Street roots., April 27, 2018, Page 4, Image 4

Page 4
Street Roots • April 27-May 3, 2018
News
BY EMILY GREEN
SENIOR STAFF REPORTER
ichigan’s water crises have
attracted national attention as
residents in a state practically
surrounded by water struggle to access it.
From lead-poisoned drinking water in
Flint to the massive water utility shut-offs in
Detroit, impoverished communities of color
are bearing the brunt of discriminatory
policies that effectively deny them their
most basic of human needs.
What’s happening in Flint and Detroit
could be cause for alarm across the nation.
The installation of governor-appointed
emergency managers, who supersede
control of elected officials, exacerbates
problems caused by austerity measures put
in place, predominantly in African-American
neighborhoods, following Detroit’s
bankruptcy filing in 2013.
Detroit has the highest poverty rate
among the 20 largest U.S. cities, at 35.7
percent. The national rate is 14 percent.
Low incomes in combination with high
M
w a te r p r ic e s m e a n t e n s o f th o u sa n d s o f
households have their water shut off each
year.
In the wake of problems facing African-
American communities in Detroit, resident
and lifelong activist Monica Lewis-Patrick
has become a prominent voice. In 2008,
Lewis-Patrick and four other African-
American women co-founded We the People
of Detroit, a nonprofit that informs and
empowers residents on issues related to
land, water, civil rights, education and the
democratic process. It also delivers water to
the doorsteps of those who cannot
otherwise access it.
Lewis-Patrick will be in Portland on May
4 to sit on a panel with Cat Goughnour of
the Right 2 Root campaign.
Organized by Portland-based nonprofit
Recode, the panel will highlight the
relationship between planning decisions,
gentrification and displacement and how
Portland can reduce wealth and
infrastructure disparities. State and local-
level elected officials and other interested
parties, including members of the public,
are expected to attend the free event from 6
to 8 p.m. at Humboldt Gardens.
Lewis-Patrick spoke to Street Roots about
the situation in Detroit and why Portland
should be paying attention.
E m ily Green: First I wanted to give our
readers a sense o f the situation in Detroit, and
I was hoping you could begin by talking about
something Detroit residents refer to as “the
blue line o f shame. ” C a n you explain what
that is?
M onica Lewis-Patrick: The blue line of
shame in Detroit is where the water
department, Detroit Water and Sewerage
Department, goes out to the homes that are
in jeopardy of losing their water service and
P H O T O C O U R T E S Y O F M O N I C A L E W IS -P A T R IC K
M o n ica Lewis-Patrick is president a n d co-founder o f We the People o f Detroit, a a nonprofit that
inform s residents about land, water, civil rights, education a n d democratic issues.
DETROITS__
WATER WARRIOR
Michigan could be ‘the canary in the mine’
for communities like Portland, water-equality
activist Monica Lewis-Patrick says
mark a very bold and large blue line in front
of the house. Sometimes it’s just a singular
line. Sometimes it’s an arrow pointing to the
water shut off connection. What it does is it
alerts the whole community that you’re in
jeopardy of having your water shut off.
E.G.: We the People o f Detroit, the nonprofit
you are a C E O , president an d co-founder of,
did a m apping project that revealed the city
was more aggressively shutting o ff water in
African-Am erican neighborhoods.
M.L.P.: That’s correct. They’re shutting
off water systematically in particular
neighborhoods where they want to clear out
the population and bring in a new
population. We did something called
“Mapping the Water Crisis: The
Dismantlement of African-American
Neighborhoods in Detroit.” What we did was
convene about 25 researchers that are
experts in everything from GIS mapping to
architecture to water infrastructure. Also,
several of them had Ph.D.s in education,
chemistry and physics. We convened them
together to really be able to leverage their
expertise because many times when they
won’t believe the activists, they’ll believe the
academics.
E.G.: M ost people know i f they d on’t pay
their utility bill, the utilities will eventually be
shut off. That seems to be pretty universal in
the U .S ., but in Detroit, the U N . actually got
involved in the water shut-offs, an d I believe
you testified before the U N . on this matter.
What was it about the whole situation that
made the U N . deem the shut-offs to be a
hum an rights violation?
M.L.P.: Well it’s a human rights violation
because the vast majority of Detroiters are
paying more than 10 percent of their
income to access water.
Over the last 10 years, water rates have
gone up over 126 percent. As a matter of
fact, over the last 20 years, it’s gone up as
much as 400 percent. In terms of the rate
structure, it’s not equitable and it’s not fair.
Detroit is bearing the burden of building out
this system to 126 municipalities and
townships. If they were spreading that
across all 126 municipalities and townships,
you would see a fair rate structure.
Right now, Detroit and Flint are the only
municipalities in the 126 service areas that
have these very aggressive water shut-off
policies. Most of these cities have policies
that say it doesn’t m atter how much you
owe; your water won’t be shut off. Then in a
few other cities, they have policies that say
you have up to two to three consecutive
billing cycles. In those communities, billing
cycles are anywhere from two to three
months. So you could go almost a year
without paying your water bill before you’re
even threatened with a shut-off, whereas in
Detroit and Flint, it’s 30 days.
There was research that was done by
Michigan State University at the beginning
of the year - I think it was released in the
top of February - which states that 35
percent of America, by the year 2020, will
not be able to afford their water. So for us,
it’s about the human right to water. It’s not
about free water, but it’s about a rate
structure that is fair and equitable. And we
believe that people should not be paying
more than 3.5 percent of their income to
access water.
—
& co nnection between the
water crisis in F lin t and the water crisis in
Detroit, an d i f so, can you explain that
connection to our readers?
M.L.P.: Yes. The Flint water crisis and
the Flint poisoning are deeply connected to
the Detroit water shut-off. Both of those
issues are driven by basically the bottom
line: greed. You have the governor of the
state of Michigan using his powers as the
executive of the state under this very
egregious law called Emergency
Management Law, which is funded by the
Cato Institute and the Koch Brothers, and
37 states have some form of this pre­
emptive piece of legislation. A lot of times
people don’t even know it. What it allows
them to do is set aside democracy. It allows
them to set aside elected officials. It allows
them to close up union contracts. It allows
them to sell off and skin off assets of
municipalities and school systems without a
vote of the people. It allows one person to
act as dictator and king. What we found is
that in the state of Michigan, it was
reported on “The Rachel Maddow Show”
that 53 percent of the African-American
population of the state of Michigan has been
under this austerity law.
When you look at Detroit and Flint, both
cities have an emergency manager. Both
cities were advised by Veolia, which is one
of the worst water management entities in
the world, that Flint should drink poison
water. They also advised Detroit that they
should privatize their operations. Detroit at
one point had a system that was managed by
engineers and chemists and botanists and
citizens, a very robust system. That system
now has been reduced to no more than high
See WATER, page 5