I recently interviewed Rep. Dan Kildee to discuss the Flint Water Crisis, long-term solutions to Flint's problems, and the 2018 governor's race. The full Q & A is now available at Next City.
Young: The water crisis is just the latest catastrophe in Flint. In the last 30 years, the city has struggled with joblessness, crime, poverty, and blight. Why do these bad things happen to Flint?
Kildee: It’s a manifestation of a philosophy of government that puts the people in places like Flint at the very bottom of the list of priorities. It's an overarching approach that is just dismissive of their interests, as if they have nothing to offer. The Snyder administration and other political leaders who share this approach absolutely view policy questions the same way corporations view their profit margins — short-term, dollars and cents first. Everything else is just noise to them. They treat Flint like a problem to deal with, or an annoyance, but certainly not a community of people that have hope, that have aspirations for their kids.
Read the full interview here.
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Thanks for commenting. I moderate comments, so it may take a while for your comment to appear. You might enjoy my book about Flint called "Teardown: Memoir of a Vanishing City," a Michigan Notable Book for 2014 and a finalist for the 33rd Annual Northern California Book Award for Creative NonFiction. Filmmaker Michael Moore described Teardown as "a brilliant chronicle of the Mad Maxization of a once-great American city." More information about Teardown is available at www.teardownbook.com.