Jennifer Fassbender, September 19th, 2024
Title
Jennifer Fassbender, September 19th, 2024
Description
Jennifer Fassbender discusses her work with Arboretum Detroit and the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments, and how those organizations address issues of environmental justice and climate change.
Publisher
Detroit Historical Society
Rights
Detroit Historical Society
Language
en-US
Narrator/Interviewee's Name
Jennifer Fassbender grew up in the Metro Detroit area, and currently lives in the East Poletown neighborhood of Detroit. She's a longtime organizer for the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments, and is a Park Maintenance / Volunteer Engagement Assistant for Arboretum Detroit.
Brief Biography
Jennifer Fassbender
Interviewer's Name
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo
Date
09/19/2024
Interview Length
34:28
Transcription
Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo: I'm Doris Lanzkron-Tamarazo. It is September 19th, 2024, and I'm here with. Please say your name.
Jennifer Fassbender: I am Jennifer Fassbender.
DLT: Can you please spell your name?
JF: J e n n i f e r F a s s b e n d e r
DLT: And do you live in the city of Detroit?
JF: Yes.
DLT: What neighborhood do you live in?
JF: I live in the East Poletown area.
DLT: And how long have you lived in that neighborhood?
JF: Just over a year now.
DLT: Have you lived elsewhere in Detroit or Metro Detroit?
JF: Yes, I lived in the area between Downtown and Midtown for several years, until my apartment burned a few years ago. Prior to that, I lived in Hamtramck and I was born and raised in the Metro Area.
DLT: And what career are you in?
JF: I work with environmental justice issues.
DLT: Do you work in the city of Detroit?
JF: Yes.
DLT: And where do you work on environmental justice issues?
JF: Well, I work with the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments. We started off as the Coalition to Oppose the Expansion of US Ecology. And currently, I'm organizing as a volunteer steering committee member, but I'm also doing some administrative work that is paid. So, I guess that legitimizes the career work part. I also think of my work with Arboretum Detroit as environmental justice work, particularly as it relates to our local environment, and thinking globally, and acting locally, and creating green spaces and rehabbing the land for the local folks as well as the other species in our environment. And just connecting the dots between all of the issues. So I think of it as my field work and my solutions work when it comes to environmental justice.
DLT: And how did you become involved with Arboretum Detroit?
JF: Well, I knew Kinga and Birch Kemp, who are the founders of Arboretum Detroit. We work together with a CSA[Community Supported Agriculture]-style farming where we literally work for food. And so, my personal connection with them prompted me to begin volunteering with Arboretum Detroit, and eventually, I was offered a position to help with the grounds maintenance.
DLT: And would you say that your work at Arboretum Detroit is impacted by climate change?
JF: I do. I think it's impacted by climate change, and I think it is also one little part of solutions. In the midst of climate breakdown and climate change, I wonder sometimes with the native trees, the native plants, how on one hand I feel like they remember where this place is and their connection to it; on the other hand, I feel that some of these native species that I'm caring for and trying to give a chance to might become obsolete in this area as the climate continues to warm.
DLT: And what do you believe that the impacts of climate change are on Detroit and on the world?
JF: Well, I think that everything is impacted by climate breakdown, from our social structure, our economic system, migration, our food systems, our environmental justice issues. And again, with that thinking globally and acting locally mindset, I feel that it's naive to think that anything that we consider normal in our society will be unaffected by the impacts of climate breakdown.
DLT: And what does Arboretum Detroit do to alleviate any of the impacts of climate change?
JF: Well, again, I feel that Arboretum Detroit is solutions-based when it comes to climate issues. I feel that rehabbing some of these spaces that had previously just been empty lots, where only distant memories now of families and homes and neighborhoods had been after being leveled through all the different ways that environmental justice issues, racial justice issues have really ravaged the neighborhood. For instance, with the incinerator and other heavy industry around that neighborhood. All of these empty lots used to be homes and used to be neighborhoods. And while there's nothing we can do to bring those neighborhoods back and bring those families back and bring those homes back, I feel that taking those lots and transforming them from just empty lots riddled with garbage and invasive species, is, actually, bringing species back to the neighborhood. The sounds of the crickets at night and all of the different small bases of the food web species that are becoming more and more predominant. There is over a hundred species of birds that are now in the local environment, allowing folks who live in the neighborhood to experience natural environments. I feel that these are all solutions. Not necessarily the silver bullet, but one part of the solution in trying to affect this catastrophic situation that we're in with climate breakdown.
