Detroit mayoral candidates outlining the needs of young residents and recent graduates say the city must spur the growth of the region’s tech industry and improve public transportation.
Candidates, including Mary Sheffield, Saunteel Jenkins, Fred Durhal III and Todd Perkins pitched ideas at a recent debate Saturday at the Eastside Community Network.
Focusing on young professionals has become a sticking point for Mayor Mike Duggan, who asked residents after his election in 2013 to judge him by whether or not he could increase the city’s population. While there are about 40,000 less residents in the city since 2013, Detroit under Duggan has seen an increase in residents over the last two years.
U.S. Census Bureau released data earlier this showing Detroit gained 12,487 residents since last year’s estimate. The latest data revealed an increase of 6,791 Detroiters in 2024. Plus, the addition of 5,696 Detroiters who the Census Bureau acknowledged had been undercounted from 2021-2023. Duggan, who is running for governor as an Independent, successfully sued the Census Bureau over its counting methodology. The city’s reported increase in 2024 was its first since the 1960s.
Duggan’s gubernatorial campaign has focused on young people, meeting students on college campuses across the state and leaning into memes and alternative media channels. He says young people are driving Detroit’s population growth, but the full picture won’t become clear until more data is available.
Candidates were asked their strategy for growing the city and retaining young people at the forum Saturday hosted by Outlier Media. Organizers said former police chief James Craig and Triumph Church pastor Rev. Solomon Kinloch were set to participate, but were absent from the debate.
Here’s what they said they would do to support up-and-coming Detroiters:
Mary Sheffield: “What they want is a destination of opportunity. Often times they leave Detroit for big cities like Chicago, New York, L.A., DC, because of opportunity. We have to continue to drive that Detroit is a place for opportunity, where their dreams can be realized and their purpose can be fulfilled. Whether that’s access to high demand, high wage jobs, mass transportation and regional transportation and a path to homeownership. We have to improve our school system because a lot of young adults are starting families and want to raise their children here. So often it goes back to how do we cultivate an environment that creates a place of opportunity that can compete with other cities.”
Sheffield, whose campaign is inviting feedback from young residents through its youth advisory council, said she wants to completely revamp the city’s Youth Services Department within the mayor’s office. She said young people will have a seat at the table to help drive policy decisions that are made. Sheffield’s campaign has held events focused on young residents. Her campaign has a get out the vote mixer, dubbed, “No Vote, No Voice!” set for this Saturday, June 28 at the Shadow Gallery, 1533 Winder, from 6-9pm.
Todd Perkins: “It starts with public safety, education, affordable housing and economic development. Our plan is having a youth council. I want to have direct access to youth, and I want to start earlier than just 18. I want to start from high school all the way up to 25 years old, to have a youth council that has a say in the framework, in the development of this particular city. I want them to be invested in this as they go off to college. There’s a fellowship program that’s working through the mayor’s office that definitely needs to be expanded so that these individuals understand they have opportunities within the city government, but also to expand it to work in a public-private capacity and give them access to corporations that are developing in our city. That’s how you keep them. I have a son who’s a junior at Howard University right now and my concern is whether or not he’s going to want to come back to Detroit and find his trade in computer science. We know people are coming to the city — Apple is coming to our city. So we want to make sure that Detroiters are first, and when we put Detroiters first, we make sure that we retool our society so that they have the retraining that’s necessary to be able to have access to these jobs, so these corporations can’t default and say, well, ‘They weren’t ready.’ We know they’re coming, so let’s get them ready right now.”
Perkins said he knows people who work at the city whose children have left because of the absence of mass transit. He wants DDOT to work with the regional transit authority to connect communities.
Fred Durhal III: “In these discussions that I have with professionals who have graduated from college, what they look to move to cities for is a place where things are happening. When we talk about development, when we talk about opportunity, when we talk about tech and mobility and innovation, we have yet to tap into that untapped potential Detroit has to grow those industries where folks want to come back here. We’ve got to have a greater focus on that, we’ve got to continue developing — whether that’s downtown or whether that’s industrial in some areas where that’s conducive to do so to attract bigger businesses to come here. There’s a lot of talent that leaves here, talent retention is important and so we’ve got to create that path so when our children are even in high school and start promoting that ‘We want you to come back here.’ Connect them to those jobs and to that path so by the time they graduate from the 12th grade they know they want to come back here. We’ll focus on regional transit, development and creating a place that’s for families again.”
Durhal said he has first-hand experience pitching Detroit livability to young people. He convinced his wife to come back to Detroit from DC, where she moved to clerk for a federal judge, after promising her he would make the city better for their children.
Saunteel Jenkins: “Jobs I believe is the greatest factor in keeping young people here and attracting them. We have to have the industries and the jobs of today and tomorrow, building new industries and keeping them here. Right now, when you go to Black Tech Saturday’s or when you go to NewLab, there’s probably 90 to 100 startup tech businesses there. As they grow and become too big for NewLab, we need to have options to grow and stay here in Detroit and hire Detroiters for those jobs. We should attract and recruit students from Wayne State and Michigan State and UofM who can come here, live, work, play. And then when you’re ready to raise a family, there’s quality, there is quality, affordable housing available to you in a safe, viable neighborhood for you and your family and send your kids to a high quality school.”
