On The Line podcast explores pressing stories in and around Motor City
On this episode of 5 Things: If people in Detroit, Michigan are tired of one thing this summer, it's flooding. What can be done to prevent the water from rising yet another time? A new podcast from the Detroit Free Press explores pressing stories like Michigan's flooding problem and other narratives in and around Motor City. On The Line host Cary Junior II sits down with Claire Thornton to discuss what listeners can expect from the show, which you can subscribe to here.
Hit play on the player above to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript below. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
Claire Thornton:
Hey, there. I'm Claire Thornton, and this is 5 Things. It's Sunday, August 15th. I just want to start by saying if you're listening on your Daily Drive through Spotify, I love that you're here. You can get 5 Things everyday on Spotify by following the show. Just go to podcasts, search for 5 Things, click follow. And then your phone will download the show each morning and have it ready for you. All right. We're going to do things a little differently today. The show's going to be longer than what you may be used to hearing on 5 Things. I want to share a new podcast called "On the Line" with you. It's a weekly show made by a group of journalists at the Detroit Free Press, which is part of the USA TODAY Network. On the Line focuses on local Detroit stories and brings rich sounds to each episode. It's local news, but the stories easily stretch far beyond just the City of Detroit. I sat down with the host of the show, Cary Junior II, this week to learn more about what he's been up to.
Claire Thornton:
Here's that conversation. There are all sorts of stories that are coming out of Detroit, that stretch far beyond Detroit. Cary Jr II is the host of On the Line, and he sees so much through the lens of Detroit. Cary, thank you so much for being here.
Cary Junior II:
Thank you for having me, Claire. I'm excited. it's also very weird to be on the other side of the microphone, but I'm enjoying it.
Claire Thornton:
Cary, introduce yourself for us. Tell us about why you wanted to start this podcast.
Cary Junior II:
Ooh. Oh, man. That could be a much longer story than I think we have time for, but I'm just trying to truncate as best as possible. How do I define myself? I am a music ... Not nerd, but a passion for music. I think I've gotten into a place where I listen sonically to a lot of my surroundings and that's enhanced or inspired, I guess, a lot of the ways that I approach the way I do podcasting. When I was young, I'd say I was a self-described conversationalist. I'd like to talk about a lot of different topics with my friends. Through that, that's how I got into it. Once I finished education and came back home to the City of Detroit, because I'm born and raised here ... There's a lot of evolution that happens over that time. Detroit, as we all know, has a certain perception by a lot of people who aren't from the city. It' not about changing that perception or trying to be something different. It's about us being true to who we are and what Detroit is, and understanding and seeing the beauty in all of that.
Cary Junior II:
I think this podcast is, in a way, supposed to be a sonic window to that experience. But also, there's so much going on in my city. I would love to be someone to do good and do work, and report on the people that are part of my community. I think that's why we started it. Being at the Free Press is just the cherry on top because ... could be no better place, to be here, to do the kind of work that we're doing.
Claire Thornton:
Tell me about the name of the podcast, On the Line. What does that mean?
Cary Junior II:
We were trying to find the right title name that had a double meaning, but also made sense to listeners, and you could know what we're talking about. Straight on, if you're reading On the Line, we're talking about, in terms the news, what's on the line, what's at risk, what's at risk for our citizens, for the state of Michigan in these issues. But the double meaning is Detroit is Motor City. And so, "On the line" is also the industrial meeting. The line, being on the line, working on the auto line, that's where we came from. Shout-outs to Mark Phelan, our auto reporter who came up with that. When we heard it, we were like, "Oh, okay." And then it could also be, "On the line. I'm on the phone with a source." We liked that it had all those little meetings. That's how we came up with the title.
Claire Thornton:
I've learned a lot about how Ford ... There's just so much culture wrapped up in how so many different people in Detroit. Their grandfather may have worked on the line, and their mom. Now, they might still work there. So, it's a true heritage. Tell us about the first couple episodes of the podcast. One deals with former President Trump's lies about the election being stolen, and it deals with historic voting issues in Detroit. Right?
