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 ...
What Detroit needs to solve their economic problems is to take in all the new illegals. Just think of all the Federal tax dollars flowing in! All the citizens could get jobs (to keep their water on) caring for these poor illegals that are getting everything for free.
Looks like the white house by the time Obama&CO get done with it.
Where ever there are Africans without outside support it will eventually revert back into Africa.
“One need look no further than the crap quality of the cars being built in Detroit in the 70’s and 80’s. I suspect the work force at that time was better educated and disciplined, what an unmitigated disaster it would be now.”
No matter how hard the factory workers work and how carefully they assemble products, they can’t magically make a bad design “good”. I think there is plenty of blame to go around from the management down. Note the recent feeble attempt in GM leaking that the ignition switches involved in recent recalls were made in China. GM engineers designed them. GM QC people accepted them.
we get strange water bills here too....
I’ve been round and round with the water company here. No leaks, etc. and they still cannot explain to me how one person who does 3 loads of laundry a week can use nearly twice the average consumer’s FAMILY OF 4.
It is some serious voodoo in the billing department.
Neighbor on one side has the same issue, the other neighbor who does laundry several times a day, waters the lawn etc. their bill is one quarter what ours is.
Makes ya’ go hmmmm....
Too many people that aren't working are in fact lazy. When that number is as large as it is, it effects the general outlook.
Not just the tats and food, look at her manicure. And look at her processed hair - or is it a wig?
You know she’s getting all the hand-outs including rent subsidies yet she doesn’t want to pay her water bill.
Let’s see.....hair permed and colored,finger nails done up,lots of tats,obese, but she can’t be bothered with the water bill for 5 years. She be outraged!
There’s another odd thing about the article: it never states what the Detroit water rates are. Water is usually pretty cheap. Where I live I can fill a 32,000 gal. swimming pool for about $80.00. My monthly water bill is only about $15.00; for three or four people, that would be about $45.00 - $60.00, assuming reasonably cautious consumption. At the same time, if somebody didn’t pay a $45.00/mo. bill for a whole year, the arrears would add up to $540.00. Looks to me like a lot of de brudders in Detroit have been getting “free” water courtesy of the taxpayers and, as the Rev. Wright would say, “De chickens are com’in home to roost.”
I used to make inside door panels for Cadillacs. They were crap because they were designed that way. There are plenty of things unions can be blamed for but quality of products isn’t really one of them.
Free abortions and condoms are a right, but water is not.
All of these rewards and subsidies for bad choices and bad behavior have essentially been a “payoff” so that people don’t riot. The bottom line is that simple. When the country was wealthy and there weren’t that many people making these bad choices, the system seemed to work, but the underlying problem just got worse and worse...The “free stuff” spigot needs to be turned off - but very slowly, over years, maybe decades.
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You make a good point; the origin of the freebies goes back aways and yes, it can’t be turned off overnight without massive societal “unrest”.
While the problem originated with Johnson, there can be no question that Obama has raised entitlement expectations through Obamacare, free cell phones, massive bailouts, endless extensions of unemployment benefits, expansion of social services for illegals, and his and general support for income redistribution. Johnson started the fire, Obama poured gasoline on it.
Well, you just confirmed my opinion of what freepers think of unemployed people, lol.
Your posts are very interesting to me - don’t let our negativity get you down. I happen to love cities and city life and it would be amazing if Detroit could come back - no matter how long it took.
My water bill is $25 a month.
I’m no fan of cities, I just recognize the disaster headed our way that will make Detroit look like Disneyland as other cities fall, and they will. Detroit is a lot better test bed for conservatism than a collapsed Chicago or LA.
The only reason the democrat squealing over Detroit has gotten so loud is because the MI GOP is actually working on the problem and the democrats want them to fail.
This is a great thing - I wonder if I should think about relocating!
Sorry there Nicole, but thanks to your heroes I am pure tapped out of charity and have to look to taking care of myself and mine. Since your heroes are stealing my money with each paycheck I EARN, go beg to them because they are your saviors, not me...
We were in a social situation, and at the same function was a "GibsmeDat" woman. Obese, loud, crude, profane, selfish, unkempt, and unswervingly prideful.
The Christian woman was having a conversation with her, because she was becoming increasingly concerned with the other woman's behavior. Finally, she had had enough. She confronted the woman about her life, and the other woman was incredibly indignant about being called out for being a slothful human sponge to the taxpayers.
I also discovered that it is never called "welfare" or by the specific name of the program (TANF, Section 8, etc). It is always called "Getting Help." The only exceptions are the Food Stamp program is called "The EBT" and ObamaPhones are called, well, ObamaPhones.
It was a joy to see the Christian woman (who is married, raised a family, works, pay taxes) confront the other woman. She certainly wasn't going to called a "Raycis!" by the other woman. But boy, was the other lady angry about being called out.
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