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

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4
6
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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

