Authentically Detroit
Authentically Detroit is the leading podcast in the city for candid conversations, exchanging progressive ideas, and centering resident perspectives on current events.
Hosted by Donna Givens Davidson and Orlando P. Bailey.
Produced by Sarah Johnson and Engineered by Griffin Hutchings.
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Authentically Detroit
Candidate Series: Equal Opportunities with Chief James Craig
On this episode, Donna and Orlando sat down with the Former Police Chief of Detroit James Craig to discuss his vision for Detroit’s future. This episode is the eighth and final interview in a series of interviews with candidates in the race to become Detroit’s 76th mayor.
James Craig began his career as a Detroit police officer in 1977. After gaining experience in Detroit, he continued his law enforcement career in Los Angeles, where he spent nearly three decades with the LAPD.
In 2013, James Craig returned home to Detroit to take on one of the toughest law enforcement jobs in the country—leading the Detroit police department
He is running for mayor because he believes Detroit needs bold, decisive leadership that puts the people first. he understands that crime, economic growth, education, and government transparency are top concerns for Detroiters, and he has a plan to address them head-on.
To learn more about James Craig and his vision for Detroit, click here.
Up next, former police chief James Craig joins the Authentically Detroit Candidates series to share his vision for the city as Detroit is prepared to select the 76th mayor. This will be the eighth and final interview with mayoral candidates in a series of interviews. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. I'm Orlando Bailey of Outlier Media and Authentically Detroit, and I'm Jair Stays of Daily Detroit. Detroit, we've got something special coming up that you won't want to miss.
Speaker 2:That's right, Orlando. At 10 am on Sunday, June 21st, we're bringing together Detroit's mayoral candidates for an in-depth community forum right in the heart of the East Side.
Speaker 1:This isn't your typical candidate event. We're talking real issues, real solutions and real talk about Detroit's future.
Speaker 2:Join us at the Eastside Community Network at 4401 Connor Street in Detroit from 10 am to 2 pm.
Speaker 1:We'll be joined by my Authentically Detroit co-host and community leader, Donna Givis-Davidson, to moderate this important discussion.
Speaker 2:Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP through the Eventbrite link in our show notes. Oh, and on that form, there is a spot for your voice to be heard, to help shape our questions and the conversation.
Speaker 1:That's right. Whether you're a longtime resident or new to the city, come by ECN on June 21st. It's your chance to hear directly from the candidates who want to leave Detroit. Hey y'all, it's Orlando. We just want to let you know that the views and opinions expressed during this podcast episode are those of the co-hosts and guests and not their sponsoring institutions. Now let's in the world. Welcome to another episode of Authentically Detroit broadcasting live from Detroit's Eastside, at the Stoudemire inside of the Eastside Community Network headquarters. I'm Orlando Bailey.
Speaker 3:And I'm Donna Givens-Davidson.
Speaker 1:Thank you so much for listening in and supporting our efforts to build a platform of authentic voices for real people in the city of Detroit. We want you to like, rate and subscribe to our podcast on all platforms. Welcome back to the Authentically Detroit Candidate Series, where we're interviewing each mayor, hopeful to get to know why they want to be Detroit's 76th mayor. Last up we have former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. James Craig has dedicated his life to public service and the safety of the communities he has served. Born and raised in Detroit, he understands the challenges and opportunities that define this great city. With over four decades in law enforcement, including serving as Detroit's chief of police, james Craig has built a reputation as a strong leader who takes action and delivers results. Now he is ready to take his leadership to the next level and serve Detroit as its next mayor.
Speaker 1:James Craig began his career as a Detroit police officer in 1977. After gaining experience in Detroit, he continued his law enforcement career in Los Angeles, where he spent nearly three decades with the LAPD. In 2013, james Craig returned home to Detroit to take on one of the toughest law enforcement jobs in the country leading the Detroit Police Department. He is running for mayor because he believes Detroit needs bold, decisive leadership that puts the people first. He understands that crime, economic growth, education and government transparency are top concerns for Detroiters and he has a plan to address them head on, chief James Crick for the first time. Welcome to Authentically Detroit, thank you. Thank you for having me on your show. We are so happy to have you. You're the last in a series of interviews.
Speaker 4:The last. I was hoping I would have been the first.
Speaker 3:Well, we try.
Speaker 1:You try.
Speaker 4:Scheduling. Well, I was a late entry into the race. I probably was the latest. I think I was the last one to get in.
Speaker 1:But you got in. I got in you got in, that's all right, and you?
Speaker 3:got on the ballot.
Speaker 1:And you're on the ballot, actually, with good signatures.
Speaker 4:Okay, you lived in that once, no, not twice.
Speaker 3:I know.
Speaker 1:That's right, and I mean that. Donna Gavis-Davidson, it's good to see you. It's been a while how you doing.
Speaker 3:Oh, you know, I got this brace on my knee. Oh man, I didn't even know this.
Speaker 1:You know what happens.
Speaker 3:I'm a rather stubborn individual and I have decided my knee pain is just short-term and I can just walk without it, and so.
Speaker 1:I mean so you tried to walk it.
Speaker 3:No, I did walk it. I walked from Mission Point to the Grand Hotel.
Speaker 1:She's talking about Mackinac Island everybody.
Speaker 3:Yes, and I walked it and I was fine. Then I got there and then I had to go down to the lawn for Wayne State University event and I walked back upstairs and I walked down to the city to a city council event. She was happy-go-lucky and stood up and couldn't walk at all. But as I was walking to town I was talking on the phone with Kevin. I was like I've decided I'm going to walk and he was like that's a bad idea and I was like you ain't my daddy. Let's just say I wish I listened. Yeah, yeah, it's good to see you, I'm okay.
Speaker 1:I'm okay. We laid my grandmother, my paternal grandmother, to rest on Saturday and so, leading up to that, it had been really, really busy, because, of course, I'm the one that is firing so close. That's always been there, the matriarch of one side of your family, and you have to deal with that grief, and that grief is very palpable and at the same time you got to plan an event. You got to plan like two big events at the same time. It's nuts, it's nuts and I probably should have taken an extra day. I probably should have taken today, but we're here.
Speaker 3:And I'm glad to be here. I'm glad you came, yeah, because this is our last in the mayoral hopefuls we want to make sure that we get both of our voices in here, I will say this though Once an executive director, you find yourself being the executive director in all parts of your life. Right, it's like, oh, donna will do this.
Speaker 1:Orlando will do this.
