In Detroit’s Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood, at the corner of Schoolcraft and Artesian, one of the city’s most influential groups is hard at work.
They aren’t elected officials, and they don’t do the work for the accolades. They do it to create the kind of Detroit where Black residents feel safe, respected, and socially and economically empowered.
The group: New Era Detroit. And the head of the organization is Zeek Williams – a man who is on a mission to make Detroit the best city in America, by any means necessary.
Williams recently walked through the Grandmont Rosedale neighborhood for a walk-and-talk interview with Michigan Chronicle’s Executive Editor Jeremy Allen, where they discussed the state of the city, the upcoming mayoral election, and some of the city’s most pressing issues as the city undergoes a leadership change.
Michigan Chronicle: What’s going on? How are you feeling?
Zeek Williams: I’m feeling good, man. We’re about to get into our busy season. We’re extremely active in the community, out in the neighborhoods with all of our programs. We’ve got one of the number one community engagement programs in the country with our Hood 2 Hood program. So I’m feeling good. This is like our season when we really get out and capitalize on the good weather and the resources.
MC: Let’s talk about resources. You got an influx of resources through federally funded programs to help continue the work that you started in a real grassroots way. How does New Era use those resources to advance its efforts in new areas? (New Era Community Connection received a $700,000 grant from federal funds to implement a non-government approach to reducing shootings. The grant is part of the city’s $10 million ShotStoppers initiative to reduce gun violence.)
ZW: I mean the more resources that we’re able to get our hands on, the more resources we’re able to get out to the community, you know what I mean? We take that real serious. So with our engagement numbers being so high, if we have the resources to take them to the doorsteps, it puts us in a position to empower the neighborhoods and the community. Essentially, that’s what all of this is about. That’s what we stand for as an organization and as a community – that, and holding people accountable for doing more.
MC: Detroit is in a hotly contested mayoral race this year where we’re going to have a new leader for the first time in 12 years. We heard Mayor Mike Duggan in his final state of the city address talk about all of the great things that are happening in the city. What’s your perspective on the state of Detroit right now?
ZW: I think there’s a lot of positive going in the city. You probably wouldn’t have got that answer out of me five years ago, but I think that the city is moving in the right direction (even though) it’s still a lot of work to be done, particularly in the neighborhoods and being able to get those resources directly to the people in the neighborhood.
When you think about the difference between Black communities and the suburbs, the biggest difference is the lack of resources. Good schools, good neighborhood programs. For us, we have to really focus on getting those resources to the community and also engaging. We gotta shift the energy in our neighborhood. So I always tell people we work on some of the silent things that you might not see on a scoreboard: morals, ethics, code, respect. We have to have an understanding of taking care of ourselves and holding ourselves accountable, so when it comes to holding other people accountable, we got our stuff together.
MC: You said that the answer you just gave wouldn’t have been your answer five years ago. What’s changed to make you have a different perspective?
ZW: The work. We’re in our 11th season and I know how much impact and influence we’ve been able to have as an organization on the ground. I can even go further than five years ago when we first started. It was a real dark place to be here. Nobody was speaking positive. Nobody was doing positive things in the city. It was just a huge void. Now we’re getting more people active and I hear more people who aren’t just talking, but actually doing something positive…. That wasn’t the case 10 years ago. So I can just look at the energy shifting – the people wanting to do more out in our communities. And I can attest to that, saying ‘OK, this is a positive message. This positive motion.’
We’ve seen a huge decrease in crime and violence in the areas that we work in. For us, we shift the energy and work on the environment and the people in it – hold people more accountable for standing up and doing more. We just gotta get more people involved.
MC: How do you do that?
ZW: Engagement. We live in an era where you can talk people’s head off without doing the work. The good thing about our organization is that we come from a perspective of actually being able to do the work. We teach from the art of doing. It’s easy to be charismatic and get behind a podium and tell people ‘We got to do this,’ or ‘We need to do that.’ But showing and proving? Being able to get out on the block – out in the community? That right there is the type of leadership that is going to help change the whole landscape of our neighborhoods and our community. The more people see, the more people will do. We been doing this work for the past 40, 50 years, and a lot of it has been without the action.
MC: How do you demand that action from the next group of city leaders?
ZW: Accountability. We gotta be able to check track records. I want everybody to do their due diligence and see the things that they’ve done in the past. Not empty promises. We shouldn’t just look at what you’re telling us that you’re going to do. Let’s check out your background. Let’s see some paperwork. What have you done? What have you contributed over the past five to 10 years to the city of Detroit? That’s very important. Some people that jump in these races haven’t done a lick of work and then talk about. You can’t come from a bare minimum space and want to lead. We can’t play around with this. We got a $2 billion budget. That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of resources. So you gotta be (community focused) and business-minded and you gotta have a true balance and then making sure you able to connect the two. The person that’s able to connect the two the right way and make it make sense should be the candidate to lead the city.
MC: What do you think should be the number one issue that the candidate tackles if they are elected?
ZW: Once again, resources. What’s more important than being able to get resources in every Black community? We don’t just work here in the city of Detroit. We work in just about every Black community across the country and one thing that I do know is that in every Black community, we deal with the exact same thing. And then the reason that we have so many hoods and ghettos is because we were placed in these environments with a very lack of resources. So until we get the resource aspect together you know, we’re going to continue to see the same things in our community.
MC: What’s the next era for New ERA?
ZW: Business opportunities, man. You know, for us, we look at a lot of these nonprofits and we look at a lot of these people – they get a lot of this funding that we never see. And we know they’re not out here doing our work, but they get millions upon millions of dollars to serve our communities. You know, we want to be a part of that pie. We understand how it works now.
A lot of times when we talk about our people in our community, especially in the nonprofit space, we just skipped over because they think that our paperwork is not good or that we don’t know how to handle a certain amount of money or, because we’re not in the ‘good ol’ boys club.’ And really, that has always put a hinderance on us when it comes to the right organizations getting the right resources and the right funding to provide for the community the right way. So for us is being able to be in those rooms and spaces, we want to be the biggest. We want to be able to compete and continue to level up quickly to really reach everybody in the city and get resources to the doorsteps of people who need them the most.
MC: What would you think is in store for the city of Detroit over the next four or five years?
ZW: I see good things, man. I think that it’s good that we’re about to have a fresh start with the mayor. See, I think that’s always good in politics, in general. No matter how good of a job somebody is doing, it should always be an opportunity for fresh new leadership.
After so long, I feel like that’s where we really fall off in politics. When you look at Congress, you got some of these people that’s been there for decades. Like, how are we benefiting people? Y’all don’t even understand the new, fresh ideas that’s coming up. That’s a big problem not only in politics, but in leadership as a whole.
We shouldn’t still be looking at like the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jackson and stuff like that. With all due respect to anybody that’s put in work in the past, it’s a new era. You feel me? There’s new, fresh ideas. And disconnect is a real thing. No matter how honorable you are, the older you get, you’re going to lose connection – especially if you’re not living in the neighborhoods and not tapped into the source. You’re going to lose connection, and then you’re not really going to know how to adequately move or make the right decisions based on the people. So I think that is good that we going to have a new, fresh face, not only in the mayor’s seat, but city council is going to have some fresh faces. I’m looking forward to the next five years in the city. I’m a firm believer that our worst times are behind us…no matter who’s in the seat.
MC: I appreciate you, man. Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts and perspectives with us.
ZW: My man. Appreciate you, brother. Real talk.
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