Detroit's next mayor hopes Rick Snyder and Kevyn Orr loosen the emergency management reins enough to let him make an impact on city services.
Mike Duggan lists five 2014 priorities In an hour-long conversation with Free Press editor and reporters, while acknowledging he could be limited to a mainly figurehead role.
The people gave me a mandate. The question is: Does the governor? And we’re going to find out. . . .
The reality is that Gov. Snyder and Kevyn Orr have the legal right to treat me the same way they treat Dave Bing or to let the administration have authority.
Here's what Duggan hopes to address after taking office Jan. 1, as reported Sunday in a Page One lead display by Matt Helms:
- Speed police response time -- "my first effort in the door."
- "Streetlights have got to get fixed. . . . We’ve got to get that moving a lot faster."
- "Getting the abandoned houses dealt with so they’re taken [away], not just demolished."
- Streamline the issuing of business permits "so we can get some jobs in here."
- "I’m going after the bus system so the buses are fixed and they run on time."
"Some of the stuff that my [African-American] supporters were called on Facebook was just awful," Duggan says during an hour-long Free Press interview.
The overall goal is to keep residents and attract more, Duggan told the journalists:
"If we’re sitting here in 12 months and the buses are starting to run on time and the businesses are starting to open in some of these vacant storefronts, and the streetlights are starting to come on and the police are showing up, and the abandoned houses are starting to get occupied, I think you’ll start to see a change in the population loss trends.
"And that’s where we’re really trying to get to. . . . There is an enormous weight on my shoulders to deliver the services I promised."
Naturally, the discussion also turned to race. One newspaper questioner asked: "How many people said to you, 'You can’t be mayor. You’re white?' "
"Mostly suburban white people, almost unanimously suburban white people. . . . As I went through this, it was a significant division; it was very interesting. . . .
"Some of the stuff that my [African-American] supporters were called on Facebook was just awful. And so in the city, I got a lot of encouragement, and outside the city, I got none."