Speaker 3:You find that that is a gift and also a challenge, so remember to take care of you.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I appreciate that prompt, Chief Crick. We're happy to have you on, aside from the bio that we read, because that's curated and we know that you all spent some time, other than he was also served as Deputy Mayor for the city of Detroit.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we did say it all.
Speaker 4:And also I served as police chief after Los Angeles and Portland Maine. Yeah, and a lot of people always wonder how do you go from Los Angeles to Portland Maine? But I did.
Speaker 3:To Detroit, West Coast.
Speaker 4:Northwest.
Speaker 1:You went to Ohio too, right I?
Speaker 4:went to Cincinnati, ohio. I was the first African-American police chief in both Maine and the entire state of Maine historically. And then Cincinnati. I was the first African-American chief in Cincinnati and Cincinnati is roughly 47% African-American and I was only, I think, the 13th police chief, so they don't have a lot of turnover, a lot of turnover yeah, so what is something our listeners wouldn't know about you?
Speaker 1:What haven't you told us?
Speaker 4:Well, I'm an open book. I've been a public servant for 44 years and so it's not a whole lot to hide. Certainly. Again served in Detroit twice in my policing career, decided to run for governor. It didn't work out so well. We kind of talked off the air about the signatures and I was happy that—.
Speaker 1:These signatures were valid. My hands were directly on the signatures so I wanted to make sure. It happened to a few people. Yeah, a few people got taken off.
Speaker 4:But you know, it's funny In this political—as a politician certainly. They say, well, how could you not know? And you know a candidate is busy doing candidate stuff, but then you have a professional team that's really running the campaign. And so it wasn't until late in the race and I kept asking questions. I said when are we going to start getting signatures? How important is that? Do we have enough time? And it wasn't a priority because the first campaign's manager was more focused on fundraising rather than getting signatures. In a governor's race, that's 15,000 signatures, you know, unlike the mayor's race which is 1,500.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, let me ask you this question. There was something in you that prompted you to say I want to be Michigan's governor. And of course you were not. You didn't make it to the ballot because of a problem with the signatures, right. But now you're running for mayor. Why not wait and run for governor? What happened? Why are you running for?
Speaker 4:mayor. I always wanted to run for mayor. I thought for me mayor was a more natural next step. You know, every place I've worked particularly as a police chief. You know you are a significant part of a municipal government, so a police chief really does get a firsthand look. You're exposed to a lot. The governor I kind of fell into it. Do I think I could have done it Absolutely?
Speaker 1:How does one fall into a run for governor. What does that mean?
Speaker 4:Well, I mean, a lot of people were coming to me.
Speaker 3:They appreciated the job I did, recruited into the job of governor.
Speaker 4:Kind of recruited. But I fell into it in a way. I was recruited, and then the voices got louder and I started giving it some thought and you know, oftentimes say you know, running a police department, running a state, running a city, leadership's leadership, I don't care if you're running Ford Motor Company or the Detroit Lions, you know.
Speaker 3:I've run a lot of nonprofits, right, and every nonprofit is not the same. I'm a leader, but I have to say I found my home here at ECN. This is where I'm able to fully exercise my beliefs and carry those things out. So I'm really interested because I'm writing a book on leadership?
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I want to read it. It's coming out too.
Speaker 3:I want to read it, but before we get to that, I want to ask you a question about how you see Detroit, because you grew up in Detroit. You went away, you came back, you served as police chief and you certainly have, you know, your own experiences. What is your vision of our city and what do we need in order to excel in your opinion?
Speaker 4:Well, I grew up in Detroit Certainly it was a different time Matriculated at Cass Tech, the number one high school in the city. Cass Tech technicians are so I got to put that in there.
Speaker 1:So your listeners, Everybody everybody, listeners got to know, is there?
Speaker 3:anybody who went to Cass Tech who doesn't have to say that.
Speaker 4:I mean I didn't go to Cass Tech.
Speaker 3:Oh, I know yes.
Speaker 4:We're very proud technicians. My sister graduated from Cass Tech, my oldest sister, and she never let you forget.
Speaker 3:Ever she was, until she really got sick and passed away. She used to organize the Cast Tech reunions every year. She was one of the on the reunion committee. So, yeah, you went to Cast Tech and you have that Cast Tech pride.
Speaker 4:Well, and going back to the question, because I know you gave me a few little bullets that I need to hit on. So I remember Detroit. You know that had an African-American middle class. Probably more African-American homeowners in Detroit than anywhere in the country.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there definitely were.
Speaker 4:Certainly the automobile industry contributed to that. I mean, you know, when I left, when I got out of high school, certainly my plan was to become an automotive engineer. I was working at Chrysler. So a lot of people I've worked with on the assembly line, you know homeowners many of them lived on the east and the west side of Detroit and so it was a different city then. I remembered a vibrant city. It always had kind of historically high crime, but it was just different.
Speaker 3:And so after years and my family what year did you graduate from high school?
Speaker 4:74. Okay, and I, you know, started working at then Chrysler Corporation in 1974 in the summer Very different time. So you know I left Detroit, Coleman Young I was. You know, I left Detroit, Coleman Young, he was a mayor. Then he laid off 1,500 Detroit police officers. Now, what Coleman saw was an opportunity to have a police department better reflect the community, the demographic makeup.
Speaker 3:Do you agree with that?
Speaker 4:I do I mean because I was part of that and I understood the value of it. Largely Detroit Police Department doing the 60s and 70s a lot of problems in the black community. It was very little relationship. So Coleman was kind of innovative in the sense that I think Detroit was probably one of the leaders in integrating the police department.
Speaker 3:In fact, I want to hear this, but I just have to ask you, isn't that DEI?
Speaker 4:That's not DEI, and just bear with me while I go through my— Okay, all right.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's not DEI and we can talk about DEI if you want. I'm not a proponent, I am a proponent of, you know, equal rights. I came up under that and that's a whole different conversation. But so Detroit, 70s assembly plant, 1,500 police officers laid off.
Speaker 4:What was unique about the police department? Certainly the demographics. Again, I said it was about 80% African-American at the time. Police department was 70% white or 65% I think, if my memory serves me. And so Coleman wanted to integrate the police department. So our classes were largely African-American and women, which was another innovative step Because around the country women had just started coming into policing.
Speaker 4:Even when I got laid off and went to LA, la was behind Detroit in terms of integrating the police department. It just. But you know, with a growing African-American and Hispanic community in LA, they wanted to bring in African-Americans and Hispanics and so, but LA was way behind. And then women in policing in LA didn't compare to Detroit. Detroit was really a leader in that. So, but again, 1500 got laid off. So I had to make a choice Do I go to Los Angeles, toledo, Ohio? I felt at some point Detroit would call me back, and certainly they did. After four years, and by that time I was in LA and I had promoted, so I ended up staying and staying for, you know, almost 30 years.
