Well. The first question here is
whether Americans even know what communism is (or was) anymore. There are five
countries in the world that still call themselves Communist, but one of those
is China, which at least in economic terms barely counts (the others are Cuba,
North Korea, Vietnam, and Laos). More than that, it’s getting to be close to 40
years now since the Eastern bloc collapsed. A person would have to be at least
45 years old to have any memory of all that. Right now, 57.5 percent of
Americans are under
that age.
As you’d expect, young people who
weren’t alive to see how cruel, corrupt, and lethargic the Soviet Union was either
don’t know much about communism or don’t see it as such a bad thing. A poll
released last week by the libertarian Cato Institute had some interesting
numbers. Among all Americans, capitalism was viewed favorably by just 52
percent (that’s the number that would be worrying me if I were a Friedmanesque
free marketeer; it’s insanely low!). Socialism was viewed favorably by 37
percent. And communism got a thumbs-up from 21 percent.
That’s overall. Among respondents
under 30 years old, 38 percent said they had a favorable view of communism. But
in the Queens of Donald Trump’s youth, calling someone a Commie packed a real
wallop, so he clearly thinks it still can.
The word doesn’t actually apply to
any of these people he’s trying to condemn, of course. As I noted
last week, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Zohran Mamdani, and even Bernie
Sanders himself aren’t really socialists, in the proper historical sense of the
word. I don’t hear any of them calling for the state to seize the means of
production, which is the basic historical position of socialism. They’re social
democrats.
The only one among the crop who has
apparently said
a few nice things about actual communism is Darializa Avila Chevalier, the
32-year-old who won the Democratic primary in an upper Manhattan district. Her
leftism appears to be much more of the campus-radical variety than Mamdani’s
sewer socialism; we’ll see in two years whether the voters of her district are
good with that, or whether she has indeed “grown considerably” since she wrote
those social media posts.
Meanwhile, on the Fourth of July, a
bunch of white supremacists from something called the Patriot Front felt at
home enough in Trump’s Washington to march
in front of the Capitol wearing masks, sunglasses, and ballcaps with the
group’s logo boldly displayed and carrying an array of flags, including the
Confederate flag. (These ghouls undoubtedly went unmasked during the pandemic
to protest supposedly totalitarian public health policies, and now they’re
dressing like totalitarians in an attempt to terrorize regular people.)
And that night, of course, America, or that
portion of it that was interested, listened to another windy address from a
president who once invited avowed white supremacist Nick Fuentes to dine with
him at his house and told the extremist Proud Boys to stand by.
That same president participated
back in May in Rededicate
250, a Christian nationalist prayer gathering that, whatever its organizers
said, was clearly intended to pound home the idea that the United States is
supposed to be a Christian nation, which of course it is not. Democratic
Representative Jared Huffman of California accurately told PBS that the event
“would have the Founders rolling in their graves.”
This doesn’t begin to
scratch the surface of right-wing radicalism in this country, most of which
Trump tacitly or sometimes explicitly endorses with rhetoric that’s clearly
fascist. And beyond Trump himself, many rank-and-file Republicans are shocking
extremists; remember Nazis
mingling openly at the 2024 CPAC conference, or those
leaked text messages by young Republicans last fall (“I love Hitler”)?
It’s crystal clear in a factual
sense which party is more radical today. The Democrats could elect two dozen
socialists and they still
wouldn’t be anywhere near as far left as the GOP has gone far right. Oh,
and by the way: For all the media attention socialist candidates get when they
win, it’s still a fact that on balance, mainstream and even centrist Democrats
are winning more primaries this year. The Cook Political Report revealed
over the weekend that in the 22 GOP-controlled congressional districts
where Democrats have held primaries so far, 14 have been won by candidates with
mainstream and centrist backing. Only four have been won by candidates backed
by the Progressive Caucus. So in swing districts, Democratic voters are still
mainly choosing the nominees they calculate have a better shot at winning
such a district.
But we’re going to be hearing all
about Communists for the next four months. Trump is obviously trying to make
the midterms a referendum on the Democratic Party and not on him.
History tells
us this rarely works. It didn’t work for him in 2018, when he was around
40 percent in the polls and tried to make the dreaded caravan headed toward
the Rio Grande from Central America the central issue. And the economy was
comparatively good then, unlike now, when a soaring stock market is benefiting
the rich while most Americans continue to struggle with Trump-juiced inflation.