DLT: And what has been the feedback from the community to your efforts at Arboretum Detroit?
JF: I think that the feedback has been mixed. Some folks worry about it as being some sort of gentrification. But these parks, even though they're not city parks, they are public parks. So I do think that a very small percentage of the community doesn't necessarily see these parks as a place for them to go and have some quality time, although that is what they're for. So, I personally find myself always welcoming folks that look to me while I'm there working, that are curious about the space, and inviting them in. I think a lot of that uncertainty from some of those folks is probably intergenerationally trauma-based, from redlining, from white supremacy. But the vast, vast majority of feedback from the community—sort of immediate community as well as the Metro Area and those who actually travel to the Detroit area to see what the area is all about—the feedback is very positive. And I think that it resonates with people, sort of rehabbing these lands and bringing them back to a time that we never actually knew, but the Earth knows.
DLT: And you've mentioned the term environmental justice a few times. How would you define environmental justice?
JF: Well, I feel like environmental justice is connected with racial justice. It's also connected with climate justice. Environmental justice issues, as my lens defines it, is irreversibly intertwined with racial justice issues because of redlining, because of the sort of bigger picture system of the white supremacist system that we live in, where an overburdened community such as black and brown communities, they reap the fewest rewards from the capitalist system that we operate with. But they experience all of the burden, whether it is the heavy industry, the heavy manufacturing, or lack thereof, when some of those types of jobs leave the community and the folks are just left to fend for themselves. But in particular, in the neighborhood where I live in, in 48211, we are literally, on both sides, sort of encapsulated by hazardous waste processing facilities. Which on one hand, are necessary because of all the effects of the heavy industry around. But, you know, environmental justice issues revolve around the overburdening, the cumulative impacts of certain neighborhoods, certain communities who don't feel any of the rewards, just the burdens. And so, I feel that it's my life's work to try and do whatever I can just as one person to try to, again, connect those dots between racial justice, environmental justice and climate justice in kind of having an understanding, from my education, with connecting the dots between where I am now and the whole systems of the globe.
DLT: And what did your education look like and how did it prepare you for this work?
JF: I went to San Francisco State. I did leave the Metro Area for a number of years and was living out in the Bay Area and I was going to school for art. And then I took an environmental science class, which was incredibly impactful and very difficult, psychologically, to start to have the wool pulled over my eyes, or pulled away from my eyes, I guess. And to sort of, the realities of what is going on all over the globe. And so, I shifted my major and I then got a degree in environmental studies, emphasizing social justice and sustainability. And one of the things that I came away with, from that education, was that being as small as possible in the world, having the smallest footprint that I can, is one way that I can make an impact: by having the smallest impact, I guess. So, yeah. So when it comes to my education, that led me to, you know, farming for food and just realizing the neoliberal economic system of capitalism that we experience here in the U.S— And just realizing that I want to do as much good as I can from that lens as possible, with trying to do the least amount of harm as possible.
DLT: And how did you become involved with the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition you mentioned earlier?
JF: Yeah. When I first moved back to Detroit and I was living in Hamtramck, I went to their Labor Day fair and I spoke with a woman who was talking about US Ecology. Their Detroit North Facility was looking to expand its holding capacity of hazardous waste by nine times. And just coming back from being in San Francisco and having that lens, it was almost just sort of an automatic that I become involved. And at the time, it was just a local grassroots group of folks who are doing nothing other than just trying to protect themselves and try to resist what is now EGLE, but DEQ [Department for Environmental Quality], the Environmental State Agency, in the process of them approving this ninefold expansion of hazardous waste at this one facility. That was back in 2016. And after fighting against it and resisting and organizing against it for six years, we did lose that fight. So we convened and we thought, okay, what next? We all are justice-minded people and we thought we could go in and just continue organizing with the other groups that we work with, we could go our separate ways, but instead we decided to expand ourselves. And that's when we shifted to being the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments. So, our focus is in 48211, 48212, and 48213. And essentially, we now look at all of the cumulative impacts of truck traffic, of heavy industry, of the hazardous waste processing of, you know, just lacking services, and all of the health impacts that are associated with living around areas that we do.