Speaker 1:So staying and staying for, you know, almost 30 years, so you know. Another piece to her question was how you sort of see Detroit. Oh, yes, I'm sorry.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so coming back, certainly the city had changed significantly. Detroit at one point, as I was growing up, 1.5, 1.6 million Police department was about 63, 6,500 police officers, one of the largest police departments in the country. And then coming back, you know, the police department was a fraction of it. Certainly the thing that was most shocking to me was the homes, the abandoned homes, dilapidated homes, vacant property, streetlights that were broken and infrequent trash pickups, buses that didn't run on time. I mean, I look at those things as basic services and you know, in most cities cities I live Los Angeles, cincinnati, maine these conversations were never had, you know and then a city that was frankly facing bankruptcy. So when I got the call I was the Cincinnati chief great job. And then I got a call from the state. And then I got a call from the state Was I interested in coming home to be the chief? I said, wow, full circle, that's a dream.
Speaker 4:I always had a goal, many years ago, that I would be the chief of police of Detroit. I just had to go through a path that I didn't know about, but the path certainly from LA to Maine and Maine to Ohio and then back to Detroit. So I really didn't know how I was going to do it, I just knew I could and would and so I did, but certainly coming back. Well, let me digress for a moment because the business community in Cincinnati urged me not to come to Detroit. They said please don't go. The city's a mess, it's going through bankruptcy. You got a good life here in Cincinnati and we certainly appreciate your leadership and we want to run you for mayor of Cincinnati. So I was taken back by it. I was humbled but I said no, I get to go home and the city's in trouble and I didn't know to what extent. So of course I know when the emergency manager came in it was controversial for many of the elected here and the residents. People weren't really embracing the whole emergency manager thing. And I came with that because as a police chief, the thinking was they wanted to bring someone who wasn't really connected to Detroit politics, an outsider. But fortunately I was an outsider. But I had an insider view because I was born here, but specific to the police department and we talk about the basics, you know.
Speaker 4:So it was widely reported that Detroit Police Department some 911 calls. It would take as long as an hour. That's unheard of in most places I mean in Los Angeles by example, a much larger city seven-minute response time. That was the goal, seven minutes. Here it was one hour. The other shocking news was, if they came If they came Because I want to tell you about that and this is the dirty little secret and I guess when I talk about it some of the old heads that were around they don't so much appreciate me they had something called Can-O-4.
Speaker 4:Because people would talk to me I'd say, what's a CAN-04? So calls for service that not handled by 4 o'clock in the morning, non-emergency calls. Emergency calls, they would get to them, but CAN-04 just simply meant at 4 o'clock non Emergency calls, they would get to them. But can on four just simply meant at four o'clock not emergency calls tossed away. That's not service. And I was shocked when I heard that and it was almost a conversation like as a matter of fact. So homicides you know, certainly Detroit has been known as, at different points, the homicide capital. Well, in Detroit at that time the clearance rate, the number of homicides solved, was at 11 percent, one of the lowest in the country. Why?
Speaker 3:was that in the country? Why was that?
Speaker 4:Well, I took a look at that because you know you had a police department that was demoralized. The morale was at the bottom. They weren't really doing police work. The community's morale was at the bottom and anybody knows anything about homicide investigations. It's the relationship you have with a community. See, the technology, all that's great, but a lot of cases get solved because someone who trusts and has a relationship with the police department will reach up, reach out and call and say I know who did the murder. I don't want to be identified.
Speaker 4:So one of the things that I saw coming in is it was a large gap between trust and so community wouldn't talk to the police. In fact there were instances that community members told me early in my tenure. They said you know, I wanted to report the dope house across the street and when the police came over and I'm talking to them about the dope house across the street, and when the police came over and I'm talking to them about the dope house, they turn around and point Now the dope man is looking, so now you've put this person's life in danger, so who would talk to the police? So that's just kind of an example not the only example, because people were fed up and tired of just where was the crime fighting Point. In case you might remember, during my first year I remember during my first year there was this apartment building on East Jefferson, maybe a block and a half from the mayor's residence, the Mnookian. It's called the Colony Arms. This apartment building was compared to the one in New Jack City.
Speaker 4:Oh wow those that saw that New Jack City in that apartment. I forget the name of the apartment building right now but they called it that because every crime imaginable took place in the Colony Arms. It was out of control and, keep in mind from the geography, a block and a half from the Manuga.
Speaker 3:The Carter, not far from the Jeffersonian right. Not far from the Jeffersonian right.
Speaker 4:Not far from the Jeffersonian, the Manoogian was right down the street. Noted that Bing was still the mayor at the time. So when I first came in, I asked the police officers I met with about 200 or so police officers at a union meeting. I said what are you looking for me? What would you like to see? And this one gruffy 25-year veteran stands up and says one want to be police officers again. And I was shocked Well, you are police officers, we're not. So I said okay. He said what else? I said fire everybody at the rank. Then it was the rank of inspector and above, because they're useless, there's no leadership. I said okay, duly noted. And so I really reflected on that.
Speaker 4:And not to mention the fact that Detroit was under a 13-year federal consent decree 13 years, the second longest-running consent decree, but we taxpayers one of the second longest running consent decree, but we taxpayers paid a million dollars a year. Only Oakland, california, was ahead of Detroit in terms of its time under federal oversight and a lot of police officers and I felt like their hands were tied, they were being penalized for every small little things. But here's what became clear, and this is where leadership, strong leadership, comes in the executive and management team not everyone, but a large portion of them. They weren't accountable, they didn't hold anybody accountable and they just enjoyed the world that they worked in as bosses. But the ones who were suffering were those men and women out there doing the real work. And so the other examples police officers were forced to work 12-hour shifts. But what was interesting about that decision? They were forced to work 12-hour shifts, but their supervisors remained on eight hours.
Speaker 3:You know, I remember that period of time.
Speaker 4:That's right. When I came in, it was before me, but as I came in, these are the things that I saw, and when I talk about the difference of how Detroit was and what it was when I got here and so tragic the morale was at the very bottom, so it wasn't no surprise to me why the cops? They were not motivated to work.
Speaker 3:So what about the people of Detroit? You saw certainly inside the system before and later and you talked about growing up in Detroit and how Detroit was. And then you came back. What were your perceptions about the people in the city of Detroit? How had they changed in that time frame?