So
Democrats, who tend to freak out
about things, should not freak out about this. Sure, communism is a
scary word,
at least to people of a certain age and ideological bent. But I’d
imagine very few people who
aren’t dyed-in-the-wool MAGA believe the Democratic Party is a bunch of
Communists. I hope that instead of lamely denying it and moving on to
gas
prices, they have the guts to fight fire with fire and point out to
voters who
the real extremists in this country are.
ProPublica is a nonprofit, investigative newsroom that exposes
corruption. We report in all 50 states and partner with local newsrooms. Our work spurs real-world impact and has received numerous awards, including nine Pulitzer Prizes.
A view of the Kronos concrete mixing plant from the front porch of
longtime resident Christina Kary. Her family built the first homes on
her block, and she is determined to stay in the neighborhood.
Brittany Greeson for ProPublica
Left in the Dust: How a Billionaire-Owned Concrete Plant Took Over a Detroit Community
Detroit’s Rebuilding: As the city recovers from the
largest municipal bankruptcy in history, major construction has
reshaped it. New concrete businesses have opened in response.
Neighborhood Transformation: A concrete mixing plant has opened in the Cadillac Heights neighborhood, a process aided by the decisions of city officials.
Residents Leaving: Homeowners, who say they can’t
coexist with the plant, have sold their properties to the company and
left. The number of private sales to one entity “had never happened
before in Detroit.”
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
The abandoned house next door meant a lot to Christina Kary. For
years, she tended to it, planting purple flowers, removing weeds and
picking up trash. She attached locks to the doors to prevent trespassers
from entering.
She had considered buying the property, located on the Cadillac
Heights block where her family built the first houses in the early
1900s. Several years ago, she learned that the small home with a front
porch was owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority, which manages the
city’s vacant properties. Kary, 86, said she told a land bank inspector
she wanted to purchase it but didn’t follow up, thinking she would
eventually hear back.
Then, one morning in 2024, she heard a commotion as heavy equipment
squeezed through the alley. Kary watched from her backyard as the house
was demolished, her feet vibrating beneath her. She marked the day in
yellow highlighter on her paper wall calendar where she records other
notable events like birthdays, doctor appointments and Bible study
meetups. She would later learn that the city had sold the home to Crown
Enterprises, a real estate firm owned by members of the Detroit area’s
wealthy and politically connected Moroun family.
Over the last seven years, Crown has obtained dozens of parcels in
Cadillac Heights and secured permits to demolish more than 20
structures. In all, the company now owns more than 160 lots in the
neighborhood, most of which are barren. It also has erected a
concrete-mixing plant just across the street from Kary’s home, creating
clouds of dust, noise at early hours of the day and late into the night,
and industrial lights that pierce through the area.
The company’s takeover of the southeast section of the neighborhood
has marked the end of the community Kary and her neighbors knew — a
process aided by the decisions of city officials. First, the city turned
over dozens of properties to the company as part of a historic
land-swap deal in 2019 and then gave it first dibs to purchase other
lots, including the one next to Kary’s home, until 2034.
The city has also enabled the company in other ways, providing
latitude on permitting and neighborhood maintenance. For instance,
although city inspectors have repeatedly ticketed the company for
violating rules limiting the spread of dust, the city also set up a
system under which the company’s fines were dismissed.
Christina Kary in the backyard of her home in the Detroit neighborhood Cadillac Heights.Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublicaGoogle Street ViewNick Hagen for ProPublicaThe
house next door to Kary’s was purchased by Crown Enterprises and
demolished. It is now a vacant lot that Kary and her neighbor maintain.
As Detroit rebuilds from the largest municipal bankruptcy in history,
major construction has reshaped the city: the first new skyscraper in
50 years, new hotels and sports complexes, repaved roads,
and the renovation of Michigan Central Station, which had sat empty for
decades while owned by the Moroun family and became a symbol of the
city’s decline.
To meet the demand, at least three new concrete facilities
have opened in the city since 2019. One is by a park, and two are in
residential neighborhoods, including the plant in Cadillac Heights,
called Kronos. The state also approved a permit for a new cement grinding plant
that has not yet opened in an industrial area of southwest Detroit.
Other proposed operations have been blocked after residents protested.
The new concrete plants are producing materials needed to help
rebuild parts of the city while creating a bitter irony for residents
such as Kary. She said Detroit’s decision to turn so many properties
over to Crown “guarantees the death of this area.”
