EPILOGUE

0.   .  For this, and throughout the epilogue: Sherman McCathern, phone interview with the author, March 20, 2018; and Todd Womack, interview with the author, Flint, Mich., April 6, 2018. The community, with the support of the university, was working to expand the Ubuntu idea not only philosophically but economically. That meant, for example, experimenting with a barter system so that people who didn’t have money could still participate in communal exchange.

0.   .  McCathern noted that the church was mindful of the tradition of engagement modeled by the Presbyterian Community Church that was originally housed in its building. Residents had good memories of the church, he said, even if they weren’t members, which went a long way for Joy Tabernacle as it worked to build trust.

0.   .  The church created a model of reaching people who fell through the gaps, particularly those who didn’t have televisions or had social phobias or otherwise weren’t connecting to the resources at the distribution centers. For two years, they kept their water site open every day, aided by volunteers from around the city, state, and country.

0.   .  Steve Carmody, “New Preschool Aimed at Helping Flint Kids Exposed to Lead,” Michigan Radio, December 11, 2017.

0.   .  As for McCathern himself, he said that he was still a student of learning how to take care of himself, even as he ministered to the neighborhood. For him, that meant prioritizing his spiritual life. Every morning, he said, he prayed and meditated for up to an hour and a half “to prepare myself personally for the perils I know I’m going to face during the day.” And along the way, there was room for fun, too, like Joy Tabernacle’s Halloween parties and annual Easter Egg hunt. It was a pleasure to see the kids run and play.

0.   .  Infrastructure spending is also known to create jobs, which of course is a great need in cities across the country. Kristina Costa and Adam Hersh, “Infrastructure Spending Builds American Jobs,” Center for American Progress, September 8, 2011; Joseph Kane and Robert Puentes, “Expanding Opportunity through Infrastructure Jobs,” Brookings Institution, May 7, 2015; and The Boston Consulting Group and CA/LA Infrastructure, A Jobs-Centric Approach to Infrastructure Investment, April 2017.

0.   .  Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner, Lead Wars: The Politics of Science and the Fate of America’s Children (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2013), p. xiv.

0.   .  This paragraph is adapted from an article that first appeared in the Boston Review (“The Struggle for Accountability in Flint,” February 2, 2016).

0.   .  “We are building on top of brokenness. Is it any wonder that the foundations cannot hold?” Liz Ogbu, an architect, has an eloquent diagnosis of this tendency and an alternative vision for how we can build spatial justice. Liz Ogbu, “What If Gentrification was about Healing Communities instead of Displacing Them?” TEDWomen 2017 Video [15.07], November 2017, https://www.ted.com/talks/liz_ogbu_what_if_gentrification_was_about_healing_communities_instead_of_displacing_them.

0. .  The current mission statement of the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality says that it “promotes wise management of Michigan’s air, land, and water resources” not only to support a sustainable environment and healthy communities but also a “vibrant economy.” Two of its “guiding principles” sound like those of a business rather than a public agency: “Leaders in environmental stewardship; Partners in economic development; Providers of excellent customer service.” Remarkably, the person that Governor Snyder chose as the MDEQ’s new director, following the resignation of Dan Wyant, was Heidi Grether—a former oil and gas lobbyist who worked at BP America in external affairs for about two decades. In 2010, she helped manage the company’s public response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico where an explosion led to the equivalent of about 3.1 million barrels of oil to spill into the water over eighty-seven days. As the Detroit Free Press editorial board observed (“Like a Sick Joke: Snyder Appoints BP Lobbyist to Head MDEQ,” July 15, 2016), Grether’s LinkedIn page described that work proudly: “Developed and implemented successful external relations strategies for the Gulf Coast in response to the DWH accident, thereby achieving no legislation adverse to BP being introduced in the Gulf states. Developed and implemented the successful exit strategy for Gulf Coast external affairs activities, which obtained zero negative reactions against BP.” Grether succeeded Keith Creagh, who served as interim director of the MDEQ.