. That combined with everything else Detroit has been dealing with since seemingly forever adds up to one massive job description that would have defied the best efforts of anyone brave enough — or crazy enough — to sign up for the task. Now nearing the end of that first term, it’s hard to make a credible ar gument that Detroit is no better than it was four years ago. That simply isn’t true. And although some of Duggan’s accomplishments may have been built on what was begun by his predecessors, that’s no crime nor does it negate the part he played in getting things done. Getting the streetlights turned back on was a big deal, even if it wasn’t as big and sexy as District Detroit and all the other development occurring in and around downtown. The appearance of new and improved neighborhood parks like Gordon Park at 12th and Clairmount, known for the past half century as the location where the 1967 rebellion began, is something that makes a noticeable difference in a community. The recent an nouncement of plans to bring back the Fitzgerald neighborhood on the city’s northwest side is also worth celebrating as a harbinger of things to come. Still, it is difficult for many res idents living in the far too many remaining impoverished Detroit neighborhoods not to feel left out whenever they hear about the New Detroit because the dramatic dif ference between what they see hap pening downtown versus what they see happening on their own block in their own corner of the world is, well, dramatic. The speed of change in downtown and Midtown almost has to be seen to be believed, and critics are not wrong to question why they are not sensing this same sense of urgency outside of that 7.2 square miles. While some would argue that the city’s core downtown had to take priority as the city’s economic heart, others might look at the desperation in the faces of so many Detroiters and wonder just how much longer they can be ex pected to patiently wait their turn.
See ENDORSEMENTS page A-2
WHAT’S INSIDE
Jail Update: Wayne County to focus on contract with Rock, but work remains Efficiency of larger jail, mitigated risk, cost comparison key factors Michigan Chronicle reports
DETROIT How far have we really come? Page D1
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Wayne County Executive Warren C. Evans has provided an update on the status of the two proposals to address the county’s unfin ished jail project. On June 28, the county received proposals from Walsh Construction to finish building the jail on the Gratiot site and from Rock Ventures to build the county a new criminal justice center on an alterna tive site. “While both proposals remain options, I’ve directed my team to dedicate their time and resources toward attempting to reach a contract with Rock Ventures,” Evans said. “The Rock Ventures proposal has more upside, less risk and a smaller financial gap than Walsh Construction’s proposal. There are, however, many issues to resolve with Rock Ventures before I could recommend the approval of a contract to the County Commis sion and the County Building Authority.” In the coming weeks, Evans’ team will work with Rock Ventures’ representatives to negotiate terms of a deal to create a new criminal justice center. If negotiations with
Rock cannot result in a contract in the best interest of county residents and taxpayers, the Evans has 120 days from June 28, the date Walsh submitted its proposal, to com mence negotiations to complete the jail at the Gratiot site. Cost Comparison, Risk Mitigation Factor Heavily Analysis of the Walsh proposal raises concerns it would likely cost as much if
not more to finish the Gratiot jail and ren ovate the Frank Murphy Hall of Justice than the county’s contribution to the Rock Ven tures-proposed criminal justice center. The total likely cost, combined with the Walsh proposal putting the county at risk for cost overruns unlike the Rock proposal, factored heavily in the decision to focus on Rock’s proposal.
See JAIL
UPDATE page A-7