Speaker 4:A lot of them moved out. A lot of African Americans moved out, particularly when I got here in 2013.
Speaker 1:Not because I came in, but you know I had to add that they moved out because you came in.
Speaker 4:But I had to add that because you came in, but I had to add that in a little comedy. But it moved out because of the instability, the lack of economic growth, broken school system, public safety always an issue. So 7500 african americas moved out of detroit and so I didn't know that number then, I know it now and so when you look at the people that lived in Detroit during that time, their morale was at the bottom. They had lost confidence in city government. I mean, again I go back to the street.
Speaker 3:Let's talk about the police department, for example. Under Mayor Kilpatrick they shut down police stations all over the city.
Speaker 4:Well, I was getting ready to talk about that. I was getting there, I know.
Speaker 3:I just wanted to throw out some other things. I don't want to talk about police, but I also want to talk about some other things, right?
Speaker 4:Right.
Speaker 3:Schools closed 57, 67 schools closed. Neighborhood schools. I understand you don't ever have a neighborhood school, and you had this huge housing recession all over the nation.
Speaker 2:And in.
Speaker 3:Metro Detroit. For the first time ever, detroit residents could rent in places in far-flung suburbs that they could no longer afford, and all of a sudden you can afford to live everywhere. And so there was this move outward that was coming from just opportunity to leave now, but also this pressure to leave because the schools are closed, loss of confidence in government all of the things you mentioned and a government that's not functioning on their behalf. But outside, I remember even the concern about police, fire department and the fact that fires are raging out of control and it was taking firefighters a long time to get to the homes right.
Speaker 3:So there's, all of the public services were in question and there was even a concern at that time. I don't know if you recall what was it the Detroit plan where they were oh, I can't always forget words the plan where they were going to mothball certain areas of the city because the geography was too large.
Speaker 1:Detroit Works Project.
Speaker 3:Thank you, detroit Works. There's 139 square miles and it's too large.
Speaker 4:This is the Bing administration Under the Bing administration just before you got here, right, I heard a little bit about this, and just preceding you.
Speaker 3:you're moving into a city where fire and police departments aren't working. They're threatening to shut down parts of the city and the fire department has just been decimated. The gang squad has been dissolved. So many other things have happened in the city where people didn't feel safe.
Speaker 4:It goes deeper than that, because you mentioned the police stations that were closed and I thought so. I don't know if it came, if that was under Bing or it was Bing Bing.
Speaker 3:No, it was. I'm sorry, it was Kwame.
Speaker 4:It was under Kwame. So they closed these physical buildings down and the tragedy in doing that. So the most densely populated area of Detroit is on the far west side. When I was here years ago it was called number 16. Now it was then the 8th precinct, the most densely populated area, and you shut the physical building and then. So what impact does it have on safety? What impact does it have on relationships with the community? Very direct, very direct. And not to mention, I guess whoever came up with these bright ideas thought it would be okay to physically close the stations that were open at five o'clock, as if this is Santa Monica or Beverly Hills. You know, out there, in those cities, you physically can't enter into a police station. You just pick up a phone on the outside and talk to whoever's inside about what you need, but you couldn't come in and make reports. It was not, but that's there a different kind of city. Well, Detroit did the same thing.
Speaker 3:You know I have a story but I had a domestic violence situation impacting me in 1997. Lived on the west side of Detroit. The police precinct was right there on Grand River and I finally got out of my house and drove to the police precinct and walked in and said you know, my husband has assaulted me. And the response I got was we don't take those reports inside of here, you have to go outside and make a 911 call. So I had to leave and find 20 Cents and call and say this is what happened to me. I just remember how devastating that was. Absurd, the lack of protection.
Speaker 3:So, in 2012,. You know now divorced and everything I think remarried. I'm working in the Brightmore community Right, and you know where Brightmore is the far west side right. The guy's reputation for having a little crime. And you know where Brightmoor is, far west side right it has a reputation for having a little crime and I actually watched somebody steal a car from the parking lot of the Brightmoor Community Center where I was executive director. And you call the police, the police don't come and you have nowhere to go to the police.
Speaker 4:That was a common thing.
Speaker 3:So it was like our city was not being policed.
Speaker 4:No, Well, and then you had leadership. It was a revolving door of leadership and the chief of police does set the tone 12-hour shifts to help raise morale. We went out vigorously looking for properties that we could repurpose, purchase and open police stations, and we did that too. And that was the beginning of starting to change the dynamic, the relationship between the police and community. The dynamic, the relationship between the police and community, very, very important, because you know, of course, the department prior administration would say oh, you know, we do community policing, but if there's no relationship, the key is a relationship, the key is trust, the key is community. That will talk to you. Yeah, and that's so important.
Speaker 4:And so I was at one of these forms, candidate forms, and one of the candidates pretty much attacked me, saying that public safety has to be at the top and you're talking about neighborhood focus. I said I am talking about neighborhood focus and do you not think that with a neighborhood focus? I said I am talking about neighborhood focus and do you not think that, with a neighborhood focus, in addressing crime is not important? So, a neighborhood focus, every place in Detroit, even downtown, is a neighborhood. So absolutely, I believe in a neighborhood focus and that's when we created neighborhood police officers. We divided the city up in geographic footprints because I wanted to have a dedicated officer deployed in the field who would have a relationship with businesses, with residents, with schools in that defined area. And guess what? It worked, because they were responsive and very important.
Speaker 1:I got to throw to a quick break. We are talking to Chief James Craig, candidate for mayor of the city of Detroit. Stick around, we'll be right back. Detroit One Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with one million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit DetroitOneMillioncom to support Black independent reporting. Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events or resource fairs? The Mass Detroit Small Business Hub is a 6,000 square feet space available for members, residents and businesses and organizations. To learn more about rental options at Mass Detroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecn-detroitorg or 313-331-3331. Three, four, eight, five. Welcome back to authentically detroit. We are talking to chief james craig, candidate for mayor of the city of detroit. Donna, I'm going to throw it to you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so, and we talked a little bit about earlier and you said you'd talk about it more if I wanted to, but I know that in 1978, the Detroit Police Officers Association actually sued Coleman Young for what they considered to be a civil rights violation in promoting black police officers over white police officers. They thought had more tenure and seniority or whatever it is they thought made them more qualified. And that's also the program that brought you into the police department to some extent, right? So how do you differentiate between the affirmative action that was used to help make police officers reflect the population of a community and DEI programs today? So I'll make it simple of a community and DEI programs today.