Cary Junior II:
Absolutely. Yeah. What happened in 2020 during the general election. Trump was calling out Detroit and saying baseless allegations of fraud in our election system in the city. And so that put a huge microscope on our elections department, our department of elections in the City of Detroit, and more specifically, our city clerk. The Tuesday after we had released that episode, our city clerk was up for reelection. So, we thought this was a great way to go back to say, "Hey, a year ago, this position was under national scrutiny." Whether those allegations are fraudulent or not, we were wondering, "What fueled those allegations? Why did people feel like there was enough here? Why did Trump say that Detroit is the most corrupt?" I'm paraphrasing his... [crosstalk].
Claire Thornton:
He said, "Detroit and Philadelphia are just so corrupt. Everyone knows it."
Cary Junior II:
Exactly, "Are so corrupt. It's like, "Well, where did they get that from?" And so we had to look back at our city clerk's office, see what kind of situations were going on there. There were recount issues there. There were irregularities throughout the history of that office. And so we wanted to inspect that and see what was going on, and how that led to what happened in 2020, and then also highlight to people that, "This is an election time. However you feel about this office, this position, this person who's in this position, whether you want to keep them, or if you want [inaudible 00:06:06]. But there are four other candidates running." We wanted to put a spotlight on that issue, but also on the election, itself.
Claire Thornton:
What did you find when you investigated this voting office? Do you want to give listeners a preview before they actually listen?
Cary Junior II:
What I found is a little different than what we talk about in the episode because we're not looking for anything particular. We're more telling the story of where those allegations could come from. We looked back in the history of the City of Detroit. We saw, back from the '70s, that there were irregularities in our counts, in our votes in the city. And so there were common irregularities throughout the history, regardless of who the city clerk was. We wanted to see how that made it easier for people to point the finger at Detroit when it came to elections. But what I found, I think, is that there's a unique recount law that Michigan has where it does not allow you to recount ballots in specific districts that have a certain number of irregularities. And so that prevents us from really knowing what went on and whether we rectified the irregularities-
Claire Thornton:
Wow.
Cary Junior II:
... or whether we can actually say that there was something that went wrong here. And so that's what we found. That was a really fascinating aspect. But we only had 20 minutes to tell the story. So, we couldn't get into everything, but it inspires more and more stories for us to move forward on.
Claire Thornton:
What about the second episode? It deals with flooding and environmental issues Detroiters face. Tell us about that episode.
Cary Junior II:
That one was a hard one to figure out how we wanted to tackle it because we had some sources that ... the climate change angle, but we couldn't go too big. Or else, it would be too much for us to pull together. But we ended up telling a homeowner story and trying to see what the city or the region could do, or what they were doing to help rectify this. We had floods in the City of Detroit, 2014, 2016. And then most recently, 2021, we've had a few floods, I think, in July and in June. And so a lot of the feedback I've gotten that they love that we go into and talk to a couple of residents in the City of Detroit on the east side in Jefferson-Chalmers, and go into their homes and see what happened. There was one gentleman in the episode. He has water. He almost has a pond in his backyard.
Claire Thornton:
Oh, my God.
Cary Junior II:
And so they had temporary fixes because there's flooding in that area all the time because there's a creek that runs behind his backyard. And it's by the river because Detroit is on the river. They had a temporary fix of a tube they called the Tiger Dam, that they put in his backyard. It had moved during the storm. All the water, then, from the Creek to his back door had made a pond. And then it ran down his driveway. And then there was puddles on the sidewalk. I was just like, "Wow, this is crazy." I haven't called him recently. But ever since I had spoke to him ... I think the day we released that episode, that water was still there.
Claire Thornton:
Wow.
Cary Junior II:
We went through to illustrate what it was that people were living through. One woman had a lot of stuff, that she had built shelves because she had lived through so many floods. And those shelves still weren't sufficient. Only the top shelf was sufficient enough. These are recurring issues. We talked about that. And then we spoke with our regional water authority about what kind of solutions they're going to implement now and in the future. Both that election episode and this episode, what's crazy is that there's still more to be done. The story is not over. We cover it to give it light. But [Darius 00:09:44] and Jacqueline, who were in the flood story, they're still dealing with that, and they still have to worry about what's going to happen next time it rains. It rained today, and I'm still thinking about Jacquelyn and Darius right now. So, our work is not done.
