4 ms·
That gets unfair. Towns around Flint spent their own money to fix their own pipes. They sacrificed to do the right thing. If a place like Flint now gets upgrad
by burfog 7y ago
That gets unfair.
Towns around Flint spent their own money to fix their own pipes. They sacrificed to do the right thing. If a place like Flint now gets upgrades for free, we're rewarding irresponsibility. The voters of Flint choose to be irresponsible for decades.
Do those other towns get paid for what they already did?
- ianai 7y agoDifferent places need different infrastructure projects.
- dbspin 7y agoYeah, far better to insure children are poisoned to encourage their parents are properly punished for their lack of political commitment...
- CydeWeys 7y agoThe big catastrophe that happened to Flint was caused at the state level (specifically, by a budget-cutting Republican statewide government). It wasn't anything the town of Flint had a say in.
- coryrc 7y agoThe people that screwed up and didn't treat the water correctly were all local employees of the local government water utility.
- morelisp 7y agoNot really; one Michigan-specific consequence of the financial crisis was a takeover of city governments by state-appointed "Emergency Managers." These managers were given broad, non-democratic executive latitude. In Flint's case the appointees were Darnell Earley and Gerald Ambrose. They are currently being charged with a multitude of crimes for their actions which caused this (so are a dozen other employees, but they all reported to Earley and Ambrose) and they are responsible for the drive to "save" money, damn the consequences.
- coryrc 7y agoThe emergency managers didn't tell them to save $100/day but failing to adjust the pH, they're just incompetent at their job. Democrats ran Flint into bankruptcy, but they're off the hook when the state has to try and clean up their decades of mess (including rampant nepotism). The criminal charges have all been dropped give months ago.
- masonic 7y agoDemocrats ran Flint into bankruptcy, but they're off the hook... No, they aren't. A majority of Democrats voted in favor of the switch away from Detroit water, for very good financial reasons. The vote was 7-2.
- morelisp 7y agoI didn't say anything about Democrats or Republicans - both parties have blood on their hands in this case, and city-level planning decisions are often disconnected from party-defining policy issues anyway. Regardless of which party it was, the executive failures - which is what you agree is the problem when you say "they're just incompetent at their job" - cannot be in any meaningful sense a local problem when the executive is being run by a state appointee and not an official elected locally or appointed by one. The emergency manager system is just another case of the nepotism you mention.
- briandear 7y agoCompletely false. Flint and Detroit governments caused this. Flint’s lack of money was because that government was so financially inept. Decisions made by Flint caused this.
- seminatl 7y agoThe “towns around Flint” exist and are wealthy due to explicitly racist maneuvers during the White Flight era that intentionally impoverished inner cities and their black residents.
- kwhitefoot 7y agoThe people most at risk are not and were not in a position to vote.