DLT: And living there, have you witnessed many of these health impacts?
JF: Yes, as a matter of fact, last year we got a grant from the Kresge Foundation, and it was partly as a result of my Title VI complaint that a couple of our coalition members filed against EGLE, against DEQ, once they allowed for that hazardous waste expansion to occur. When that happened—and actually, the results of that Title VI complaint have actually just resolved. And we did get some concessions, one of them being that the EPA would work with us and EGLE to actually seek out what are the cumulative health impacts of the local environment as it relates to living amongst all this industry? So Kresge gave us a grant last year to go into the community, go door-to-door, have different events about what people think should be on a survey. That survey is actually, this year, going to go out in a widespread way to the folks that live in those three zip codes to ask about the state of their health as it relates to living amongst industry, living amongst that truck traffic, living amongst all the stressors of living in our local environment. And we've heard a range from folks, between respiratory issues and cancers. And mental health issues, the stresses of, the psychological impacts of living near and around some of these issues.
DLT: And how have you personally been affected by climate change or any other local environmental issues?
JF: Yeah, climate change, for me, is very much a psychological issue, as well as just observing the world around me with all the storms, with all the droughts, with all the shifts in the systems as far as the breakdown of our globe. And as it relates to the local issues, one of the issues that we're working on right now is against a concrete facility. And just going into that immediate neighborhood a couple of times, my sinuses have never been the same. When people are inhaling silica, it dramatically affects their quality of life and their ability to actually have a healthy life. So, yeah, I feel some of the physical impacts. I'm currently dealing with breast cancer, although I can't say that it's specifically from, you know, the physical aspect of where I live. But I do wonder often if it's related to the psychological. It's really difficult. It's really difficult to know what's going on with our globe. And that's what keeps me up at night most nights, is, in such a short period of time, what our one species have done.
And so that's a big part of why I just felt that one of the solutions is not only to work in some of these areas where I try to do no harm and to try to do as much good as my one little person can do. But just, yeah, it hopefully eventually will just allow me to sleep better at night, because I have found that ever since I have really had my eyes opened to the realities of our current situation, I just hope that we as a people, as a humanity, can step back and let the leaders who know step in. Mainly indigenous folks. People of Color. People who have been mostly impacted by the ravages of our current economic system, but have been pounding the drum and leading the way to whatever degree our society has even allowed them to be heard. Because they know the solutions and that is the little hope that I have that, you know, it's not going to be some technological feat. It's not going to be more capitalism. It's not going to be more corporations making money with their, quote unquote, solutions. It's going to be listening to the people who have always known how to be the stewards of our planet.
DLT: Are there any particular organizations that you've worked with or interacted with that you would want to highlight?
JF: Well, locally, there are a lot of groups in Detroit who are doing the real work, the real good work as my lens sort of sees it. ECN, Environmental—Eastside Community Network, excuse me. They're doing really great work, again, with just local solutions as it relates to our local environment: environmental justice, racial justice, climate justice. People's Water Board Coalition are working for water affordability, something that itself is its whole can of worms. They have been fighting to prevent our mayor from the water shutoffs, which is one of the most inhumane things that I can imagine a leader of a city imposing upon its citizens. Moratorium NOW! does really great work, all-around justice work, trying to prevent people from being illegally foreclosed upon in their homes, working to highlight folks who have been murdered by police in our community, working to uphold dignity and justice for the local folks in our area. And again, just really importantly, connecting the dots with the issues that this city and its residents experience. For instance, right now with the, you know, the folks in Gaza who are experiencing genocide. And just highlighting to the community all of the different things that are going on locally and globally, whether it's deep injection wells with PFAS [“forever chemicals”] that is really irresponsibly being processed through Republic Services, the same people who have the hazardous waste processing facilities that I've been fighting against, and they're the same company that has the hazardous waste landfill on the western edge of Wayne County, which, for better or for worse, with the Manhattan Project radioactive waste coming in from New York State.
