Detroit Mayor August 3 Primary Candidate Guide

The August 3 primary is fast-approaching. Get to know the candidates running for local office in your community with 101.9 FM WDET’s Candidate Guides. Surveys were distributed to candidates to complete and you can see the responses for candidates for Detroit Mayor below.

See a full list of races covered here.

Related Races: City Council – At Large, City Council – District 1, City Council – District 4, City Council – District 7

Jump to a candidate:
Anthony Adams
Tom Joe Barrow
Kiawana Brown
Mike Duggan
Myya Jones
Jasahn M. Larsosa
Charleta U. McInnis
Danetta L. Simpson
Art Tyus
D. Etta Wilcoxon

Anthony Adams

Listen to a conversation with Anthony Adams:

Courtesy of Tom Barrow

Tom Joe Barrow

Current job: Based right here in Detroit for the past 42 years, I am a self-employed business and financial consultant specializing in small and medium-sized businesses. My practice is urban in nature and includes clients from all over the United States.

Education: I have an undergraduate degree from Wayne State University’s School of Business with a major in Accounting. My MBA is also from Wayne State University’s School of Business with a concentration in Finance and first received a license as a Certified Public Accountant in 1973.

About Tom Joe Barrow: I was born right here in the city of Detroit at Paradise Valley’s old Kirwood Negro Hospital in the city’s Black Bottom. My uncle, World Heavy Weight Champion Joe Louis ‘Barrow’ was present at my birth, paid for it and had his personal fight doctor deliver me. As a result, I proudly bear his name ‘Joe’ (Tom Joe Barrow).  But most importantly, I have uncle Joe’s DNA and I too am a fighter. 

After Albert Cobo brought I-75 through Black Bottom, my family moved to the city’s eastside to the streets called Kercheval and Hurlbut. My family resided there for some 24 years. I continue to reside on the city’s eastside today just blocks from my childhood home and have never lived in any city except Detroit. 

I have two children, Tom Jr., who graduated from Loyola-Chicago last month, and a daughter Taylor, a 2nd year medical at Wayne State University’s School of Medicine. I have been married for 29 years to Dr. Patrice Harold, OB/GYN (also born and raised in Detroit). The Barrow’s love Detroit and are dedicated to bringing it and its new energy together.

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor?: My reason for running is to change the paradigm which has controlled Detroit, its resources and the city’s priorities. As Detroiters, we suffer repeated attacks on the spirit which makes us Detroit and Detroiters as people seemingly love our brand but do not like our spirit! Detroit’s next leader must bring about bold change for this amazing city. 

For over 35 years, it seems that billionaires have chosen the city’s leadership to serve their private interests. This has led to the creation of two Detroits. One downtown and the other in its neighborhoods. The next mayor must be a Real Detroiter, someone all of the city trusts as being one of them. That mayor is duty-bound to end the downtown versus the neighborhoods paradigm and must be someone who will bring the city together. Only a Real Detroiter can do that and I am that Real Detroiter.  

Following emergency management; a contrived bankruptcy; the diversion of block grants to gentrifying developers, Detroiters who “held it down” deserve to have their moral and financial investments recognized. In short, my focus will be rooted in policies to create the change residents are demanding. I will issue a moratorium on property tax evictions and close the corrupt Land Bankruptcy Authority. I will seek to void the life-long lease to take our Belle Isle Park back. I will also provide equity restoring credits to the over-assessed homeowner residents and compensate those who lost their homes. I also believe that the city’s retirees deserve the pensions and health care they were promised and I will seek to restore it and restore the badly bruised Detroit spirit.

“As Detroiters, we suffer repeated attacks on the spirit which makes us Detroit and Detroiters as people seemingly love our brand but do not like our spirit! Detroit’s next leader must bring about bold change for this amazing city.” — Tom Joe Barrow

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? Confidence and building self-esteem.

How would you address that issue? Briefly and in short here is my view. Detroit has a unique opportunity to be bold and leverage incoming federal infrastructure dollars to create great opportunities for Detroiters. I will use some of these dollars to convert some closed neighborhood school buildings and/or libraries into computer centers for seniors and neighborhood youth who do cannot access the web at home. I will hire neighborhood “geeks” to run them.  

I intend to lift the self-esteem of our city’s young males by establishing direct neighborhood trade programs to train Detroiters in heating and cooling, printing, electrical, plumbing and other skills society wants. This will raise self-esteem and will lead to lucrative employment opportunities and create new entrepreneurs.  

