Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

'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
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 241-251 next last
To: kiryandil

They get what they get, as they voted for it. No sympathy from me.


81 posted on 02/12/2021 1:12:56 PM PST by Carriage Hill (A society grows great when old men plant trees, in whose shade they know they will never sit.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: kiryandil
St. Clair County Illinois presidential voting

So about 55% of St. Clair voters are Evil and 40% are Stupid.

I guess they deserve what they got.

82 posted on 02/12/2021 1:14:19 PM PST by Navy Patriot (Celebrate Decivilization)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 63 | View Replies]

To: mylife

Gardens don’t grow...Near our sewage treatment plant, tomatoes are as big as cantaloupes.


83 posted on 02/12/2021 1:14:23 PM PST by Sacajaweau
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome
“If all of those white people were still here, this wouldn’t happen,” she said.

She's right, but probably for the wrong reason.

84 posted on 02/12/2021 1:14:33 PM PST by Arones (People say "this is not who we are." Have you not turned on the tv since Memorial Day? -Mark Steyn)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

White people could have prevented it?

Are we then like King Canute, ordering back the sewage, rather than the tide?


85 posted on 02/12/2021 1:14:41 PM PST by Pearls Before Swine
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: mewzilla
Looks to me like it’s SSDD.

Would that be in 5¼" or 3½"?


86 posted on 02/12/2021 1:15:53 PM PST by Dr. Sivana (There is no salvation in politics)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 66 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome
The lady bitching should look at the city council before playing the race card:

http://www.cityofcentreville-il.com/city-council/

87 posted on 02/12/2021 1:15:54 PM PST by pfflier
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: All

I worked with a black lady for years and when she and her husband started looking for a house to buy she said she wanted to live in a white neighborhood because black people were nasty (her words, not mine) and wouldn’t take care of their houses, throw garbage out in their yards, let their kids run wild, etc. They found a house in an upscale white neighborhood and are still there. She loves her neighbors and her neighbors love her.

I think that most of the black people that don’t take care of their homes are renters. White people do that too in those kind of neighborhoods. People that care about where they live move out when the trash moves in and the neighborhood goes to squalor.

My sister lived in Illinois for years and years because her husband was from there. She hated it because she couldn’t open windows or unlock her doors because of roving gangs of ferals. Taxes were too high and she couldn’t have a gun. After he died we talked her into moving back to Tennessee. She has been living with our mom for two years and every summer threatens to move back to Illinois because she swears the heat in TN will kill her. She changes her mind in winter. At least here she is on a farm and feels safe.


88 posted on 02/12/2021 1:16:06 PM PST by Tennessee Conservative
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 40 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

People get the government they elect and the infrastructure they can afford. The first thing they need is an audit of their local government to find out where their taxes are going. Democrats are big into siphoning off public money, as they have in every major American city that’s run by them.


89 posted on 02/12/2021 1:16:52 PM PST by Spok (All free men are equal only in their freedom; everything else is up to them.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Pearls Before Swine

This is about corruption and/or incompetence.

And no skin color has a monopoly on either.


90 posted on 02/12/2021 1:16:57 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: Dr. Sivana

LOL. I predate those.


91 posted on 02/12/2021 1:17:43 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

Similar complaints in black majority towns near us - conditions of schools, sewer, parks, street violence (of course) etc…

There seems to be plenty of time for activism for #BLM, organizing for Obama/Biden, etc… but I see zero black people bothering to organize themselves to get local government (or themselves) to fix the swings in the local playground.


92 posted on 02/12/2021 1:17:55 PM PST by PGR88
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: csvset

Car’s GPS mistakenly led us to East St. Louis a couple of years ago. It still is a boarded up wasteland.


93 posted on 02/12/2021 1:18:14 PM PST by hanamizu
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 43 | View Replies]

To: CodeJockey
But wait, they don't tell you that ALL the officials are black, too.

Shhhhhh! You're not supposed to point out the obvious.

City Council
Three of thirteen officials not pictured there. All pictured are black.

Just substantiating your assertion. No offense intended.

94 posted on 02/12/2021 1:18:19 PM PST by philman_36 (Pride breakfasted with plenty, dined with poverty and supped with infamy. Benjamin Franklin)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 7 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

So you finally forced all the “racist” white people who were paying for everything to get the hell out....how you liking it!!!!


95 posted on 02/12/2021 1:18:20 PM PST by ontap
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: matthew fuller

You’re thinking of this place.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia,_Pennsylvania

And considering both places, I’d rather live in Centralia.


96 posted on 02/12/2021 1:18:56 PM PST by Responsibility2nd (Trump is a deposed Pres. in exile. America is truly a banana republic. Our govt. has been overthrown)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 53 | View Replies]

To: philman_36

Check out the county government.


97 posted on 02/12/2021 1:18:56 PM PST by mewzilla (Break out the mustard seeds. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Unassuaged

You need logic and critical thinking.


98 posted on 02/12/2021 1:19:23 PM PST by EEGator
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 46 | View Replies]

To: dynachrome

well damn... crap does roll uphill after all...


99 posted on 02/12/2021 1:19:32 PM PST by heavy metal (your reward will be in heaven not on your paycheck...)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Celtic Conservative

The town has an adult population of several thousand with an average income of $15,000.

That tells you that there’s a lot of people sitting idle every day. What did she think people did in Scottish villages in the 18th century when the village had issues? Say “if there were English here, the king would fix things”. Nope.


100 posted on 02/12/2021 1:20:00 PM PST by Bogey78O (So far so good.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 38 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 61-8081-100101-120 ... 241-251 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson