There has been a lot of talk about Detroit in national and international news over the years and it’s often not been positive. But, after a successful NFL draft earlier this year and the reopening of Michigan Central Station, the headlines are changing.
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan joined Michigan Public’s It’s Just Politics host Zoe Clark from Chicago where he is attending this week’s Democratic National Convention. Zoe started by asking Duggan about the new national headlines and what’s behind the momentum.
Mike Duggan: I just feel so good for the people of the city of Detroit because when I started out as mayor and I went to these things, everybody would tell me how bad they feel for us. Now it is exciting and there's a lot of enthusiasm and interest in Detroit.
Zoe Clark: You're traveling around to these national conferences, you're at the DNC this week holding meetings with mayors from all over the country, if they look to you for one answer [about Detroit]... what are you telling them?
MD: I tell them the thing that changed in the city is that we stopped the ‘us versus them’ politics. Before I got elected, the mayor was always fighting with the unions, fighting with the council, fighting with Lansing and everything was ‘us versus them.’
If you look at the success we've had, it's been pretty much a team effort between the city council and me and I tell everybody ‘you want business to invest? They don't want to go [where there’s] turmoil and chaos.’ That was a big part of the reason that a number of the CEOs in Silicon Valley invited me out to spend time with them… they were fascinated with how the business community, the philanthropic community and the elected officials got together in Detroit to build this recovery and they're very interested in how to do that in San Francisco.
ZC: We've talked about business leaders and city leaders, but we can never not talk about Detroiters. We’ve talked about this for years, about how folks who live in Detroit fit into the recovery, particularly if they don't see themselves in a recovery.
MD: I think if you take a look at what has happened, last year, Detroit beat Miami and San Diego for the largest increase in property values in America. We've had $3 billion in growth in black-wealth among homeowners. And so folks who some years ago may have felt left out, have now seen significant benefits for homeowners. And for the great majority of Detroit, their home is their primary source of wealth. It creates something you can pass on to the next generation. But when you see two-thousand people working at the new Amazon facility… when you see five-thousand working at the Jeep plant and nearly all Detroiters, we are saying the people who stay are the ones who are benefiting the most. And I'm very pleased.
ZC: Let's turn from Detroit to Chicago where you are right now for the Democratic National Convention. Let's first talk about current President Joe Biden. You two have had a very close relationship. You recently said that the relationship was ‘one in a million between a president and a mayor.’ Did you want Joe Biden to step down?
MD: You know, the president did the right thing for the country. He and I have been close since my first month in office in 2014 when the city was in bankruptcy and he came down for the auto show and called me up and said, ‘I want to take you to dinner.’ We sat there for three-and-a-half hours. And, he would invite me out at Christmas to his Christmas party at the vice president's residence and I'd get there thinking it was a political function. It was basically me, his staff and his friends from Delaware. I mean, it was that close, a personal relationship, and Detroit certainly has benefited enormously, but he did the right thing for the country. He's going to get a hero's welcome. And it's well deserved.
ZC: [Vice President] Kamala Harris is taking over the mantle. What do you see her relationship being to your city?
MD: She's going to be great for every city in the country. But right out of the gate, she took Detroit's $25,000 down payment assistance plan and made it the cornerstone of her national housing plan in her policy… And so I think we're going to continue to see a good relationship. Nothing will be the same as a personal relationship. The truth is presidents don't make new friends. They’re too surrounded and insulated. But I think Kamala Harris is going to be very good for Detroit. I think she's gonna be very good for the country.
ZC: What do you want to hear from her on Thursday night?
MD: I think what we've heard for the last three weeks. I thought she would be a good candidate. I never thought she would start out this strong. But, this country, you can feel it, is so tired of the anger and division. And I keep saying this, our polling shows nearly 75-percent of Detroiters think the city is heading in the right direction, but only 35-percent think the country is headed in the right direction. And it's this terrible division in Washington and the way she and Tim Walz have come out and talked about unity and joy and working together. I think the country's been waiting for this for a long time.
ZC: Finally, at a press conference on Monday, a fellow mayor was introducing you and he said that he heard you might make a good governor. You jokingly said, ‘Thanks for helping to announce [my] campaign a little early.’ In all seriousness though, your name continues to come up as a top-tier candidate in Michigan's next gubernatorial election. How are you thinking about that race and your role in it?
MD: Well, that's Andy Ginther. He's the mayor of Columbus, Ohio and those Ohio guys are always trying to stir up trouble… So I didn't take that too seriously, but I'm going to spend the next two-and-a-half months completely focused on the presidential campaign. We have too much at stake and then I need to make a decision on whether to run for re-election for mayor and then what I do next. And I'm going to talk about that after the November election.
ZC: Mayor, as always, thanks so much.
MD: Great to talk to you, Zoe.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
