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Duggan talks city's future at State of the City

Posted at 8:08 PM, Feb 23, 2016
and last updated 2016-02-23 23:25:12-05

In a speech at Second Ebenezer Church, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan spoke on the state of the city. 

However, the speech was not without it's bumps, as Duggan was interrupted four times by protestors.

Duggan began by speaking about how he is working in cooperation with Detroit City Council to rebuild the city.

Duggan then moved onto the successes in his time as mayor, saying public lighting will finish replacing the lights in the city a year ahead of schedule and that EMT response time has improved and is approaching the national average.

He also said the buses are running on schedule for the first time in 20 years, with 100,000 new riders each week this year.

He said he has five things he wants to focus on to grow the city and bring people back.

"In my mind there are five things and they're all going fit together, we've got to get the violent crime down, we've got to remove the blight, we've got to add jobs and business so everyone in Detroit has an opportunity, we've got to cut the car insurance rates and we've got to provide quality schools," said Duggan.

 
In his remarks about the coming year, Duggan addresses programs to reduce crime and get young people hired in the city.

As part of the crime reduction program, Duggan announced they will use license plate readers in cars to look for the cars of people wanted on outstanding warrants. He also said they will use facial recognition technology and the cameras installed in gas stations to search for them as well.

He also announced that they have set a goal to get 8,000 young people summer jobs.

When talking about neighborhood stabilization, Duggan said people are moving into homes in Detroit and fixing them up. He also said the city knocked down 4,000 blighted homes in a year. He said that was 4 times the number of homes the state of Ohio knocked down last year.

Duggan also announced that Police Chief James Craig has opened up the 911 system so that it can also be used to report illegal scrapping. He says a police officer will be sent and the scrappers will be arrested.

"We aren't ticketing them anymore," he said.

Duggan wrapped up his speech by talking about Detroit Public Schools.

After talking about the deficit that has increased under state appointed emergency managers, Duggan said, "We need to return the Detroit Public Schools to the local elected officials at the earliest possible date."

Duggan then called on legislators in Lansing to get reform for DPS passed.