In written responses to questions from BridgeDetroit and ProPublica,
company representative Kenneth Dobson called Kronos “a good neighbor.”
He said the company complies with all permitting requirements and city
ordinances, and that it properly mitigates dust.
Dobson said having a concrete supplier within the city helps support
rebuilding and broadly improves the lives of Detroiters. Without
concrete facilities in Detroit, “not only would there be less jobs and
less City tax revenue, but the cost of both public and private
infrastructure development would go up,” wrote Dobson, vice president of
the Detroit International Bridge Company, another Moroun-owned
business.
Dobson said Crown has invested $10 million in the neighborhood. When
asked what that has funded, he cited costs related to the Kronos
development: demolishing homes, obtaining permits and equipment to
operate, and taking measures to control dust and monitor air quality.
Messages sent by ProPublica to email addresses linked to Matthew
Moroun, who oversees the family business, didn’t receive a response.
Dobson said the email was forwarded to him and he responded on Moroun’s
behalf.
The
city gave Crown first rights to this house in Cadillac Heights. The
city demolished it last year, but ownership has not yet been transferred
to the company.Brittany Greeson for ProPublica
With City Help, Crown Moves In
Cadillac Heights’ most recent transformation began in May 2019,
thanks in part to a vote by Detroit City Council to approve a nearly
$267 million multipronged land swap orchestrated by former Mayor Mike
Duggan.
The deal delivered ownership of dozens of lots in Cadillac Heights to
Crown. In exchange, Crown gave up land in another part of the city,
which allowed automaker Stellantis to open the first new car plant in Detroit in three decades, with the promise of 5,000 new jobs.
Duggan declared the day the land swap was approved as the “greatest” day he had had as mayor.
“Today was historic,” Duggan, who served for 12 years and recently gave up his bid for governor, said at a press conference. “Detroit was the city that built the middle class in America, and today we started to rebuild the middle class in Detroit.”
The news that day focused on the promise of Stellantis, not on what
the deal meant for Cadillac Heights. Duggan spokesperson Andrea Bitely
said the mayor did not know that Crown would put a concrete plant in the
neighborhood and that doing so would ultimately drive out residents.
At its prime in the 1960s, Cadillac Heights had been full of local
businesses and community life. The neighborhood attracted a
predominantly working-class community of Black families who lived in
modest single-family houses.
Buddy’s Pizza, famous as the birthplace of Detroit-style pizza, was
founded there and drew crowds from across the city. Cadillac Heights
also was home to Simpson’s Records, one of the city’s longest-running
record shops.
But over several decades, Detroit declined under the weight of the
crack epidemic, massive population loss and disinvestment. City
historian Jamon Jordan said some neighborhoods saw more problems than
others, but Cadillac Heights “had all of those things.”
By the time of the 2019 deal, roughly a third of the homes that were
left had been abandoned, according to census data, and the streets were
lined with empty storefronts. The remaining residents, many of whom,
like Kary, had lived in Cadillac Heights for decades, said they tried to
keep the neighborhood clean and enjoyable.
The Moroun family, too, had owned property in Cadillac Heights since
the 1960s and operated a trucking depot there, which residents also
found bothersome, but less so than the concrete facility. (The family
also owns the Ambassador Bridge to Canada and more than 1,000 properties
throughout Detroit, and has tried to block a competing bridge to Canada.)
Crown gradually acquired more land in Cadillac Heights and had about 80 properties at the time of the land swap, records show.
Two Decades of Change in Cadillac Heights
Cadillac Heights
December 2002
The southeast section of Cadillac Heights was a mixed-use area for homes and businesses.
Detroit
Conant Street
Jerome Street
East McNichols Road
North
500 feet
March 2026
In the years since Crown Enterprises acquired
properties from a land-swap deal in May 2019, the area has been mostly
cleared, leaving a neighborhood of concrete and barren lots.
Conant Street
Kronos Concrete
plant
Jerome Street
East McNichols Road
Sources: Google Earth, AirbusChris Alcantara/ProPublica
The deal gave Crown 34 more parcels throughout the neighborhood and
the first rights to purchase others if they end up in the Land Bank by
repossession due to tax foreclosure or other reasons. So far, Crown has
purchased seven parcels under this option and demolished three homes,
including the one next to Kary’s.
Detroit officials made other decisions, some in violation of city
rules, that enabled Kronos to operate by summer 2022, before the company
obtained a permit. The city ordered that operations stop. It then
issued the permit without fining the company, and the concrete plant was reassembled. A city spokesperson did not respond to a question about why the company wasn’t fined.
