River Rise: Flooding and Basement Backups on Detroit’s Eastside: with Latisha Johnson, Dr. William Shuster & Dr. Marie Garcia

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Up next, Authentically Detroit, welcome City Councilwoman for District 4, Letitia Johnson, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State, Dr.
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William Schuster, Environmental Justice Director at ECN, Dr.
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Marie Garcia, here to discuss what's happening with Gliwa in the Jefferson Chalmers neighborhood.
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And of course, what we're reading from the Michigan Chronicle, we're going to be talking about Michigan's U.S.
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Senate race.
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Abdul Al Sayad has a new ad targeting black voters.
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Mallory McMurrow over the weekend dropped her bid for the seat.
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Stick with us.
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Authentically Detroit starts right after these messages.
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Listen up, everyone.
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The 2026 Eastside Community Candidate Forum takes place at the Staudemeyer on July 18th from 10 a.m.
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to 4 p.m.
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Join us on the 18th at this forum held in partnership with SEIU Michigan and hear directly from candidates in the U.S.
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House, State House, and State Senate elections about the issues shaping Detroit's East Side.
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This forum is the perfect opportunity for residents to ask questions about health care, development, preemption, governance, affordability, and other issues that impact our city's east side.
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For more details and to register, visit authentically-detroit.com.
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Welcome to another episode of Authentico Detroit.
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We're broadcasting live from Detroit's East Side at Stademeyer inside the East Side Community Network.
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I'm Sam Robinson.
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And I'm Donna Givens-Davidson.
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We want to thank you for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people here in the city of Detroit.
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We want you to like, rate, and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms.
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Today, we have a few very special guests.
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Councilwoman Letitia Johnson, thanks for joining us.
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Marie Garcia, thank you for being with us.
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And uh Dr.
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Bill.
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Thank you.
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I'm a Western guy.
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You know, I've I've always wanted to get like an advanced degree.
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And if I were to, I would go to Wayne State and I'd get a history master's.
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Righteous.
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Yeah.
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So um thanks for how are you guys doing?
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How are we feeling?
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It was hot and now it's cooler.
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Yeah, we have a little bit of rain.
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Yes.
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You know, a little bit of a little bit of flooding here and there, wouldn't you degree?
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Lots of wind, lots of wind, lots of trees down.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Go ahead and speak a little bit closer.
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You can pull that mic right up to your uh yeah, right in between, y'all.
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Marie, you are from you're Texan.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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And actually I'll be there Thursday.
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So I feel like this little heat wave that we had was a little primer for what I'm gonna experience going down there.
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Yeah.
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What about you, Letitia?
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I know you're an eastider.
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I hope you're gonna take it with you so that it stays in Texas.
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Um I will say I was one of the uh many who lost power over the weekend.
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Um, and so thankfully when the wind came and the rain came, the temperatures dropped a little.
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Um, so it was not as humid and hot in my house um as it could have been.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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You know, one thing that is interesting, I'm gonna change the subject a little bit.
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When you drove up here, it looked a little different when you came to ECN today, didn't it?
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Yes.
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Oh the progress.
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Oh, it's it's it's progress, but progress is really ugly before it gets pretty, isn't it?
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Um last week we started construction of the Angela Brown Wilson Gardens and all the pavement removal.
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Um Letitia was here during the announcement and the ribbon cutting.
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And outside of the ribbon cutting, now you're seeing the pavement come up and the sidewalks, all of this stuff.
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And we're parking in to the south of us in what um we're now calling North Greenway, rather.
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Um, we also have parking across the street at Capuchins, who if you want to cross um Connor.
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Um, and we're entering through one door on the north side of the building, which leads you into the art room um and into our building.
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So it's a major change.
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Um, and I'm really excited about what's going to happen when we're done.
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Yeah, it's gonna be a lot different here, and we're going to have celebrations here in September, sort of at our halfway mark, and then be done about this time next year.
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Awesome.
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Excellent.
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Yeah, it's easy to get in.
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I you know, I um you guys have a video on social media uh for those that want some direction before they get there, but uh I I figured it out pretty pretty quickly, and so don't worry, uh ECN is open.
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Uh of course you had mentioned for climate emergencies.
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I mean, I I was actually in here um for a period of time just because my window unit AC wasn't doing enough.
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And so you know, we we wanted people to know because you can drive by, especially without cars and a lot, and think this place is closed.
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So we're putting banners up or putting some more official signs up, the banners will be here tomorrow.
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But during a climate emergencies, um Marie operates our resilience hub, and we want people to actually come here and get heat relief, and we didn't see a whole lot of that last week.
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Yeah, and that's really unfortunate.
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You know, we do movies, we have some planned crafts, you know, coloring pages, you know, for kids if people um, you know, want to bring their families in.
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But we really just want people to come in, get relief from that heat.
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You know, being from Texas, I I'm definitely used to it.
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I definitely understand what it can do.
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Um, but it's really dangerous for people's health, you know, to be out in the heat.
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Um, and also for people that are on certain medications, and that's some of the stuff that we're working on getting out there so that people are more informed about.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Well, really good stuff, guys.
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Before we get into this um conversation about the east side being somewhat underwater to a degree, uh, I want to talk about uh what happened over the weekend with this Michigan Senate race.
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Donna, um, your preferred candidate, Abdul Al-Sayed, says path has become a little bit clearer uh after this dropout by Mallory McMurrow.
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Uh she's on the ballot.
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You're gonna see her on the ballot.
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Um voters, of course, have already received absentee ballots.
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Some people have already voted for her.
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I see Abdul's campaign is telling people how to spoil their ballots if they want to instead vote for Abdul Al-Sayed.
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However, the race uh for Michigan's opening U.S.
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Senate seat, Gary Peters, is of course retiring, um, is now really squarely the narrative has shifted to a place where we're talking about the establishment versus uh the anti-establishment.
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Of course, Haley Stevens representing uh sort of the Democratic old guard, um, and and Abdul Al-Sayed is uh the more progressive, uh pro-Palestine, money out of politics, um, um, Medicare for all candidate.
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Uh it's gonna get interesting when we talk about our communities.
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My neighbors, I'm not seeing the Abdul wave as much in Yorkshire Woods, Outer Drive Hayes, right?
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Um Donna, I think you are part of the counter narrative of our black uh uh I don't want to say elders, but our he was endorsed by the black slate.
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He was endorsed by many different black leaders in our community.
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So this is not uh, you know, unusual.
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I think that you have um Epdol's interesting to me.
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I've known him for 10 years.
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I knew him when I first got to ECN and he was working with us when he was at the health department.
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So I knew him before he became a politician, right?
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Um, and so I bring a perspective of really seeing a person grow, you know, because he's young.
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I mean, to me, everybody's young, right?
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And so I've seen him kind of grow, maybe grow up into his shoes to fit the shoes he's wearing now.
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And it's always great.
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I love seeing young people grow into their possibilities, and I think he's there now.
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Um, I think Mallory McMurra was everybody's second choice.
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And the problem with being everybody's second choice is that you don't become number one.
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She at one point was really in competition with um Hellie Stevens because she's known and people know her, and she had a lot of support.
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But when people started to know who Abdul was, they kind of pushed her out of the race.
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When he got the support from national politicians like Bernie Sanders and others, it elevated his platform in a way.
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And I was talking to Bill, if you don't mind saying, Bill's son connected him to, as our children do, right?
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Our children will radicalize us, if nothing else.
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They'll make us think like them, or you know, just don't talk to me over Thanksgiving table.
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And so some of us just go along to get along, and some of us fight back.
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But no, I'm just joking.
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Because I but you know, I think that you're what you're seeing also is this rise of young voters who are saying no more.
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Let's not have the same old thing.
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And what he represents is change, what she represents is stability, and the question for me is whether or not people want to see change or stability.
