“It’s frightening, because you think this is something that only happens somewhere like Africa,” said Hill, a single mother who is studying homeland security at a local college. “But now I know what they’re going through — when I get somewhere there’s a water faucet, I drink until my stomach hurts.”
No my dear. What’s frightening is that you’re studying homeland security. You evidently can’t even manage household security; ie. secure supplies of water, food and other essentials. My goodness. Homeland security, of all things.
Amazing. How dare a utility provide service and expect to be PAID for the service.
That’s just outrageous!
Leave it to the LA times to report this from the “victim” point of view.
Oh, those poor, poor people who decide to spend their money on something more important than water. Necessities like smokes, booze, drugs, big screen TVs, designer shoes & shirts etc.
Does anyone still wonder why Detroit is bankrupt? They are supposed to provide water service when people won’t pay for it and the city can’t borrow any money because the city can’t pat it’s bills. How is that supposed to work. The sad decline of what used to be one of the wealthiest cities in the world. It committed socialist suicide. They ran out of other people’s money.
Studying ‘Homeland Security’??? I’m not sure who is dumber the student or the school.
I guess getting the fingernails done did right took precedence over water for her child.
Obviously she gets more then enough money for food supplies, maybe she should spend some of that on paying her water and sewer bill.
hmm, a couple tattoos, three children she apparently can’t support, yet money for hair dye job & nails. I’ll bet she has an Obama phone too.
She likely got it free for years, but now that the people who paid taxes in Detroit are gone, they have to actually charge the users. Life is so unfair.
She’s likely studying “Homeland Security” because Detroit is, after all, a border town, and lord knows there’s such a flood of illegals streaming streaming over the Ambassador Bridge from Canuckistan. However, there are a LOT of border jobs in Detroit – probably one of the few prospects Detroiters have, so really, its not so stupid if your goal in life is to live in Detroit…
I agree with all of the above comments except Skip’s, unless it’s tongue in cheek.
What is it with the American Negro? I could be wrong but it appears to me that they are the only people in the U.S. who can’t make it on their own. Do you ever see an Oriental or an Arab whining about being down and out and how down-trodden they are. No. Why is Detroit bankrupt? I think probably because all the non-black taxpayers got the hell out. And it’s not only the whites they can’t get along with, it’s all colours. They can’t even get along with their own. Who’s murdering all the blacks? Blacks.
Long ago I had a discussion with my ma about the black problem described above. I thought natural stupidity, she laziness. At the time I left thinking a combination of the two. As time goes on I am leaning more and more towards laziness, with the added blight of crying “victim”. Actually being the victim is the easy way out of any problem. It’s not my fault, I’m a victim.
The Michigan Welfare Rights Organization – who’s the victim? Obviously the taxpayer.
I know, I know not very PC. Too bad.
I can’t wait for the day Trawna becomes detroited.
Yes, but she is also studying “women’s studies’ and “African-American studies”, so she’ll be triple qualified one day.
And I don’t see why the lady can’t pay her water bill,surely her ex-husband of the three children is paying child support.
Surely.
Pity her for the lack of comprehension. Welfare pays for her home, her food, her medical, her childs necessities and her marginal effort at affirmative action education. Socialism means everything is free and the government supports you. Paying for utilities is not what democrats voted for. She is disillusioned and who can blame her ? She knows it’s Bush’s fault and Obama will bail her out. That what Forward means. The rich just gotta pay more, is all.
I think it was about 7 years ago now, that I was flying back from St. Petes to Detroit before driving back into Canada, and I was sitting next to a guy who was moving from Detroit to central Florida who said that this was the general mentality of people there; and you’d see a flurry of stories about the ‘poor people’ who couldn’t afford water. Never mind as he put it that they have plenty of money for luxuries.
Jamie, if Olivia Chow is elected that day will come all too soon. If John Tory is elected that day will be delayed by at least a couple of weeks, perhaps as much as three weeks.
Detroit 13th district John Conyers (Democrat) headed the Judiciary
in Congress while his wife was convicted of bribery in “Detroit”.
city case. Goggle HIM
Carl Levin (D) & Debbie Stabenow (D) Senators
Detroit is the Federal Home office of OMB
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_congressional_delegations_from_Michigan
You can’t make this stuff up!