I also intend to use some of the federal funds to clean and beautify every city neighborhood and construct 7 public neighborhood swimming pools for the kids and modernize the Coleman Young Municipal Airport to make it a net revenue generator able to accommodate small commercial jets.

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? I will keep this answer short. It is fundamentally wrong for this city mayor to cause to funnel over $500,000 to a girlfriend; deny he even knew her; cause the relationship revealing emails that prove the deception to be deleted; promote the email delete to be his now campaign manager and then marry the very person he claimed to not know.  

All of Detroit sees this as a clear double standard in light of the glaring unrelenting electronic spotlight placed on the relationship of former mayor Kilpatrick. But most disappointing is the media’s quiescence in the face of this grand deception. I promise with all of my heart to be transparent in bringing about a new paradigm to Detroit and its city government.

Listen to a conversation with Tom Barrow:

Courtesy of Kiawana Brown

Kiawana Brown

Age: 43

Current job: Pastor

Education: Pershing High School- H.S. Diploma/University of Phoenix- Bachelor of Science in Business Management

About Kiawana Brown: I’m a native Detroiter and a graduate of University of Phoenix where I majored in Business Management. I’m married to Timothy Brown; together we serve as Overseers of Transforming Lives Ministries International of Detroit, MI. We have six amazing children and a very special grandson.

I’ve been serving in ministry for over 15 years and been in the pastorate since 2009. I assumed full-time pastorship alongside my husband in 2016 after the loss of my Senior Pastor and mother Apostle Hattie Patterson. I also assumed the role as Chief Executive Officer of Transforming Lives Community Training Center, which is the community outreach arm of TLMI. My years of public service extend to nearly two decades- serving on various boards, spearheading community initiatives and volunteer work throughout the city.

I’m also the founder of Zoe House of Beauty, a non-profit organization in the Metro-Detroit area whose mission is to “Beautify Women from the Inside Out”. My passion for serving and seeing people empowered is the driving force behind Zoe House of Beauty. Currently, the organization has a thriving mentoring program named “Such a Lady” for young ladies ages 12-18. “Such a Lady” is designed to develop their character, confidence and class.

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor? I’m running for Detroit Mayor because I believe in my heart that God has assigned me to lead the city of Detroit in the capacity of Mayor for such a time as this. I’m called to preserve our future; the future of our city, but most importantly our posterity.

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? This is hard because there are so many issues that I could pinpoint, but one of the most important issues is the defunding of our communities and lack of resources/tools in our neighborhoods. Many neighborhoods have lost schools, recreation centers, parks, libraries, grocery stores etc. Some have lost banks and police departments.

How would you address that issue? I would ensure that we put a focus on rebuilding our communities/neighborhoods through proper education, tools, resources and funding. In addition to the city’s current budget, we can appropriate funding from the ARP funds to invest in our communities. We must rebuild our communities, so we can offer a good quality of life to Detroiters who live, work and play in our city.

“We must rebuild our communities, so we can offer a good quality of life to Detroiters who live, work and play in our city.” — Kiawana Brown

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? The decision to divest in our communities where Detroiters live, work and play; while primarily investing in other areas of the city.

City of Detroit/Flickr

Mike Duggan

Age: 63

Current job: Mayor of Detroit

Education: University of Michigan Law

About Mike Duggan: I was born in the City of Detroit and I have spent my entire career working in the city. My goals for the city have always remained the same: to improve the quality of life in the City of Detroit and ensure opportunity reaches every neighborhood and every Detroiter. My first job out of school was at a law firm in downtown Detroit. I was later hired to work in the Wayne County law department. Before long, I was tapped to serve as Deputy Wayne County Executive under Ed McNamara from 1987 through 2000. Following my time as deputy county executive, I was elected Wayne County prosecutor.  Before running for Mayor, I was CEO of the Detroit Medical Center. In that role, I partnered with workers and unions to lead the Detroit Medical Center out of near bankruptcy and back to profitability. I’ve served as mayor of the City of Detroit since January 2014.