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Yeah, uh, you know, the the uh sort of sentiment from Mallory's camp that was described to me was that we weren't gonna beat the$30 million of ad spending.
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Abdul is getting outspent six to one, and we know that uh the pro-Israel lobby APAC is behind um much of the money being spent in this Michigan U.S.
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Senate race.
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Um, Wayne County Commissioner Martha Scott is going to appear in a new ad uh this week.
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It's a 30-second ad produced by the fight agency.
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You're getting this news for the first time on Authentically Detroit.
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Um making the case for Abdul Al-Sayed with black voters.
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Of course, Abdul was a part of the February 2024 uncommitted movement that said, Joe Biden, you told us that you were going to be a one-term president.
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Joe Biden, we are very upset over uh our money being spent on this war in Gaza.
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And Abdul was a part of that.
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Haley Stevens' supporters are going to use that against Abdul and have been using that against uh candidates that were sympathetic to Palestinians, did not want to uh outwardly support Kamala Harris because it felt like they were sort of betraying their community.
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But yes, Abdul took the political risk at that time um and faced heat from uh uh Arab voters and and Muslim voters um across the state.
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Um it turned out to be a pretty uh good calculus for him because now he gets to, in this ad say that, well, I actually did support Kamala Harris.
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I supported her the second day that she was announced to be the nominee to replace Joe Biden.
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And I don't just want to reduce that to political calculus because I think he really did want her to win.
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And I think that um unfortunately there were people who were so passionate that they lost sight of what they really wanted to see.
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He really did not want Donald Trump to be president, and so I think that he came out.
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I was part of the uncommitted movement, if I'm being honest, because I felt like um you should not anoint somebody to be the candidate.
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I felt like there were too many risk factors and that the race was at risk.
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So let's force change.
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And we did, you know, and we didn't get what we wanted, you know.
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But the reality is that I was also in the heat in Ramulus when um Kamala Harris, you know, came to Detroit and waited until about 12 midnight to get on the bus to get back to my car at the airport.
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I was also hitting the streets and supporting her.
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So two things can be true.
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A, you can say, I want change, I don't want this war.
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And also, yes, I passionately want in the general election, not the primaries, I passionately want this other person to win.
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I think a lot of people who were voting uncommitted really just wanted Joe Biden to change his policy on Gaza.
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I really think that a lot of people felt like if I go uncommitted, maybe we'll stop selling um weapons to Israel.
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Maybe we'll stop this connection that people thought was really, really damaging.
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I felt personally really bad about it because my tax dollars are going to this and they are not coming to see how homeless people in my community.
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You know, every dollar we're spending overseas fighting people.
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Do we export anything more than war?
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Yeah.
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Not cheese, right?
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Not cars.
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War is our biggest export, and you have to ask yourselves.
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I mean, at the same time, we're arming Ukraine, we're arming um Israel, and our people are starving on the street, hungry, and homeless, and we have climate issues and all these issues we cannot address because there's not enough money, but there's always enough money for war.
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And so that was my uncommitted vote, to be honest with you.
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And I stand by it, I will never apologize for it, but when it came down to the general election where you have to choose between the two candidates who exist, I chose sides loudly, and you know, I wore the t-shirts, I did it all, right?
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Because I wanted a different outcome.
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That said, it is now 2026.
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And we have to ask ourselves what we want to see moving forward.
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I don't see how after this current president has destroyed everything we know about, you know, the United States government and you know, bureaucracies and just the whole political culture has been contaminated.
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How can you just go back to the way things were?
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We need people who can envision a different future.
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And that's why I support and I want to be very clear, Eastside Community Network does not support.
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Authentically Detroit does not support.
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Donna Givens Davidson supports Abdul El Sayyid as a private citizen.
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I support him.
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This is not an endorsement by our organization.
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This organization and this podcast, we're not putting any money into his campaign.
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This is a personal drive.
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By the way, I didn't put any money into his campaign either.
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I'm just supporting him.
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But um, I'm saying that to say I think we need change.
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And I think we need change candidates.
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And I also think we need young people who are connected to other young people.
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The thing that makes me happiest, most hopeful about right now is a multiracial coalition that's coming together and saying, let's change this.
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People my age, we're like mad at everybody else.
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We don't like these Arabs, we don't like these people, we don't like those people, but younger people seem to know how to get along and fight for something together, much more than people my age.
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And I'm really proud of our young people for um, you know, having the courage to be different.
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And it's it's not all young people that are putting their support behind Abdul, I'll say yet.
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He's got Wayne County executive Warren Evans.
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He's got I'm not young.
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He's got the black slate.
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You're you're young in spirit, Donna.
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I'll give you that.
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Uh as am I.
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I'm getting older every day.
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The Wayne County Democratic Black Caucus.
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Of course, the Council of Baptist pastors had an interesting slate.
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They endorsed Abdul, but also endorsed Byron Nolan, who's running against Rashida.
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Um Horace Sheffield, uh Detroit Action.
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That's a progressive uh youth-led organization here in the city of Detroit.
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Um, and he he, of course, just was endorsed by uh Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, uh Bernie Sanders, Haley Stevens brings her own um uh group of supporters.
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You can imagine who those folks are.
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Um, however, it's gonna be interesting.
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It does seem to be squarely again on this issue of Israel, Palestine, um, which is it's just it's interesting to me because after October 7th happened and there was this big groundswell of of skepticism over over Israel and their military operations and strategy, I was told by so many leaders that it it's gonna go away in two months.
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It's gonna go away in six months, it's gonna go away in a year.
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Well the fatel the fatelis didn't and the spending didn't no, never.
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I mean, they they never ended.
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I mean, of course, um the Israeli political lobby being the largest player in Michigan's U.S.
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Senate race.
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I mean, that's quite fascinating.
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And so, you know, I apologize to everybody who, you know, is offended by hearing about this issue because you will continue to hear about it as it shapes local politics and local legislative races.
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Um it will continue to do that.
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I also want to point out that it's bigger than just that, right?
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It is, certainly is.
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It's um Bernie Sanders movement from 2016 when he said, you know, he wanted free college, uh, Medicare for all, and um was it$16 an hour minimum wage increase.
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Yeah, the minimum wage increase.
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Yeah.
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And that changed, that was a movement that transformed politics for younger people.
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Now, admittedly, it's not just young people supporting Abdul, but young people put them on the map.
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Just like young people put um, oh my goodness, the the mayor of New York on the map.
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Zoran.
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Zoran.
00:16:47.120 --> 00:16:54.879
That the the other people will vote for them, but it's young people who are pushing these candidates to the forefront and pushing these issues to the forefront and changing their minds.
00:16:55.120 --> 00:16:57.919
Last thing I want to say about this is I used to smoke.
00:16:58.159 --> 00:17:00.159
And my daughter used to say, Mommy, why do you smoke?
00:17:00.240 --> 00:17:00.799
Why do you want to smoke?
00:17:00.879 --> 00:17:01.759
My oldest daughter, Camille.
00:17:01.840 --> 00:17:03.679
And I said, Oh, don't mess with me.
00:17:03.759 --> 00:17:13.839
And then there's this big campaign that they did in schools where they got kids to go home and tell their parents and shame their parents for smoking, and smoking went away.
00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:19.599
It was my 10-year-old daughter really shaming me and saying, I need you to stop, I want you to live.
00:17:19.680 --> 00:17:22.160
And she was telling me everything about second-hand smoke.
00:17:22.400 --> 00:17:26.480
Young people have the power to change the world when we listen to them.
00:17:26.640 --> 00:17:30.240
And if you really want to change anything, start with youth.
00:17:30.480 --> 00:17:33.279
Youth are just so powerful that they change the way we think.
00:17:33.359 --> 00:17:35.839
Even we don't want to hear them, they change the way we think.
00:17:35.920 --> 00:17:43.200
And I think this is still a success of a youth movement that has now bubbled its way up to the Council of Baptist pastors and other folks.
