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'If white people were still here, this wouldn’t happen': the majority-Black town flooded with sewage (Illinois)
The Guardian ^ | 2-11-21 | Eric Lutz

Posted on 02/12/2021 12:39:54 PM PST by dynachrome

Sharon Smith has to plunge her toilet to get it to flush. On rainy days, wastewater spills into her yard from nearby drainage ditches. Twice in the last year her house has flooded, leaving behind the sickening smell of sewage, she said.

Her carpets are ruined, the floorboards are buckling, the bathroom wall is pulling away from the tub, she said. In the laundry room, the worst-hit part of the house, the smell of mold lingers. “I want to move, because this flooding is ridiculous,” said Smith, 59.

For decades, residents of Centreville, a nearly all-Black town of 5,000 in southern Illinois, just a 12-minute drive from downtown East St Louis, have been dealing with persistent flooding and sewage overflows. The smell of it is in the air all over town after a rain, and bits of soggy toilet paper and slicks of human waste cling to the grass in neighborhoods where children used to play on warm days, locals said. Kids don’t play outside any more. Gardens don’t grow.

Like Smith, other locals say their water tastes odd and refuse to drink from their taps, relying on donated shipments of bottled water. They worry about the long-term health effects of living under such conditions, and they say that for years elected officials and local utility companies inadequately addressed their cries for help.

(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: bidenvoters; blackenvy; centreville; democratrule; illinois; sewage; wakanda
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To: Secret Agent Man
The smaller portion that do understand these things, do not live in places like this.

And if they do, the place tends not to stay like this for long.
61 posted on 02/12/2021 1:06:44 PM PST by Ellendra (A single lie on our side does more damage than a thousand lies on their side.)
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To: dynachrome
...they say that for years elected officials and local utility companies inadequately addressed their cries for help.

Just a thought - maybe you should elect different leaders then? Not just different people, but people with different ideas and priorities, like maybe taking care of the town?

Residents and environmental justice advocates...

Oh, never mind. Now I see the problem. Anytime you have "justice" advocates you can bet you're going to have feel-good but ineffective solutions.

...these issues persist because the town is one of the poorest in America...

As my buddy from Brooklyn would say "Ya tink!" If the local tax base cannot support maintenance and upkeep then elected officials need to get creative. Maybe re-prioritize what funds they have? Maybe enact policies to attract businesses and residents to increase the tax base?

They contend that authorities at the local and state level might have addressed wastewater problems long ago if the area was wealthier and more influential.

If the area was wealthier then they wouldn't be having these problems in the first place. They'd take care of themselves rather than relying on someone else. Then again, maybe not. If they elect ineffective leaders - which apparently they are - then it really doesn't matter how much money or other resources they have, they'll squander them ineffectively regardless.

I feel like I should have more sympathy for them but... When it's gone on for years and nothing is changing, the problem starts to look self inflicted.

62 posted on 02/12/2021 1:07:05 PM PST by ThunderSleeps (Biden/Harris - illegitimate and everyone knows it.)
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To: carriage_hill
St. Clair County Illinois presidential voting (home of Centreville)

        LBJ Party               Repukelickins
2004    62,410	55.14%		50,203	44.35%
2008    76,160	60.57%		47,958	38.14%
2012    67,285	56.15%		50,125	41.83%
2016    60,756	50.03%		53,857	44.35%	
2020    68,325	53.34%		57,150	44.62%

Dominion is voting for ya now, Centreville residents.

Good luck getting stuff... face with tears of joy face with tears of joy

63 posted on 02/12/2021 1:07:29 PM PST by kiryandil (New Movie: The Assassination Of Ashli Babbitt By The Anonymous Coward)
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To: dynachrome

Welcome to Wakanda.

Sounds like paradise. No white people around.


64 posted on 02/12/2021 1:07:46 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
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To: dynachrome

To maintain an infrastructure requires skilled people. No skilled people in town? Think about that for a minute.