Thankfully, I heard just last night that a judge has placed a restraining order on that radioactive waste coming to our county. The one positive thing that I'm getting from it is that when it affects all of us in southeast Michigan and not just poor communities of color in Detroit, people really start to pay attention. And so whether it is, you know, this corporation that was actually shut down at the Detroit South Facility for a consent order after being discovered to have been hiding the fact that their tanks of hazardous waste have been leaking, potentially affecting groundwater beneath them for years, and only being discovered of this violation after they inadvertently accepted combustible materials which caused a fire at their facility, which prompted EGLE to visit unannounced. And now we're supposed to trust this corporation to properly manage this radioactive waste with half lives of tens of thousands of years for thousands of human generations. Yeah, there's a lot of good folks doing good work in this city and in the Metro Area. And I think that we just have countless opportunities to come together and realize that we're all fighting the same issues, and it's the system itself that keeps us separated and working in silos and constantly feeling the weight, the burden of, you know, working in these silos.
DLT: And going back to Arboretum Detroit, have you been involved with the Circle Forest and Oxygen Alley projects?
JF: Yeah. I’d love, actually, to talk about being a caregiver for those spaces. Circle Forest is just an entirely native landscape that just continues to evolve. It's such a comforting place for me to be in the midst of, you know, some of the things that I've mentioned and the lessons that I carry with me. It's almost this really beautiful relationship that I have with the plants and the trees and the earth there and all of the microorganisms and and the birds and other species. I feel that that relationship is really reciprocal and really healing for me. And so, it is truly an honor to work there, whether I'm cutting down large invasive species, or just untangling the natives from little things like bindweed and other weeds that either, you know, suffocate or overshadow some of the meadow seeds that have been planted. And it's really, really rewarding to work in both of these spaces, Oxygen Alley and Circle Forest. Especially living close by, because it really sort of illustrates and illuminates to me how there are really positive things, really, sort of solutions forward, ideas, and to be involved with those, even living amongst so much heavy industry, it really helps me to just keep going and to feel balanced. And I just love to, you know, to feel connected with the earth there.
DLT: Now, is there anything else you wanted to discuss that none of my questions so far have brought up?
JF: One thing that— One of the questions that I was thinking about myself, when it comes to the city and how the city can directly be involved with trying to connect the dots, you know, between our local environment and our globe as it relates to solutions, one really sort of low-hanging fruit that I've thought so many times about—particularly when I lived in the middle of the city, but it hasn't left me—and I'm reminded of it at least every time I come to the central part of the city, and that's the use of pesticides. Whether it's city buildings, city parks, the museum green spaces, Wayne State University and the other schools, hospitals themselves, ironically. All of these spaces prefer these green grass lawns and, you know, going around and seeing the pesticide signs after being sprayed, we're paying money to make our local environment even more toxic than it already is, whether from legacy pollution or just the ongoing industries.
And I feel that the city could and should partner with a lot of these institutions and not only stop using pesticides, stop paying money to poison our local environment by these pesticide companies, but also proudly announce it. Put out signs. Rather than having those little green and white signs saying, you know, don't go on for twenty-four hours, as if twenty-four hours later everything is back to normal and just fine. But put out big signs, stop spraying, and form partnerships, and educate the community about why they have stopped spraying pesticides on the lawns, stopped spending taxpayer dollars to poison the green grass lawns. Whether it's the city parks, whether it is Dequindre Cut, you know, any of these outdoor spaces where people and their pets are meant to be spending time outside. Stop spraying them with pesticides. Stop creating a more hazardous environment for these outside landscapes. The native plants can be incorporated. We could just have a much more productive, or at least natural, use of these outdoor spaces. So, just one of the sort of green infrastructure possibilities that the city could so easily embark upon would be something like that.
DLT: And did you have any final thoughts before we finish up the recording?
