Duggan returned to Samaritan Center at 5555 Conner Ave. on the city’s East side, the site of his fist campaign announcement, to share the news that he is seeking a second term as Detroit’s top exec.
Duggan who won in spectacular fashion in 2013, having been a write-in candidate for the August primary and easily winning against Wayne County Sheriff Benny Napoleon, is the first white mayor elected in Detroit since Mayor Roman S. Gibbs tenure in the early 1970s.
Duggan pointed to Detroit Promise as one of his administration’s major accomplishments, along with the attraction of new business, crime reduction, and blight removal.
“We became the first major city in America where every student who graduated from high school was guaranteed two years of community college paid for. We had 600 young people start community college in September,” Duggan said in a Michigan Chronicle exclusive, adding, “the fact that 8,000 young people who worked in summer jobs last year are successes, that means a lot to me.”
A former prosecutor and Detroit Medical Center CEO, Duggan helped guide Detroit out of Chapter 9 bankruptcy and emergency management administered by attorney Kevyn Orr, a Gov. Snyder appointee.
“The buses are running on schedule, the street lights are on, the ambulances are showing up in a timely basis, the grass is getting cut and 11,000 [vacant and abandoned] houses have been demolished. So there has been progress in some areas, but in other areas we have a lot of work to do,” he said.
The popular mayor said he is proud of the political cooperation he has been able to foster during his term in office. “The most important thing is that the divisiveness is largely gone from Detroit politics. You don’t see the mayor and he council attacking each other. You don’t see the mayor and the unions attacking each other … and that’s a big part of why we are having so much progress.”
Duggan went on to say that crime was still too high, the planned 24 school closures are “disgraceful,” and that neighborhood and community development will continue to be his administration’s focus.
At the time of the mayor’s announcement no well-known candidates have emerged as potential mayoral challengers.
Read more of the Michigan Chronicle’s exclusive with Mayor Duggan in the Feb. 8 issue of the Michigan Chronicle.
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