Posted on 06/29/2014 4:54:35 AM PDT by SkyPilot
Nicole Hill holds up her past-due water bill at her home in Detroit. Her water has been off for about six weeks.
It has been six weeks since the city turned off Nicole Hill's water.
Dirty dishes are piled in the sink of her crowded kitchen, where the yellow-and-green linoleum floor is soiled and sticky. A small garbage can is filled with water from a neighbor, while a bigger one sits outside in the yard, where she hopes it will collect some rain. She's developed an intricate recycling system of washing the dishes, cleaning the floor and flushing the toilet with the same water.
"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."
Hill is one of thousands of residents in Detroit who have had their water and sewer services turned off as part of a crackdown on customers who are behind on their bills. In April, the city set a target of cutting service to 3,000 customers a week who were more than $150 behind on their bills. In May, the water department sent out 46,000 warnings and cut off service to 4,531. The city says that cutting off water is the only way to get people to pay their bills as Detroit tries to emerge from bankruptcy — the utility is currently owed $90 million from customers, and nearly half the city's 300,000 or so accounts are past due.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Better yet a payment record. Water probably should have been turned off 4 years, 10 months ago. Mine would be shut off after the second bill was not paid.
He probably avoiding the living room with the 56 inch 3D flatscreen, X-Box and Bose sound system.
Not as high as it is. In fact, before they asked everyone to REALLY conserve, our rate was around $70. Then after everyone cut way back, they announced the rates would be going up because we cut back “too much” and the water company couldn’t make a profit because people’s bills were too low.
http://www.harvesth2o.com/tale_of_two_cities.shtml#.U7A8w_xOVLN
So you think that “a while ago” she was on firm financial footing with ample savings and retirement accounts to splurge on tattoos?
If no one splurged on anything until they had ample savings and a firm financial footing, most people in her shoes would not buy anything and we all know that is not happening.
Yuck, low flow toilets! I remember the 1950s when high-powered toilets blew you right out of the stall. Hospitals still have them, thank God.
Low flow toilets - bringing cholera to a theater near you!
Ugh...that fugly woman apparently had money for tattoos.
For the last two years, she has paid $2,800 to try to get caught up, but the utility wants her to pay $1,700 more before she can even get on a payment plan — an amount she doesn't have.
BTW, where are the liberal billionaires who could take of this in an afternoon?
Also, where are the Christian conservative billionaires? They too could take of the $90 million backlog in an afternoon?
Money for tattoos but not for a water bill - gimme a break wagon rider!!!
That is truly frightening.
——It’s not practical——
that is the kind of rationalization that keeps people unemployed
Maybe she could rent out some of that space for advertisements...
Perhaps she could have used some of that tattoo money for her water bill???
Doesn’t the Obama phone come with water delivery.
Now isn’t that a novel idea, and I am guessing you are not even a rocket scientist! :-)
“Yes, we are in Depression II. I know it, first-hand. There are no easy answers. I say, unfortunately, it will get worse.”
You can’t say that! Only a racist, and quite possibly, AN EVIL Christian, that hates the idea of a black man as President would say that.
My TV told me so.
Now wait one minute! We have not heard from Laz on this specimen!!
Meanwhile, you can get arrested for trying to gather water from the rain or off of your roof.
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