My administration spent the first term just focusing on delivering the basic services every Detroiter deserves –working streetlights, reliable bus service, prompt EMS response, clean and safe parks. In the second term, Detroit re-emerged as a major competitor for major employers, bringing thousands of good-paying jobs to the City of Detroit. The huge growth in businesses opened by entrepreneurs of color is breathing real vibrancy into our neighborhood corridors. But we have so much more to do to make sure the recovery spreads to every neighborhood and to every Detroiter. Thanks to $400 Million from the American Rescue Plan, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make massive investments in public safety, fighting intergenerational poverty, closing the digital divide, supporting our small businesses and much more. Due to the overwhelming support of Proposal N, we have the funding we need to continue clearing blight from our neighborhoods, preserving the homes that can be saved and demolishing those that can’t. We will continue to preserve and create more affordable housing throughout the City of Detroit.  Every day, we will work to chip away at barriers that have plagued Detroit for far too long and ensure opportunity is within reach for everyone.

“My goals for the city have always remained the same: to improve the quality of life in the City of Detroit and ensure opportunity reaches every neighborhood and every Detroiter.” — Mike Duggan

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? I will continue to focus on improving public safety and fighting intergenerational poverty.

How would you address that issue? Thanks to the support of Detroit City Council and the American Rescue Plan, we are investing an additional $50 million into public safety, more than $60 million invested in fighting intergenerational poverty through programs like home repair for seniors, low income residents and those with disabilities, foreclosure prevention and $100 million for employment training and assistance.

What is a recent action/decision by the current city council you have disagreed with, or an action/decision from your own administration that you would have approached differently with hindsight? I believe Detroit City Council is doing a great job and we work together in the interest of our citizens. Our job as leaders is not to criticize each other but to work together in the interest of the people we serve and constantly improve upon our policies and programs.

Darnell Porter

Myya Jones

Age: 26

Current job: Account manager at Google

Education: MBA, Wayne State University | BA in Business Management, Michigan State University | HS, Cass Technical High School

About Myya Jones: Born and raised in Detroit, MI, I am a proud product of the Detroit Public School system by way of Lewis Cass Technical High School, alumna of Michigan State University, and 2021 graduate of Wayne State University’s Mike Ilitch School of Business.

Despite life’s challenges, I refused to allow my environment and poverty to determine my life’s destiny. I was inspired to attend college and upon graduation, return to home to Detroit to enact change, as a reflection of the unwavering love I have for my city.

In my years of activism, I have used my many platforms and music to spark dialogue concerning marginalized groups, and how we can acquire resources to advance our communities. In doing so, I have given people of color, women, and young people the inspiration to impact change. Currently, I work for Google and lead many initiatives that have given Detroiters and Black businesses access to free resources provided by Google. This includes over $1 million dollars in ad grants to nonprofits that progress Black and brown people. 

Outside of work, I continue my community organizing in Detroit with Church of the Messiah, championing issues not limited to economic justice, equitable education, mass incarceration, human sex trafficking, affordable housing, and gun violence.

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor? I am running for Mayor because our government has continuously failed to recognize and work to redress inequities in our policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity. Becoming an elected official will give me the platform and opportunity to acknowledge and refute the falsies of American history and fill it with truth. Understanding true history will allow our country to reconcile and work towards redemption which includes the passage of comprehensive policies that eliminate racial, gender, and economic inequities. Although I have been doing this work as a constituent, we are all aware of the power and validity that comes with positions of power, such as the office of mayor. Most importantly, with this power is the ability to implement comprehensive policies to enact change! 

I am hopeful that Detroit will have an elected body that is a true representation of the residents that occupy the city. This representation includes those who were born, raised, and educated in the city and have shared experiences that will allow for the production of comprehensive policies that will positively impact the most vulnerable communities in our city. My vision of comprehensive policies is centered around: housing, jobs & economic development, water, food access, pensions, homelessness, senior citizens, safety & police reform, transportation, health care access & community mental health, park, recreation, and library services, environmental justice, historic & cultural preservation, quality of life, education, re-entry / returning citizens, revitalization & gentrification, veterans, and child wellness.

Being young, Black, and a woman comes with its difficulties, and of them are the significant barriers when it comes to running for office. Along the campaign trail, it is difficult for Black women (and WOC) to find support and fundraise because of the perception of our electability and people too often believe we are not viable candidates. But yet they depend on Black women’s votes to save democracy. The time has come for organizations to step up and change that narrative in Detroit. We cannot change the face of power and build a truly reflective democracy if we are not collectively encouraging and supporting women of color to step up and own their power.