JF: I don't think so, but I'm really glad to be able to talk about the situation, just because it's so important. And just the fact that we're engaging in conversations about the climate, I think is—gives me a sense of hope. Because if we're not even talking about it, then there's definitely not going to be any actions that come from it. So I just really appreciate what you're doing. Thank you.
DLT: Thank you so much for your time today.
Jennifer Fassbender: I am Jennifer Fassbender.
DLT: Can you please spell your name?
JF: J e n n i f e r F a s s b e n d e r
DLT: And do you live in the city of Detroit?
JF: Yes.
DLT: What neighborhood do you live in?
JF: I live in the East Poletown area.
DLT: And how long have you lived in that neighborhood?
JF: Just over a year now.
DLT: Have you lived elsewhere in Detroit or Metro Detroit?
JF: Yes, I lived in the area between Downtown and Midtown for several years, until my apartment burned a few years ago. Prior to that, I lived in Hamtramck and I was born and raised in the Metro Area.
DLT: And what career are you in?
JF: I work with environmental justice issues.
DLT: Do you work in the city of Detroit?
JF: Yes.
DLT: And where do you work on environmental justice issues?
JF: Well, I work with the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments. We started off as the Coalition to Oppose the Expansion of US Ecology. And currently, I'm organizing as a volunteer steering committee member, but I'm also doing some administrative work that is paid. So, I guess that legitimizes the career work part. I also think of my work with Arboretum Detroit as environmental justice work, particularly as it relates to our local environment, and thinking globally, and acting locally, and creating green spaces and rehabbing the land for the local folks as well as the other species in our environment. And just connecting the dots between all of the issues. So I think of it as my field work and my solutions work when it comes to environmental justice.
DLT: And how did you become involved with Arboretum Detroit?
JF: Well, I knew Kinga and Birch Kemp, who are the founders of Arboretum Detroit. We work together with a CSA[Community Supported Agriculture]-style farming where we literally work for food. And so, my personal connection with them prompted me to begin volunteering with Arboretum Detroit, and eventually, I was offered a position to help with the grounds maintenance.
DLT: And would you say that your work at Arboretum Detroit is impacted by climate change?
JF: I do. I think it's impacted by climate change, and I think it is also one little part of solutions. In the midst of climate breakdown and climate change, I wonder sometimes with the native trees, the native plants, how on one hand I feel like they remember where this place is and their connection to it; on the other hand, I feel that some of these native species that I'm caring for and trying to give a chance to might become obsolete in this area as the climate continues to warm.
DLT: And what do you believe that the impacts of climate change are on Detroit and on the world?
JF: Well, I think that everything is impacted by climate breakdown, from our social structure, our economic system, migration, our food systems, our environmental justice issues. And again, with that thinking globally and acting locally mindset, I feel that it's naive to think that anything that we consider normal in our society will be unaffected by the impacts of climate breakdown.
DLT: And what does Arboretum Detroit do to alleviate any of the impacts of climate change?
JF: Well, again, I feel that Arboretum Detroit is solutions-based when it comes to climate issues. I feel that rehabbing some of these spaces that had previously just been empty lots, where only distant memories now of families and homes and neighborhoods had been after being leveled through all the different ways that environmental justice issues, racial justice issues have really ravaged the neighborhood. For instance, with the incinerator and other heavy industry around that neighborhood. All of these empty lots used to be homes and used to be neighborhoods. And while there's nothing we can do to bring those neighborhoods back and bring those families back and bring those homes back, I feel that taking those lots and transforming them from just empty lots riddled with garbage and invasive species, is, actually, bringing species back to the neighborhood. The sounds of the crickets at night and all of the different small bases of the food web species that are becoming more and more predominant. There is over a hundred species of birds that are now in the local environment, allowing folks who live in the neighborhood to experience natural environments. I feel that these are all solutions. Not necessarily the silver bullet, but one part of the solution in trying to affect this catastrophic situation that we're in with climate breakdown.
DLT: And what has been the feedback from the community to your efforts at Arboretum Detroit?
