Rochelle Riley
People are looking for hopeful signs when it comes to Detroit.
Freep Press Columnist Rochelle Riley writes that she found some of that in Mike Duggan's state of the city address Wednesday night.
And it was hard not to believe change is coming. A choir could have been singing behind him. He stood before all but one of his team, the Dirty Dozen (nine men and three women) he pledged would make over Detroit. And he spoke casually, matter-of-factly about a city that people have been dreaming about for a long time.
Without a teleprompter or prepared speech, he did what he did more than 200 times while running for office: He talked to his people from his heart about their dream. He praised the 9,000 employees he commands, people who want to do better because “they know what people are saying about them.” And he made it all believable.
Duggan wasn’t Dave Bing, tentative, stilted. He wasn’t Kwame Kilpatrick, arrogant, overly bold. Duggan was that guy, the one most companies have who gets the call to fix what no one else can. Sometimes, he’s Joe. Sometimes, he’s Bill.
