Resisters of the Rust Belt
July 9, 2018 6:55 AM   Subscribe

 
This is a great start to the week, thank you.
posted by The Toad at 8:08 AM on July 9, 2018


Belt Magazine is a goddamn national treasure. They do some great publishing from around the Great Lakes.
posted by slogger at 11:13 AM on July 9, 2018 [3 favorites]


Thank you so much for this, especially for the introduction to Belt Magazine, which I hadn't seen before!
posted by Ausamor at 11:15 AM on July 9, 2018


I love this! Belt Magazine is seriously fighting the good fight.

The folks who run Belt Magazine also publish some superb books, including the City Anthology series - collections of essays and other writings from people living in various cities in the midwest.
posted by JohnFromGR at 11:48 AM on July 9, 2018


down for me now, in New England.
posted by doctornemo at 1:38 PM on July 9, 2018


I'm glad to see this and might actually print this out for my mom, living in Northern Michigan (she doesn't use a computer). She joined a local organizing group which shocked me because she lives in her own world but I think she just wanted to make some friends without finding out they voted for Trump. Maybe she'll be photographed some day!
posted by the thorn bushes have roses at 2:14 PM on July 9, 2018 [2 favorites]


I love it when coastal elites become surprised people in places like Toledo or Flint actually do things like protest or do something other than whatever incorrect stereotypes they possess. FYI, Rust Belt is a (mildly) offensive term and as a livelong Northeast Ohioan, would never describe my part of the country that way.
posted by greatalleycat at 9:04 PM on July 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


greatalleycat: I've got no problems with Rust Belt. It's what happened to my hometown over the course of the last 4 decades, ending with our famous major industry headquarters moving away last year. The term's right there in the name & banner of this article's magazine, which is published in Cleveland, so I guess we're "reclaiming" it. I don't know about those "coastal elites" though -- they sound pretty snooty.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 9:49 PM on July 9, 2018 [5 favorites]


Related to the last photo, seeking "Justice for Flynt", is this article on the water crisis: No water for poor people: the nine Americans who risked jail to seek justice. (The Guardian, 20 Jul 2017)

Detroit developed an "affordability plan" fee structure that reduced water rates for people below the poverty line. It cost $5 million a year, but resulted in a net increase in revenue.

As Detroit headed towards bankruptcy, Michigan had a ballot initiative to place emergency managers solely in charge of cities. It was soundly defeated. But the state legislature bypassed the will of the people and passed a similar law anyway.
Majority black cities such as Flint, Benton Harbor and Detroit received emergency managers while many majority white communities, ones in comparable or greater financial distress, didn’t see them.

When Detroit received an emergency manager, half of the black population in Michigan had lost the right to elect their local leaders due to the policy, while less than 3% of the white population has been affected.
The emergency managers in Detroit quickly began an aggressive campaign of shutting off water, at rates of about 3,000 shutoffs a month, often with little or no warning.

The shutoffs were condemned by the UN and scores of religious leaders, all to no avail.

Anyone want to guess whether shutting off the water to tens of thousands of dollars cost more or less than the affordability plan ($5 million)? The mass shutoffs cost more ($5.4 million). Of course they did.

The state also spent huge sums to prosecute and discourage civil disobedience. When in the last few hours of the trial it was certain the state was going to lose badly, they shut the trial down, changed judges, dismissed the jury, and basically made it all go away.
posted by Davenhill at 12:33 AM on July 10, 2018 [2 favorites]


Don't you mean (((coastal elites)))?
posted by tobascodagama at 4:51 AM on July 10, 2018 [3 favorites]


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