Posted on 07/21/2014 8:17:06 PM PDT by Steelfish
Detroit Residents Fight Back Over Water Shutoff: 'It's A Life-or-Death Situation'
The beleaguered city says a water shutoff is essential to recoup $89m in overdue bills. But the decision outraged thousands of Detroiters – who have taken matters into their own hands
Of 178 homes whose water was shut off last week, 79 had restarted their supplies, triggering $21,750 in fines on top of what the residents already owed.
When the coast is clear, and the trucks from the contractor shutting off water for the city of Detroit have rolled away, the men with water keys come.
They offer residents whose supply has just been shut off a tempting deal. For $20, they will use their tools to turn the water main back on immediately, and illegally, sparing the household the agonising days spent without showering, cooking or flushing that have already been endured by at least 16,000 of their neighbours so far this year.
It is only the most desperate action being taken in response to the beleaguered city's aggressive campaign to recoup $89m in overdue water bills by abruptly cutting the supplies of people behind on their payments. Amid growing anger, Detroit officials agreed in court on Monday to a two-week pause, to allow poor customers to come forward and show that they genuinely cannot afford to pay. But then the shutoffs will resume.
“You're going to do what you have to do to get water back on in your home,” said Valerie Blakely, a community organiser and mother of five whose overdue bill stands at more than $1,000. “As far as I'm concerned, what the city is doing is the illegal activity. You're not going to come and put us in a life-or-death situation and not have us act like we are fighting for our own survival.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
In Indy, water runs close to $60 a month.
I learned a very valuable lesson that early in life: “Deadbeats” spend their money on fun and “things” before paying the basic bills of life. Like rent, utilities and transportation.
Not once, did I find any deadbeat who was an exception to this rule. This experience has always been with me as I travelled through both the business world and private life.
LOL! Your post made me have to post!
Here I was thinking our bill was high. We're in rural Central Texas... basically, the high desert. We pay about $80 a month, but that's JUST water - no garbage or sewer.
I always just blame it on the fact poor hubby lives in a house with 3 females. :-)
I'd bet the Water Department ends up putting a hefty surcharge on the water they send to the suburbs to pay the overdue bills for these mooches. They'll probably disguise it it as something like an "Adjustment Tax" but in reality it will be a Gibsmedat Tax.
Where are the Goths and the Vandals when you really need them? Of course, there isn't much left to raze and loot in Detroit and who in their right minds would want to rape a bunch of mouthy fat welfare queens?
I wasn’t complaining. I was just saying not everyone has $25 a mnth water bills.
That’s your problem, right there. You is not black
Sure; from pbs.org: “As the northern army pushed southward, thousands of fugitives fled across Union lines. Neither the federal authorities nor the army were prepared for the flood of people, and many of the refugees suffered as a result. Though the government attempted to provide them with confiscated land, there was not enough to go around. Many fugitives were put into crowded camps, where starvation and disease led to a high death rate.”
From The Guardian: “(Jim) Downs’s (of Connecticut College)book is full of terrible vignettes about the individual experiences of slave families who embraced their freedom from the brutal plantations on which they had been born or sold to. Many ended up in encampments called “contraband camps” that were often near union army bases. However, conditions were unsanitary and food supplies limited...Downs reconstructed the experiences of one freed slave, Joseph Miller, who had come with his wife and four children to a makeshift freed slave refugee camp within the union stronghold of Camp Nelson in Kentucky. In return for food and shelter for his family Miller joined the army. Yet union soldiers in 1864 still cleared the ex-slaves out of Camp Nelson, effectively abandoning them to scavenge in a war-ravaged and disease-ridden landscape. One of Miller’s young sons quickly sickened and died. Three weeks later, his wife and another son died. Ten days after that, his daughter perished too. Finally, his last surviving child also fell terminally ill. By early 1865 Miller himself was dead. For Downs such tales are heartbreaking. “So many of these people are dying of starvation and that is such a slow death,” he said.”
“Oh, Help the Contraband” (a song about the freed slaves following the armies) - Horace Waters. From The Harp of Freedom: A New and Superior Collection of Anti-Slavery, Patriotic, and “Contraband” Songs, Solos, Duets, and Choruses, 1862. “Contraband” refers to escaped slaves who were confiscated as Confederate property and allowed to remain with Union forces. This song was published by anti-slavery activists prior to the Emancipation Proclamation.
Generals Benjamin Butler, Sherman, Wadsworth all asked Lincoln for guidance on this question; some generals allowed them to be returned to their owners, some let them work in the army, and some tried to set up camps for them.
My summer water bills in Houston run as high as $500 a month. That would be a month when we have no rain so there is over half of it poured on the lawn, shrubs and trees. That is water and sewer. Yes we have a big yard with azaleas and trees. The yard is part of the value of our property so I can’t let them die. This year we have had plenty of rain, thankfully!
You have freepmail coming in a minute.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.