00:17:43.759 --> 00:17:49.680
But it really started with people saying we're gonna look beyond these traditional things, and I could not be more proud.
00:17:49.759 --> 00:18:00.000
I'm really excited about not just one person, but so many changed candidates moving to the forefront, including Donovan McKinney and others who really see the world differently.
00:18:00.319 --> 00:18:01.839
Because we're gonna need a different world.
00:18:01.920 --> 00:18:04.880
When all is said and done, do you hear about the fireworks display in DC?
00:18:05.039 --> 00:18:05.920
I know we have to move on.
00:18:06.079 --> 00:18:07.839
The fireworks display in DC.
00:18:08.559 --> 00:18:13.200
It was so bad, it was the most less yesterday.
00:18:13.279 --> 00:18:18.559
It was supposed to happen on the July 4th, and the president decided to push it back until yesterday.
00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:22.880
And there was so much smoke in the air that the air was it was a disaster.
00:18:22.960 --> 00:18:24.720
They said people cannot go outside and breathe right now.
00:18:25.680 --> 00:18:26.240
Air quality.
00:18:27.200 --> 00:18:35.440
And and they made that decision, even though National Park Service had called called it off because of the air condition, because of the conditions.
00:18:35.680 --> 00:18:39.279
They overruled those conditions and put an entire city at risk.
00:18:39.440 --> 00:18:53.920
And the most hilarious thing is that it didn't work because there was so much cloud, there was so much smoke they were producing because this uninterrupted, you know, flying of the sparks, that it's after a while the fireworks were obscured by clouds of smoke.
00:18:54.319 --> 00:18:54.799
Wow.
00:18:55.119 --> 00:18:56.960
You have to look it up, look it up online.
00:18:58.079 --> 00:19:06.799
When you have that kind of stuff up, that kind of ignorance ruling our nation and taking our money, our tax dollars are going to these things.
00:19:07.039 --> 00:19:07.279
Yeah.
00:19:07.519 --> 00:19:15.599
And we can talk about any new thing, but I think what I just want to say it's time for change, Candace, simply because change is no longer optional.
00:19:15.759 --> 00:19:20.559
It's either going to be we survive as a nation because we changed or we are doomed.
00:19:20.720 --> 00:19:23.440
And I hate to be negative, but that's just my thinking.
00:19:24.160 --> 00:19:29.359
Well, after we take a break, we're going to hear about what we can do to pull ourselves out of the doom and the misery.
00:19:29.759 --> 00:19:34.160
Solutions, perhaps, to our environmental crises and issues.
00:19:34.319 --> 00:19:36.240
Uh keep it locked, authentically Detroit.
00:19:36.319 --> 00:19:38.400
We'll be right back after these messages.
00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:54.960
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00:19:55.359 --> 00:20:03.519
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00:20:04.319 --> 00:20:14.319
We offer rentals for activities such as corporate events, social events, meetings, conferences, art classes, fitness classes, and more.
00:20:14.880 --> 00:20:23.599
To learn more about our rentals and reserve space, visit ecn-detroit.org slash space rental.
00:20:31.839 --> 00:20:33.200
Welcome back, everyone.
00:20:33.359 --> 00:20:44.799
We are here with City Councilwoman Letitia Johnson, Marie Garcia of the East Community Network, Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Wayne State, Bill Schuster.
00:20:45.200 --> 00:20:48.400
We want to talk to you guys about Jefferson Chalmers.
00:20:48.559 --> 00:20:49.599
What's going on over there?
00:20:49.680 --> 00:20:52.160
I've I've kayaked through the canals.
00:20:52.480 --> 00:20:58.960
I've gotten saved by a wealthy family who uh has a really large house and a nice little thing.
00:20:59.119 --> 00:21:03.599
They have a stairs that I climbed up after my kayak tipped over because I was trying to go under a bridge.
00:21:03.759 --> 00:21:05.519
And yes, yes.
00:21:05.599 --> 00:21:10.160
Um Malachi Barrett and I have had some crazy kayak adventures over the years.
00:21:10.400 --> 00:21:12.559
But they tell you to not go in the canal.
00:21:12.640 --> 00:21:19.200
They tell you don't swim in them because of the sewage issues and because I don't know, they're polluted.
00:21:19.440 --> 00:21:36.400
Uh however, going back all the way to 2021, I remember when I had first moved to Detroit, I've been here for six years now, um, seeing the streets with all the water, uh, the cars, like literally to the windshield underwater.
00:21:36.720 --> 00:21:40.880
Um, and then I decided to buy a house ten minutes away.
00:21:41.200 --> 00:21:47.599
Um and it it rains at my house too, and you know, a little bit of basement wetness, but nothing like what's happening at Jefferson Chalmers.
00:21:47.839 --> 00:21:58.720
And so I want you guys to kind of set the scene and and tell a story of what's going on, what what needs to happen, uh, so those residents can not be underwater.
00:22:00.160 --> 00:22:51.599
your expertise what brought us connected us years ago can you talk about the what's happening well let's let's start with the landscape and we are we are the coastal east side uh we run right up against lake st clair and majority of the Detroit River and uh this was marshland that we built on many many years ago and so that means that we have wet soils we have shallow groundwater you don't have to dig too far to find groundwater here and um and this has created you know kind of the venice of of the Midwest here in Detroit and Jefferson Chalmers is a showpiece in in many ways and what has come out of that is a very unique water culture.
00:22:52.319 --> 00:23:16.319
Like we learn how to live with water in different ways and how to enjoy water but we have we have infrastructure uh that has broken down over time um there's been a lot of casting of maybe not blame but responsibility to repair that infrastructure and to do something about it.
00:23:16.640 --> 00:25:49.920
You have uh very different um entities who have different interests and different priorities and so the folks in city of Detroit and specifically in Jefferson Chalmers but even uh even in inland in the riverbend area and and perhaps also even farther in around Outer Drive uh we're all profoundly affected by um water moving through our city and sometimes it doesn't move the way we want it to and so we get flooding and just make sure everybody understands there's five main types of flooding and I always have to write them down but um we can have river incursion when when the river currents are pushed inland um we have sewer backups which is probably the most significant and most prevalent type of flooding um we have runoff coming off of our our streets um that can flood our streets impairing mobility for Detroiters um and then we have groundwater uh and as groundwater goes up and down sometimes that groundwater will be in our basement uh we you know it's a birth rate in Detroit to have a have a basement that you can use um and uh that kind of takes away um from from that uh we also have um in the winter uh folks can't afford heating bills um and the heat gets turned off freezing of pipes especially the drinking water pipes those are under pressure when they crack uh flooding can proceed very quickly and completely and so these are the major types of flooding in the area so let's talk about the Jefferson Chalmers landscape in particular um I think it was 2022 that it was declared a flood zone and very convenient 2019 but wasn't it completed in 2020 I know that they declared it they said we're going to do this and then whatever you know but yes it was yeah 2022 yes they that's when it was finalized right and so they during this period of time there was talk about you know what can we do to remove it from a flood zone and they brought the U.S.
00:25:49.920 --> 00:26:42.480
Army Corps of engineers here and I went to a meeting on Jefferson at a church nobody introduced themselves nobody explained their plans all they did was encourage everybody to you wasn't it weird it was totally weird the only thing I learned about in detail was how to buy flood insurance yeah it that it was somehow your problem it this is and it wasn't a community problem it wasn't a governance problem it was you know that we have an established water culture here that is worth preserving and how do we interact and cooperate to do that and we had this channel system getting down to the nitty gritty of it excuse me there's you know the Fox Creek and then Connors Creek um are both you know under renovation at this point.
00:26:42.720 --> 00:26:56.640
The Fox Creek uh used to carry a fair amount of uh of sanitary flow um at different times and was used to you know basically take what the sewer system couldn't hold.
00:26:56.960 --> 00:27:02.319
Okay but but explain this creek system because we don't see these creeks I know there's a whole neighborhood called Fox Creek.