Detroiters want to see someone who looks like them and who has experienced what they have also experienced seeking the highest level of local government. We want to know that one of us has our back and will push policies that benefit the most vulnerable. We want our youth to be able to see themselves in positions of power and in positions that influence positive change. We want a leader that is bold, brave, empathetic, analytical, relatable, inspirational, and impactful. 

I believe that leader is me.

“I am hopeful that Detroit will have an elected body that is a true representation of the residents that occupy the city. This representation includes those who were born, raised, and educated in the city and have shared experiences that will allow for the production of comprehensive policies that will positively impact the most vulnerable communities in our city.” — Myya Jones

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? Racial disparities between Black and white Detroiters must be addressed in order for Detroit to thrive. I believe the role of government in solving racial, gender, and economic inequities relies heavily on explicitly addressing these inequalities. Our local government has the ability to implement policy change to drive systematic change. These policies must be pursued in a comprehensive manner that advances equity for all, including people of color and others who have been historically underserved, marginalized, and adversely affected by persistent poverty and inequality. I will work to ensure the inclusion of disadvantaged groups in planning processes and planning initiatives, but especially those that may result in gentrification and/or cause displacement and/or diminish protections for low-income neighborhoods or housing. Detroit must recognize and work to redress inequities in our policies and programs that serve as barriers to equal opportunity for Black and brown Detroiters.

How would you address that issue? Black Detroiters have been left out of Detroit’s “comeback.” With this “comeback” poverty still plagues our communities, families do not have adequate housing, community welfare is at a low, and overall quality of life has not been improved. We need skilled job training and educational programs to get Detroiters jobs that typically go to non-Detroiters. Addressing poverty with jobs and education will allow us take care for ourselves and our families, while also helping us address crime. Another priority is ensuring Detroiters have a voice in key decision-making that affects our communities and the city overall. Our city’s progress must be made with the residents in mind, and this means including Detroiters in key community conversations. Decent and affordable housing and homeownership is another key priority, which I plan to address with restructuring the land bank. Please visit my website for a full comprehensive list of issues I will address if elected.

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? The lack of investment into our neighborhoods versus the investment downtown by the current administration is something I disagree with. Improving the quality of life of Black Detroiter starts with acknowledging all of the gaps in our city services and developing plans and strong policy to address them. The development of a resident-driven City-wide Master Plan can help us with making proper assessments of our neighborhoods using both statistical data from digital sources and anecdotal data from residents. Without an up-to-date Master Plan in place, city services cannot comprehensively tackle the most significant social ills in our neighborhoods. However, this is exactly what is happening today. Even well-intentioned leaders make poor decisions when local priorities are misaligned with residents’ actual needs. If elected, social justice considerations will be central to all land-use planning initiatives and intentionally inclusive of all stakeholders to ensure our results produce a higher quality of living for our neighborhoods.

Listen to a conversation with Myya Jones:

Courtesy of Jasahn Larosa

Jasahn M. Larsosa

Age: 41

Current job: I am a social and racial justice organizer, advocate, and nonprofit executive. I serve currently as Founding Director of Advocacy, Equity, & Community Empowerment for Focus: HOPE.

Education: My education is in communications, history, and the psychology of human relationships.

About Jasahn Larsosa: I was born and raised in Detroit off Joy Road. From here, I walked to school with my siblings, met my lifelong friends and my lifelong love, Krystal Larsosa, who later became my wife and — as District 1 candidate for Council— is amazingly my running mate. We have three brilliant and beautiful daughters. I’m a proud husband and dad. I’m also formally incarcerated as a result of the catastrophically misguided War on Drugs. I did make my own mistakes common to many Detroit youth. Yet, these experiences inform my understanding of the lasting impacts of bad policy on good people and good communities. I also understand the pitfalls with which youth are daily confronted. I’ll lead with this understanding to ensure the opportunities afforded to me are extended to every person in this city.  

As an organizer, I’ve mobilized thousands of people to advance community agendas. As an executive, I’ve attracted millions of dollars to serve adults through workforce, wealth-building, and home-ownership programs. I leveraged funding to write $500 checks to hundreds of individuals impacted by the pandemic. I’m leading reparations efforts as well as critical research to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline endangering Detroit’s bright youth.

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor? I am running for Mayor for three primary reasons:

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? Detroit’s biggest opportunity is promoting economic opportunity for those who live here. This will improve quality of life by increasing individual purchasing power and freedom while also improving city services through the inevitable growth of our tax revenue.