Speaker 4:So I'll make it simple. Dei is not merit-based. Equal opportunity, affirmative action, is merit-based. You know, it's this whole idea that okay. I mentioned earlier in my comments that I was the first black police chief in the whole state of Maine, first black in Cincinnati, ohio. I got both those positions based on merit. That's a fact. But no, you asked me the question. I'm telling you my view of it.
Speaker 3:I understand that people today who get positions through DEI, or students today who are admitted to universities through programs designed to help advance their access, you're saying they don't deserve it or they haven't earned it.
Speaker 4:I'm not saying that they don't deserve it, but the difference between EEO and DEI is merit. Now here's where merit works. Now here's where merit works. So, for example, if you have inequity, say, of women in leadership positions in a police department, and the reason why there's inequity because maybe some of these women weren't given positions that would give them the experience to compete for positions of higher authority.
Speaker 4:So as chief and I did this in every department I've created to level the playing field and I've mentored a number who have since gone on. In fact, two African-American females became chiefs of two major cities, dallas for one, and Columbus, ohio two, and then a gentleman in Southfield who was a chief, and it's a whole lot. But my point is they got there based on merit, but to level the playing field they had to have the type of experience. So if I'm competing for police chief, as an example, and I'm going against someone I've never been a chief, and I'm going against someone who's been a chief, say, in two other cities, of course, from experience, probably a stronger candidate. And so the level of playing field. You have to ensure that people are exposed, that you encourage them to get education, all right, but hold on. You cut me off.
Speaker 3:We said we were going to jump in because we have a lot of questions. I just want to point out that my son went to U of M as a LEED scholar. Right, he had a 4.3 grade point average and a 32 on the ACT. I could not afford to send him. He had a LEED scholarship and LEED was designed to close the gap for children who had other barriers. There's no way he didn't deserve to be at the University of Michigan.
Speaker 3:I agree, he doesn't deserve to be there, but at the same time the scholarship program that brought him there was dissolved by the university out of anti-DEI policies. U of M's black population is about 4% and has been for so many years, and the students who go there have to score high. So it wasn't that they didn't have the merit, it is that there was the perception that they did not belong here. So I guess my question in leading the majority, the largest black city in the nation, right, you want to be the mayor of the largest, most the highest population of black citizens in the nation and we have a president who you say you can just pick up the phone and call, who believes that students like my son did not belong at the University of Michigan. How do you know? How do you help the black population in Detroit feel protected from these?
Speaker 4:notions. The example you just gave is certainly wrong. I mean clearly your son was well qualified, and I mean DEI versus equal opportunity, affirmative action Again, I came up under affirmative action, but nobody, just like your son, nobody gave your son. Your son, based on merit, accomplished what he accomplished.
Speaker 3:But the program that allowed him to go there and there's no evidence that those students did not belong there. And, by the way, it also went to rural white students, it wasn't just black students. That program has been dismantled based on the viewpoint and the assumption that he was not qualified because he's black.
Speaker 4:So what was the program that was in place before DEI?
Speaker 3:Well, affirmative action programs have been outlawed and all of this affirmative action has been struck down by courts and I don't believe that we're getting from DC. Let's replace DEI with affirmative action or equal opportunities, because it doesn't look like the Equal Opportunities Commission exists anymore at the federal level, or the civil rights department.
Speaker 4:I'm not certain about that.
Speaker 3:Well, but I guess my question is I think a lot of Detroiters want to be protected from the policies and the mindsets that are coming through this MAGA culture, and so how would you, as mayor of Detroit, make us feel more protected than we do right now?
Speaker 4:Because I'll always have operated from a place of fairness, and my record speaks for itself DEI, or. You know, I operated from a place of fairness. So it's also unfair to say well, we need a black female to be a commander. Okay then, is she the most qualified? Because that's what it comes down to. Do you think it's okay to put someone in a seat like the chief of police? Well, we need to have a black chief. Why can't we just say can we hire the most qualified? Now I got to believe. If you do a national search around this country, you will find qualified black chiefs, hispanic chiefs, white chiefs. But our focus shouldn't just solely be on race. It cannot be. It never has been, because it should be it never has been.
Speaker 3:But you know, we have right now a presidential candidate that has almost no black men. So if we, by this logic, black men are not qualified to serve at a federal level, so I just I'm not. I don't want to debate this anymore. I just want to point out the optics of this To many Detroiters it is that we're not qualified to lead.
Speaker 3:When the plane crashed in DC with the helicopter before anybody knew who was flying the plane. The assumption was it was DEI and that was put out there. And someone said how do you know it was DEI? And he said well, it's just common sense. This is— Can I say something just to keep it?
Speaker 4:The phone call though Can I keep it yes. Because I don't want to bait you out, right, because you know I understand where you're from. Right, okay, I get it.
Speaker 4:But as the mayor of this city, my commitment, as it was when I've been a chief in three cities- that I operate from a place of fairness and I will always operate from a place of fairness and making sure that people have an equal opportunity to compete, and the only way you can do that is put them in positions. I'll tell my own story. There was a white lieutenant in LA I was a sergeant who approached me many years ago and he said I'm starting an audit unit and I want you to come in. I said I really don't want to do audits, I want to stay out in the field and supervise. He said what do you want to be? What do you want to do? I want to be a chief of police. He said well, the only way you can become a chief of police is you're going to have a diversity of experience because you're going to compete with people that have wide ranging.
Speaker 4:Now, having been a president of a black police association in LA, we all knew that certain officers got certain jobs and so, of course, they get the leg up because they're working in these high profile administrative units that give them the experience that they can go into an interview and get the job, because, frankly, if all you've done is field work in the police department, you're not going to promote.
Speaker 4:And so one of the things that I made certain in Detroit was a little. They have something here called friends and family. There's officers that worked the same assignment from the day they got out the academy for 20 years, using that as an example, and now that same person wants to compete for a position. Now they're competing for a position, maybe sergeant, maybe lieutenant, but you got someone over here who's had a variety of assignments which one's going to do well or do better in the process. One's going to do well or do better in the process, I mean, but it's got to. You got to have a leader that understands that, who's willing to expose folks to different experiences. That's what I bring to the table.
Speaker 1:Let's, let's move forward. I want to ask you about your economic vision for the city of Detroit. What number one, what is your economic vision for the city of Detroit and what is your understanding of our current financial and fiscal position headed into next year?