Claire Thornton:
That's incredible. What else can people expect from the show?
Cary Junior II:
Ooh. A lot. We plan ahead a bit somewhat, but we want to keep our stuff as current as possible. We're going to try and tackle a lot of things as far as education. We want to go into politics. But most importantly, we want to make sure that we're representative of the people in Michigan and that we tell stories that are Michigander stories. So, they can expect us to be up in the UP. They can expect this to be in Western Michigan. They can expect this to be all over the City of Detroit in the Southeastern Michigan region. But as far as topics, I can't say one thing particularly. But we'll be covering ... We're still in a pandemic right now. So, they can expect that. And then they can also expect good storytelling. They can expect really true voices, authenticity. Hopefully, I facilitate the voices of the city and the region and the state well.
Claire Thornton:
Is there anything else in particular that you really want folks to know about your show? Why should they listen? What's the takeaway for them? Why should they listen, even if they're not Detroit residents or Michiganders?
Cary Junior II:
That's a great question, Claire. People should listen, especially if they're not Detroit or Michigan residents, because these stories ... Whenever you listen to national news stories, they do talk about the country, but we have to tell it from that singular person perspective. So, you might be hearing on a Michigander, but we talk about issues that impact us beyond just Michigan. For instance, that clerks story. There's clerks around the country. Our report on that episode talked about how irregularities are not something that's unique to Detroit. That was not something that Detroit has a problem with. Cities have irregularities. This new episode that's coming out, we expound on an idea. We talk about a specific Detroit issue when it comes to the coronavirus, the Delta variant, and new regulations in vaccinations that businesses are putting on. But we also expand on this idea of privacy, this idea of personal responsibility. That is something that we're all going to have to deal with as we move forward in this pandemic on whether or not we're going to wear masks, whether or not we're going to get vaccinated, and how that affects us, our families, but how that affects our greater community at large.
Cary Junior II:
And so those are two stories right there that we expound bigger than that. But also, just to be quick ... I know you probably don't have time for all of this. But we expound on ideas. You tell the individual, but also the storytelling and the sonic representation, the illustration. I think we do a pretty good job of telling people's stories, letting them have their voice, but also expanding on a deeper topic that's in the news too.
Claire Thornton:
I love what you said about how local news is national news. We can miss out on so much when we don't focus in on a specific community and tell the story that is specific to Detroit or any other city. We're going to let you listen to Living with Water, the second episode of On the Line right now. Detroiters are tired of cleaning up after floods this summer, like the man Cary just told us about, who all of a sudden, has a pond in his backyard. What can be done to prevent the water from rising? Here's that episode?
Cary Junior II:
That's not the sound of a faucet. That is the sound of a driveway. I just pulled up to Darius Watkins' house on the east side of Detroit. The first thing I notice is there's water running from his house, down his driveway to the street. And then it's going down the street and creating puddles on both directions. That's his sidewalk that you just heard, sounds like a pool. Flooding is by no means a new problem in the state of Michigan. We saw it in Metro Detroit in 2014 and 2016. Last summer, after days of rain, the Eatonville Dam broke. And then there's this year, 2021, when Detroit has faced what feels like non-stop flooding this entire summer. It seems like every time the water recedes, a new wave of rain crashes over the state again, causing damage, bringing cities to a halt, and most of all, hurting Michiganders.
Claire Thornton:
And look at it. It's soaking wet.
Cary Junior II:
Ugh.
Jacqueline Richmond:
I need to take these out of there. Hopefully, they'll dry out and be okay. I don't know.
Cary Junior II:
It's a lot to handle. It's a lot the to sacrifice. It robs people of that opportunity to build something that they can pass down in their family for generations. Today, we're talking about the one thing Detroiters are tired of right now, water, a lot of it. Flooding continues to destroy the basements and foundations of homes. So, where are we headed? Who will be impacted? How do we stop it? My name is Cary Junior II, host of the Detroit Free Press' new weekly podcast. This is On the Line. It's July, and puddles of water line the sidewalks of the Jefferson-Chalmers neighborhood. There's furniture in front of them homes. But it's a sunny day. If you didn't know any better, you wouldn't have guessed it rained. Testing, one, two. Testing, one, two. Except when you pull up. Darius Watkins?