The city issued a permit even though Crown had unpaid tickets for
blight violations, which should have disqualified it from getting the
approval to move forward.Crystal Rogers, a manager in
the city’s Buildings, Safety Engineering and Environmental Department,
attributed that to “human error.”
The company also accrued tickets between when it first applied for
the permit and when the city approved it; Rogers said checking whether a
company has pending tickets during that time period would “slow the
development process.”
The tickets also should have prevented Crown from purchasing property
from the county’s tax auction, according to city law. Yet records show
the company was able to purchase a four-bedroom, single-family house in
Cadillac Heights in October 2022 while it had unresolved blight tickets.
Crown said it had disputed some of the tickets. The city acknowledged
the tickets but said they were resolved by the time the sale was
recorded months later.
After the concrete plant opened, the company acquired additional
property from homeowners who decided to leave, further transforming the
neighborhood. Dobson said the company is buying properties to create a
buffer around the plant.
How a 2019 Land-Swap Deal Accelerated the Morouns’ Foothold
The Moroun family spent decades, from 1966 to 2018, records show,
gradually acquiring lots in Cadillac Heights through their various
companies, eventually putting the parcels all under the ownership of
Crown Enterprises. A May 2019 deal with the city of Detroit allowed
Crown to acquire dozens of additional parcels during the next seven
years.
■
Properties owned by the Moroun family before May 2019
Conant Street
500 feet
cadillac
heights
North
Site of
Kronos
Concrete
plant
Jerome Street
Christina
Kary’s
lots
East McNichols Road
Properties the Moroun family owned, titled under Crown
Enterprises, as of June
■
Conant Street
Site of
Kronos
Concrete
plant
Jerome Street
Christina
Kary’s
lots
East McNichols Road
Note: Sale dates for 19
parcels could not be identified, but records show Crown owned them as of
June. Sources: City of Detroit, Detroit’s Office of the Assessor, Wayne
County Register of Deeds, Detroit City Council.Chris Alcantara/ProPublica
Martin Murray, a University of Michigan urban planning professor,
said what’s happening in Cadillac Heights follows a similar pattern to
other U.S. cities undergoing redevelopment. Businesses “can promise
jobs, they can promise a tax base, and the city will go along with that,
because it makes them look better and they’re willing to sacrifice
residents,” he said.
City Council President James Tate Jr. and member Scott Benson, who
represents the Cadillac Heights neighborhood, voted in favor of the land
swap. Tate said he thinks the arrangement benefited the city overall,
but that officials should have questioned how Crown would use the
properties before they approved the deal.
“Knowing what I know now, there are some additional protections and
questions that I would ask,” he said. “I would never sacrifice one
neighborhood to satisfy another, but there are times when you have to
look at deals, and there may be some unintended consequences.”
Benson declined to comment on his decision to approve the deal and
said he has advocated for zoning changes that would make the area less
industrial.
Quinn Banks for BridgeDetroitBrittany Greeson for ProPublicaA row of houses in Cadillac Heights, photographed in 2022, has since been demolished and is now an empty lot.
“They Could Taste the Dust”
Since the Kronos plant opened four years ago, residents have filed
about 80 complaints to both city and state environmental offices,
according to records obtained by BridgeDetroit and ProPublica. They have
sent photos, videos and pleas for help.
In complaints filed with the state, they described “literal whiteout
conditions” and “dust clouds.” They said the dust was blanketing their
neighborhood and irritating their eyes. They said they had to stop doing
yardwork, go inside and shut all their windows.
“They could feel grit and debris hitting their eyes, that they tried
not to inhale but they could taste the dust,” according to a state
inspector’s summary of one complaint. The state’s environmental division
repeatedly has recommended that Crown spray the site with water to
minimize dust, which the company says it does every hour the plant is
operating. Inspectors also told Crown multiple times to reduce the speed
of its trucks to limit the spread of dust.
Videos
submitted by local residents to the state environmental department show
dusty conditions in the Cadillac Heights neighborhood next to the
plant.Obtained by BridgeDetroit and ProPublica
Josef Stephens, spokesperson for the Michigan Department of
Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, said that while the state has noted
dust at and around the Kronos site, it has not been opaque enough to
warrant a violation.
City officials, too, are aware of residents’ concerns. In 2024, the
City Council passed an ordinance requiring companies to control the
spread of dust or face penalties. The city set up a hotline and email
address so residents could submit complaints.