How would you address that issue? I will accomplish this by attracting some of the brightest talent from Black and Brown communities all over the country. People are drawn to a powerful story and mine is parallel to that of Detroit: “Bright, resilient underdog turns things around!” This will be the narrative of Detroit under my administration. And this is a triumph around which our young people, including those currently drawn to risky behavior, will coalesce. At last, one of their own will be at the helm. This will introduce a new sense of pride, identity, and strength that will ultimately make our city safer. In short, representation matters.

But it certainly won’t stop there. I will introduce initiatives that promote wealth in the neighborhoods and my administration will report on key indicators such as new homeownership, life insurance uptake, and residents contracting with the city. In fact, a good portion of American Rescue Plan funds under my administration will support the development of locally owned businesses that can provide services on behalf of the city but also add value to our health and culture. Culturally appropriate markets, malls, and innovation centers that stimulate creativity and wellness. Safe outlets for youth to gather and express themselves. I will also restructure the Detroit Police Department to bring back a community-based public safety model that welcomes well-trained and fairly paid officers into the community as neighbors instead of an occupying force. I expect to appoint a chief (hopefully a Black woman) born and raised in the city, having come up through the local ranks and respected by peers and the community).

“People are drawn to a powerful story and mine is parallel to that of Detroit: ‘Bright, resilient underdog turns things around!'”  — Jasahn Larsosa

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? Currently, the entire governance structure is operating through a failed lens marked by unconscious anti-Black bias. Barely over 50% of our police officers live in Detroit. Less than 5% of Detroit contracts are awarded to Detroiters. The largest downtown employer having received an enormous allotment of city-sponsored subsidies is comprised of a workforce whereby Detroit makes up less than a third. Detroiters are shut out of the commons such as Belle Isle despite the fact that we are paying for it twice. Families feel like prisoners in our homes and neighborhoods, and this has little to do with the pandemic. I drove my RV to the Island after 10 one night just to see what would happen and the private guard on duty said I was okay to enter as long as I was part of the private party taking place. All this suggests Detroit is paying for a party to which we are not invited. As we suffer, we are subsidizing the prosperity of all those around us. This has to change. And it requires one of our own in leadership, someone with the perspective and commitment for getting it right. This is why I am offering myself as Detroit’s next mayor.

And while I assume the very best about the intentions of Detroit’s current mayor, and I thank Mike Duggan for his allyship, I respectfully assert to the people of Detroit that we will take it from here and Mike Duggan can continue to offer his support while following our lead.

Listen to a conversation with Jasahn Larsosa:

Charleta U. McInnis

Candidate did not respond to survey request. Visit her campaign website.

Danetta L. Simpson

Candidate did not respond to survey request.

Courtesy of Art Tyus

Art Tyus

Age: 57

Current job: Business owner and systems engineer certified MCSE, MCDBA, A+ and MCP

Education: Some college

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor? Too much mistreatment of over 80% of the citizens of Detroit.

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? Economic, Education, and Homicide

How would you address that issue? Use the federal money to massively train and house the mistreated and poor.

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? The current administration overtaxed, used the Drainage Tax to close churches and foreclosures on small businesses and homeowners.

Listen to a conversation with Art Tyus:

Monica Morgan

D. Etta Wilcoxon

Age: 64

Current job: Publisher and Editor of The Renaissance Observer

Education: BA and MPA University of Detroit Law Degree Cumberland School of Law

About D. Etta Wilcoxon: My political life, contemplates a comprehension of the fact that a city is not a business and cannot be run as such. The stakeholders of a city require city services and it is the job of the mayor to ensure that those services are provided. I  firmly believe that when President Kennedy uttered those famous words: “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your county”, he set marching orders in place for generations to come. He uttered them in the lifetime of my childhood and he spoke to my soul — a sense of service was created. As an adult, I do believe that were he alive and asked to expound on this sentiment, he would say that it is the government’s job to create the environment that sustains the ability of man to grow and give back as a productive member of society. I believe in this pursuit with every fiber of my being.  

Consequently, I formulated strong political beliefs as a child and I have not wavered from them. Service is and always has been in my blood. This is the personal and professional commitment that the City of Detroit needs right now. 

