Detroit activist slams reporter on air for misreporting reasons for water shutoff to thousands

From the OP's original linked article ...

In May, for example, DWSD sent out 46,000 notices. Of those, only 4,531 customers — less than 10 per cent of the total — had their water service cut for any period of time, according to the department.

Within 24 hours, 60 per cent of the affected customers paid their accounts in full, the department said.

“Many of the properties that we shut off are actually vacant structures, not occupied homes,”

We must not allow facts to get in the way of a good rant.

Even assuming those numbers are true, and there appears to be some dispute over that...they are saying that around 1800 people who could not pay had their water cut off?? These would be the most vulnerable people. Not good. Not good at all. :/

How many is "Many of the properties that we shut off are actually vacant structures, not occupied homes" Also how many were businesses and not dwelling units?

Now do your math again ...

As to the truth of the 24 hours 60% full payment, all I've heard is the rant of a biased activist who can not actually know the numbers. I'm not sure that raises to the level of "dispute."

Now ask what how many paid in part and had their water turned back on. You do remember that original story don't you ... that payment in part got the water back on.

We must never let facts get in the way of a good rant.

Facts Gary?
Water cut-offs in Detroit a violation of human rights
People are given no warning and no time to fill buckets, sinks and tubs. Sick people are left without running water and running toilets. People recovering from surgery cannot wash and change bandages. Children cannot bathe and parents cannot cook. Is this a small number of victims? No. The water department has decreed that it will turn the water off to all 120,000 residences that owe ‎it money by the end of the summer although it has made no such threat to the many corporations and institutions that are in arrears on their bills as well. How did it come to this?

Detroit is a victim of decades of market driven neoliberal policy that put business and profit ahead of public good. Social security programs have been slashed and their delivery privatized. Investment in essential infrastructure has been slashed. Every winter, hundreds of aging pipes spew water from leaks and the water has not been turned off in thousands of abandoned houses and boarded up businesses where frozen pipes also lose huge amounts of water.

With globalization and the hollowing out of the once mighty auto industry, wealth and businesses fled to he suburbs, draining ‎the city of its tax base and the water department of its revenues. (There are one million fewer people living in Detroit than there were in the 1950s.)

The burden of paying for the water and sewer services landed squarely on those who stayed, mostly poor African Americans. Rates rose 119 per cent in a decade in a city with record high unemployment and a 40 per cent poverty rate.

To make matters worse, as a cost cutting measure, the water department stopped sending bills, expecting residents to just figure out their own bills. It then installed "smart metres" that read backwards and many families were hit with bills in the thousands of dollars. Many of these bills were from former tenants, and many included water bills from near by abandoned houses but that didn't matter to the authorities.

FAQs: The fight to protect the human right to water in Detroit
Why are water shut-offs in Detroit human rights violations?

As noted by Caterina de Albuquerque, the Special Rapporteur on the Human Right to Safe Drinking Water and Sanitation, people cannot be cut off from their water and sanitation services because they can’t afford to pay their bill. The median household income in Detroit is $25,193. According to the Michigan Welfare Rights Organization, a family of four pays between $150-200 per month for water and sewerage services, which can represent up to 20 per cent of their monthly income. This is an exorbitant rate for lower income households in Detroit.

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Reality Internet Personality

Anarchy means "without Kings"

The word Anarchy comes from the Greek, meaning without force, without violence.

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rOZZ
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I would really like to thank ES for continuing to battle on this point. Watching the finger pointing and nit-picking coming from within America, because Canada offered assistance to a city whose remaining residents have been thrown under a train really is bewildering.

Lynn said it right very early on in this thread...

I'm very grateful to Canada, for helping the suffering people of Detroit. :(

With all the lost opportunities over decades, with Detroit’s debt mounting, with the housing crash and Great Recession just over the horizon, 2005 turned out to be the watershed year.

Although no one could see it at the time, Detroit’s insolvency was guaranteed.

Thank you, Canada!

Few others have. Anyway... just my opinion :) suppose it's back to the pointless but revealing post-mortem then... :)

Facts Gary?

Essme you are better than that.