00:27:02.400 --> 00:27:08.319
Yeah and Connor Creek this is runs along Connor Avenue right but we don't see them.
00:27:08.400 --> 00:27:11.839
These are underground creeks that are being utilized by our water systems.
00:27:12.400 --> 00:27:41.680
Right we many years ago we piped our creek system and you know so for example the Connor Creek has been replaced by three large pipes which also bring in quite a bit of wastewater flow uh especially during storm events into uh where we are right now which is a high wastewater traffic area and I think that's you know something fundamental that we have to look at.
00:27:42.000 --> 00:27:45.039
So I've heard people over the years say we need to resurface our creeks.
00:27:45.200 --> 00:27:47.839
And you're telling me those creeks have been replaced by pipes.
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:55.200
Yes and in the case of the Connor Creek it is now a um what we call retention treatment basin.
00:27:56.240 --> 00:28:07.519
And so these are all things that we've we've considered very um very specifically within the watershed management plan for the upper Detroit river which Dr.
00:28:07.599 --> 00:28:09.599
Garcia will discuss.
00:28:10.000 --> 00:28:20.160
But here we have the this challenge of we have discontinuous seawalls in the Jefferson Chalmers area.
00:28:21.359 --> 00:28:47.119
It would behoove us to have a continuous seawall protecting all residents of a certain height and because if there's a part that's missing if if Jerry and Flo next door can't afford it then the water just comes in through this but the thing the city wants to put the burden of establishing a seawall on the homeowner.
00:28:48.000 --> 00:29:23.519
But how again I bring up this idea of a valuable water culture you know this is a part of Detroit Detroit culture and the riverwalk is a you know had quite a bit of investment and how do we separate you know how do we not separate the residential from the whole I'm gonna be honest with you I didn't find out about Harbor Island until I was about 30 years old okay there are people who lived on the east side all of their lives that don't know anything about those canals.
00:29:23.680 --> 00:29:24.640
Am I right Letitia?
00:29:24.799 --> 00:29:25.119
You're right.
00:29:25.279 --> 00:29:32.079
You know I mean this is it's a Detroit culture but it's like a very small subculture Detroiters that know about these places.
00:29:32.240 --> 00:29:41.440
If you are you know fortunate enough to have a home on scripts on Harbor Island you know all about this but if you don't live near there that's not your culture.
00:29:41.599 --> 00:29:50.240
This is one of those deeply kept secrets in a neighborhood that somehow became majority black although Harbor Island is not.
00:29:50.400 --> 00:30:08.160
And so you had this majority black ownership in this community historically like when I was little kid I used to go over my friend's house I remember they lived on Chalmers and we used to play jacks on the boot floors that's all I knew about Jeff Chalmers was jacks but um at the Colden's house but you know that's what I knew about the community nice houses and jacks.
00:30:08.400 --> 00:30:10.160
I didn't know about the water there.
00:30:10.960 --> 00:30:24.319
And then the city created this plan of decided to go into a planning process and Jeff Chalmers became more widely known to people who were in Detroit and coming to Detroit and wait a minute you have all of these amenities here.
00:30:25.039 --> 00:30:29.039
You have the Venice of the east side I mean Venice nobody knew about that.
00:30:29.200 --> 00:30:29.599
Right.
00:30:30.000 --> 00:30:57.200
Until fairly recently yeah and so it becomes this attraction and from some people's perspective the way that seawalls are being approached is we're going to let people who can afford seawalls build them and if you can't afford them we're gonna fine you and you're gonna have to leave and if you have a mortgage you have to have flood insurance which you know is extremely expensive and has to be front loaded paid for every January after all the Christmas spending right and so that's always going to make it difficult.
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:11.839
And so there is this feeling of removal like there are forces that will allow us that will force us out and the city is not going to fix this problem because the city wants to allow people who are not like us to be in there.
00:31:12.000 --> 00:31:58.880
Have you heard that at all Letitia so I have heard some of that the interesting thing about that is there are longtime residents who live in the community who have some concerns about the city or any public entity actually helping to provide support to rebuild the seawall so it's it there why why is that because they have said it's their private property right it's it's their private property although it impacts the entire community if their property is not maintained they have said why don't you help me with my foundation why are you helping the seawall and not fix up my house?
00:31:59.119 --> 00:32:15.599
Correct especially when you think about proximity to the water um water pressure always being up against their foundations and a lot of people having cracks and things within their foundation so it's always um well what about me?
00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:16.400
What about me?
00:32:16.960 --> 00:32:20.000
And as a homeowner wouldn't that be your concern though?
00:32:20.319 --> 00:32:36.559
Absolutely absolutely and especially recognizing that though the seawall impacts every resident in the Jefferson Chalmers community because now they're all in a floodplain whether you live on the canal or not.
00:32:36.880 --> 00:32:52.640
And so that's that's part of the conversation we've been having saying you know this is something that needs to be addressed to help get the community out of the floodplain in order for the city to be able to provide federal grant dollars that we receive to address home repair.
00:32:52.880 --> 00:32:57.039
Right so I might my question though is you know it seems like a false choice.
00:32:57.200 --> 00:33:17.119
You can fix foundations and seawalls maybe not at the same time maybe you do the seawall first and then you do the foundations but it seems as though you know if you want to stop flooding and you want to entice people to do that, creating a mechanism by which people can feel as though they're benefiting from this expense that's going to happen and it seems like that would be the way to do it.
00:33:17.359 --> 00:33:28.319
I I agree and that has to be the way that it happens because we have to get the community out of the floodplain to provide any relief, any assistance to residents in the Jefferson Chalmers community.
00:33:28.640 --> 00:33:38.559
I mean you can't even build I I remember there were JEI was trying to build affordable housing and they couldn't get federal grant money from HUD to invest in that because of the floodplain.
00:33:38.880 --> 00:33:39.279
Correct.
00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:49.599
Now why don't we blow it out you know to the east side I I think what's important if you spend any time with me, you know I'm all about data.
00:33:50.480 --> 00:34:13.920
Going out and measuring things and um you know I keep going back to where did we get this floodplain designation from and what data is that based on it seems like elevation land elevation is um is primary in that and that's traditionally what you know how we just determine that.
00:34:14.239 --> 00:34:28.800
But our canal system again is unique and so we need to be under you know to understand how you know how does that canal system go up and down with the Detroit River?
00:34:29.119 --> 00:34:30.320
Is it a buffer?
00:34:30.639 --> 00:35:38.800
Is it a magnifier of what the Detroit River's doing um we we have to know where the groundwater is you know the point well taken that many residential structures and businesses on the east side having you know struggling with you know my foundation has been broken down after years of you know that hydrostatic pressure building up against it and moving up and down you know it's it's it's very powerful it's gonna move move things around in a way that we don't we don't want so you know we are talking about sustainability here we're talking about rebuilding foundations we're talking about but building back better maybe your basement can only be four feet deep oh no that's no no no come on now yeah are you a native Detroiter I would have that question well I'm I grew up in Birmingham Michigan yeah so you're native Detroit you have basements in Birmingham too I mean basements in the Detroit area and we had a wet basement in Detroit yeah I mean but I'm just saying that basements are a thing.
00:35:38.960 --> 00:36:46.960
Yeah okay you got to have a basement well and I call it a birth rate you're right I mean it's it's like it is absolutely a birth I would I wouldn't exist without my basement I mean so much so many square footage and terrible things have happened in basements you know it was all the fun is in basements right the parties put in a basement until I do I in my high school years all I'm gonna say is my joy was being in somebody's basement somewhere dancing to a party to the wall sweating and I was soaking wet okay it was great basements are how we congregate and so figuring out a way I mean there's got to be technology that allows us to fix up basements to make them um absolutely more flip proof and and here in there again it's knowing where the water is in Detroit that helps us determine which technologies are going to help us you know kind of rebuild our way out of this and that that does take it takes time it takes funding.
