Detroit Is Back, Baby!

When Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan took office in 2013, his city had just filed for the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history.

Today, business is booming, crime has fallen to a 60-year low and it’s no understatement to say that Detroit is back.

Mayor Duggan, now running for governor of his state as an Independent, joins former Mayors Michael Nutter and Kasim Reed, along with Citizen Co-founder Larry Platt on this episode of How To Really Run A City to roll up their sleeves and lift the hood of Detroit’s success.

“The last time a [Detroit] City Council member was elected mayor was 1947,” Mayor Duggan told our hosts. “For the last 75 years, the city was going so badly that nobody wanted to vote for anyone who had been associated with it. My successor, who won the primary in a landslide, is president of City Council. It shows how much politics has changed. People are proud of their city government now.”

“You decided to run as a White man for mayor of Detroit,” Reed said. “What were the mechanics of that decision?”

“Sometimes I was the only White person in the room for six blocks around,” Duggan responded. “But I listened to very powerful stories. And it’s a funny thing, when you sit in people’s homes and break bread with them, what divides us fades to the background. The average Detroiter isn’t interested in us vs. them, they just want a better quality of life.”

Join us for a powerful conversation about turning an entire city around, despite the challenges and barriers that had entrenched decades of decline. Remember to subscribe to the podcast to keep up on all the latest episodes. Watch and follow new episodes on YouTube.

As cities go, so goes the nation!