Posting something could have been by Rush Limbaugh with a couple of words changed and calling it fact?!

For shame.

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Facts Gary?

Essme you are better than that.

Posting something could have been by Rush Limbaugh with a couple of words changed and calling it fact?!

For shame.

Gary, the is the information compiled by the people that went to the UN. The next time the UN acts on something Rush Limbaugh says, please let me know.

While we are on the topic of water, are you aware what is going on in your own state?

Little oversight as Nestle taps Morongo reservation water

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Reality Internet Personality

Facts Gary?

Essme you are better than that.

Posting something could have been by Rush Limbaugh with a couple of words changed and calling it fact?!

For shame.

Gary, the is the information compiled by the people that went to the UN.

And if they pujure themselves at the UN ...

The next time the UN acts on something Rush Limbaugh says, please let me know.

He know he is presenting a comedy show ...

While we are on the topic of water, are you aware what is going on in your own state?

Little oversight as Nestle taps Morongo reservation water

Amazing how the first nation peoples are selling water isn't it? How privileged rich white people suddenly want to steal it. Oh, that's right, you don't know the demographics of the area ... once you do you realize this is the same discrimination that has been going on since Europeans invaded America. Or did you just see that a corporation was involved and not read any further ...

Here in California, water wars are wars ... fought with explosives.
http://framework.latimes.com/2013/02/06/los-angeles-aqueduct-2/#/0

Our Governor has called for a 20% reduction in use. It didn't happen. Use went up 1%. Seems all those people with lawns refuse to let them turn brown. Many of you will know about California's water problem soon enough. Wait until you see what happens to the price of food!



<ed>had to stop for a second. DWP showed up at work and I had to point.

This plant sucking water out of the desert isn't the only one in California. There is another large one in Olancha for a different water company.
http://www.hcn.org/issues/93/2887

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Now I know why Chrysler is advertising "Imported from Detroit"

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

My information comes from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.
http://www.drugabuse.gov/about-nida/organization/workgroups-interest-groups-consortia/community-epidemiology-work-group-cewg/meeting-reports/highlights-summaries-january-2014-5

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

For example, I've been tested as being somewhere in the top 20% for intelligence.

Es99...

I've been tested top 2% for intelligence.

Must be in my gene's. Mother was a contributor to the MENSA Magazine (Top 2% I.Q.)

Yeah, I'm supposedly up there somewhere too.

Guess, according to your thinking: MY idea's are better than YOUR idea's.

:) :) :) :)

I'm smarter than most people. That is all I laid claim to..its all you are laying claim to. A fact is a fact, right?

To then say "according to your thinking: MY idea's are better than YOUR idea's" is the exact opposite of the point I was making. I was suggesting an arbitrary benchmark of worth to counter Gary's point about money being a benchmark of worth. Sure I get things quicker. Some people certainly make money better than I do. Pretty much everyone on the planet plays baseball better than I do. So how do you decide based on all these differences who deserves to fall behind the pack and get eaten by the lions? Gary chose money. I disagree with that method of assessment. It would benefit me greatly if people chose IQ as a method of assessment. Doesn't mean it would be right.

If you think you are better than people because you have a high IQ then that is your agenda, and Gary's. It certainly is not mine.

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Reality Internet Personality

Little oversight as Nestle taps Morongo reservation water

Amazing how the first nation peoples are selling water isn't it?

Why is it amazing? They have a resource and are being offered money to sell it.
We have some of the same issues going on here about how to manage the natural resources in Canada. In fact, we have the exact same problem with Nestle taking ground water for their stupid bottled water product.

How privileged rich white people suddenly want to steal it.

WTF are you on about now?

Oh, that's right, you don't know the demographics of the area ... once you do you realize this is the same discrimination that has been going on since Europeans invaded America. Or did you just see that a corporation was involved and not read any further ...

I read that there is a problem with environmental protection and water protection in California, and at the precise time that regular people are having to conserve water, a particularly nasty corporation (Nestle has a nasty, nasty history when it comes to ethical behaviour) is taking your water and selling it back to you. Be angry.