00:36:47.360 --> 00:36:54.320
A lot of funding a lot of funding but if we keep going data free we keep making bad decisions.
00:36:56.400 --> 00:36:59.679
And that's and that's a it's just so important.
00:36:59.920 --> 00:37:26.880
Now the idea of a log log jam or a log dam yeah um let's just touch on that for a moment um that would that would make the assumption that the canals have some sort of um connection with the Detroit River or that the canal level is going up and down and exceeding the landscape elevation.
00:37:27.039 --> 00:37:31.519
Yeah and you know so that's the assumption it happened one year.
00:37:31.840 --> 00:37:33.760
It happened one year it happened one year.
00:37:34.079 --> 00:37:37.920
We had incursion of of the Detroit River yeah was it 1920?
00:37:38.239 --> 00:38:02.880
Yeah yeah I had a friend who lived on script Steve who had lived on script and he had a boat behind his house the Amastad and he used to take me out on his boat you know we'd go through the canals and go out to the Detroit River it was always so much fun we actually did a sustainability tour where we ended at his house and this isn't a year when um Orlando and I used to do these sustainability tours let's just you remember that right and the it but it was a year where there was the the elevations are so high.
00:38:02.960 --> 00:38:14.400
I remember this is a year when all of the um the marinas had the water level so high it messed up the electrical systems in there in the boat docks outlets in the boat docks so it that was one year.
00:38:14.559 --> 00:38:21.760
Yeah one year where you couldn't drive down scripts and you had to you know and but that that's not a continuous problem.
00:38:21.920 --> 00:38:31.039
That's not the biggest problem inside the neighborhood if you'd ask residents it's probably sewer backups it is the sewer backups and groundwater exactly are the issues.
00:38:31.360 --> 00:38:50.000
And so one of the ways that that's being dealt with and one of the things that happened in 2021 was a failure of those two pumping stations right the fruit and the Connors Creek pumping stations failed and I remember Gary Brown said well it would not have mattered because we would have just as much funding flooding without even if they were working and that just seemed really dumb to me.
00:38:50.239 --> 00:38:51.920
Because I was like so then why do we have them?
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:54.000
I mean sometimes he just says things.
00:38:56.400 --> 00:39:03.440
How much you know of that federal dollars have been delivered so far.
00:39:03.599 --> 00:39:05.199
Yeah let's let's that's my that's my question.
00:39:05.599 --> 00:39:07.119
We do I want to get to that question.
00:39:07.199 --> 00:39:10.320
Yeah but I want to get it it's in the tens of twenties of millions of dollars.
00:39:10.880 --> 00:39:39.440
The 2021 floods which generated all of these things right you had the two and they knew the one station was going to fail because it didn't have electricity and they knew it didn't have electricity they didn't bother Gleewood didn't bother to reconnect it right and so now the solution is we're going to build a new pumping station inside of the Jeff Chalmers neighborhood which seems to be a reasonable response to the two pumping stations not doing the job in 2021.
00:39:39.760 --> 00:39:42.639
It's been met with resistance what's going on?
00:39:43.039 --> 00:39:56.239
So it's it's been met with a lot of resistance um residents don't want a utility building within their residential neighborhood is the primary concern, right?
00:39:56.800 --> 00:40:42.880
So Sam kind of kicked everything off talking about 2021 and what happened what we saw um what we heard what some people experienced and I was campaigning at the time and I actually stopped campaigning because I said there's no way I can go and knock on someone's door ask for their support knowing that they're dealing with this because keep in mind more than 70% of District 4 households had a backup in their basement because of the pump station failure because of sewer pipes that were not large enough to manage all of the wastewater that was coming through the system because of the amount of stormwater we had gotten in a very short period of time.
00:40:43.280 --> 00:40:52.239
And so as a result there were a number I looked at some literature that I had back in 2021 and it identified a number of things that needed to happen.
00:40:52.320 --> 00:41:44.639
Now I'm no engineer I there were things that we were talking to residents about um what they had experienced what and and so many residents had worked at DWSD at some point in time they knew how the system worked right so we were having a lot of different conversations and we noted that the pump station was one of them and on that was in the news it was in the media that two of the four pumps were not functioning because they did not have electricity right so the Fruit pump station in particular is a station that has to function 247 because of Jefferson Chalmers and its topography it being a low-lying community when you think about that and I continue to say who in the world would build a system like this that has to operate 24-7?
00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:46.000
How do you improve it?
00:41:46.159 --> 00:42:20.320
How do you maintain it even right so you know inevitably something's going to go awry and 2021 was it it was not only the pump station but also there are some pipes some sewer pipes underground throughout various communities in District 4 that need to be increased in size just because of the amount of flow that they receive and and when because they have not been increased because there's all kinds of waste that bogs them down we saw 2021 happen.
00:42:20.719 --> 00:42:30.800
So when we talk about the need for it back in 2021 everybody recognized the need for the improvements with the pump station just not in my backyard?
00:42:31.039 --> 00:42:33.119
Not in my backyard and that's that's what's happening.
00:42:33.840 --> 00:43:12.639
So so we actually wanted to hone in on what are the challenges what are the concerns there were some environmental concerns that were articulated naturally these types of projects Eagle requires for them to do testing of soil before they can proceed if they have to remediate anything they have to go through that process to remediate soil um it's it's been a construction site as you talked about ECN going through the process now it's it's something that people don't want to go through but we know that we want the improvements on the other end of it.
00:43:12.960 --> 00:43:33.360
And so we actually my team and I worked with residents in the community trying to identify specific benefits that would benefit the Jefferson Chalmers community for it to be a little bit more palatable because it impacts so many residents throughout District 4, not only the Jefferson Chalmers community.
00:43:33.840 --> 00:44:07.280
I think reducing vulnerability is at the heart of the conversation and so if you know for example a program of uh doing structural um like foundation reinforcement um but also having a backflow preventing check valve uh installed at each of the residences in the area I mean that's a trade-off Uh that's one way that we live within the limitations that we've been handed.
00:44:07.519 --> 00:44:16.719
Um we don't seem to be getting around we I don't see Macomb County and Oakland County signing up to put in their own wastewater treatment plan.
00:44:17.199 --> 00:44:24.719
Well don't don't they all don't don't they have rules in place or laws in place that they cannot retain wastewater within their boundaries?
00:44:26.079 --> 00:44:29.679
Um there's some I don't know.
00:44:30.320 --> 00:44:31.440
That's what I've been told.
00:44:31.599 --> 00:44:34.559
Um you know, um I think it was Russ Vallant told me that.
00:44:35.039 --> 00:44:54.960
And so he said that because of that, they bring them through here because they're not allowed to retain the There are retention treatment basins throughout Oakland and Macomb counties, but the thing is is that regardless, the east side of Detroit is a high wastewater traffic area.
00:44:55.360 --> 00:45:07.119
Um the you know, we have flows coming in from the west and from the north, and they all flow you know one way toward our wastewater treatment plant downriver.
00:45:07.519 --> 00:45:13.679
And the this is uh untenable, like no system has the capacity.
00:45:14.159 --> 00:45:16.719
And I I think that's something that Dr.
00:45:16.800 --> 00:45:21.440
Garcia could uh you know talk a bit about.
00:45:21.840 --> 00:45:46.639
But so I still remember the my one of my very first meetings um for the watershed management plan when I came here with the Corps of Engineers, and I had to ask you guys to pause for a moment and make sure that I was understanding y'all correctly that there was only one wastewater treatment facility for all of this area because where I'm from, like that's just not the case, and that's just not the norm.
00:45:46.800 --> 00:45:49.199
So and that's multiple counties.
00:45:49.440 --> 00:45:50.719
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:45:51.039 --> 00:46:14.079
So there was a$40 million um community been community investment and mitigation plan proposed by some residents in Jeff Chalmers in response to building up this um this pumping station, and um the expectation was that you as a city council person were going to negotiate on behalf of the residents wanting this$40 million investment by Glea Glewa.
