Free read, Feb. 17-21: Southwest flood cleanup, Whitmer signs worker law changes, local rap history
Here's what you need to know happened this week.
Howdy, folks. Another newsy week has passed.
Detroit voters have eight mayoral candidate to consider after Solomon Kinloch Jr. announced his candidacy Wednesday, while the ninth, Rep. Joe Tate, is set to announce his bid next week.
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Southwest in cleanup mode after floods
Hundreds of Southwest Detroit residents are dealing with the aftermath of flooding as crews continue cleanup efforts across the impacted area.
Nearly 400 homes suffered water damage due to water that filled streets after a 54-inch steel transmission line built in the 1930s burst open Monday.
City officials have promised to cover uninsured damages with the Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA). Affected residents should call 313-774-5261 to begin the claim process to replace damaged appliances.
Water and sewage director Gary Brown said Tuesday at city council that building inspectors were going door-to-door doing safety checks to assess the dozens of homes without power and heat. The city is paying for more than 80 families to stay in hotels, officials said at a press conference this week.
Brown said it typically takes about 3-10 days to replace a break of this size.
“Whether it was corrosion or the age of the pipe, whether something shifted in the ground, we don’t know,” Mayor Mike Duggan said Tuesday.
The mayor told reporters a forensic analysis will be completed to determine the reason for the pipe failure.
The main break happened this week as GLWA considers its largest water rate hike in a decade to drinking water and sewer rates for fiscal year 2026.
Read more from Planet Detroit: Biggest water rate hikes in a decade loom for Metro Detroit residents
The city’s quick response to the pipe break had some public commenters at city council this week wondering why such a response couldn’t happen to address the city’s housing crisis.
Whitmer signs approved changes to minimum wage, sick leave laws
Michigan lawmakers approved a bipartisan deal Thursday to change a court-ordered law which guarantees paid time off for workers.
The governor signed the bills into law Friday despite opposition from some Democrats and labor groups.
The Michigan Senate passed HB 4002, 26-10, Thursday night before the Republican controlled House approved the legislation, 81-29.
Democrats were divided on the changes and faced pressure from labor groups to keep the law unchanged. One House Democrat told me the fight is emblematic of the current fracture amid the party.
Democratic leadership, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Sen. Majority Leader Winnie Brinks, ultimately sided with Republicans and business groups.
Whitmer signed the law and the changes to the state’s minimum wage law, calling them a “commonsense compromise,” saying the bills will support Michigan’s workers without hurting small businesses.
The bills halt a phaseout of the state’s tipped minimum wage and cut the unpaid sick time benefits for workers at small businesses and delay implementation of sick leave requirements from other workers.
“With Gov. Whitmer’s signature today, thousands of community restaurants and tens of thousands of servers and bartenders can exhale, knowing their voice was heard,” Justin Winslow, president and CEO of the Michigan Restaurant & Lodging Association, said in a statement. “They can now begin the work of planning for their collective future with the knowledge that a tip credit has once again been preserved.”
A Michigan Supreme Court ruling last summer — which found a legislative maneuver that gutted the 2018 ballot initiative which brought the law unconstitutional — set the laws to take effect on Feb. 21, 2025.
Labor organizers called the approval of the changes “wage theft.”
“Michigan’s highest court ruled that these wage increases should take effect, yet lawmakers—and possibly the governor—are attempting to roll them back before workers even see a dime,” One Fair Wage president Saru Jayaraman said in a statement. “If the governor signs this bill, she will be enacting a pay cut for hundreds of thousands of workers. Michigan workers have already earned this raise, and taking it away is not a compromise—it is wage theft.”
Filthy Rockwell shares untold Detroit music history
Grammy nominated producer Filthy Rockwell shared some previously unknown stories from his time working alongside Eminem and Kanye West in the early 2000s.
Rockwell went in depth on Detroit’s relationship with both rappers during an interview on Kid L’s podcast released this week.
Rockwell talked about the influence of 90s Detroit rappers Esham and Boss, arguing the city’s rap scene wouldn’t look the same without either. He said Boss, who passed last year, was the first from the city’s hip hop culture to wear Carhartt, a local brand that has become a worldwide symbol of the city.
“We didn’t know Carhartt was a Detroit thing in the early 90s, Boss was the person who introduced that,” Rockwell said.
Boss topped Billboard's rap chart with 1993's “Deeper.” In the 1990s, she was signed to DJ West, the West Coast offshoot of Def Jam, where she was the label’s first female signee, Andrew Graham reported.
Rockwell also shared the story of how he gave Big Sean his “Sean Don” nickname and helped create Kanye’s “Good Morning” off his revered album Graduation.
Rockwell also worked on Big Sean, Pusha T, 2 Chainz and Kanye’s “Mercy.”
“The beat (Kanye) made with my keyboard was ‘Good Morning.’ I got to go record shopping with (Sean and Ye), he went to Melodies and Memories on Gratiot and 9 Mile and went and got chicken and pizza,” Rockwell told Kid L. “I still got the check to this day, I probably made $100.”
He talked about the city’s reluctance to accept Eminem — an ongoing debate for more than two decades.
“Detroit is made up of two different sides. You had the street music and you had the hip hop,” Rockwell said. “(Em) was always on the hip hop side, he was never really on this side of it. Back in the day, it was completely segregated.”