Matt Helms

Detroit Free Press

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Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s State of the City address tonight will come with a new component: information booths staffed by people from about 30 non-profit and community organizations that provide help with matters including foreclosure prevention, job training, home mortgages, heat and water bill payment and summer jobs for young people.

Duggan will speak at 7 p.m. at Second Ebenezer Church, 14601 Dequindre. It’s Duggan’s third such address as mayor, and aides say he will recap the last year’s progress and challenges that lie ahead for a city still in the early stages of recovery from bankruptcy.

The mayor is expected to tout the tearing down of blighted homes at a rapid pace, improved bus service and balanced city budgets. But there are still significant challenges ahead — financial and operational — ranging from attracting new businesses into city neighborhoods to fighting the city’s persistent violent crime.

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Duggan’s office declined to release details of his speech ahead of the address. It will be broadcast live on the city’s cable channels (10 and 22 on Comcast and 99 on AT&T U-verse) and streamed live online at www.detroitmi.gov.

Duggan’s chief of staff, Alexis Wiley, said Monday that more than 2,000 people have registered to attend the invitation-only speech, 1,300 of them members of city block clubs, neighborhood organizations and other community groups.

Wiley said the “Opportunity Fair” — bringing social service, government and non-profit agencies together in one setting — will be the first of nine such fairs this year.

The fairs also will accompany each of Duggan’s eight yearly community meetings, at which the public is invited to hear from the mayor and ask questions.

The meetings are held in each of the city’s seven council districts, with an additional, citywide meeting. The mayor’s office was still working on scheduling this year’s meetings.

The fairs “are all about connecting people to resources and opportunities in their neighborhoods,” Wiley said. “We want to make sure that coming to the state of the city isn’t just about hearing the speech, but also connecting to the opportunities the mayor is talking about.”

Later fairs also will include city hiring representatives for open city jobs.

Detroit now has openings for about 200 full-time jobs, generally with the city’s General Services Department, and is hosting a job fair Thursday, 1-7 p.m. at the Heilmann Recreation Center at 19601 Crusade on the northeast side.

Open positions include vehicle operators, who are paid $11.78-$14.82 an hour, and laborers and park maintenance staff who make $9.64-$12.86 an hour.

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Interested job candidates also may apply online at http://agency.governmentjobs.com/detroit/default.cfm.

Contact Matt Helms: mhelms@freepress.com or on Twitter: @matthelms.