Mayor Duggan's State of the City Address 2021

I found Mayor Duggan's recent State of the City interesting for couple of reasons. First there was an impressive listing of achievements, such as the Jefferson Stellantis [fka Chrysler] plant, where the address was given, and how the hiring of Detroiters there and in other workplaces was achieved. Second was how the speech doubled as a campaign promo for this year's mayoral race.

Along with the many positives, he finessed the negatives, such as 2021 spike in the murder rate, showing it to be a nationwide phenomenon with Detroit's rise being less than many other cities. On the issue of the poverty rate he cited that it had fallen from 40 to 30% with the consequent decline of Detroit in 'worst of' listings.

Would you re-elect him? See for yourselves. Here it is; you'll need to scrub forward 12 minutes to get the start of the speech.
https://youtu.be/cGjrgipMELg

I remain impressed with Mayor Duggan with this state of the city. He is an experienced polished politician no doubt, but I think those skills make him uniquely qualified for the job. He is doing some good work at tearing down some of the walls that have been put up that keep the city residents struggling. Such as the auto insurance issues. He mentions the progress, yet recognizes that there is more work to do on the problem.

Championing Detroit is like walking a minefield when there has been so much historic hostility towards the city for such a long time both by its own suburbs and out state communities. He is a fighter and Detroit residents would accept no less from their leader no matter what and that is well understood by enough to see him through to another term though there is plenty of campaigning yet to come.

Another strength that he displays in these speeches is that he is a highly skilled manager of large organizations. He can keep many balls in the air simultaneously. Detroit has been in desperate need of that ability for a long time. Of course not everything has gone perfect but that is what almost always occurs within large entities. He works well with city council, which is still refreshing in comparison to past administrations. His ability to attract qualified talent to work for the city is practically unprecedented.

I was listening closely to hear what he was going to say about the rise in gun crimes in the city and his explanation of the COVID year and its effects on the criminal justice system seemed like at least an understandable explanation on an issue that is very difficult to be patient with. He is going to have his hands full on this moving forward because nothing can erase economic gains quite like people not feeling safe. I hope he can restore the work he was doing pre COVID with the most at risk young men soon because it is proven successful strategy.

Duggan sure beats the hell out of leader who gets to the top purely out of name recognition, charm or just promising to extract a pound of flesh out of overly contrived political enemies with the sole purpose to please the masses with vicious opposition to those enemies.

My brother-in-law used to work for Duggan as a manager when he was in charge of the DMC. He said that most middle level managers didn't like him, because if he set a goal, and you couldn't meet it, then you better have had a good reason, or you would be looking for a new job.

When Duggan instituted the 30 minutes or less Emergency Room wait for service... many managers at DMC balked... he sent them packing, and replaced them with managers that could meet his goals.

Duggan is not really a "nice" person. But nice does not get results. And for what he's responsible for, he's getting things done.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gistok

My brother-in-law used to work for Duggan as a manager when he was in charge of the DMC. He said that most middle level managers didn't like him, because if he set a goal, and you couldn't meet it, then you better have had a good reason, or you would be looking for a new job.

When Duggan instituted the 30 minutes or less Emergency Room wait for service... many managers at DMC balked... he sent them packing, and replaced them with managers that could meet his goals.

Duggan is not really a "nice" person. But nice does not get results. And for what he's responsible for, he's getting things done.

---

I interned for the City a few years back and unfortunately I didn't get a lot of face time with Duggan, but those who did had a similar experience. He would give them a goal and when you met with him you have better met that goal or have a very good reason why not.

It wasn't so much that he was being a hard-ass intentionally, it was more like "Don't waste my time unless you have made progress" type of deal. I kind of dig it because that's the kind of attitude we see in corporate America and government jobs are often seen as lazy and lackadaisical. He wants to best for the City IMO.

Thanks for the link, Lowell. It was interesting to watch.

Mayor Duggan seems very good at seeing the big picture, systemic problems and being able to craft solutions. His enthusiasm for the city is genuine and always impresses me. He’s truly excited about improving things in Detroit. You can tell, for example, that he’s really jazzed up about reopening parks around town.

Since you asked, yes I would vote for him again. He does get things done and that's so much more than has been accomplished in the past.

I guess Duggan is somewhat effective, but he is also moderately corrupt and protects the status quo.

Detroit needs a progressive mayor.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Satiricalivory

I guess Duggan is somewhat effective, but he is also moderately corrupt and protects the status quo.

---

Although he is part of the McNamara political machine... he's still the best Mayor Detroit has had in at least half a century.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Gistok

Although he is part of the McNamara political machine... he's still the best Mayor Detroit has had in at least half a century.

---

I agree. In my opinion, this State of the City address Duggan gave is really good and the longest he ever did [[a little over an hour).I don't care what people think of him, Duggan did bring in new jobs/investment into the city and that's what the city needs and Detroiters are the first ones getting these jobs. Anthony Adams[[who running for mayor)' response to his State of the City, "he did a little', which to me, that pure BS. This the same Adams who we all know that he's the deputy mayor of Kwame,who put our city in scandals/corruption and also Adams was charged for bringing a loaded gun at Metro Airport back in 2012. Duggan did a lot for the city but there are other issues that needs to be address. I DON'T trust Adams one bit and he's already talking about getting rid of programs that helping the people like Motor City Match and Proposal N which 71% voted yes and he voted no on it. My opinion, Duggan deserves a third term as mayor.