Detroit’s Future at a Crossroads: Evaluating Mike Duggan’s Impact as His Mayoral Tenure Concludes

DETROIT – From the towering spires of the Renaissance Center, Mayor Mike Duggan unveiled his ambitions to step onto a larger political stage with a bid for Michigan governor. This symbolic location, overlooking a city that has transformed under his leadership, marks a significant shift from the Detroit he first encountered upon taking office in January 2014.

The Detroit of today is a far cry from the one Duggan inherited. Gone are the days when the city was synonymous with derelict neighborhoods, deserted downtown shops, rampant crime, and darkened streets due to broken streetlights. Many believe this transformation marks the beginning of Detroit’s long-awaited renaissance.

Among those who have witnessed the city’s revival firsthand is Thomas Millender, a 40-year-old plumber. “I wish he would stay,” Millender expressed about Duggan, who will be stepping down after his third mayoral term concludes in January. From the porch of his father’s house, situated in a neighborhood still showing signs of wear, Millender acknowledged the visible improvements. Private contractors were busy restoring once-abandoned homes, readying them for new occupants.

Mayor Duggan himself highlighted the breadth of his administration’s accomplishments. “There isn’t a single neighborhood in this city that hasn’t seen a reduction in blight, functioning streetlights, or renovated parks,” Duggan proudly shared with The Associated Press.

“Duggan did a good job from what the city was to how it has been revamped,” Millender said from his father’s porch in a neighborhood where many homes are dilapidated. Private renovation crews buzzed in and out of once-vacant houses, preparing them for sale.

“There is not any neighborhood in this city that hasn’t had blight reduced, that hasn’t had street lights on, that hasn’t had parks renovated,” Duggan told The Associated Press.

“We have it going in the right direction, but the next mayor’s gonna have to go build on what I do and the following mayor is gonna have to build on that mayor,” Duggan said. “It’s going to take decades to bring the city all the way back.”

A once broken city

Duggan, a former prosecutor and health center chief, ran for mayor in 2013, when Detroit was broke and saddled with billions of dollars in long-term debt.

It was tough to keep basic services running. City employees were forced to work fewer hours and take pay cuts. More than a third of Detroit residents lived in poverty.

“We’ve hit bottom,” then-Mayor Dave Bing said flatly.

Bing, a successful business owner and basketball Hall of Famer, was elected in 2009 after a scandal involving once-popular Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick roiled City Hall and forced Detroit’s financial straits into the spotlight.

By early 2013, the state had taken over city finances and installed an emergency manager who filed for bankruptcy that summer. Because of the depths of the city’s debt, there was no way “to get any relief on that without bankruptcy,” Bing said.

He didn’t seek reelection and the city, looking for new leadership, found it in Duggan.

Rebuilding Detroit after bankruptcy

Detroit exited bankruptcy in December 2014, after wiping away $7 billion in long-term debt. For several years after, a state review team monitored the city’s finances and made sure its bills were paid.

Detroit has since recorded more than a decade of consecutive balanced budgets.

Violent crime, including murders, is trending down.

There were more than 40,000 vacant houses and other empty buildings in Detroit when Duggan took office. Using mostly federal funds, his administration spearheaded the demolition of more than 24,000. Thousands of others that were teetering and unlivable have been saved.

“Some neighborhoods are in better shape than others,” said Wayne State University Urban Studies and Planning Professor Jeff Horner. “There are still blocks of terrible destitution and poverty.”

But the biggest hurdle overcome during Duggan’s tenure is the city’s massive population loss. Detroit’s population reached 1.8 million people in the 1950s. By 2010, it had plunged below 700,000.

“The city lost a million people since 1957,” Duggan said. “That is a lot of years of decline. It’s going to take decades of growth to get all the way back.”

A census estimate placed Detroit’s population at 645,705 in 2024, showing an increase of about 12,000 people since 2021, according to the city.

“When he ran in 2012-13, he said, ‘Judge me by one thing and one thing only: whether Detroit can gain population,’” Horner said of Duggan. “He kept that promise.”

Focusing on the entire city

Jay Williams, 36, acknowledges there is less blight, but he would like to see alternatives to tearing down houses and leaving lots vacant.

“There is a lot of open space,” he said. “You can do new developments. A majority of the money is focused downtown.”

Detroit megachurch pastor the Rev. Solomon Kinloch argued during his unsuccessful mayoral campaign this year that every neighborhood should share in Detroit’s revival.

“You can’t make all of the investments downtown,” Kinloch said. “It has to reach the whole town.”

City Council President Mary Sheffield, who was elected this month to succeed Duggan and will take office in January, says she will build on his success and ensure “Detroit’s progress reaches every block and every family.”

Any mayor’s first responsibility is to attend to the “entirety of the civic fabric,” said Rip Rapson, chief executive of the private Kresge Foundation, which provides grants and invests in cities nationwide.

“It’s not like you can just fix roads or improve police response time or build 25 units of affordable housing,” Rapson said. “As mayor, you have to attend to the need for complete vitality of neighborhoods … making sure neighborhoods have adequate housing, safe housing stock, small business cultures, educational opportunities that anchor a neighborhood.”

“People will have quarrels with bits and pieces, but he’s done all of those things,” Rapson said of Duggan. “He leaves quite a powerful and positive legacy.”