A Neoliberal Response to an Urban Crisis: Emergency Management in Flint, MI

Abstract

The fiscal crisis faced by municipalities is the product of a range of structural and political factors that leave communities unable to meet their obligations. To deal with this crisis, the State of Michigan turned to a program of Emergency Managers who were given the power to overrule locally elected officials, abrogate existing contracts and arrangements, sell public property, and in short do whatever they wished to address the problem. Emergency Managers imposed austerity-based neoliberal policies with little regard for underlying structural forces that left communities impoverished, and which in the end protected bond holders. As the case of Flint, Michigan, demonstrates, these actions did little to alter the long-term prospects of cities, and inflicted real harm on Flint’s residents when the EM embarked on a ‘money saving’ plan to terminate an agreement to use safe Detroit water. In the interim, Flint began drawing drinking water from the Flint River, resulting in high levels of lead in their water, producing a health crisis. At the end of the day, cities where Emergency Managers were in charge were left in unsustainable positions, burdened by new long-term debt, with every likelihood they would find themselves in another fiscal crisis in the coming decades.

How Municipal Takeovers Reshape Urban Democracy: Comparing the Experiences of Camden, New Jersey and Flint, Michigan

“…On one hand, these municipal takeovers can provide opportunities to institute municipal reforms that promote efficiency, stabilize the budget, or tackle local government mismanagement. On the other hand, with the decision-making role of elected officials and accountability mechanisms, and checks on power effectively suspended, some speculate that municipal takeovers are the end of democracy (Kossis 2012; Wilde-Anderson 2011), or a neoliberal redistribution of public assets into private hands (Fasenfest 2019; Hammer 2019; Stanley 2016). As states look poised to continue or expand the use of this policy tool, it is imperative that we unpack the politics of municipal takeovers by examining how, and by what means, municipal takeovers reshape local democracy, vis-à-vis urban governance.…”

Citizen science as a data-based practice: A consideration of data justice

“…There is also evidence of environmental racism in the dismissal of citizens' complaints about water quality by officials responsible for emergency management. 60 , 61 Despite the presentation of evidence from FWS to the city and state officials, data were not used to inform decision-making, as they kept on refusing to acknowledge the credibility of citizens' evidence-backed claims, thereby delaying the undertaking of necessary actions and the declaration of a state of emergency to reduce the impact of the crisis. 48 …”

Embeddedness and Cohesion: Regimes of Urban Public Goods Distribution

“…States, an illustrative example is the municipality of Flint, which has been under the receivership of the state of Michigan since 2011 and has subsequently been providing poisoned water to city residents for the past three years. Civil society has been rendered almost irrelevant to formal politics, while private holders of municipal bonds were paid in full (Fasenfest 2017).…”