Mayor Mike Duggan to Detroit children: 'We want you to stay'

In a State of the City speech Tuesday devoted heavily to Detroit's children, Mayor Mike Duggan proposed a unified school bus system that would transport students from charter schools and the Detroit school district within a loop on the city's northwest side, providing them with school choice, after-school programs and child care.

Students who live within this loop — which could include five charter schools and six schools in the Detroit Public Schools Community District — would be able to attend whatever K-8 school they wanted. The program, which would launch potentially in the fall, would be funded equally by the city, the schools and the philanthropic community, Duggan said during the address at Western International High School.

“If we can get DPS and the charters working together and collaborating, we can find good choice right here in the city,” Duggan said. "My role will be to support them, not choose sides."

The mayor said more than 32,000 Detroit children attend school outside the city, compared with 51,000 who attend DPSCD and 35,000 who attend charter schools. The proposal would be an effort to keep kids in the city.

"Transportation is a barrier to Detroit families," Duggan said.

The mayor also announced a joint schools advisory commission that would include representation from the city, Detroit schools and charter schools. The commission would rate all schools and give parents information on academic performance, teacher turnover, student attendance and more.

"We’re going to start by saying to the children (of Detroit): We want you to stay," Duggan said. "Parents need to have information to choose their schools."

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Duggan's speech also focused on more efforts to combat crime in the city, an ambitious plan to have every abandoned home in the city either demolished, renovated or boarded by the end of 2019, and efforts to preserve and increase the affordable housing stock in Detroit.

Zeroing in on his theme of doing more for Detroit's children, Duggan said in the 10 years before he was elected, the city lost 244,000 residents — or 26% of its population. And a sizable chunk of of those who left were parents and Detroit children, who Duggan said have been among the most forgotten as the city navigated the years leading up to its 2013 bankruptcy.

"I want to talk to those of you who stayed," Duggan said. "I want to talk about what you're going to see because you stayed and I'm going to start with the future: The ones who have been most forgotten in the last decade and that's our children."

The partnership with schools isn't the first time Duggan has sought to work with Detroit school leaders.

In an interview with the Free Press in October, Duggan pointed to the Detroit Promise — a scholarship program that helps students who graduate from any high school in the city, regardless of whether it is public, private or charter, attend community colleges or four-year universities tuition-free — as his proudest and “most personal” accomplishment yet as mayor. Last May, his administration announced a $3.5-million grant from the Kellogg Foundation to support the growing program.

In his speech, Duggan said 1,182 students are currently taking advantage of the program, with 723 of them attending community college and 459 at four-year universities.

"We are going to make sure our kids not only go to school but they succeed at school," Duggan said.

Nikolai Vitti, the superintendent of the Detroit Public Schools Community District who introduced Duggan at the address, said: "We cannot rebuild the city without a strong public education system."

In the address, Duggan also announced a plan to tear down, board up or renovate vacant homes in the city. Duggan made waves shortly after he was elected in 2013 and embarked upon an ambitious effort to tear down 40,000 blighted buildings in neighborhoods.

"We’ve demolished nearly 14,000 (homes)," Duggan said.

But the city's demolition program has been mired by a federal investigation that has centered on rising demolition costs. No one has been charged in connection with the investigation.

"There was a time I thought we’d take these 40,000 (vacant homes) and we’d do 8,000 a year, and we’d be done in five years," Duggan said Tuesday. "I feel really bad about all the people who got in trouble because I pushed it and tried to do 8,000 a year but the truth is with our contractor capacity, we can’t do it."

But he pledged to have every abandoned home in the city either demolished, renovated or boarded by the end of 2019.

Duggan also said reducing crime across the city would be another focus moving into his second term.

Earlier this year, the Free Press reported the number of homicide cases in Detroit dropped 12.5% in 2017, according to preliminary data released by the Detroit Police Department that put the number at 267 for the year.

That’s down from 305 in 2016, putting the city's homicide rate at 39.7 per 100,000 residents, Detroit's lowest rate in nearly four decades, data analyzed by the Free Press show.

But Duggan said more needs to be done to curb crime.

"It's nothing to be proud," Duggan said. "Every city in America does not live with this violence."

Duggan's proposed fiscal year 2019 budget, if approved, would give the Detroit Police Department an $8-million boost, allowing the police department to make an additional 141 new hires.

Duggan also said last month before City Council that he hopes to expand two key initiatives at the police department: Project Green Light and Ceasefire, both violent crime prevention strategies.

Project Green Light was first introduced in 2016 when Detroit Police partnered with eight gas stations to install real-time cameras that police headquarters could access in an effort to deter crime. Duggan estimates the city will have nearly 500 Green Light locations by the end of this year. Citing the program, Duggan said the city has seen a 40% reduction in carjackings since 2015.

"These cases are being monitored in real time at police headquarters," Duggan said. "We think we're going to make a difference."

Ceasefire began in 2013 and is an initiative where law enforcement and the community work together to reduce gang-related gun crime. Violent street group members on parole or probation are called into meetings as a condition of their release, where they meet with police, social workers, community and clergy leaders, as well as families of victims of violent crime.

Duggan said Tuesday by the end of 2018, Police Chief James Craig hopes that every precinct in the city is a Ceasefire precinct.

"This program is working," Duggan said. "Every month, five or six of these kids are getting jobs ... There's a lot of talent — we're just trying to get them to go in the right direction."

Also key to the city's revival will be preserving and increasing the city's affordable housing stock. Duggan said the city plans to preserve more than 10,000 units of affordable housing and create 2,000 more within the next five years. He said the effort would be part of a $250-million affordable housing leverage fund.

"Keeping what we have isn't enough," Duggan said. "We need to build more units. ... We believe we can raise this. This is what a city needs to do if we're going to build a city that's meant for everyone."

Despite a major boom in economic redevelopment across downtown and Midtown, critics have continued to question when the city's neighborhoods will see the same level of investment. And last year, Duggan acknowledged in an interview with the Free Press that there are indeed areas of the city that are wealthier than others.

Last October, Duggan unveiled a plan to invest $125 million in bond funds in revitalizing Detroit neighborhood commercial corridors. The plan is part of a $317-million plan to improve 300 miles of roads and thousands of damaged sidewalks.

Duggan said the plan would help make the business districts more attractive and pedestrian-friendly. Of the $125 million in the proposal, about $80 million is expected to fund major infrastructure improvements along some of the city's key commercial corridors, including East Warren, Livernois-McNichols and West Vernor. The remaining $45 million is expected to add to existing road funds to improve 300 miles of city roads and replace hundreds of thousands of broken sections of sidewalk across the city.

Duggan said the city also plans to use $100 million over the next four years to bolster capital projects and blight remediation. He also hopes to double the rate of commercial demolition and get rid of every vacant, “unsalvageable” commercial property on major streets by the end of 2019.

Duggan's proposed budget calls for more neighborhood redevelopment in certain targeted areas, including Delray, Cody Rouge, East English Village and Osborn.

Contact Katrease Stafford: kstafford@freepress.com or 313-223-4759.