Nearly half of the complaints submitted to dust@detroitmi.gov have been about Kronos, according to city officials.
Dobson, the company representative, said readings from its air
monitor have never exceeded the city’s pollution limits and that the
facility is “fully compliant.”
Matthew Tomasz, who lived across the street from Kronos, filed
complaints with the city and also ended up in a legal battle with Crown.
The company sued him for trespassing on its vacant property next to his
home. He countersued, claiming the company had violated the city’s dust
ordinance when particles from the concrete facility traveled onto his
property, calling it an “invasion.”
Matthew
Tomasz, right, with his wife, Casey Murphy, and their children, Gus,
standing, and Olórin. The family lived across the street from Kronos,
and Tomasz ended up in a legal battle with the company.Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
“Each day that dust from Kronos or the vacant lots lands on Mr.
Tomasz’s property, a new trespass occurs,” according to the complaint.
The lawsuits settled in February, but the terms were not made public,
records show.
“I feel like I’m staring into a wasteland every day,” Tomasz said in
an interview late last year. He said dust from the plant was so thick
that he couldn’t see 10 feet in front of him. “There’s no peace to be
had at my house.”
The city required that Kronos develop and adhere to a plan to limit
the amount of dust. But despite five violations since Kronos agreed to adopt a plan,
only once has the city’s environmental department fined the company for
its failure to comply. The city last month dismissed two tickets issued
to Crown, totalling $2,500, for the company’s failure to keep dust from
traveling into the neighborhood.
The company has been excused from the dust-related fines, as well as
tickets for other reasons, because of an agreement it signed with the
city in 2022 after the plant opened. That first-of-its-kind property
maintenance agreement gives Crown up to 30 days to fix nonemergency
building and environmental violations — and up to 10 days to address
overgrown weeds and trash — before it is assessed fines. The city has
since entered into similar agreements with two other concrete businesses
and a developer.
The agreement with Crown came after the company racked up blight
tickets across the city. At the time it was signed, the city’s law
department acknowledged
it didn’t know the number of outstanding tickets but agreed that the
company could pay $50,000 to resolve all the past violations before the
new agreement kicked in.
One ticket that was excused last year came after Detroit resident
Jahdante Smith emailed a complaint to city officials in July with a
video showing a cloud of dust blowing near the facility. “This is a
ridiculous everyday occurrence,” Smith wrote.
Detroit
resident Jahdante Smith emailed a complaint to city officials that
included this video of dust blowing on the street near the Kronos
facility.Courtesy of Jahdante Smith
A city inspector issued Crown a $500 ticket seven weeks later for
failing to mitigate dust, but the city’s environmental department
dismissed it under the agreement.
The city also waived a $1,000 ticket issued to Crown in October for
exceeding state and city requirements to limit dust opacity. The company
temporarily suspended operations and agreed to sweep and spray water on
the streets daily to control the dust, and the ticket was dismissed,
Rogers said.
City inspectors also alerted Crown to code violations at other
properties in the neighborhood, including a vacant lot littered with
garbage and another with overgrown weeds and broken tree limbs. An
abandoned home was unsecured, leaving it open to trespassers, a city
inspector found.
Because of its agreement with the city, Crown was not issued any
fines after it addressed the issues with the three properties. The
vacant home has been demolished, and the other lots are now barren.
However, a recent visit to the neighborhood showed that similar
issues have resurfaced: Another home that Crown purchased in January had
missing first-floor windows and no front door, allowing anyone to
enter. The lawn was covered in tall weeds and grass, and trash littered
the yard. Crown plans to demolish the home but is waiting on the
utilities to be disconnected, said Dobson, the company representative.
A house that Crown purchased in January has no front door or first-floor windows, and trash litters the yard.Nick Hagen for ProPublica
Dobson said the property maintenance agreement has worked because the
company responds to concerns and fixes “the potential violation.”
Conrad Mallett, the city’s top attorney, who negotiated the agreement,
said it is “working well from the perspective of both parties.”
A
press conference in October 2025 calling for the closure of the Kronos
concrete facility included speakers Smith, right, of the Detroit
Hamtramck Coalition, and state Sen. Stephanie Chang, left.Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
The department, in response, said officials have no legal authority
to interfere because the plant is properly permitted and complies with
zoning regulations and city rules. And even though the city is
considering rezoning some parts of Cadillac Heights to make them less
industrial, the plans stop just short of the lots owned by Crown,
records show.