Speaker 4:recently signing, you know the budget, certainly I want to, you know, focus on growing our middle class. You know, in Detroit, as you probably know, there's I think it's 22 middle class neighborhoods out of 200, plus which that's a key indicator right there.
Speaker 1:So what does that look like? Does that look like programs that lift people up out of poverty into the middle class, or attracting new middle class people to come to the city?
Speaker 4:Well, detroit needs to be a strong middle class city, like it once was and I gave that example early on.
Speaker 4:But there has to be a strong middle class city, like it once was, and I gave that example early on. But there has to be economic opportunities, and so it's multifaceted, of course. But let's talk about small business development. You know, one of the things is I've talked to people in the city of Detroit who are entrepreneurs. They could have jumped through hoops after hoops to try to start a business, and so we're not growing the small businesses in the neighborhoods. That's the economic engine of the city, and this is not to discount the large corporations that are here and we should continue to do that as well.
Speaker 4:But in order to do that, we got to one. First and foremost, we got to make sure our city is safe. People do not want to invest in an unsafe city. That's just got to be a priority. Secondly, our public school system is broken. It's just broken and I guess the reality sunk in when I ran for governor to learn in communities our neighborhoods of color or our most vulnerable neighborhoods, by way of example that third graders in public school, only 8% could read, when the goal is you have to learn to read by third grade so you can read to learn in the fourth grade. It's broken, so that has a direct impact when you talk about the economy.
Speaker 3:What would you do to fix schools?
Speaker 4:Well, you know, the mayor doesn't control the school.
Speaker 1:I understand that, but certainly the mayor has influence in the bully pit.
Speaker 4:That's what I've said publicly Use the bully pit Partner with your. I've said publicly Use the bully pit Partner with your superintendent. I've been very vocal. I know he doesn't care much for me, but I'm passionate about it. The schools are broken and when you talk about population growth, you talk about black families who have left Detroit. One of the reasons is the broken schools Black families who have left Detroit.
Speaker 3:One of the reasons is the broken schools. So I want to. I really appreciate you saying that small business, neighborhood businesses, are the backbone of the economy, because that rarely gets recognized right. It's always downtown Right, downtown's important, downtown's important.
Speaker 4:But small business.
Speaker 3:I'm not, I'm not discounting that it's important, Right right.
Speaker 3:But I think people don't always understand the importance of small businesses into our economy and, to a certain extent, a lot of our resources are tied up downtown because of the Downtown Development Authority and its structure and the rules that say that, you know, those dollars that are generated through property taxes that are, you know, impacted by all of the investments we're making downtown can only be spent downtown, impacted by all of the investments we're making downtown can only be spent downtown. What do you think about proposals from various parties that say we need to change that so that we can have some of those captured resources also support our neighborhood businesses to grow?
Speaker 4:our city. Well, it's called building those relationships with big business to help support small business. Certainly, one of the impediments that I find and I'm hearing this from mainly African Americans who are business owners and what they've had to endure, and first and foremost, is the bureaucratic red tape. I know a woman now who has a restaurant on the east side. She's opened a second restaurant on the east side and she's been trying to open that restaurant for now. It's been about two and a half years. That's not how it should be. I do have a plan to address that, because another example was a lady just opened a cigar lounge restaurant on the east side of Detroit, over in the area of the Stellantis plant, and she said well, chief, I own three businesses.
Speaker 4:So I said okay, she's right on Mac, right Right on Mac, yeah, and we've had a long conversation. Oh well, my two other businesses are in Dearborn. I said Dearborn. I said why are they in Dearborn? She said because I didn't want to go seamless to open your business. It's just seamless, and so my thought is we can have that in Detroit. This is not that complicated. I mean, even as the chief, I would hear from folks and I didn't control it, but it was a bureaucratic red tape. So my view of stimulating small business and continuing to work with big business, I started it in the Detroit Police Department. It was a program, a data-driven management program called ComStat, very familiar, and so my thing is CitySt stat, because one of the most important it's not just having data to say look at what we have here, because I want to talk. It's data that should be transparent, available to the public, but it's a great tool to hold people accountable you know.
Speaker 1:I'm glad you mentioned data because, as we're talking about the current economic picture of the city of Detroit, I think the average household income sits at around $30,000 or something like that.
Speaker 4:I thought it was 26, but you're right.
Speaker 1:It fluctuates between 26 and $30,000.
Speaker 2:Right.
Speaker 1:And I think that because even without bureaucratic red tape, there's still so much holding front low cost to starting a business right and being able to really take part of the economy in your own neighborhood and that's the average Detroit the average Detroit cannot afford to start a business. Where is the financing going to come from? What does that capital stack look like? And so, as you talk about a view of rebuilding a middle class in the city of Detroit, what does that look like for people who are at $26,000, who are at $30,000, who ain't thinking about trying to start a business, who are really just trying to survive?
Speaker 4:Well, you know we've got to work with the educational systems. You know workforce development. You know here's another real story. You know Mayor Duggan did a great job at negotiating with Stellantis getting a plant built here in Detroit for the first time in 30 years, I think the Jeep plant.
Speaker 3:It's right up there.
Speaker 1:It is Right up there right, right behind us, right behind the building.
Speaker 4:Right there, yeah, and so that was a big deal. But here was the eye-opener. So he also negotiated hiring 3,500 Detroiters. Now, you know, automobile manufacturer good paying job, you know, stable Well, it can be, depends on if you're selling cars. But the thing that my takeaway from that moment was the automobile manufacturing plant of today administers an exam because you have to have basic skills, basic skills that you get when you matriculate up through high school. Sadly, the city had got into remediation to kind of help some of these folks that couldn't pass the exam, and that's a direct result.
Speaker 3:Yeah, but, in fairness, he did not negotiate 3,500 jobs, he negotiated that Detroiters got the first right to an interview.
Speaker 4:Okay, well, I heard it was 3,500.
Speaker 3:Well, it ended up being 3,500 jobs, okay, and you know they went to these employment places. I want to honor my colleagues and people who live in the city of Detroit. We have a lot of brilliant people here, lots of brilliant people here, lots of brilliant people inside of our neighborhoods and lots of capable people here, and so I think that the lack of capacity sometimes can be overstated. We work with students We've got a teen center right here People who know how to get into jobs and who are capable of reading and doing all the work. I think the challenge, though, though, for us when that was negotiated, was that my nonprofit sits directly behind this plant and there's a small little liquor store that's been there for 30-some years to 40 years.
Speaker 3:That sits right next to that plant on St Jean and none of us were involved in the discussions. Why couldn't we be represented at the table? Doesn't that make sense?