00:46:14.320 --> 00:46:15.360
What happened?
00:46:15.760 --> 00:46:29.599
So, what happened is my team and I worked exceptionally hard um to respond to the requests that came from the community, and we did get a number of items that were on their list.
00:46:29.840 --> 00:46:31.679
Not$40 million, though.
00:46:32.400 --> 00:46:35.679
I don't know that we have quantified at all, to be honest.
00:46:35.840 --> 00:46:37.920
Um, so Dr.
00:46:38.079 --> 00:46:42.480
Schuster just talked about backflow preventers, essentially.
00:46:42.639 --> 00:47:01.199
So I want to remind folks that one of the first actions when I got into office in 2022, we shifted$15 million of American Rescue Plan Act funding for the basement backup protection program that did put backflow preventers in people's basements.
00:47:01.360 --> 00:47:08.719
There were roughly 400, 396 households in the Jefferson Chalmers community that received that program.
00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:18.000
Since then, we have the private sewer repair program that unfortunately Jefferson Chalmers doesn't qualify for because it's in a floodplain.
00:47:18.079 --> 00:47:22.719
Um, but we did have 400 households in the Jefferson Chalmers community that benefited from that.
00:47:22.960 --> 00:47:37.039
We subsequently had roughly$300 million that came from FEMA, that the city is using about$170 million to do Alley Sewer Repair Program, the Alley Sewer Repair Program.
00:47:37.360 --> 00:47:50.159
So that will go into the Jefferson Chalmers community and where there are alleys, make sure that people's private sewer line are connected to the city's main line because some lines have fallen off.
00:47:50.239 --> 00:47:59.679
Um, they are disconnected to some capacity, and that actually creates a greater issue and challenge with backups.
00:47:59.920 --> 00:48:03.119
So we have alley sewer repair that's coming.
00:48:03.440 --> 00:48:13.360
We have a commitment from the Water and Sewers Department to do the sewer pipe upsizing in the Jefferson Chalmers community in multiple areas.
00:48:13.599 --> 00:48:16.159
Um, don't know the actual cost to that.
00:48:16.239 --> 00:48:22.639
I believe the city had received$11.3 million from the federal government to do that work.
00:48:22.880 --> 00:48:32.000
The Great Lakes Water Authority has committed to do$5 million in improvements on Navajo where they have to redirect um$500 million.
00:48:32.559 --> 00:48:33.440
I'm sorry,$5 million.
00:48:33.920 --> 00:48:34.239
$5 million.
00:48:35.280 --> 00:48:48.639
Um so that is going to be redoing the street from curb to curb, redoing the curbs, redoing the sidewalks and landscaping on Navajo where they are putting the new pump line.
00:48:49.039 --> 00:48:55.679
Um the Great Lakes Water Authority has committed to a community liaison to work directly with them.
00:48:55.760 --> 00:49:02.480
So if there are construction challenges or concerns coming from residents, that they can respond immediately.
00:49:02.880 --> 00:49:12.239
The city council, we added$75,000 in um mini grants for beautification in the Jefferson Chalmers community.
00:49:12.320 --> 00:49:24.000
So there are a host of items that we did secure for the Jefferson Chalmers community as a result of the pump station, or just a response to what the community had advocated for.
00:49:24.320 --> 00:49:33.760
But not in response to what Jay Jergensen and the group he was leading, because they had a lot of different projects when they were looking at uh mini grants much at a much higher level.
00:49:34.079 --> 00:49:43.039
Well, that is this this is the list we were working from um that came from Jay Jergensen, Toynew, uh Lawan, Brenda Butler.
00:49:43.119 --> 00:49:48.559
There were a number of people that were involved in developing uh the list of benefits.
00:49:48.719 --> 00:49:58.880
So we worked with that, and the I think the greatest challenge that they had was that there were no home repair dollars that were associated with it.
00:49:59.119 --> 00:50:11.519
And um we've been working with JEI, uh trying to tap philanthropic organizations, applying for grants that we can utilize to help with home repair in that immediate community.
00:50:11.679 --> 00:50:22.719
So as I've said to residents, it's not that we're not going to do it, but we're continuing to pursue resources to be able to provide some assistance to them for home repair.
00:50:23.119 --> 00:50:38.960
And also, it's important you folks uh drove the sealing of many of the sewer pipes in Jefferson Chalmers that were basically getting flooded out themselves when the groundwater level went up.
00:50:39.199 --> 00:50:41.760
You know, the pipes were leaky.
00:50:41.920 --> 00:50:46.639
Um and I really appreciate you mentioning the residential sewer lateral.
00:50:47.039 --> 00:50:54.639
You know, every business, every residence has a pipe that connects your house to the sewer system.
00:50:55.280 --> 00:50:56.719
And those were put in.
00:50:56.880 --> 00:51:02.400
If your house was built in 1920, it is more than it's 106 years old.
00:51:03.199 --> 00:51:05.440
And it's kind of gross to think about.
00:51:05.840 --> 00:51:19.039
Um, those categories I've looked at at thousands of of scope, you know, video scopings of these lines, and they're just, you know, they're all cracked and broken, they're heaved apart.
00:51:19.599 --> 00:51:24.239
And this is like a an essential link in our system.
00:51:25.199 --> 00:51:29.920
And and so these are all very important aspects.
00:51:30.559 --> 00:51:50.159
We have a lot of infrastructure that, you know, if we're serious about retaining this infrastructure and making it livable, um, you know, just one final comment about the the log dams, uh, those have to be installed and then they would have to be maintained uh into perpetuity.
00:51:50.480 --> 00:52:01.840
And I don't think that's something that is realistic um, you know, to to carry on.
00:52:02.000 --> 00:52:04.639
And you know what what's the trade-off here?
00:52:04.960 --> 00:52:14.800
I can get myself in trouble saying that, but I I think it's it's a essential what's it going to do for us in the long term or in the short term.
00:52:14.960 --> 00:52:35.920
But when these canals were built more than a hundred years ago, correct me if I'm wrong, but there was a a public aspect to their creation, in which I think there's a through line to what's currently happening now in these residents when you talk to them, it's like do people think that they're not being used?
00:52:36.000 --> 00:52:43.280
I mean, I see kayakers and boaters and fishermen using this uh this water all the time.
00:52:43.760 --> 00:52:51.119
Um if anything, you I mean you know, just that area where coriander is, uh you know, right before A.
00:52:51.199 --> 00:52:51.280
B.
00:52:51.440 --> 00:52:54.239
Ford Park, um, dredge that area.
00:52:54.480 --> 00:52:57.760
It's a very sluggish part of the canal system.
00:52:58.079 --> 00:53:08.639
Um can you know again, it's it's thinking about the way the system is, the way that the system what's its tendency?
00:53:09.280 --> 00:53:13.760
You know, because if you fight Mother Nature, you never win.
00:53:14.079 --> 00:53:22.719
And I want to talk about that too, because we do have um the Detroit River has not historically had a a watershed management plan, has it?
00:53:23.039 --> 00:53:41.519
No, the Detroit River's never had a watershed management plan, which going, you know, writing some of the history and working on some of that with the residents, it was really surprising for me reading that it was once called the most polluted river in America, and it's never had a watershed management plan to, you know, manage that pollution.
00:53:42.079 --> 00:53:44.000
So that was that was definitely really shocking.
00:53:44.559 --> 00:53:56.239
So the buttons with a plan that really contained many of the elements of what some other people are asking for that's looking at many ways that we can protect the Detroit River.
00:53:56.400 --> 00:54:01.679
Um, can you talk about your process, who was involved, and then some of the elements of the plan?
00:54:01.920 --> 00:54:12.480
Yeah, so I actually recruited, I think at Max 16 and at the least um nine residents to work on the Detroit River watershed management plan.
00:54:12.880 --> 00:54:17.280
Um this plan was written by residents from all over the watershed.
00:54:17.519 --> 00:54:24.239
I think we had about like 75% east siders just because of where we are and because that's the biggest portion of the watershed.
00:54:24.559 --> 00:54:28.400
Um but so watershed management plans are written for water quality.
00:54:28.480 --> 00:54:31.199
It's written to protect the water quality in the Detroit River.
00:54:31.360 --> 00:54:35.039
One of the biggest threats to the water quality in the Detroit River is E.
00:54:35.199 --> 00:54:37.760
coli from combined sewer overflows.
00:54:38.400 --> 00:54:49.119
So recognizing, okay, we have a combined sewer overflow when there's a big storm, there's too much stormwater, and it all goes into the sewer system, and that forces those combined sewer overflows.
00:54:49.199 --> 00:54:58.400
We're like, okay, what can we do to keep the stormwater out of the system, keep it out of people's basements, and prevent these combined sewer overflows?
00:54:58.480 --> 00:55:00.559
And a lot of that is stormwater management.
00:55:00.800 --> 00:55:08.320
So in this Detroit River watershed management plan, it is largely based on stormwater management projects.
00:55:08.480 --> 00:55:09.519
Where can we put the water?
00:55:09.599 --> 00:55:22.079
Again, that's that's not the highways, that's not the streets, that's not the sewer system, that's not people's basements or people's cars, um, to to keep it out and keep the combined sewer from overflowing and keep the E.
00:55:22.239 --> 00:55:23.119
coli out of the river.
00:55:23.599 --> 00:55:24.800
So when you know there's an E.
00:55:24.880 --> 00:55:27.599
coli warnings at Belle Isle Beach, that's what that's what's happening.
00:55:27.920 --> 00:55:28.079
Yes.
00:55:28.159 --> 00:55:31.039
And Belle Isle Beach is actually one of the only places where E.
00:55:31.199 --> 00:55:34.000
coli is regularly measured.
00:55:34.639 --> 00:55:50.480
Um so, like with the river, that was one thing, that was another thing that we learned was the river is actually deemed unsafe for partial body contact and total body contact any time there is a combined sewer overflow.
00:55:50.559 --> 00:55:57.760
So they don't regularly measure it, but if they just assume that if there's a combined sewer overflow, it's there's so much E.
00:55:57.920 --> 00:56:02.400
coli in that that it's gonna drive the water quality so that it's not safe.
00:56:02.639 --> 00:56:10.960
And then we're um people may or may not be aware of that, depending on where on the Detroit River they are recreating, like it's on Belle Isle on the beach.
00:56:11.039 --> 00:56:13.440
Yeah, but people fish all of the time.
00:56:13.599 --> 00:56:19.760
We have a actual contract with um Michigan Department of Um Health and Human Services around east eat safe fish, yep.
00:56:20.000 --> 00:56:24.239
Educate people on where to fish and how much fish to eat so they can understand the contaminants.
00:56:24.400 --> 00:56:26.239
Um, can you talk about the elements of that?
00:56:26.320 --> 00:56:30.320
And before you do, I just wanted to also acknowledge that Bill Schuster actually brought Dr.
00:56:30.480 --> 00:56:37.519
Regrette Garcia to us as a um postdoc fellow to come in and and and lead this planning process.
00:56:37.599 --> 00:56:40.800
She was housed at ECN and um we didn't let her escape.
00:56:40.880 --> 00:56:42.000
But anyway, talk about this.
00:56:42.719 --> 00:56:47.679
Yeah, my mom still's asking me when I'm coming home for longer than a visit.
00:56:47.920 --> 00:56:50.159
Um what was it that you did?
00:56:50.639 --> 00:56:53.440
What describe the plan, some of the elements of the plan that make it unique?
00:56:53.760 --> 00:57:01.199
So the one some one of the things that really makes the biggest thing I think that makes the plan unique is the fact that it was written by actual residents.
00:57:01.360 --> 00:57:08.639
So there is some, you know, kind of community engagement, stakeholder engagement in these plans that, you know, is required by EPA.
00:57:08.960 --> 00:57:14.239
But actual residents writing this plan, I feel like is the most unique thing.
00:57:14.320 --> 00:57:18.800
And I mean, I've taken residents to conferences to present about that, and people are like, How did you do this?
00:57:18.880 --> 00:57:21.519
Like, how did you get them to do this?
00:57:21.840 --> 00:57:32.079
Um, another thing I think that's really unique is coming to Detroit and learning about Detroit and how much it was based on neighborhoods.
00:57:32.400 --> 00:57:52.000
I thought we need something that shows what people can do in their neighborhoods, what actual people can do, not what the city can do, what the residents can do either on their property or on that vacant lot that's next door or on, you know, that whole vacant block that's in their neighborhood.
00:57:52.159 --> 00:57:59.440
And so we included a neighborhoods profile that shows all 129 neighborhoods that are in the watershed.
00:57:59.840 --> 00:58:16.000
It shows what the land use is like in that neighborhood, where there are parks, where there's vacant lots, um, where water is likely to accumulate, so where, you know, it's likely to flood in that neighborhood, and it gives ideas of different projects that they can do.
00:58:16.239 --> 00:58:25.119
So, like, okay, we recommend a rain garden for for this area, or no, we only recommend rain barrels or different different types of green storm water infrastructure.
00:58:25.360 --> 00:58:32.320
So before we started, Sam noted the amount of flooding that takes place on his street and how his quality of life is impacted by that.
00:58:32.559 --> 00:58:35.039
You actually have recommendations in your plan for Sam.
00:58:35.280 --> 00:58:35.519
Absolutely.
00:58:35.840 --> 00:58:40.960
Don't just wait on the study, but there's some things that you and your neighbors can do to I don't I don't know if there is.
00:58:41.440 --> 00:58:43.199
They've been trying for 15 years to tell me.
00:58:43.519 --> 00:58:50.480
But but whether or not but have you been trying based on science or trying based on your understanding of science?
00:58:50.559 --> 00:58:50.639
Yes.
00:58:51.119 --> 00:59:12.639
But it requires a lot of cooperation with our DWST and Gleewa's to be regularly cleaning out, you know, our pipe system and removing the progress amounts of debris that gets into our I know some communities where people clean them out themselves, and you see residents regularly cleaning out and raking out their uh we we can't do that.
00:59:12.719 --> 00:59:16.639
They actually told me do not take the grain off.
00:59:16.960 --> 00:59:18.719
Yeah, they literally told me that don't do that.
00:59:18.800 --> 00:59:26.239
Um so I think that the but the thing I'm saying is that there are there's there's a watershed management plan that outlines what people can do in neighborhoods.
00:59:26.480 --> 00:59:30.639
Yeah, because we have neighborhoods with persistent flooding, unfortunately, all over the city.
00:59:30.800 --> 00:59:39.119
I was talking to um Palencia Mobley, who was um at DWSD as an engineer, I don't remember what her title is, but she was high high up there.
00:59:39.360 --> 00:59:43.599
And she said, you know, the problem is you can't map the water system in the city of Detroit.
00:59:43.760 --> 00:59:47.519
There's nobody really understands the interconnectedness of pipes and everything like that.
00:59:47.679 --> 00:59:58.480
So what we saw last February in Southwest Detroit, where you had the water main burst and the whole neighborhood flooded and in in freezing cold weather, she said that could happen anywhere at any time.
00:59:58.719 --> 01:00:05.840
It does, and we don't know how to track, but it that extreme emergency could happen anywhere at any time.
01:00:06.000 --> 01:00:06.559
Yeah, that's a good thing.
01:00:06.719 --> 01:00:12.159
It happens on single residential streets, like and it'll just be, you know, oh, the my neighbor's street got messed up.
01:00:12.639 --> 01:00:14.079
But it just happened a few months back.