The Moroun family continues to expand its concrete supply business,
called Hercules Material Holdings, which now has seven locations in
Michigan. Other facilities are expected to open in Toledo, Ohio, and Windsor, Ontario, where the Morouns have been purchasing properties for decades.
Residents Move Out
Some Cadillac Heights residents say they can’t coexist with the concrete plant.
They recently turned to the Wayne County Commission for help. At a
May county committee meeting, advocate Sharon Buttry told commissioners
that residents are frustrated that Crown hasn’t been ticketed more.
Commissioners voted to pass a resolution urging the state and city to
further monitor the site and revoke permits if there are violations.
“Our neighborhoods should never have to sacrifice their health and peace
of mind for industrial operations that create ongoing public nuisance
concerns,” county Commissioner Martha G. Scott said in an interview.
The county is paying a local air monitoring company, JustAir, to
track and analyze air quality near Kronos. The company found the quality
was “measurably worse” during the six days of the week when Kronos
operates.
Separately, Mayor Mary Sheffield, who took office this year, directed the city’s environmental agency to install four monitors
near the plant so residents “knew that the administration is taking
their concerns seriously,” according to city spokesperson John Roach. He
said the monitors have not measured pollution that exceeds moderate
levels. (Sheffield voted against the land swap when she was on City
Council.)
Kronos representatives, meanwhile, have worked to build public
support. The company has said that it has hired Detroiters to work at
the plant, donated food and backpacks to community groups, and paved a
new parking lot for a neighborhood church. A few years ago, it published
renderings online showing how it would improve the neighborhood with
paved sidewalks, mature trees and 6-foot-tall grassy hills to create a
buffer from the plant.
Those images don’t match what the neighborhood looks like. Sidewalks
are missing or cracked. Barbed wire hangs from fences over debris-strewn
lots. Water sprayed to control dust creeps into the streets, creating
small pools of green liquid. Lots are barren and gray after being
treated with herbicides to prevent weeds.
Obtained by BridgeDetroit and ProPublicaNick Hagen for ProPublicaKronos
published renderings several years ago showing how it would improve the
neighborhood. A June 2026 photograph shows the same location.
Dobson said Crown hasn’t been able to carry out the improvements
because the city hasn’t signed off on its plan. Roach said the city
won’t grant permission until the company addresses code violations,
including an unpermitted chain-link fence and inadequate screening to
hide operations.
If Crown doesn’t make the improvements soon, Mitchell Gross, who
lives across the street from Kronos, said he’s going to plant evergreen
trees himself “to filter the dust.”
He said he keeps his windows shut and that his son and his two young
grandchildren, who used to live with him, have left Detroit to protect
their health. “They’re in a nice place and getting good air to breathe,”
said Gross, who has lived in the neighborhood for more than 50 years.
Mitchell
Gross built his house in the neighborhood more than 50 years ago. He
said he keeps his windows closed so dust from the concrete plant doesn’t
travel into his home.Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
Some of Cadillac Heights’ longtime residents aren’t sticking around
to find out whether things will improve. At least 16 residents who lived
in the area closest to the Kronos plant have sold their land to Crown
since the land swap, according to records reviewed by BridgeDetroit and
ProPublica. The sellers have received “a windfall,” with an average 2024
purchase price of $114,000 that has been “increasing,” according to
Crown representative Dobson.
Bitely, the spokesperson for Duggan, said that having so many private
sales to one entity “had never happened before in Detroit.”
Samantha Flowers was among the first residents to fight against the
concrete operation. Last year, she texted BridgeDetroit and ProPublica a
video of the plant, taken at 6:15 a.m., to demonstrate the daily noise
and bright lights residents are accustomed to. “Typical morning in the
neighborhood,” she wrote.
Flowers sold her home and five other parcels to Crown in January for
$125,000, according to the county’s online records. Tomasz, who had
filed a lawsuit against the company, gave up his hope of buying the lot
next to his and instead sold his home to the company for $150,000.
Dobson said the property will be used to create additional buffering
from the plant.
Kary, however, plans to live out her final years in her family’s
home. She pays for grass seed to maintain the Crown-owned vacant lot
next to hers so she can look out her windows at something nice.
“It’s home,” she said. “I’m not leaving.”
The Kronos plant overlooks the Cadillac Heights neighborhood.Sarahbeth Maney/ProPublica
