Detroit’s Garbage Incinerator

Smells like environmental racism.

Here’s a bit that got cut for space from the final version, but which I think is extremely important:

“In trying to recreate a world class city and repopulate the city, we have to do things in a sustainable manner,” says Turner-Handy. “We can’t ask people to move into an unhealthy city. We can’t ask people to raise their families here if it’s unhealthy.”

One of those people is Lia Greenwell, a millennial who moved to Detroit a year ago after living in North Carolina and New York City. The Michigan native loves Detroit and her hip Corktown neighborhood, but she’s also realistic: “I likely wouldn’t purchase a home in Southwest, though I like the area, because of what I know about the pollution.”

While she does expect to stay in Detroit for the next few years, she says she and her fiancé aren’t sure about the long term. “It’s a ‘we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it’ sort of thing.”

My latest at In These Times.