- City, state, and federal officials hosted a workshop on Detroit’s eastside to discuss environmental issues and gather community input.
- Residents shared concerns about pollution, blight, and housing costs, suggesting solutions like solar-powered streetlights and rain gardens.
- The workshop is part of efforts to secure federal grants for community projects, emphasizing proactive engagement and a list of community-approved ideas.
City, state, and federal officials hosted eastside Detroit residents in a community workshop on Monday to discuss air and land quality issues, share ideas for possible solutions, and get answers to urgent environmental-related questions.
The event was part of a broader effort to solicit community input on a list of “environmentally beneficial projects” that government agencies can use to pursue grant funding.
Residents shared concerns about corporate polluters, excessive blight and debris in residential neighborhoods, and the expensive cost of upgrading aging housing stock. Among the ideas shared were solar-powered streetlights, rain gardens to hold water runoff, and a community health assessment for eastside residents.
With an influx of millions of federal grant dollars to support environmental justice efforts, officials and representatives from the city of Detroit’s Sustainability Office, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy say they want to hear what grassroots projects community members want to see implemented in their neighborhoods.
“We have money for projects in communities, and we want to get input but often don’t have a lot of time to survey ideas and perform community engagement,” Camden Ogletree, a regional project officer for the EPA, told the room of attendees at the Eastside Community Network’s Stoudamire Wellness Hub.
“This project list is a way for us to be proactive, instead of reactive, instead of scrambling to figure out what people want, we want to have a ready list of ideas that are approved by community members that we can implement at a moment’s notice.”
University Prep Academy High School sophomore Jaida Williams attended the workshop with her aunt, who has lived on the city’s eastside for 67 years. She remembers being glued to the TV screen in the wake of the June 2021 storms, watching as people like her aunt had their basements flooded.
“A lot of people get concerned when it rains because they are afraid that … the floods are going to get worse and worse and worse,” Williams said.
“The city should start having backup plans when stuff like this happens. Because when this happens, people go into panic.”
Williams said would like to see an annual budget that can help elderly homeowners like her aunt protect their properties. Back in 2021, federal disaster assistance from FEMA helped her aunt replace damaged items and repair her basement.
“That’s a key thing, especially when our elders are living in houses that they lived in for years and years and years,” Williams said. “There should be more maintenance, they can’t just focus on downtown. You have to put the city together as a whole and fix it up.”
Gloria Thomas, a Morningside resident, agreed.
“How can folks maintain their homes?” Thomas asked. “The cost of things is prohibitive.”
Thomas said most homes around her neighborhood are nearing a century old, and shared concerns about replacing lead pipes and outdated radiators. Assisting older residents with upgrading their aging homes to include more energy-efficient technology, she added, could also ensure people can pass it down to the next generation.
As residents shared questions and comments from officials, they also had the chance to leave sticky notes with project ideas behind on a series of easel boards. Suggestions ranged from addressing waist-high grass and blight on vacant lots to providing more open spaces for recreation.
The Detroit Environmentally Beneficial Project List began in the fall of 2022 in response to ongoing concerns from residents and activists about corporate polluters in Southwest Detroit and the city’s east side.
Some residents were critical of the project’s supposed benefit to community environmental concerns. Toward the beginning of the meeting, multiple residents commented about the latest report that a Moroun-owned firm concrete plant had been built in Cadillac Heights before city permits were secured.
“I think we need to dive much deeper and have a serious conversation with the city of Detroit and EGLE about sustainability,” said Vanessa Peake, a Farwell resident and executive director of the nonprofit Urban Development Corporation.
“We need more serious help and I don’t know if we’ll get that today. It seems like we’re going to let these big companies because they have all of these millions of dollars, continue to come to our communities. And then guess what, in some isolated areas, you get to choose some environmental projects to maybe mitigate your problems.”
Other residents suggested city and state officials should continue more conversations across the city.
Officials noted that the workshop was part of a greater effort to promote community participation.
“With these projects, it’s important that the community feels like their needs are being heard,” said Jenine Camilleri, an enforcement officer at EGLE. “We’ve heard that a lot through the FCA Stellantis enforcement action, that at times, we just weren’t on the mark with what the community needs were. So this is also a way to try to improve that.
This is the second event the city has held to inform residents about this solicitation. The three agencies hosted a virtual meeting in January. Ogletree added that a living document of ideas will be available to the public as a resource for future funding opportunities.
So far, seven projects have been submitted to the city in the past few months, including urban green space projects, energy-efficient housing for vulnerable residents, hazardous waste pickup, and an overhaul of the city’s transit system.
Community members can submit project ideas via the city of Detroit’s website at detroitmi.gov/environmentallybeneficialprojects, email EA@detroitmi.gov, or leave a detailed voicemail at 313-350-1384.
There’s no deadline for ideas.