JF: I think that the feedback has been mixed. Some folks worry about it as being some sort of gentrification. But these parks, even though they're not city parks, they are public parks. So I do think that a very small percentage of the community doesn't necessarily see these parks as a place for them to go and have some quality time, although that is what they're for. So, I personally find myself always welcoming folks that look to me while I'm there working, that are curious about the space, and inviting them in. I think a lot of that uncertainty from some of those folks is probably intergenerationally trauma-based, from redlining, from white supremacy. But the vast, vast majority of feedback from the community—sort of immediate community as well as the Metro Area and those who actually travel to the Detroit area to see what the area is all about—the feedback is very positive. And I think that it resonates with people, sort of rehabbing these lands and bringing them back to a time that we never actually knew, but the Earth knows.
DLT: And you've mentioned the term environmental justice a few times. How would you define environmental justice?
JF: Well, I feel like environmental justice is connected with racial justice. It's also connected with climate justice. Environmental justice issues, as my lens defines it, is irreversibly intertwined with racial justice issues because of redlining, because of the sort of bigger picture system of the white supremacist system that we live in, where an overburdened community such as black and brown communities, they reap the fewest rewards from the capitalist system that we operate with. But they experience all of the burden, whether it is the heavy industry, the heavy manufacturing, or lack thereof, when some of those types of jobs leave the community and the folks are just left to fend for themselves. But in particular, in the neighborhood where I live in, in 48211, we are literally, on both sides, sort of encapsulated by hazardous waste processing facilities. Which on one hand, are necessary because of all the effects of the heavy industry around. But, you know, environmental justice issues revolve around the overburdening, the cumulative impacts of certain neighborhoods, certain communities who don't feel any of the rewards, just the burdens. And so, I feel that it's my life's work to try and do whatever I can just as one person to try to, again, connect those dots between racial justice, environmental justice and climate justice in kind of having an understanding, from my education, with connecting the dots between where I am now and the whole systems of the globe.
DLT: And what did your education look like and how did it prepare you for this work?
JF: I went to San Francisco State. I did leave the Metro Area for a number of years and was living out in the Bay Area and I was going to school for art. And then I took an environmental science class, which was incredibly impactful and very difficult, psychologically, to start to have the wool pulled over my eyes, or pulled away from my eyes, I guess. And to sort of, the realities of what is going on all over the globe. And so, I shifted my major and I then got a degree in environmental studies, emphasizing social justice and sustainability. And one of the things that I came away with, from that education, was that being as small as possible in the world, having the smallest footprint that I can, is one way that I can make an impact: by having the smallest impact, I guess. So, yeah. So when it comes to my education, that led me to, you know, farming for food and just realizing the neoliberal economic system of capitalism that we experience here in the U.S— And just realizing that I want to do as much good as I can from that lens as possible, with trying to do the least amount of harm as possible.
DLT: And how did you become involved with the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition you mentioned earlier?
JF: Yeah. When I first moved back to Detroit and I was living in Hamtramck, I went to their Labor Day fair and I spoke with a woman who was talking about US Ecology. Their Detroit North Facility was looking to expand its holding capacity of hazardous waste by nine times. And just coming back from being in San Francisco and having that lens, it was almost just sort of an automatic that I become involved. And at the time, it was just a local grassroots group of folks who are doing nothing other than just trying to protect themselves and try to resist what is now EGLE, but DEQ [Department for Environmental Quality], the Environmental State Agency, in the process of them approving this ninefold expansion of hazardous waste at this one facility. That was back in 2016. And after fighting against it and resisting and organizing against it for six years, we did lose that fight. So we convened and we thought, okay, what next? We all are justice-minded people and we thought we could go in and just continue organizing with the other groups that we work with, we could go our separate ways, but instead we decided to expand ourselves. And that's when we shifted to being the Detroit Hamtramck Coalition for Advancing Healthy Environments. So, our focus is in 48211, 48212, and 48213. And essentially, we now look at all of the cumulative impacts of truck traffic, of heavy industry, of the hazardous waste processing of, you know, just lacking services, and all of the health impacts that are associated with living around areas that we do.
DLT: And living there, have you witnessed many of these health impacts?