Darius Watkins:
Yes.
Cary Junior II:
How are you doing, sir?
Darius Watkins:
How you doing?
Cary Junior II:
To Darius Watkins' place. This is the first thing I noticed, was all this water you got going on out here, all this water. Where is this coming from?
Darius Watkins:
Cary, this is coming from the back.
Cary Junior II:
From the creek?
Darius Watkins:
Yeah. Because of the storm, I have water seeping out this hole right here.
Cary Junior II:
Is that just a random hole in the ground?
Darius Watkins:
That's a hole in the ground that's coming because of the excess water from the creek.
Cary Junior II:
This has been here since the first rainstorm?
Darius Watkins:
Yeah.
Cary Junior II:
Wow. It's almost a month you've had this water, all the way down your driveway.
Darius Watkins:
Yep. We even got it to a point where the driveway and everything-
Cary Junior II:
And sidewalk.
Darius Watkins:
Yeah, man. It's tragic, Cary.
Cary Junior II:
Darius has been managing the damage done to his property since the rainstorm in June. The water has transformed this place Darius has known his entire life.
Darius Watkins:
My grandfather and my grandmother-
Cary Junior II:
[crosstalk].
Darius Watkins:
... purchased this home, I would want to say, the '70s. They migrated from the South up here.
Cary Junior II:
You can tell me a little bit about the home and the memories you had growing up, what [crosstalk] used to do.
Darius Watkins:
Oh, man. This backyard was used for fish fries. It was used for karaoke. It was used to handle neighborhood disputes. My grandmother was a peacekeeper in the neighborhood. She would bring folks down and instill her guidance and her wisdom through her cooking. This home just has a lot great memories of just bringing folks together, and I want to keep it. I'm passionate about it, which is why this water situation ... Not only for me, but for my entire neighborhood, is hurtful because every time it rains or anytime a catastrophic weather event occurs, it's going to affect this area the hardest.
Bill Schuster:
Water always wins. It's got the time. It's got the mass and momentum to make things happen on its own time.
Cary Junior II:
This is Bill Schuster, professor of civil engineering at Wayne State University. Bill worked for the EPA for over 18 years. He worked on stormwater and wastewater issues, a lot of the same problems that are hitting us today.
Bill Schuster:
I was able to convince the powers that be that it was important to understand how water moves through our urban communities. We all use drinking water. We all produce wastewater. We sometimes suffer at the hands of water. If we understand how water is moving through our neighborhoods, our communities, our cities, we can better engineer infrastructure that yield services equitably across our habitations. On June 25th, 26th-
Cary Junior II:
Take me back to June 26. What's going through your mind?
Darius Watkins:
I was out at the time.
Bill Schuster:
We had a pre-soaking event that saturated the soil in our landscapes in Detroit.
Darius Watkins:
I received some calls about the flooding on 94. I immediately knew, "Okay, it's probably going to be a show trying to get back to the house."
Bill Schuster:
Once the huge pulse hit very early in the morning on the 26th ...
Darius Watkins:
You're seeing just rain just pouring, pouring, pouring, pouring, pouring.
Bill Schuster:
Basically, it's raining on a hundred percent hard surface. Soils just can't handle it.
Darius Watkins:
I guess the popular Southern euphemism for this is, "A bat out of hell."
Bill Schuster:
What happened is that our wastewater collection and conveyance system were probably undersized the day they were finished. The water can leak into the system, rainfall derived inflow and infiltration, where the water soaks in through the soils, makes its way downward, and flows into the pipes, taking up valuable capacity. As we pointed out earlier in the conversation, water always wins. It's going to relieve pressure by moving where it can most easily. In this case, it was our basement.
Cary Junior II:
The city runs on a combined sewer system. It carries both storm water and sewage. So, during a storm, that's what can show up in a Detroiter's basement.
Darius Watkins:
We just got down and just acted quickly, and got rid of as much stuff as possible. The night of it was really chaotic.
