I should not be giving Mike Duggan poli cal advice.

Commented [JW1]: Beginning with a first person

pronoun. I am not feeling great about where this is headed.

The Detroit mayor is the consummate poli cian, a top-notch tac cian, and a data freak whose mastery Commented [JW2]: The first 129 words, or roughly 10%
of facts and figures makes the term "guru" seem inadequate. From his elec on in 2013 as a write-in of the en re column, serve no purpose. They are an
ego s cal distrac on that serves as a barrier that blocks the
candidate against a popular opponent, to his ability to nego ate deals, to the way he marshaled
reader from your message.
resources to make Detroit a na onal model for dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic, Duggan is already
poised to go down as one of the most effec ve mayors in modern Detroit history.

As white guys named "Mike" go, he's the one who moved here from Livonia and was elected mayor a
year later, and I'm the one who lived here for 20 years and got clobbered in a city council race. Commented [JW3]: You dwell on your recent poli cal loss
more than even Donald Trump. Stop doing so in your
column.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s State of the City performance Tuesday highlighted Detroit's progress and
outlined its promise, yYet, Duggan somehow missed an opportunity to use the annual keynote
presenta on to hold billionaire developers accountable. important note in an otherwise virtuoso State of
the City performance Tuesday in which he highlighted Detroit's progress and outlined its promise. Amid
cri cism of a land swap between the city and a Moroun family company and concern that the Ilitches
and Stephen Ross won't deliver the $1.5 billion District Detroit upgrade they've offered in return for
nearly $800 million in tax incen ves, the mayor Hizzoner defended the billionaires instead of reassuring Commented [JW4]: Hizzoner was Coleman Young's
Detroiters he would make sure the fat cats keep their word. nickname more than 30 years ago. It's origin is that, you
know what, it doesn't ma er because no one calls Mike
Duggan Hizzoner, and no one would have a reason to do so.
It isn't cute or clever.
As I said last week, there's There’s no ques on the investments Dan Gilbert and the Ilitches made in our Commented [JW5]: No need to claim credit for a not
downtown have improved Detroit. Without the Morouns, who seem serious about sanding the rough par cularly original perspec ve.
edges off their reputa on under the leadership of scion Ma hew Moroun, it's unlikely Stellan s would
have built its Grand Cherokee plant on the east side. Commented [JW6]: If the point of this column is to argue
that Duggan should be more cri cal of billionaire developers
why are you going out of your way to defend billionaire
developers?
But I don't get the sense that any of these developers' proposals are in trouble. A er considerable
community opposi on to the land swap with a Moroun company, City Council last month approved it 6-
3. The latest incarna on of District Detroit seems likely to sail through the same City Council that last
year was in a rush to approve a $60 million tax break for Dan Gilbert's Hudson's Block project un l
Detroiters found out about it through the news media. (The deal eventually went through a er Gilbert
threw in some sweeteners.) Commented [JW7]: This is confusing. You seem to be
making the case that Duggan was defending popular
developments yet you say you think he should be more
cri cal.
Besides, these tans of industry can, and do, hire teams of highly-skilled public rela ons professionals to
sell their deals to us. They don't need the mayor to go to bat for them.
Commented [JW8]: Again? Really? No.
Commented [JW9]: Why would anyone get behind "pie-
S ll, if Hizzoner Duggan really wanted to help, I think the most persuasive thing he could have told in_the-sky"? If something is pie-in-the-sky, by defini on, it's
Detroiters to get us behind District Detroit 2.0 (and every slice of taxpayer-supported, pie-in-the-sky a fraud.
being served up to us) is that we can count on him to hold developers' feet to the fire — and, if
necessary, to cut off a few toes.

Wanted: Watchdog

If there was one place Duggan didn't miss a beat, it was in the fundraising email he sent out the day a er
his speech.

A er enduring years of cri cism that the neighborhoods were being neglected in favor of downtown,
and that the city's revival must include more Black businesses, the mayor's speech provided numerous Commented [JW10]: The speech or the email? If it's
examples of thriving neighborhood business districts and projects led by Black entrepreneurs. actually the speech it sounds like he's addressing the
cri cism and this line has no purpose in a sec on about his
fundraising email.

Duggan for Detroit's email also referenced his plan to improve Detroit neighborhoods and fight blight, a
new ini a ve to reduce violence, and how he's using federal money to increase affordable housing.

And there, in the middle of the page, was the line missing from the speech: "Mayor Duggan is figh ng
relessly for Detroiters." (Emphasis added by yours truly.) Commented [JW11]: You know who says "yours truly" a
lot? OJ Simpson. Take a look in the mirror.

Duggan did not respond to ques ons about I tried to ask the mayor why he didn't include some version
of this in his State of the City address, but he did not return messages.

I hope it was an oversight, rather than a sign that he does not want to bring the same accountability to
businesspeople that he brings to his staff and other city employees. Duggan appointees have told me he
is a reless worker who expects his underlings to always be prepared. When I asked Duggan in 2020
about his reputa on as a demanding taskmaster, he told me: “I never have to fire anybody. The people
who are commi ed to making this city be er o en mes find they accomplish far more than they
thought they could when they’re part of a team like this.”

"We have a saying: 'I really don’t care about the quality of your excuses.' " Commented [JW12]: You hope it's an oversight but then
make a credible case that it couldn't have been an oversight.
This is a junior high-level argumenta on. Actually, it feels
like filler to meet a word count.
Now THAT is the kind of public official I want bird-dogging Ilitch, Gilbert, Moroun, Ross — or anyone else
planning to bankroll their dream project with our money! Commented [JW13]: Does a ghtly-managed poli cal
opera on really translate into public accountability?

Duggan's vigilance on these ma ers is a concern because it was the deep-pocketed business folk who
bankrolled his 2013 write-in campaign and who have con nued to support his poli cal endeavors with
he y contribu ons to everything from campaign funds to ballot ini a ves. The Morouns and Duggan
o en view the poli cal landscape from the same perspec ve. In 2017, for example, the Morouns poured
tens of thousands of dollars into poli cal commi ees that supported Duggan's preferred candidates.
And the mayor's speech, given in the grandeur of the resurrected Michigan Central Depot, included a
history lesson about the building once owned by the Morouns that was, to put it kindly, revisionist.
Duggan cast the Morouns as champions of the iconic train sta on, even though it became an
interna onal symbol of the city's des tu on during their "stewardship." The mayor even seemed to take
a shot at council members for vo ng in 2009 to knock the building down.
Commented [JW14]: This is a mess. You're arguing
Duggan needs to hold his core supporters accountable but
don't iden fy them as his core supporters, thus providing an
explana on for not holding them accountable, un l we are
2/3 through the column. Lead with that.
Duggan should be holding developers accountable. Instead
his State of the City speech shows a mayor more beholden to
billionaires than to everyday Detroit residents.
That's a column lede with he .

"Had that vote gone through," Duggan said, "We wouldn't be standing here today."

Revisionist history

The mayor conveniently le out what only an incredibly gracious person might call the Morouns'
"ambi ous" plans for the depot. In 2001, a er city council threatened to tear it down, the Morouns
presented a plan to turn the train sta on into an "interna onal trade center."

"These are laudable ambi ons," the late Councilwoman Kay Evere said. "What is the metable for this?
You've had the building since 1994-95. It's 2001."

A Moroun representa ve told the council they would have details within six months. Then nothing
happened.

In 2004, then-Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick announced a plan to buy the train sta on from the Morouns and
turn it into a state-of-the-art police headquarters. Again nothing happened, although Kilpatrick did block
the sale of a piece of city land behind the train sta on to help thwart an interna onal rail tunnel that
would have competed with the Moroun's' Ambassador Bridge. Commented [JW15]: Sic

In 2015, the Morouns put windows on the building, but Duggan said during his speech Tuesday that was
a requirement he imposed before he would sell the Morouns city.

It wasn't un l 2018, when Ford bought the train sta on to serve as the hub of a new high-tech campus,
Commented [JW16]: Rewrite this into a single 2-3
that the depot's future was assured. sentence paragraph.
Perhaps Duggan's defense of District Detroit and other billionaire-funded projects was merely to provide
cover for the city council before they vote on $800 million in taxpayer-funded incen ves. Commented [JW17]: Are you a columnist or a copywriter
for Hotels.com ads? Don't be so coy about something kind
of obvious.

He certainly was effusive on Tuesday in his praise for the same nine council members he called
"dysfunc onal" just three months ago.

"This is an interes ng council," Duggan said during his speech. "I never had a council where so many
council members had so many ideas they want to get done." Commented [JW18]: Mayoral/Council rela ons seems
like a different column.

The mayor's State of the City speech made it clear he wants is hot and ready to see the Ilitches and Ross Commented [JW19]: Come the fuck on, dude. Are you
get their $1.5 billion development deal approved. trying to be bush league?

I humbly submit, from one White Mike to another, that tThree li le words — "I guarantee it" — could Commented [JW20]: Completely unnecessary.
give us confidence that, this me, the billionaires will give us all we've been promised. Unless, of course,
the real problem with Duggan's speech was that he's just not comfortable making that vow. Commented [JW21]: This is actually a reasonably strong
closing line. It's the best part of the en re column. The
problem is you've wri en a column arguing the mayor
wasn't sufficiently cri cal (in a nearly week-old speech) of
developers pursuing projects that you admit have or will
have a net posi ve impact of the city.

The ques on you have to ask yourself is whether or not that

is an argument worth reading? Does it help inform the
reader or challenge the reader's preconceived no ons in a
construc ve way?

This newspaper has go en demonstrably smaller with

fewer people wri ng for it. Talented people have taken
voluntary buyouts or involuntarily laid off. Space for editorial
content is at a premium. Do you honestly think this column,
as presented or edited, merits some of that finite space?

Think about all of that before you a empt to stuff your next
column with lazy a empts to be clever (hizzoner, hot and
ready), self-referen al nonsense, and gratuitous word count
padding.