Theresa Landrum’s neighborhood in the shadow of the Marathon Oil Refinery. Photo courtesy Landrum. Theresa Landrum’s neighborhood in the 48217 zip code is surrounded by polluters like AK Steel and Marathon Petroleum. She says that her community is dealing not only with the rapid spread of the coronavirus, but also a high prevalence of underlying conditions such as […]
Posted inAccountability
Water organizers rush to deliver bottled water to Detroit residents as COVID-19 spreads
Water activists Debra Taylor and Monica Lewis-Patrick instruct volunteers on water delivery protocols on March 21, 2020, at St. Peter’s Episcopal church in Corktown. Photo by Brian Allnutt. On Saturday morning on March 21, around a dozen volunteers wearing gloves and masks were helping unload an Absopure water truck at St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in […]
Posted inAccountability
Why the 2020 Census has a big impact on environmental justice in Detroit
In 1982, a landfill was built in a predominantly African American county in North Carolina to bury PCB-laden soil from the majority-white city of Raleigh. The residents in the area responded with massive protests and it became the first time in US history where people were jailed trying to stop a landfill. Although the protestors ultimately […]
Posted inAccountability
Now is it a water emergency?
By CO2 2020/2019 413.05 / 413.37 ppm <<–www.co2.earth/daily-co2 Share Planet Detroit Newsletter METRO DETROIT Washing hands requires water Last week, Governor Gretchen Whitmer declined to declare an emergency around Detroit’s water shutoffs, which affected 23,500 customers last year, citing “insufficient data” proving the shutoffs posed a public health risk. Whitmer’s position was backed up by the Detroit […]
Posted inSolutions
These Black environmental activists are leading the way in Detroit
When Detroit environmental activist Charity Hicks passed away in 2014, the loss of her presence was palpable among the local environmental justice activist community. Hicks was counted on to set the tone of gatherings, often invoking the spirits of African ancestors. At the inaugural meeting of the Great Lakes Commons in 2012, Hicks said, “I felt the tension of […]
Posted inGuides
Getting the most out of your ‘COVID Victory Garden’
As COVID-19 forces people to stay home and perhaps look for productive ways to use their time, interest in gardening has grown alongside other pandemic homesteading staples like baking bread and raising chickens. Publications like the New York Times have highlighted the return of the ‘Victory Garden’ as the Garden Resource Program — which provides seeds and transplants (or starter plants) to residents of Detroit, Hamtramck, […]
Posted inSolutions
How Detroit’s farms and gardens are adapting to the COVID-19 crisis
Photo courtesy Keep Growing Detroit Patrick Crouch has been spending long days in the greenhouse over the past few weeks, seeding and growing out transplants for eventual distribution to gardens across the city. As a program manager at Earthworks Urban Farm, Crouch sees his role taking on a new importance during the COVID-19 crisis. “If you […]
Posted inVoices
Friends of the Rouge ED Marie McCormick on how the nonprofit is coping with the pandemic
When the Friends of the Rouge formed back in 1986, the Rouge River was in desperate straits. But hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding for water infrastructure projects during the 1990s and early 2000s helped improve the waterway into a place where people can now paddle and enjoy nature along the 126-mile river. FOTR has helped bring […]
Posted inAccountability
Possible COVID-19 closures only the latest threat to Detroit’s open space access
Belle Isle, August 9, 2014. Photo by Amy Sacka. Earlier this week it seemed that governor Gretchen Whitmer might shut down Belle Isle in order to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus among park users. The island — which is run by the Michigan Department of Natural Resources although still officially owned by the city of Detroit […]
Posted inAccountability
DTE, Consumers report on shutoffs, actions to protect vulnerable customers under MPSC order
DTE and Consumers Energy filed reports this week detailing the number of households currently without service and efforts to restore them. The reports are now required biweekly through June under an order issued April 15 issued by the Michigan Public Service Commission. According to reports filed by DTE Energy and Consumers Energy on April 30, both utilities […]