48217: Life in Michigan's most polluted zip code.

[kraig]

This is part one of a two part series.



http://www.freep.com/article/2010062...luted-ZIP-code

Here's part two. Lack of air quality monitoring.

http://www.freep.com/article/2010062...isk-groups-say

[lpg]

I see my zip code is also listed.

[Danny]

Over the past 60 years, scrupolous real estate brokers decided to lure blacks from Del-Rey to buy homes around the 48217 area code and the rest of the garage like shacks along River Rouge and Ecorse at the other side the tracks so that white folks can move further downriver suburbs to the 1950s cookie cutters along Lincoln Park, Allen Park, Southgate and Taylor. That plan worked. Govt' subsidized housing projects at River Rouge and Ecorse made it possible to lure blacks into that area so later they could buy a home near a restrictive convenant coded areas in which the real estate brokers call 'the black community.' That plan worked. The result a demarcated black community along the lower southwest side and parts of River Rouge and Ecorse. The rest of the surrounding areas are mostly Arab Yemeni along the Dearborn/SW Detroit border, poor whites along W. Jefferson Ave. at River Rouge and Ecorse business corridor at the other side of the railroad tracks. and the Mexicans and Hispanics expanding further to the nearby factories on SW Detroit. All the folks who live in that area will experience some toxicity coming from the Rouge Industrial Complex in which some of them will be getting sick soon.