I thought Detroit was Africa in miniature. Kind of like a theme park of a banana Republic from that Continent.
Only more scary than Disney. Gang wars rides with shotguns. Knocking people out to mug them. Raids on stores. welfare till it bankrupts any who live there All fun loving activities. Caricatures of politicians on the take.Crack houses with live entertainment. Keystone cops driving circles. Power shortages, now water rationing. A democratic Jurassic park.
A photograph in the article had a sign that read: “May is Drinking Water Month in Detroit”. One normally sees that sort of thing in Third World countries, which I guess is what Detroit sort of is.
I cataloged the same items as you, pettifog. Hard to tell from the picture, but I do hope she can afford clothes.
“I can’t wait for the day Trawna becomes detroited.”
I can, because they will suck everything they can out of the rest of the province to kick the can down the road. Queens Park might as well be T.O. City Hall.
Obama’s Kenya.
Good. That fat pig’s been voting for this day her whole useless life. Now she’s getting what she wanted – good and hard.
“We live near the Great Lakes, we have the greatest source of fresh water on Earth, and we still can’t get water here.”
Pay the bill and get water. Next problem.
“Nicole Hill said ……. the water bills seemed strange — $200 a month or more. When she called the water department to have it check on her water, she didn’t get anywhere, she said.”
$200 per month is VERY high particularly for someone living in an apartment. Detroit water bills for apartment dwellers shouldn’t be more than $50 per month, and this assumes they have a washing machine. If Nicole’s statement is indeed a true statement then Nicole is probably due some consideration, to say the least.
On the other hand, you’d think that a conscientious journalist like Alana Semuels would have called the Detroit Water Department to verify Nicole’s statement before putting it in an article ….. (sarc).
Here in Michigan, 24 one liter bottles of water are about $4.00 when bought by the case. Shouldn’t be a huge problem for Nicole to get drinking water.
As a side note, I lived in Mexico for about a year. Tap water is generally not potable. In consequence, people buy water coolers (but generally don’t plug them in) and get deionized drinking water at about $0.50 for a 20 gallons container (bring your own container for refills). Could be a whole new approach to problems in Detroit, buy refills from you neighbor.
In Saigon, they sold drinking water on the street. It came in balloons of about half liter. Fairly cheap as I recall. You could toss them too. No guarantees on quality.
RGB – let’s always remember that the government in the US has adopted a welfare system thar renders a huge cost to those who leave welfare, entrapping most single mothers.
The absolutely atrocious public schools of Detroit – thanks to their National Education Assoc. represented teachrs – have done such a terrible job of education, that Detroit has one of the highest rates of illiteracy in the US.
Without socialism, Detroiters could right themselves. GM was the largest US supplier to the armed services during WWII, and many of their contracts were for very complicated weapons, requiring highly competent, trained workers. At the end of the war, one of the few available pools of labor available to GM to fulfill their contracts were technically untrained black woman in Detroit. Those workers were highly competent in producing technically complex weapons, but mostly fired at the end of the war, supposedly because of union pressure.
The bet thing that could happen to the US would be the abolition of union monopolies, like the UAW, and the end of the local educational monopolies known as public schools.
I think Obama’s Home Land should send most of the recent illegal immigrants to Detroit. They will be able to compete & succeed
in some revitalization plan that will be beneficial to everyone..
When they send them to Silicon valley the only jobs they qualify for will be in drugs & prostitution.
When I watched a interview by the great hockey legend, Ted Lindsay, I knew Detroit was in big trouble. Lindsay stated he did not go down to Joe Lewis Arena much anymore because it wasn’t safe. A franchise that was sold out for decades has seen empty seats for years now and ticket prices have been cut.
People are fond of pointing fingers at crooked politicans but politicos are usually a reflection of their community. That said when I watched a televised Detroit City Council meeting I was shocked. This group has led the City into 3rd world status and yet were outraged by the State threatening to take over City management. Demands for financial accounting were considered a slap in the face. The sad reality is that Detroit is the obvious example.
and the tat’s and the ‘do to boot. Odd, no money for an essentials but cash for discretionary items.
She should move near the lake, lots of free water.