Detroit mayor discusses
urban improvement plans
Duggan aims to give
affordable housing
to local residents
By KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
In
his
Wednesday
evening
keynote address at the Mackinac
Policy Conference, Detroit Mayor
Mike Duggan talked about housing
history in Detroit and about his new
urban planning strategy, which
aims to spread affordable housing
units across all areas of the city.
He posed the question, “What
kind of a city do we want to be?” He
said Detroit is in its first period of
growth in over 50 years and every
urban planning measure taken by
the government, business leaders
and citizens matters.
Duggan said the current urban
planning strategy is defined by
the slogan “One City. For all of
us.” This means having people
of all backgrounds living and
working with each other in all
neighborhoods of the city.
Success for Duggan is making
sure everyone currently in the city
can stay there while having more
people move in. He said he favors
the growth of areas with incoming
immigrant populations as well as
keeping young talent in the city.
“We’re
pro-immigration,”
Duggan said. “We want all our
talent to stay in the city. We believe
deeply this city is going to be
welcoming to everybody. But we’re
not going to move out Detroiters so
other people can move in.”
Duggan said under the Federal
Housing Administration’s unfair
policy of “redlining” during the
World War II era and beyond,
several neighborhoods in the city
became segregated. The policy
made it so low-income minority
groups were unable to receive loans
to pay for houses in “desirable”
communities.
“Urban
redevelopment
in
America has historically across the
country been about removing the
poor,” Duggan said. “In Detroit,
you have to go back to what
happened before World War II. The
caucasians coming from the South
could live anywhere in the city.
But the African Americans were
confined to these neighborhoods.
The way Detroit looks today
is directly rooted in planning
decisions that the leaders of this
community made in the 1940s and
the 1950s. That was the last period
of growth in Detroit. Many of those
decisions were rooted in racial
discrimination.”
Duggan revealed eight principles
the city will follow to achieve
redevelopment, including allowing
people of all incomes in any
neighborhood to fight economic
segregation and not supporting
development if it displaces current
Detroit residents, among others.
The mayor said the city won’t
give tax breaks to developers who
displace citizens in affordable
housing. Instead, he is trying to
work out deals with them to make
space for such housing.
“We sat down with the Roxbury
Group, worked out a deal, they
bought the building, we gave them
some support and they guaranteed
thirty years of affordable housing,”
ONE-HUNDRED-TWENTY SIX YEARS OF EDITORIAL FREEDOM
Thursday, June 1, 2017
Ann Arbor, MI
Weekly Summer Edition
michigandaily.com
INDEX
Vol. CXXVII, No. 75 | © 2017 The Michigan Daily
michigandaily.com
NEWS ....................................
OPINION ...............................
ARTS ......................................
CLASSIFIEDS.........................
MiC.........................................
SPORTS................................
NEWS
Immigration
Community discusses pro-
tections for undocumented
residents.
>> SEE PAGE 3
NEWS
City Council
Ward I candidate Anne
Bannister discusses her
plans to improve city coun-
cil if elected.
>> SEE PAGE 2
OPINION
Unpaid internships
“Everyone deserves the
chance to do what they
love...”
>> SEE PAGE 4
ARTS
Artist Profile:
Chris Gethard
Rising comedian
discusses podcast
>> SEE PAGE7
SPORTS
Minor wins title
The sophomore became
Michigan tennis’s first-ever
national champion.
>> SEE PAGE 12
inside
2
4
6
8
9
10
Nikolai Vitti spoke on
new ways businesses
can help students in
DPS be successful
By KEVIN BIGLIN
Daily Staff Reporter
Nikolai
Vitti,
Detroit
Public
Schools
Community
District
Superintendent, discussed ways in
which the business community can
help ensure Detroit children succeed
in the classroom and are prepared
for opportunities after graduation in
a panel Wednesday morning at the
Mackinac Policy Conference.
Vitti was selected by the school
board in April to take over for
interim chief Alycia Meriweather.
According to the Detroit News, his
duties include overseeing more than
48,000 students, 6,000 employees
and a fiscal budget of $660 million.
Vitti said he plans on bringing
major changes to the district, with
significant ones coming in the 2018
to 2019 school year. Specifically,
he said literacy standards must
improve, teacher salaries must rise
and the business community must
continue to help with providing
opportunities to students.
In the district, 27 percent of
fourth graders are at or above a
basic reading level, whereas the
national average is 69 percent of
fourth graders at or above that
level, according to a 2015 National
Assessment of Education Progress
report. Students are also struggling
in mathematics.
“I think access is important, but
we have to talk about quality,” Vitti
DETROIT
See HOUSING, Page 3
See DETROIT, Page 3
COURTESY OF KEVIN BIGLIN
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan spoke about his new urban-planning strategy at the Mackinac Policy Conference.
City leader
examines
relationship
with youth
and schools
Mackinac Policy
Conference Coverage