Lessons from Flint’s Water Crisis: An Interview with Steve Friess

Essay, expanding design practices, Imminent Urban Commons, No Density, Politics and economics, Steve Friess, Urban Paradigms, Van Alen Institute

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Previously published in Van Alen Report 19: America's Infrastructure. Van Alen Report is an interdisciplinary digest published semiannually by Van Alen Institute that gathers expert perspectives on subjects that are redefining society’s relationship to cities and the built environment. Van Alen Report 19 offers a sweeping exploration of how leaders may repair U.S. infrastructure in ways that support better and more just outcomes for all.

Every day in America there are citizens whose faucets flow with contaminated drinking water. Nowhere was this more visible than Flint, Michigan, where the late response of public officials to signs of wide-spread lead poisoning left many residents severely ill and deeply distrustful of city and state government. The Flint Water Crisis is a reminder that, along with materials, labor, and financing, trust is an essential component to the design and implementation of infrastructure.