Why are you running for Detroit Mayor? Having spent more than 40 years of my life fighting on behalf of Detroiters and realizing that the residents are not being adequately represented, I decided, with a great deal of urging from others, that Detroiters need a voice. Being dubbed  “The People’s Advocate, is a designation that I wear as a badge of honor. I am responsible for fighting to open 36th  District Court to the “People’s Access”. The Court now allows cellular phones, computers, tablets and writing instruments into the Court. I sued the Illitches and the Pistons for taking money from the School Aid Fund to build  Olympia Stadium as opposed to educating Detroit’s children who cannot read at 3rd-grade level. I exposed the Poverty Property Tax Exemption to needy homeowners in Wayne County and I won 2 voter access cases on behalf of Detroiters. I am battle-tested for the Office of Mayor.

“Having spent more than 40 years of my life fighting on behalf of Detroiters and realizing that the residents are not being adequately represented, I decided, with a great deal of urging from others, that Detroiters need a voice.” — D. Etta Wilcoxon

What is the most important issue facing Detroit? The most important issue facing the City of Detroit is the lack of fiscal astuteness. 

How would you address that issue? The Mayor must grow the tax base. The Mayor should understand that it is her job to ensure that unemployed and underemployed Detroiters are prepared for the jobs of today and the future. She prepares them by bringing businesses into the City that not only commit to hiring Detroiters but that also provide the resources that the City needs to address barriers to acquiring jobs and in making them gainful. Detroit must also advocate for gainful employment across the board. I am committed to signing a Community Benefits agreement on day one. Detroit must show herself strong and work as an Ambassador with the Detroit Public Schools so that we train /educate our students well so that they are able to access the world prepared, either to go to college or to pursue a trade, with the overall goal of being economically secure and financial contributors to our Great City. 

I am rolling out the “Welcome Mat” so that the tens of thousands of Detroiters who have moved to suburbia, can come “HOME”. We need their census numbers, their brainpower and their financial contributions to our tax base. They need the City to become safer, cleaner, more well educated and certainly welcoming from the vantage point of our housing stock and insurance rates in particular. 

Our seniors must have the 0% interest loan program converted back to the highly successful and beneficial Community  Block Grant. They deserve a break. My administration will give them this one in particular. Detroiters must be repaid the almost a billion dollars that the City overcharged them in property tax payments. Not in land from the land bank and first dibs on City jobs. Detroiters must be repaid in dollars and cents so that they can be encouraged to put that money back into City circulation.  

Eliminate the six-figure incomes that the current administration is paying appointees and the chief of police.  City employees and our file police officers can no longer be expected to work for meager wages while the top-level employees take home unprecedented amounts of income. Eliminate spending impropriety bids must be fair and open. Pricing must be in line with the norm. Salaries must reflect national averages. 

What actions/decisions by the current mayoral administration or city council have you disagreed with? The imposition of water drainage “fees.” There is no justifiable reason for this additional tax. Detroiters are dying under its weight. Others who are also customers of the Great Lakes Water Authority are not subjected to this tax and neither should Detroiters.  

Policing. We are the most violent city in America. Yet we are one of the most surveilled cities in America. Detroiters need community policing and their constitutional rights to privacy restored. We must reduce crime. Detroiters must respect the police. We must hold them to account. Their interactions with the community must be attached to community policing so that our officers are visible in the community and the community is visible to our officers. Our police staff must be trained in de-escalation as the first order of engagement. They must be trained in minor mental assessments and the art of engaging in human decency. Our officers must be paid more. We can no longer be a top-heavy income inequality force. Under a Wilcoxon administration, our police force will be closely aligned with Mayor’s  Office. 

Belle Isle must be restored to a Detroit free park. Detroiters deserve free recreational benefits and City ownership of their Island. We must have a Mayor who will fight for this restoral.  

Reparation efforts are being addressed from the White House to our north, south, east and west sister states. Detroit must be a leader in this national “REPAIR” effort. 

Finally, I am not at all impressed with the City’s current demolition program. Detroit has some of the most impressive,  unique architecture in the world. We cannot and should not implement a policy of knocking these structures down.  They should be rehabbed and returned to the tax rolls. The massive number of vacant lots currently left behind by the  City’s current demolition program are no less blight than are blighted homes. Detroit needs a forward-thinking Mayor who understands what makes her great and her architecture is one of her greatest components.

Listen to a conversation with D Etta Wilcoxon: