Duggan details plans to tackle blight in State of The City

DETROIT (FOX 2) - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan wrapped up his ninth State of The City address, a couple of hours ago. He began by highlighting the drop in COVID cases and then moved on to his theme for the night; bringing the city from blight to beauty.

Delivering the address from GM's factory ZERO, Mayor Duggan began by putting the spotlight on Detroit's progress. He showcased the ongoing transformations of iconic buildings that have been left in ruin for decades. Many of them are now bringing affordable housing to the city.

"When I came in I said if we are going to change this so nobody ever comes in the city to go around and look at our decline we need to take these on," Mayor Duggan said.

Turning to the neighborhoods, Mayor Duggan says the city removed 23 thousand vacant houses. Meanwhile, his plans are in the works to demolish or renovate more.

"We are 2/3 of the way through the abandoned houses in the city, and I expect in the next four years that we are either going to demolish or renovate every house, so no child in this city ever grows up on a block where they have to walk past blight," added Mayor Duggan.

On the job front, Mayor Duggan says there are more than 13 thousand positions spanning several industries, open right now, but some Detroiters need more education. The Mayor's solutions is to use money from the American Rescue Plan to create a $100 million adult scholarship fund so that Detroiters can get paid to learn through a GED or work study program.

"If you can't read well enough to get into the GED class, we will pay you $10 an hour to take literacy class so you can qualify. Of our first 400 people to apply, 200 didn't make it because they couldn't read well enough to get their GED ... we said we can't fail these citizens again," said Mayor Duggan

"For me, it's just really making sure that we are equipping Detrioters with the education and with the training that they need to really take advantage of the growth and of the opportunities that we see here in our city," said Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield.

Council President Sheffield says she wished she would have heard more about supporting the neighborhoods.

"Always more about investing in our neighborhoods, bringing more development, more housing within our inner-city communities. I also think it's important to talk about not just rental units, but homeownership opportunities."

Though she is celebrating the city's progress, she knows the work is far from over.

"I'm just excited about all that's happening in our city, understanding that there's a lot more work to be done, especially as we talk about neighborhood development, neighborhood investment,"

Mayor Duggan also discussed a drop in crime, crediting a collaboration between Detroit Police, the prosecutor, the courts, and U.S. Attorney.