Cary Junior II:
Quick note. Detroit is a more than 300 year old city that's sprung up because of water, the Detroit River, and the chance for trade. Some of our pipes are over 100 years old. According to the city, that can be a good thing if they're sturdy. But they've also sought to strengthen them. I just want to ask a clarification point. You said they probably weren't efficient size when they were done. Did you mean when they were initially built?
Bill Schuster:
Detroit writ large is a very, very old system. And so it's broken. There's breaks where water, again, can soak in.
Cary Junior II:
Would you say that that's what led to the floods, the fact that our infrastructure is undersized now for the type of rain we've been seeing?
Bill Schuster:
Well, partially, that's it,
Cary Junior II:
One of the other things at play, power outages that impacted both city and highway pump stations. In any case, it was Darius and his family in the basement, trying to solve the problem in their house.
Darius Watkins:
I'm extremely happy that family just came together and said, "Okay. Let's take care of this as soon as possible." Saturday, things was able to dissipate. We was able to get pumps out, try to get as much of the water out as possible. And then we started that process within a week of taking everything. I feel as if, although the water really kicked my butt, so to say, there are people who experienced way, way, way worse.
Cary Junior II:
[inaudible]. Just a few blocks away, one of Darius' neighbors wasn't able to salvage her things.
Jacqueline Richmond:
Be careful coming down.
Cary Junior II:
This is Jacqueline Richmond. We're in her basement in Jefferson-Chalmers. She's showing me the items that were lost and the damage that was done to her home.
Jacqueline Richmond:
The last time in 2016, I had these put in.
Cary Junior II:
These shelves.
Jacqueline Richmond:
Correct. So that I could take everything off of the floor. But as you could see from the way the paint is coming out back there, the water came all the way up here.
Cary Junior II:
Oh, wow. It's peeling.
Jacqueline Richmond:
See, the water messed this up.
Cary Junior II:
Oh, man. This is the weedwacker-
Jacqueline Richmond:
Correct.
Cary Junior II:
... you have hanging from the ceiling. The motor is unfortunately hanging down.
Jacqueline Richmond:
Christmas decoration got water on it. I'm just so sick because I normally-
Cary Junior II:
Oh, wow.
Jacqueline Richmond:
... don't put this stuff down here. But I said, "Okay, it's okay. It's up high. It'll be okay." And look at it. It's soaking wet.
Cary Junior II:
Ugh.
Jacqueline Richmond:
I need to take these out of there. Hopefully, they'll dry out and be okay. I don't know. The last rain had came down here, and I kept hearing him running water. I got down on my knees. You have to get a flashlight to actually see it, but the foundation is finally cracked through. That was my biggest fear.
Cary Junior II:
We'll be right back.
Phoebe Wall Howard:
Hi, my name is Phoebe Wall Howard, and I am an automotive reporter at the Detroit Free Press. This year, we have covered an incredible range of stories, people, products, business, trends, everything about cars, and the people who design them as well as the people who buy them, whether it's the Ford F150 all-electric lightning, or the Mustang Mach-E, the hot little Maverick, or a profile on the chief engineer, Linda Zane, who plans to transform the industry with her vision of electrification. We also do profiles of executives behind the scenes, how things come to be, and in the case of Ford Motor Company, why Oreo cookies played such a major role in the development of truck design. Many, many people reach out and ask, "How can we support your work?" Or, "How can we read more about this?" And one of the easiest ways is to subscribe to the Detroit Free Press.
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Cary Junior II:
We're back. Jacqueline just told me in her basement that her home foundation was cracking from the water that was backed up after the storm. But now, we're on her porch. What are some of your fondest memories of this home?
Jacqueline Richmond:
Ooh. Playing at that playground across the street, family, picnics, Christmas dinners, Thanksgiving dinners. Everybody came over here because this was the largest house. There's a lot of memories here. A lot of people would say home is where the heart is. A lot of us put our hearts into our homes. We work hard to get the things that we want. We pray that don't nobody come and take what we have or try to destroy what we have. Every time it rains, we have to pray and pray that our basements doesn't flood.
Cary Junior II:
She said she actually went and spoke with the water authority at a meeting in 2016 to discuss some of the issues she was having. What has been the response previously?