JF: Yes, as a matter of fact, last year we got a grant from the Kresge Foundation, and it was partly as a result of my Title VI complaint that a couple of our coalition members filed against EGLE, against DEQ, once they allowed for that hazardous waste expansion to occur. When that happened—and actually, the results of that Title VI complaint have actually just resolved. And we did get some concessions, one of them being that the EPA would work with us and EGLE to actually seek out what are the cumulative health impacts of the local environment as it relates to living amongst all this industry? So Kresge gave us a grant last year to go into the community, go door-to-door, have different events about what people think should be on a survey. That survey is actually, this year, going to go out in a widespread way to the folks that live in those three zip codes to ask about the state of their health as it relates to living amongst industry, living amongst that truck traffic, living amongst all the stressors of living in our local environment. And we've heard a range from folks, between respiratory issues and cancers. And mental health issues, the stresses of, the psychological impacts of living near and around some of these issues.
DLT: And how have you personally been affected by climate change or any other local environmental issues?
JF: Yeah, climate change, for me, is very much a psychological issue, as well as just observing the world around me with all the storms, with all the droughts, with all the shifts in the systems as far as the breakdown of our globe. And as it relates to the local issues, one of the issues that we're working on right now is against a concrete facility. And just going into that immediate neighborhood a couple of times, my sinuses have never been the same. When people are inhaling silica, it dramatically affects their quality of life and their ability to actually have a healthy life. So, yeah, I feel some of the physical impacts. I'm currently dealing with breast cancer, although I can't say that it's specifically from, you know, the physical aspect of where I live. But I do wonder often if it's related to the psychological. It's really difficult. It's really difficult to know what's going on with our globe. And that's what keeps me up at night most nights, is, in such a short period of time, what our one species have done.
And so that's a big part of why I just felt that one of the solutions is not only to work in some of these areas where I try to do no harm and to try to do as much good as my one little person can do. But just, yeah, it hopefully eventually will just allow me to sleep better at night, because I have found that ever since I have really had my eyes opened to the realities of our current situation, I just hope that we as a people, as a humanity, can step back and let the leaders who know step in. Mainly indigenous folks. People of Color. People who have been mostly impacted by the ravages of our current economic system, but have been pounding the drum and leading the way to whatever degree our society has even allowed them to be heard. Because they know the solutions and that is the little hope that I have that, you know, it's not going to be some technological feat. It's not going to be more capitalism. It's not going to be more corporations making money with their, quote unquote, solutions. It's going to be listening to the people who have always known how to be the stewards of our planet.
DLT: Are there any particular organizations that you've worked with or interacted with that you would want to highlight?
JF: Well, locally, there are a lot of groups in Detroit who are doing the real work, the real good work as my lens sort of sees it. ECN, Environmental—Eastside Community Network, excuse me. They're doing really great work, again, with just local solutions as it relates to our local environment: environmental justice, racial justice, climate justice. People's Water Board Coalition are working for water affordability, something that itself is its whole can of worms. They have been fighting to prevent our mayor from the water shutoffs, which is one of the most inhumane things that I can imagine a leader of a city imposing upon its citizens. Moratorium NOW! does really great work, all-around justice work, trying to prevent people from being illegally foreclosed upon in their homes, working to highlight folks who have been murdered by police in our community, working to uphold dignity and justice for the local folks in our area. And again, just really importantly, connecting the dots with the issues that this city and its residents experience. For instance, right now with the, you know, the folks in Gaza who are experiencing genocide. And just highlighting to the community all of the different things that are going on locally and globally, whether it's deep injection wells with PFAS [“forever chemicals”] that is really irresponsibly being processed through Republic Services, the same people who have the hazardous waste processing facilities that I've been fighting against, and they're the same company that has the hazardous waste landfill on the western edge of Wayne County, which, for better or for worse, with the Manhattan Project radioactive waste coming in from New York State.