Speaker 4:it makes a whole lot of sense and I know it comes up one of the the issues for me when you talk about transparency very important, but bring the stakeholders in because they have a vested interest in it and you should have been brought in um.
Speaker 3:I didn't negotiate the deal, but no, I know, I'm just saying that. So what's your view?
Speaker 1:on the current CBO. That's on the books, the current community benefits ordinance. That's on the books in the city of Detroit. Would you want to amend it? Would you keep it?
Speaker 4:I would have to take a closer look. There's a lot of things I mean I don't know the answer to that because I don't know if I would keep it or revise it there are a lot of things I would change. I mean, that's what I'm talking about, For example, really restructuring BC, which is a direct Of course.
Speaker 2:Totally restructure.
Speaker 4:But what I'm going to do part of my plan, like I did with neighborhood police officers. So I know the mayor started this thing with district managers, which conceptually I get it. You know I had neighborhood police officers, but I'm going to take it two or even three steps further by deploying out what I call neighborhood liaisons, individuals who may have been formal inspectors in BC, who are now out in the and their concentration is in a district.
Speaker 3:You know we had that. They came through DEGC and we had somebody appointed from District 4 to go to.
Speaker 1:All-Ark.
Speaker 3:Bivings, that's right Right. Martell Bivings was our person and it didn't really help. You know who has capacity. We do, In fact, hold on. My nonprofit has been here for 40 years. I have almost 40 years of nonprofit experience in this community. Jalen is over there. He is overseeing some of our business work. We have business professionals here. How does a city draw on the capacity of people who work in these neighborhoods and know what's going on so that you don't have to reinvent the wheel?
Speaker 4:I'm in agreement with you. What I'm saying, my vision is not to take away from the great work that you've done here and we should tap into it. What I'm saying is, instead of having this bureaucratic downtown BC that's cumbersome, they do inspections, zoning regulations are dated. I'm saying we push it out on the ground.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll say this and streamline it. That makes a lot of sense. I just want to say this also right that with the Department of Neighborhoods. Also right that with the Department of Neighborhoods, you all could actually fund organizations like ours to be your eyes and ears. You don't have to have bureaucracy in these neighborhoods. With the Department of Neighborhoods we exist and I think the more that government partners with other people, the more efficient things become.
Speaker 3:I absolutely agree and so, yeah, so we have it on record that you pledge as mayor that you are partnered with.
Speaker 4:Okay, I just wanted to say and you know, I'm not just saying it because it's political speak. I'm saying it because this is the way I conduct business. I don't work in isolation and I'm absolutely and this was the dirty word. When I came into the police department here, I said why are we doing that? This is not an efficient way. I'm going to give you two examples, short, quick. Why are we doing that? Well, chief it the people that give out the calls when the community calls in were police officers, the people directing traffic police officers. I said this is crazy. It was this way in the 70s. When I left here.
Speaker 4:I said every city I've worked, civilian employees do what they work in the call centers, they dispatch the calls. In the big cities Cincinnati, la every one of them Civilians direct traffic. So of course, people were a little upset over it. Because it's a change. I said we can't have sworn officers unless they're recovering from an injury, of course, working in a dispatch center. And we're talking about we need more police. How about effectively utilize the ones you got? I'm going to give you another great example. So the mayor's office.
Speaker 1:Somebody said we need more police. Who said we?
Speaker 4:needed more police. People said it for. For since I was here, I mean.
Speaker 3:I mean, I hear people saying that. I hear people saying we need more police. We got to use the ones.
Speaker 4:We got to use the ones that we have efficient, so I appreciate you saying that?
Speaker 3:because when I'm on the river walk, I feel like I'm tripping over police officers and they can't get a call here. Are you saying that we would redeploy some of these police officers who are just stacked up downtown?
Speaker 4:I would have to look I can't speak on what's going on now. So redeploying police officers where it makes the most sense and get the biggest bang for your taxpayer dollar, because if I'm coming to you, says you know city, I need to hire 250 more police officers where you got 200 sitting in a dispatch center. How do you justify the argument? You can't, you just can't do it, point in case. And this was mayors before Mayor Duggan Bing to be exempt, I came in with emergency management. Bing had 26 Detroit police officers signed to his executive protection detail 26.
Speaker 3:He needs 60.
Speaker 4:There's more. If you're talking about 26 officers, that's more than some of our shifts have assigned to a shift. So I came in and I said 20 of your 26 are going back to patrol duties. And he looked at me and said you can't do that. I said I just did. I'm going to leave you with six and I'm taking 20 and putting them back in the field Angry, because it's always been that way. I think Kwame had I'm told I wasn't here 30 plus.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean?
Speaker 4:why does the mayor's spouse, unless there's some kind of threat, need a police officer to drive and provide executive protection? Why you don't need it? The mayor in Los Angeles City the second largest city in the country, because I ran out of the chief's office I ran the executive protection detail he only had four police officers assigned to him Four. So what makes Detroit so different? Oh, we've always done it that way, chief.
Speaker 3:So you would cut expenses where you can. You would look at gaining efficiencies. Where would you spend more money?
Speaker 4:You know that's a great question. Certainly I want to put money to help. You know, like we talked about, you know, small business owners trying to start a business who might need some kind of funding, or somebody trying to buy a home a zero down payment. You know, certainly we know that affordable housing here. I think right now they have 1,900 in the queue in Detroit.
Speaker 1:We're in a crisis. We're in an affordable housing crisis.
Speaker 4:We're in a crisis.
Speaker 3:44,000 is what is needed and the queue is not the right queue, in my opinion. We're building a lot of studio and one bedroom apartments, while families are without housing.
Speaker 1:That's how families are leaving.
Speaker 3:We have right now, under this mayor, there's a decision that we're not going to build neighborhood houses, like houses in the neighborhood, single family homes, because it's not economically feasible, which is not true. What about the mini? What's those little mini homes? Well, listen, the tiny homes you cannot put a family in a tiny home.
Speaker 4:But I have this to say real quickly I'd rather see a family in a tiny home than in a car, in a casino parking lot. How about this?
Speaker 3:We are in the process of rehabbing homes that were pulled out of the demolition pipeline. It costs just a little bit more to completely rehab a three-bedroom home than it is to build a complete tiny home, and those can be for families. All of this affordable house, all of this vacant housing and underutilized housing in our communities, I think that's the most affordable way to build and rack up our neighborhoods. You're probably right, and if I had the numbers in front of me.
