Environmental Justice Part 2

In my previous Blog on this topic, I included a letter from a person who lived in the Delray area of Detroit. She cannot be too pleased with the results just announced. I do not think the war is over yet! Here is a Detroit News article on the subject. Sandwich residents may find the language used sounds very familiar to them.


Bleak area may get crossing

Polluted Delray neighborhood in Detroit favored for bridge or tunnel; residents say they don't want it.

By Joel Kurth / The Detroit News

DETROIT -- The politically charged process of selecting a site for another bridge or tunnel between southeast Michigan and Ontario has zeroed in on one of the bleakest neighborhoods in Michigan.

Monday, a bi-national group conducting a $25 million study of border congestion announced that a 2 1/2 -mile stretch of the Detroit River centered on the Delray neighborhood in Detroit is the preferred site for another bridge or tunnel. A spot will be selected in 2007, with construction expected to last up to six years.

The group of Michigan, Ontario, United States and Canadian transportation officials ruled out two top contenders for the crossing: The Jobs Tunnel -- a plan to expand an existing train tunnel to handle trucks -- and plans to twin the Ambassador Bridge. Both would cost about $400 million.

"We're going to fight this right to the end," said Mary Loubriel, 48, a member of the Delray Community Council, a neighborhood group. "We're on an upswing. We need a chance to come back. We don't want to disappear for trucks."

The stakes are huge, not just for Delray but the state. The nation's busiest commercial gateway, the Detroit-Windsor border handles some $100 billion in trade a year. Without another crossing, Michigan and Ontario will lose 48,000 jobs a year by 2020, according to the group, the Border Transportation Partnership.

Delray is in a fight for its existence. It's a fight some residents admit may not make much sense to outsiders. The neighborhood is one of the most polluted in Michigan. On some streets, torched houses and vacant lots are more common than occupied structures.

"As a non-priest, I might do the same thing (and put the bridge here,)" said the Rev. Barnabas G. Kiss, pastor of the Holy Cross Hungarian Roman Catholic Church.

"It's an ugly neighborhood. We have no interests. No one is standing up for us. We have to stand up for ourselves. Some people look at this territory as nowhere and treat us as non-humans without history or culture. It's terrible."

The church has been in the neighborhood since 1905. That's the year Detroit annexed the former suburb into the city. Once a working-class hub where residents walked to factories, the racially mixed neighborhood of 5,000 residents is bordered by the Ambassador Bridge, Zug Island, Fort Street and the river.

Local landmarks include the Detroit Water and Sewerage treatment plant, factories that belch yellow smoke and the Hungarian church.

The church has spent millions in recent years bullet-proofing its 26-foot-high stained glass windows and restoring 80-year-old oak pews, gold-leaf altar, masonry work and a statue outside of Jesus Christ. On Sundays, about 300 parishioners come from as far as Toledo and Flint for bilingual services.

"It looks like we have no say," Kiss said. "We have no information or anywhere to turn."

Ben Kohrman, spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, said "sound technical analysis" of community, economic and environmental effects narrowed site selection to Delray. Both governments would have to issue permits necessary to build a bridge or tunnel, but Jobs Tunnel spokeswoman Marge Byington insisted her plan remains viable.

"We have multiple options," she said, but did not elaborate.

Dan Stamper, president of the private company that owns the Ambassador Bridge, did not return a call seeking comment. In the past, he's said the bridge is moving forward with a $400 million plan to add 100 inspection booths and expand the truck gateway, regardless of what the bi-national group decides.