65 posted on 02/12/2021 1:08:06 PM PST by Bogey78O (So far so good.)
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To: mewzilla

https://www.co.st-clair.il.us/elected-officials

City officials mostly one skin color.

County officials mostly the other.

Looks to me like it’s SSDD.


66 posted on 02/12/2021 1:08:42 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: dynachrome
I spent years in different parts of downstate Illinois. There are LOTS of problem areas that are in areas with few black people. One small town could only note on its postcard "A recent study revealed high levels of lead, arsenic & other heavy metals in dust from fly ash, which is dumped at the coal mine by a Decatur, Illinois company." Besides Elkhart, there is also Depue, where a zinc works closed down leaving nothing behind except sullphur, which contaminated the water supply. The state provides bottled water gratis for residents, but you still don't really want to shower with it. Depue had been working class white. Now the houses are worth almost nothing, though some Hispanics have moved in to work at a nearby mushroom farm/operation.
67 posted on 02/12/2021 1:08:43 PM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
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To: dynachrome

How can this be in the liberal/progressive utopia of Illinios?

You mean Democrat Mayor after Mayor, and Democratic State reps, and Democratic Senators AND Governors have done nothing to help these poor folks?

I’m shocked I tell you, just shocked that the party of “compassion” is quite literally sh!tting all over these people.


68 posted on 02/12/2021 1:08:51 PM PST by TexasM1A
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To: Carl Vehse

My sentiment as well. Stop electing Democrats to run your cities.


69 posted on 02/12/2021 1:08:58 PM PST by Toespi
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To: dynachrome

Uh, unless I misread - the town is essentially all black.
So, what is the “leadership” doing?


70 posted on 02/12/2021 1:09:25 PM PST by Da Coyote
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To: mewzilla

Under the skin, a pol is still a pol.


71 posted on 02/12/2021 1:09:40 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: mewzilla

Picture of 2017 Centreville Fish Derby at the site. I don’t think I would eat any of the fish from there.


72 posted on 02/12/2021 1:09:56 PM PST by dynachrome ("I will not be reconstructed, and I do not give a damn.")
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To: dynachrome

True


73 posted on 02/12/2021 1:10:41 PM PST by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG)
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To: Secret Agent Man

Agreed. I had a black neighbor, nice guy, who thought I was a magician when I tuned his old Toyota truck and rebuilt the carb. Then I steam cleaned the engine compartment. It never occured to him to clean under the hood.


74 posted on 02/12/2021 1:10:41 PM PST by MercyFlush (Senator Joseph McCarthy was right. )
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To: Da Coyote

Check out my links above.


75 posted on 02/12/2021 1:10:43 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: dynachrome

The town is located on the site of one of North America’s largest pre-contact cities, who had to deal with the same flooding problems currently experienced by Centreville. Those people centuries ago solved the flooding problems with nothing more than basic tools, hard work, organization, and the desire to improve their lives. And they weren’t “white” people at all.

The technology to deal with flooding and disposal of sewage is pre-industrial. There is literally nothing that prevents the people of this community from at least starting to solve their own problems. The fact that they are outspokenly racist points to the cause of their despair, though.


76 posted on 02/12/2021 1:11:00 PM PST by redpoll
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To: Unassuaged

Just casting the TRUTH. Google is your friend. Do some research.


77 posted on 02/12/2021 1:11:18 PM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
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To: dynachrome

Looks me like all their pols, regardless of skin color, are screwing that city’s citizenry.


78 posted on 02/12/2021 1:11:48 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
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To: EEGator

That’s the essence of one white towns and neighborhoods go black


79 posted on 02/12/2021 1:12:11 PM PST by wardaddy (P IN 1999 JIM THOMPSON WAS RIGHT ABOUT THE BUSHES ...WE WERE WRONG)
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To: dynachrome

An admission they can’t drive their own bus.

Maybe they are not smart enough to get a voter ID card as well.

I’m tired of the race card ploy.


80 posted on 02/12/2021 1:12:54 PM PST by Enten (I don't have islamophobia...I do have islamonausea)
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