Jacqueline Richmond:
They talked to us like we're idiots, that we don't understand certain things. It's just really disheartening that the water department, the GLWA, whatever they are called because-
Cary Junior II:
Great Lakes Water [crosstalk].
Jacqueline Richmond:
Yeah. They don't seem to have a plan in place to even fix this problem or go about fixing this problem.
Cary Junior II:
We spoke with the Great Lakes Water Authority, or GLWA is what we call it. It runs the pump stations that partially failed during the first major storm. It's one of two entities responsible for the Detroit water system. The other is the Detroit Water and Sewage Department. GLWA leases the infrastructure as part of the city's bankruptcy restructuring from 2015. We tried to set up an interview with someone at DWSD, but were unable. Still, director Gary Brown, shortly after the flooding, pointed to climate change and the need for more resilient infrastructure to adapt. He wasn't alone in that sentence.
Suzanne Coffey:
I would tell you that the impact of climate change is more severe and obviously here. It's not something that's in the future. It's something we're experiencing.
Cary Junior II:
That's Suzanne Coffey, Great Lakes Water Authority chief planning officer.
Suzanne Coffey:
The biggest cause is the fact that the rain intensity was so high. Our system is designed to convey what we call a ten-year one-hour event, about 1.8 inches of rain in an hour. In that event, we received and the region received very significant intense rain. So, we got more than seven inches, closer to eight inches, in 19 hours, which is way beyond the designed capacity of the systems. Even with all the treatment facilities and all of that, it was just overwhelmed.
Cary Junior II:
Detroit residents have expressed some feelings of betrayal by authorities, saying that not enough is being done. They don't see the results on their end. Every time it rains now, that's a stress for them. What would you say to those people?
Suzanne Coffey:
Guess I would say know that we are working diligently on your behalf and working with the Detroit local system diligently to do what we can do in the face of this change in the climate. But this climate change piece, this has big. It's going to take all of us and all the best and the brightest in the region, for us to come together to tackle this one. We have a very solid executive team and team members throughout the organization at all levels that are dedicated to preserving the public's trust. We're on the frontline. We are doing everything that we can to protect the public's interest and public safety.
Cary Junior II:
What are potential solutions for this? What can be done to help prevent the floodings, the backup of the water from getting into people's basement?
Bill Schuster:
These are great questions, Cary. I appreciate you leading the dialogue.
Cary Junior II:
No problem. Professor Bill Schuster again.
Bill Schuster:
How do we cope with, basically, a permanent infrastructure that's in place? Are we going to dig up pipes that were put in the 1920s or '30s? One approach is cooperation and collaboration, working at the regional level to say, "Hmm, you got a lot of flow coming in from this area. Is there any way you can retain that?" there are technologies of lining pipes to minimize the amount of inflow and infiltration into our piped conveyances. You can separate the system, like some communities have done over time. You can separate the storm flow and the septic flow, and route those to different and appropriate areas. Your septic flow goes to the wastewater treatment plant. Your storm water goes out to Lake St. Claire or Detroit River, for example. But that's a very disruptive, as far as tearing up streets and systems. There are opportunities to create what are called complete streets by re-imagining our transportation network in concert with basically environmental management goals. So, it brings into the conversation, ideas where green infrastructure may be useful or valuable. We have to get our existing water infrastructure working optimally.
Cary Junior II:
DWSD is working on some of that. GLWA is getting to work too. What does GLWA need to provide a drier future for Southeastern Michigan residents?
Suzanne Coffey:
We certainly need the support of the region.
Cary Junior II:
Suzanne Coffee again.
Suzanne Coffey:
It's not something Great Lakes Water Authority can do alone. We work on that on many fronts in terms of collaborating, but we also need funding. So, we're looking hard at opportunities to get funding to support the plans for increased resiliency.
Cary Junior II:
Back in 2016, you all had identified some things that you needed to change. It seems like, though, there's still plans that need to be implemented. Why haven't they been implemented, if you knew back in 2016 that there needed to be changes?