Thankfully, I heard just last night that a judge has placed a restraining order on that radioactive waste coming to our county. The one positive thing that I'm getting from it is that when it affects all of us in southeast Michigan and not just poor communities of color in Detroit, people really start to pay attention. And so whether it is, you know, this corporation that was actually shut down at the Detroit South Facility for a consent order after being discovered to have been hiding the fact that their tanks of hazardous waste have been leaking, potentially affecting groundwater beneath them for years, and only being discovered of this violation after they inadvertently accepted combustible materials which caused a fire at their facility, which prompted EGLE to visit unannounced. And now we're supposed to trust this corporation to properly manage this radioactive waste with half lives of tens of thousands of years for thousands of human generations. Yeah, there's a lot of good folks doing good work in this city and in the Metro Area. And I think that we just have countless opportunities to come together and realize that we're all fighting the same issues, and it's the system itself that keeps us separated and working in silos and constantly feeling the weight, the burden of, you know, working in these silos.
DLT: And going back to Arboretum Detroit, have you been involved with the Circle Forest and Oxygen Alley projects?
JF: Yeah. I’d love, actually, to talk about being a caregiver for those spaces. Circle Forest is just an entirely native landscape that just continues to evolve. It's such a comforting place for me to be in the midst of, you know, some of the things that I've mentioned and the lessons that I carry with me. It's almost this really beautiful relationship that I have with the plants and the trees and the earth there and all of the microorganisms and and the birds and other species. I feel that that relationship is really reciprocal and really healing for me. And so, it is truly an honor to work there, whether I'm cutting down large invasive species, or just untangling the natives from little things like bindweed and other weeds that either, you know, suffocate or overshadow some of the meadow seeds that have been planted. And it's really, really rewarding to work in both of these spaces, Oxygen Alley and Circle Forest. Especially living close by, because it really sort of illustrates and illuminates to me how there are really positive things, really, sort of solutions forward, ideas, and to be involved with those, even living amongst so much heavy industry, it really helps me to just keep going and to feel balanced. And I just love to, you know, to feel connected with the earth there.
DLT: Now, is there anything else you wanted to discuss that none of my questions so far have brought up?
JF: One thing that— One of the questions that I was thinking about myself, when it comes to the city and how the city can directly be involved with trying to connect the dots, you know, between our local environment and our globe as it relates to solutions, one really sort of low-hanging fruit that I've thought so many times about—particularly when I lived in the middle of the city, but it hasn't left me—and I'm reminded of it at least every time I come to the central part of the city, and that's the use of pesticides. Whether it's city buildings, city parks, the museum green spaces, Wayne State University and the other schools, hospitals themselves, ironically. All of these spaces prefer these green grass lawns and, you know, going around and seeing the pesticide signs after being sprayed, we're paying money to make our local environment even more toxic than it already is, whether from legacy pollution or just the ongoing industries.
And I feel that the city could and should partner with a lot of these institutions and not only stop using pesticides, stop paying money to poison our local environment by these pesticide companies, but also proudly announce it. Put out signs. Rather than having those little green and white signs saying, you know, don't go on for twenty-four hours, as if twenty-four hours later everything is back to normal and just fine. But put out big signs, stop spraying, and form partnerships, and educate the community about why they have stopped spraying pesticides on the lawns, stopped spending taxpayer dollars to poison the green grass lawns. Whether it's the city parks, whether it is Dequindre Cut, you know, any of these outdoor spaces where people and their pets are meant to be spending time outside. Stop spraying them with pesticides. Stop creating a more hazardous environment for these outside landscapes. The native plants can be incorporated. We could just have a much more productive, or at least natural, use of these outdoor spaces. So, just one of the sort of green infrastructure possibilities that the city could so easily embark upon would be something like that.
DLT: And did you have any final thoughts before we finish up the recording?
JF: I don't think so, but I'm really glad to be able to talk about the situation, just because it's so important. And just the fact that we're engaging in conversations about the climate, I think is—gives me a sense of hope. Because if we're not even talking about it, then there's definitely not going to be any actions that come from it. So I just really appreciate what you're doing. Thank you.
DLT: Thank you so much for your time today.
Collection
Citation
“Jennifer Fassbender, September 19th, 2024,” Detroit Historical Society Oral History Archive, accessed February 8, 2025, https://oralhistory.detroithistorical.org/items/show/1079.