by Jane Pennington If there’s one thing I learned from my career in political and government administration, it’s that change happens more slowly in government than it does anywhere else. Even when the need for change is obvious and monumental, the steps to achieve it are frustratingly, achingly slow. Two years ago, our nation voted [...]
Satisfied with promises the City of Detroit made to Detroit sewage-plant employees, the union that represents them ended its five-day strike against the Detroit Water and Sewerage Department, AFSCME Local 207 said in a news release. “The courts, the mayor, the Water Board, working in concert, could not defeat this strike,” Local 207 president John [...]
With everything on the line, Detroit wastewater workers stayed out on the picket line despite a temporary federal-court injunction ordering them to go back to work. In Michigan, it is illegal for public employees to strike. The Detroit Water and Sewerage Department workers are among approximately 950 represented by Local 207 of the American Federation of State, [...]
Workers at the Detroit system that provides water to most of Southeast Michigan walked out early Sunday, Sept. 30. The board that oversees the water department plans to eliminate 81% of about 2,000 jobs at one of the nation’s largest water and sewer utilities, which serves 40% of Michigan’s population over a 1,000 square miles. The Detroit [...]
The details are still being worked out, but government-sponsored financial giant Fannie Mae is close to an agreement with Jennifer Britt that would end her six-year struggle to keep her family’s house. After a long, hot summer, Britt’s friends and supporters relaxed at a picnic with their families Saturday on Belle Isle. “I’ve been up and down and [...]
If there’s one documentary, or for that matter, one film you see in a theater this year, I recommend Detropia. The documentary is an artfully honest look at the harsh realities of post-industrial Detroit, a place so universally fascinating that the film opened in NYC . Directed and produced by Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady, Detropia unrolls the devastating consequences [...]
Tired of the frighteningly superficial noise out there? Here’s “American Autumn,” an enthralling and sometimes heartbreaking documentary about the birth of Occupy Wall Street and the critical issues that drive the Occupy movement today. It’s a blunt and thorough reminder that corporate interests rank far higher than those of the people: foreclosure evictions when there [...]
There are two reasons Occupy the Midwest chose to hold its second conference in Detroit: despair, and hope. Detroit is one of the cities hit hardest by the ongoing Great Recession, triggered by the 2007 collapse and bailout of the banking system. Mortgage foreclosures and evictions are still adding empty houses to an alarming stock [...]
Taxpayer-owned mortgage institution Fannie Mae agreed Friday to continue negotiating with Jennifer Britt, who is fighting her family’s eviction from their foreclosed home, according to Steve Babson of People Before Banks. Britt has been struggling to save her home since her husband’s death six years ago. On Aug. 14, Fannie Mae offered to let Britt [...]
On Wednesday, July 18, a district court judge signed an order evicting Jennifer Britt from her Detroit home, ending for now a complicated legal battle to save her house that began in 2006. On Thursday, July 19, protesters and supporters began a vigil to bar anyone from removing Britt, her family, or their possessions. “We’re [...]