Suzanne Coffey:
We did a significant amount of [inaudible] improvements to increase the resiliency at those pump stations. But what we also realized was we just need to rebuild the pump stations and build them to current design standards, and make them more reliable overall. So, we've invested more than $10 million in those two pump stations since 2016. But the project that we have that is underway ... In fact, part of it's designed, and the other part of the design should be complete this year, is about a $250 million construction project. We did the short term, the medium term, and the longterm actions. The short and medium term actions are done in that $10 million of work that we've done. But the longer-term solution, it's well underway.
Cary Junior II:
How long will it take before we see results from these plans that have been implemented to improve the system?
Suzanne Coffey:
[inaudible] Pump station upgrade projects, we think we'll be done in about a seven or eight years. Part of the project will go out for bid next year. The public should see activity breaking ground in those pump stations in the next year.
Cary Junior II:
Bill told me there are options homeowners can try themselves, stuff like check valves and backflow preventers. We're going to include those details in our show notes and how Detroit's mayor is eyeing the federal infrastructure bill to help. But residents and experts are questioning authorities' ability to respond to the floods right now before the next rain fall. Is the system reliable as it is right now? [crosstalk 00:33:40].
Bill Schuster:
Doesn't appear to be. That may be provocative, let's say.
Cary Junior II:
It feels almost inevitable in a way that residents are going to have to deal with this until GLWA or someone comes along in the, hopefully, near future to solve this problem on a larger scale just because I don't imagine it being very feasible for individual residents to pay for it on their own.
Bill Schuster:
Which is a bit depressing. Isn't it?
Cary Junior II:
Yeah.
Bill Schuster:
I know that I've reconsidered the use of my basement. All my neighbors feel the same way. Some have completely abandoned their basements.
Darius Watkins:
It's not just me that feels like a piece of shit.
Bill Schuster:
This is Darius again.
Darius Watkins:
It's a couple of thousand people that historically feel like, "Man, you just don't really care that much. Or it's just not that urgent to get to." I just mean disenfranchised people from different groups of color [inaudible 00:34:45] white, black, brown. If you're in a certain area, it's just like, "All right, bro. Well, we'll just get to you when we get to you, fam." I would want to feel that support from the city that, "Hey, we're trying. We're doing what we're doing. We're prioritizing you all. This is how we plan to do those things." Instead of shifting blame at these community meetings. I'm not in this alone. I can't be selfish enough to think that my basement and us cutting out the drywall four or five feet up ... Like, "Woe is me." No. There are people who lost real things, went through real, real emergencies. I want to be extremely clear that this is not just a problem with me. This is a problem for everybody that's along this Jefferson-Chalmers region.
Cary Junior II:
Well, this episode might be over, but Darius and Jacqueline's story is ongoing. Until next time, I'm your host, Cary Junior II. And this is One the Line.
Claire Thornton:
We're back. Cary, tell us, where can people find On the Line? Where can they subscribe? How often does the show come out?
Cary Junior II:
Oh, right. On the Line, it is every Friday. We'll be on your streaming services by 5:00 a.m. on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts. Wherever you find your podcasts, we'll be there. There's a longer list that I don't know all of the streaming service. But I know Stitcher's on there too. I believe we're on Amazon as well. If you're listening to a podcast, wherever you listen, just type in On the Line. You should find us, On the Line, Detroit Free Press. And then if you reach out, give us some feedback, rate, subscribe. ontheline@freepress.com, you can send your feedback to us as well or any pitch ideas. We're excited about it. So, thank you for having me, Claire.
Claire Thornton:
Of course. Thank you for being here.
Cary Junior II:
I'm excited. I'm very happy to be here.
Claire Thornton:
You can read more about On the Line at the links I've included in the episode notes. If you liked that episode we just played for you, go write a review of On the Line and tell your friends and family about the show. And you can do the same for 5 Things. When you leave us a review on Apple Podcasts, you'll get a shout out on the show. I want to say thanks to Shannon Green for her help editing these episodes. That's all for now. Taylor Wilson will be back tomorrow morning with five things you need to know from Monday. Thanks for listening. I'm Claire Thornton. I'll see you next time. Until then, you can keep up with me on Twitter, where I'm @claire_T-H-O-R-N-T-O.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Detroit news gets a fresh sound in the On The Line podcast