Here in California, water wars are wars ... fought with explosives.
http://framework.latimes.com/2013/02/06/los-angeles-aqueduct-2/#/0

Our Governor has called for a 20% reduction in use. It didn't happen. Use went up 1%. Seems all those people with lawns refuse to let them turn brown. Many of you will know about California's water problem soon enough. Wait until you see what happens to the price of food!



<ed>had to stop for a second. DWP showed up at work and I had to point.

This plant sucking water out of the desert isn't the only one in California. There is another large one in Olancha for a different water company.
http://www.hcn.org/issues/93/2887

So let California fail. It clearly doesn't deserve to be there. If you people can't manage your water and are busy wasting on selling bottled water and watering lawns, you deserve what you get. Watch out for the lions, Gary. They are coming for you.

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Reality Internet Personality

If you think you are better than people because you have a high IQ then that is your agenda. It certainly is not mine.

+1

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rOZZ
Music
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Little oversight as Nestle taps Morongo reservation water

Amazing how the first nation peoples are selling water isn't it?

Why is it amazing? They have a resource and are being offered money to sell it.
We have some of the same issues going on here about how to manage the natural resources in Canada. In fact, we have the exact same problem with Nestle taking ground water for their stupid bottled water product.

"selling" "taking" which is it? Or are you going to continue to speak out of both sides of you mouth.

I suppose you want to force California thinking on the sovereign Morongo Nation. How European!

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I know, since Canada is so concerned about the well being of the citizens of Detroit, why not sell them Michigan. Pay down the national debt a little.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I know, since Canada is so concerned about the well being of the citizens of Detroit, why not sell them Michigan. Pay down the national debt a little.

Ummm, that one needs a bit more thinking about, preferably with a map of the Great Lakes, in front of you.

I know, since Canada is so concerned about the well being of the citizens of Detroit, why not sell them Michigan. Pay down the national debt a little.

Ummm, that one needs a bit more thinking about, preferably with a map of the Great Lakes, in front of you.

American Educational system on display. Must have skipped geography to take an extra class of c.......ism.

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I know my geography as well as any of you. It was a joke, but even if it were done are you saying Canada would deny us transit rights on Lake Huron. I have heard the joke since I was a kid, would the last person to leave Michigan please turn out the lights.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

PS my I.Q was tested well into the top 10% but I have never made it a point to brag about it. When I was in school to pass the 8th grade you had to take a US geography and history class, both of which I aced.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

I know, since Canada is so concerned about the well being of the citizens of Detroit, why not sell them Michigan. Pay down the national debt a little.

Ummm, that one needs a bit more thinking about, preferably with a map of the Great Lakes, in front of you.

American Educational system on display. Must have skipped geography to take an extra class of c.......ism.

That, my friend is borderline offensive to me.

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Bob DeWoody

My motto: Never do today what you can put off until tomorrow as it may not be required. This no longer applies in light of current events.

If you think you are better than people because you have a high IQ then that is your agenda. It certainly is not mine.

+1

+1000

Only replying to one who thought it made a difference in understanding a problem, and having correct solutions.

Well like I've said several times, my point was that it is something that people could potential hold up as meaning they were better than someone else, but was just as arbitrary and to do with luck as being poor or rich. Neither should be used as a way of judging the worth of a person. I guess I made my point almost too well.

Having known many MENSA Members (Top 2% I.Q.): Doesn't really mean anything.

Ha, I have to agree with you. It is however, great for solving puzzles.

Edit: Sorry if my sarcasm is too subtle for even me. My friends say that is one of my many faults.

Sarcasm doesn't come across too well on internet forums, sadly. Doesn't stop me trying though.

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Reality Internet Personality

I know, since Canada is so concerned about the well being of the citizens of Detroit, why not sell them Michigan. Pay down the national debt a little.

Ummm, that one needs a bit more thinking about, preferably with a map of the Great Lakes, in front of you.

American Educational system on display. Must have skipped geography to take an extra class of c.......ism.

That, my friend is borderline offensive to me.

Was not intended to be offensive to you personally, but at the American Educational system in general. Did not mean to imply you would have had the choice but the board of education would have made the class choices. I'm gobsmacked at what some school boards do, but we have an education thread.

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