01:00:14.239 --> 01:00:16.480
I mean, I I think it was February or March.
01:00:16.559 --> 01:00:18.639
Um and it was right off Moras.
01:00:18.960 --> 01:00:19.119
Yeah.
01:00:19.280 --> 01:00:21.840
Um so yeah, I have water main breaks all the time.
01:00:22.000 --> 01:00:22.559
All the time, yes.
01:00:22.800 --> 01:00:25.519
But what happened in Southwest was a little bit more than that.
01:00:25.760 --> 01:00:27.679
It was larger than that system failure.
01:00:27.840 --> 01:00:31.039
It attacked us a whole neighborhood, and we don't have you're right.
01:00:31.199 --> 01:00:33.519
Water main breaks are just a fact of life in Detroit, right?
01:00:33.679 --> 01:00:34.559
Water main's broken.
01:00:34.719 --> 01:00:36.000
Flooding and in the burbs.
01:00:36.159 --> 01:00:36.719
In the burbs.
01:00:37.440 --> 01:00:40.400
But you know, our infrastructure is old.
01:00:40.639 --> 01:00:46.800
I understand that we have some wooden pipes still, correct, as well as, you know, all the other materials.
01:00:46.960 --> 01:00:54.800
And so I was reading somewhere, and I don't know if this is accurate, it would cost hundreds of millions of dollars to actually map out what our water system looks like.
01:00:54.960 --> 01:00:55.599
Is that true?
01:00:56.239 --> 01:01:01.599
Well, uh GLEWA and DWSD have a pretty good grip on the system.
01:01:02.400 --> 01:01:04.800
And it's what they call the system-wide model.
01:01:05.440 --> 01:01:08.000
Um this was a Gary Brown quote.
01:01:08.559 --> 01:01:08.880
Okay.
01:01:09.760 --> 01:01:22.719
And in any case, I I think that you know, circling back to the watershed management plan, you know, what this has done is it identifies you know E.
01:01:22.960 --> 01:01:28.639
coli, which basically uh our poop is loaded with E.
01:01:28.800 --> 01:01:29.199
coli.
01:01:29.599 --> 01:01:35.039
And when that gets into, you know, the Detroit River, you know, Lake St.
01:01:35.199 --> 01:01:38.400
Clair, you know, what what have you, it's it's all over the place.
01:01:38.639 --> 01:02:02.800
But it identifies the problem, and then it you know, it forces us to take a really close look at the pipe system in Detroit and what's feeding into these pipe systems, and where where then can we you know make the most impact you know across the coastal east side?
01:02:03.360 --> 01:02:11.280
Well, I would love to learn more about the actual science behind what's happening um in front of my house.
01:02:11.519 --> 01:02:13.599
I have dozens now.
01:02:13.920 --> 01:02:15.119
I've been there since February.
01:02:15.199 --> 01:02:21.519
I have dozens of photos and fix 411 requests that are not answered.
01:02:21.840 --> 01:02:24.719
Appreciate the the city's ability.
01:02:25.840 --> 01:02:28.719
It's always good to counts contact your city council person.
01:02:28.960 --> 01:02:30.400
Is that true, Lishesha?
01:02:30.719 --> 01:02:32.400
As long as you're in District 4, yes.
01:02:32.639 --> 01:02:33.199
Yes, I am.
01:02:33.679 --> 01:02:34.639
Yes, absolutely.
01:02:34.880 --> 01:02:36.079
And yeah, it is it's just funny.
01:02:36.159 --> 01:02:38.639
You know, my our neighbors, my neighbors have like given up on it.
01:02:38.800 --> 01:02:43.920
Um last night there was like a party that uh the police ended up having to break up.
01:02:44.000 --> 01:02:52.159
But it was just funny seeing everybody's car like park right in front of my house, and then as they like get out, realize like, oh no, no, no, we can't park here, like it's flooded.
01:02:52.320 --> 01:02:57.440
Like and so we would love um some remedy or solution.
01:02:57.599 --> 01:02:59.199
Um water department.
01:02:59.599 --> 01:03:02.239
Well, let me let me let me just respond to that very quickly.
01:03:02.400 --> 01:03:06.719
So um I will certainly have the water department come out to take a look at it.
01:03:06.880 --> 01:03:16.159
I will say that there have been instances where people have reached out to me um about drain, street bank drains that are blocked.
01:03:16.480 --> 01:03:22.320
And I actually had a resident tell me that they know who blocked it.
01:03:22.559 --> 01:03:33.679
It was a contractor for a company um that ended up essentially putting concrete down the street basin.
01:03:33.840 --> 01:03:42.719
Uh, and so that's why, and I had DWSD go out several times to try to vacuum it out, but they couldn't because it was blocked.
01:03:42.960 --> 01:03:46.559
And that's perhaps the same what's happening on in my drain.
01:03:46.719 --> 01:03:56.400
Um I want to thank you guys um for for joining us and having this conversation that we certainly need to to continue into the future.
01:03:56.719 --> 01:03:56.960
Yeah.
01:03:57.119 --> 01:04:01.840
I want to point out that there's no silver bullet to fixing the water problems in the city.
01:04:02.320 --> 01:04:10.480
Water is something we don't even understand based on what I'm hearing from you guys, fully understand, and we're still trying to figure it out.
01:04:10.639 --> 01:04:13.280
And so we keep chipping away.
01:04:13.679 --> 01:04:20.639
And you know, because the chips are never going to be satisfactory, people are always gonna be left wanting more.
01:04:20.800 --> 01:04:20.960
Right.
01:04:21.280 --> 01:04:25.679
Um, and so I appreciate you doing the work that you're doing.
01:04:25.920 --> 01:04:32.719
Um, and um, I look forward to actually helping our communities implement portions of the watershed management plan.
01:04:33.039 --> 01:04:35.599
People don't always know what's possible.
01:04:35.920 --> 01:04:47.440
About five years ago, um, when Erin Stanley worked for ECN, she was helping us install backflow preventer valves and rain gardens in Jeff Chalmers to help stop some of the basement flooding.
01:04:47.760 --> 01:04:53.840
In a neighborhood where people said green infrastructure wouldn't work, we found ways to make it work with backflow preventer valves.
01:04:54.000 --> 01:05:02.400
There's always a way, it's gonna take time, it's complicated, but I say have hope, and I want to thank you guys for the hope that you're providing in the education.
01:05:02.639 --> 01:05:03.119
Thank you.
01:05:03.360 --> 01:05:08.960
Uh Letitia Johnson, she is your city council woman for District 4.
01:05:09.039 --> 01:05:09.599
Uh, Dr.
01:05:09.760 --> 01:05:11.039
William Schuster.
01:05:11.119 --> 01:05:12.079
Bill, thank you.
01:05:12.400 --> 01:05:16.639
Uh I'm gonna get that Wayne State History Masters one day.
01:05:16.719 --> 01:05:21.440
Shout out to Wayne State, um, and of course, Environmental Justice Director Dr.
01:05:21.679 --> 01:05:23.039
Marie Garcia.
01:05:23.679 --> 01:05:25.280
Thank you as well.
01:05:25.440 --> 01:05:33.599
Um, I wish we could just spend two hours talking about this, but I gotta go run to a press conference about our other environmental utility disaster of DTE.
01:05:33.840 --> 01:05:36.719
And so, guys, we want to thank you for joining us.
01:05:36.960 --> 01:05:47.280
Um, we want to remind all of our listeners that if they have topics or people they want to bring on and talk about on Authentically Detroit, please hit us up on our socials.
01:05:47.440 --> 01:05:51.920
Uh, that is Authentically Detroit on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.
01:05:52.079 --> 01:05:56.320
You can visit our website at authentically.com.
01:05:56.480 --> 01:05:57.840
We will hear from you guys next week.
01:05:58.000 --> 01:05:58.880
Thank you guys so much.