Speaker 4:I don't disagree with you. I think we do need to do it, because one thing that comes to mind is that land bank.
Speaker 3:I want you to remember when you grew up in Detroit. The houses in the neighborhoods was what made a city strong.
Speaker 4:No, I don't disagree with you. I'm just saying there's got to be alternatives, because what we're doing now is not working. We need 44,000 homes.
Speaker 3:And so we need to say if we had 29,000 vacant homes in the city of Detroit, any of those homes that could be saved could be put back to use for low-income people at a more affordable rate.
Speaker 3:So my final question I know that we're stuck on time, but for people who work in this industry of community development, we need resources to do it. We have a house that we have. I think I read somewhere that it costs $435,000 on average to build a new house in Detroit. We're rehabbing a house. It's a three-bedroom house. It's going to be beautiful and the cost is going to be $195,000. We have $50,000 from MSHDA to go into that house and $0 from the city of Detroit. Despite trying for eight years to get the city of Detroit to free up some of its resources to support that kind of work, as mayor, would you support us fixing up neighborhood housing for families in our community.
Speaker 1:Absolutely.
Speaker 4:And I'll tell you this is a heavy lift. I'm not going to sit here and say, oh, this is going to be simple, because it's not, because there are a lot of competing. I think it's important to not only the city play a role financially, but also we have to also consider state and federal dollars too.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely Because these ARPA dollars and I'm going to hit a question you asked, sir these ARPA dollars are going bye-bye next year, am I right? Yeah, yeah, so I was reading an article. It was supposed to be a credible article. They said that the city has a shortfall right now of roughly 312 million right now. Now I haven't seen the mainstream news. This is called MyCap, whatever the publication is, but whether it's real or not real, we know that we're headed towards a crisis.
Speaker 3:Well, and the mayor's getting right in time. Right, Because he's going to let the next mayor inherit the crisis that happened on his watch.
Speaker 4:We're headed to it. So what I've called to do one of the first and most important things, seeing that I came in and I understand the urgency, given that I came in under bankruptcy we will have an independent forensic audit and I use the word independent because it has to be independent but, whatever the findings are, in a very transparent way, report that out to the community, also with the steps that we're going to take. Now it's one thing to say well, we do the report and the report's done, and six months later, where are we? That's not how. That's why I said this city stat that I want to launch is very much about the transparency and real-time communicating with folks, because Detroiters need to know where are we budgetarily? Are we underwater? Because, see, we talk about stabilizing taxes and we know we've got to fund some of those critical services and this is why I keep talking about small businesses that will help with the taxes and continue to encourage large corporations to come in. We have to do it because why should we have some of the highest taxes of any place? It's ridiculous. I can't talk to you about insurance.
Speaker 4:Look, I live in the city of Detroit and, by the way, have lived in the city of Detroit both times. I was born here and when I left to go to LA, I lived in Detroit. When I returned as chief, I lived in the city of Detroit. I didn't have to live in Detroit. I could have moved to Grosse Pointe. There was no condition. There was no condition of my employment to live in Detroit. I chose to live here and to me that's a commitment. If you believe in this city, then live in Detroit. I chose to live here and to me that's a commitment. If you believe in this city, then live in the city. Don't come into the city because, well, I guess I want to run for mayor now. I'm just keeping it. I'm not shooting. This is not shots fired.
Speaker 3:Oh, it is.
Speaker 4:But if you want to be the mayor of the city, part of the commitment is you leave.
Speaker 3:Like I said, I didn't have to live here. I hear you Shots fired. Message received. If the target is on point, the target is on point. It stands for itself.
Speaker 4:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You're listening to former chief of police Shots fired James Craig. He knows how to shoot. I'm pretty good.
Speaker 3:I'm pretty good at shooting. Chief of Police Shots fired James Craig and he knows how to shoot. He was the Chief of Police. That's what I hear. I'm sure I'm certain he's pretty good At shooting Pretty good at that.
Speaker 1:Now candidate for mayor James Craig. Thank you so much For coming on.
Speaker 4:Thank you, I enjoyed it.
Speaker 1:I know we ran we have to, we have to come back. We have to have you back.
Speaker 3:He'll be at the June 21st yeah, you'll be at the forum.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like I said, ours is going to be good and no fighting, no name calling, but definitely, hopefully, a lively conversation if you have topics that you want discussed on Authentically Detroit, you can hit us up on our socials at Authentically Detroit, on Facebook, instagram, x, or you can email us at Authentically Detroit at gmailcom. Alright, donna, you want to shout out? Anybody else I?
Speaker 3:do I want to shout out Lauren Hood? Yeah, because I was on Twitter the other day. I'm ashamed to say I'm still on that platform, but I was on there and Michael Harriot retweeted an article about her and was bragging about the Institute for Afro-Urbanism.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. We love Michael Harriot.
Speaker 3:I was like yes, Lauren, you've made it.
Speaker 1:No, lauren Hood. Lauren, no, lauren Hood.
Speaker 3:Lauren Hood, lauren Hood, no we have to take a picture.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, take a picture. Okay, I'm sorry. And, chief Craig, do you have anybody you want to shout out?
Speaker 4:Who I'm going to shout out to my dad, james E Craig Sr, and my late mom, eleanor Whitaker Craig, because if not for them, certainly I am who I am today because of both my parents. Praise God for that.
Speaker 1:All right, we thank you so much for listening and until next time, everybody love on your neighbor. I'm Rolando Bailey of Outlier Media and Authentically Detroit, and I'm Jair Stays of Daily Detroit.
Speaker 2:Detroit. We've got something special coming up that you won't want to miss. That's right Orlando. At 10 am on Sunday, june 21st, we're bringing together Detroit's mayoral candidates for an in-depth community forum right in the heart of the East Side.
Speaker 1:This isn't your typical candidate event. We're talking real issues, real solutions and real talk about Detroit's future.
Speaker 2:Join us at the East Side Community Network at 4401 Connor Street in Detroit from 10 am to 2 pm.
Speaker 1:We'll be joined by my Authentically Detroit co-host and community leader, donna Givis-Davidson, to 2 pm. We'll be joined by my authentically Detroit co-host and community leader, donna Givis-Davidson, to moderate this important discussion.
Speaker 2:Space is limited, so make sure to RSVP through the Eventbrite link in our show notes. Oh, and on that form, there is a spot for your voice to be heard, to help shape our questions and the conversation. That's right.
Speaker 1:Whether you're a longtime resident or new to the city. Come by ECN on June 21st. It's your chance to hear directly from the candidates who want to leave Detroit.
