A Conversation With Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan

“Every neighborhood has a future” was Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan’s campaign slogan when he ran for office in 2013. Now, just a few months into his tenure, it’s clear that his message—one that spat in the face of Detroit’s bankruptcy, its curtailed social services, and its high crime rate—will be a difficult one to implement.

A little about Duggan: He was born in Detroit in 1958, where he lived until he left to attend the University of Michigan. He received a Bachelor’s degree from the school in 1980, and a law degree three years later. He served as an elected official beginning in 1986, and more recently, as the president and CEO of the Detroit Medical Center. Now, Duggan is the first white mayor of majority-black Detroit since the mid-1970s.