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.
Check us out on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter @AuthenticallyDetroit!
Authentically Detroit
2025 Election Recap: Detroit’s Turning Point
On this episode Donna and Orlando discuss Detroit’s historic election where the city elected Mary Sheffield as its 76th mayor along with a progressive bloc which aims to reshape Detroit’s future.
After months of forums and one-on-ones with candidates, they share why this landslide felt inevitable and why it has to translate into results at the neighborhood level. Early voting helped lift turnout to 22% this year, now they hope to keep people engaged with creating progress.
They believe a Detroit for everyone requires concrete action on affordable housing, home repair grants, inclusionary development, better transit, and jobs that actually employ Detroiters.
For more episodes of Authentically Detroit, click here.
FOR HOT TAKES:
SENATE ADVANCES PLAN TO END HISTORIC SHUTDOWN IN BIPARTISAN BREAKTHROUGH
AS DTE SEEKS SPEEDY APPROVAL TO POWER MASSIVE DATA CENTER, SOME OFFICIALS PUSH BACK
Up next, Authentically Detroit recaps the results of last week's historic election. But first, this week's hot takes from Politico and the Detroit Free Press. Senate advances plan to end historic shutdown and bipartisan breakthrough. And as DTE seeks speedy approval to power massive data center, some officials push back. Keep it locked. Authentically Detroit starts after these messages. Have you ever dreamed of being on the airwaves? Well, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network is here to make those dreams come true. Formerly known as the Deep Network and located inside the Stademeyer, the Authentically Detroit Podcast Network are for studio space and production staff to help get your idea off of the ground. Just visit authenticallydet.com and send a request through the contact page. 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 start the show. Thank you 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. It's just Donna and I in the studio today, and we are so excited to talk about last week's historic election, where Detroiters selected Mary Sheffield as the 76th mayor of our city. Sheffield will be the first woman to serve as mayor of Detroit and the youngest woman ever elected as mayor of a major U.S. city. The Working Families Party of Michigan also found success in getting Gabriella Santiago Romero, Denzel McCampbell, and Letitia Johnson elected to Detroit City Council. So let's jump right in. Donna, how is today finding you?
SPEAKER_02:Um It's good. It's good. Um, I am reflecting on a wonderful weekend, um, wonderful political opportunities for our city. I'm hopeful, hopeful, and optimistic, more so than I've been in a long time. So I'm good. How about you?
SPEAKER_00:I am doing well. We are off the heels of the East Side Extravaganza. What a great event. So much fun, so many people, um amaz, amazing decor, and just an amazing time. I love when the East Side gathers for a party. Nobody throws a party better than the East Side Extravaganza.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, one thing I always get so excited about our galas is that our galas don't just include, you know, VIPs.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:But our community is very important to us, and we try to make that visible in how we do the work. And it really felt that way on Saturday.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, it's a convergence of corporate nonprofit leaders with community leaders, grassroots organizers. I mean, everybody can do it. And just people who live on the east side.
SPEAKER_02:You know, you don't have to be important uh in that way to show up. Now, we didn't know, I I didn't know until after the fact that the um the DIA also had a gala on Saturday. Um, but I think we cater to a different crowd. I mean, there's some people who went to their gala. That said, people looked beautiful. They showed up. Oh my goodness. I think people were more dressed up at this extravagance than a long time.
SPEAKER_00:You know the East Side when they when they see after five, they go after five.
SPEAKER_02:Can I just take a moment to just brag about the ECN staff?
SPEAKER_00:Yes.
SPEAKER_02:Oh my goodness. Everybody from ECN looked amazing. They took it seriously, and um and and they were so happy and friendly, and people felt that. People kept coming to me and telling me everybody here is, you know, really helpful and friendly, and you could just see it in people's eyes that we had a good time. Um, so it was not a fundraiser. And I say that um, you know, with a little bit of regret, it was not a fundraiser in that it was a fun taker. Um, it was kind of expensive. But, you know, to the extent that it provides a healing opportunity for the community to come together, for us to honor people, to honor leaders. It was so exciting to have um Danny Dolly standing up on the stage with Willie Magaskin. Willie Magaskin.
SPEAKER_01:Oh my goodness, that was beautiful.
SPEAKER_02:And what a moment to have you and Maggie on the stage at the same time, with Maggie giving so much of her background and history with you and really walking people through who Orlando Bailey is, because people have to know that we all come from somewhere. That's right. And um, when when we see you rise, we have to understand you didn't start at the top. You had to work your way. And certainly the brilliance was always there, the drive was always there. But pulling it all together to make you so effective at all that you do, you know, that's it's just a beautiful thing.
SPEAKER_00:It was a privilege. You know, I think that I was thinking about this, that most people never get to hear that kind of thing about them, right? And most of the times those kinds of things are said at homegoing services. And so for me, it was just it was a great, great privilege uh to sit um and watch two of my greatest teachers uh talk about, you know, the journey, the journey that I've been on, and how you all have not only been a witness to it, but you all have um helped to steer it in so many um effective ways. It's it was it was an honor. Everybody was game out. I was so happy to have everybody.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, you know, because everybody loves you, Orlando. And it's so crazy because you should be getting awards every week, and for some reason, I think it just doesn't happen. And there's those people who get overlooked for their contributions, and you're one of them. Um, you were on Flashpoint yesterday, you were um on the news the day after the elections, you are a trusted voice. Um, for me, that was Maggie's moment to talk, but I had to talk about this because I was thinking about truth to power. And I was thinking about the fact that authentically Detroit gave me a platform to speak truth to power, but you helped give me the courage. And so when I think about that impact, it's not just me talking about how you've grown, but how you've helped me grow. And that's what real leaders do.
SPEAKER_00:I'm gonna tell you that I was in I was in the car with Shannon afterward, and we were talking, we were talking about your remarks. And uh I I almost cried because I I said to her, I said, I don't even know what that means. Like I'm hearing it, I'm hearing you say that, but because you're you, I'm just like, I don't know what that means. My brain is trying to wrap my mind around it.
SPEAKER_02:Can I break it down for you?
SPEAKER_00:Sure.
SPEAKER_02:All of my life, you you're at my wedding. Yeah, virtually. And um, you're at my wedding virtually, and you heard what I said in my vows to Kevin. All of my life, I've been told I'm too much, I'm too opinionated, I'm too radical, I'm too whatever. And with Kevin, I felt like I was just right. And with you, you never took my voice and tried to tame it. You know how many people's I've I've been on so many different forums, or people have invited me out and said, and they said, Oh, you need to calm down, calm down, calm down. You it's not being more of yourself. I remember there was one person in particular who was explaining to me if I really wanted to make it big, I would have to learn to curb my opinions. And so I carried this identity as somebody whose opinions were unwelcome. And through Authentically Detroit, I found out wow, people actually want to listen to what I have to say. And so I have, you know, been a person who has not shared a whole lot of my and also, you know, on social media, you can put stuff in in, you know, writing, and then you can, but you wouldn't let me go back and edit it. You know, just put it there and you you made it there. And so I had to learn to trust that I could say something, even something that might be controversial, and be respected for it. So who I am in 2025 is not the same leader I was in 2019. My goodness. I'm heard in so many more places, I'm listened to and I'm respected in ways that I don't think I've been ever in my professional life. And you have so much to do with that. So um that was sincere from the heart. If you knew how I felt about speaking out then, of course I would speak, but you know what I mean? You always say, okay, let me just conversation. Always people used to say, Oh, you're always so diplomatic. I would be, you know, just trying to shape what I was trying to say, not to offend anybody. And then I offend them anyway. But um, but to be able to be fully who I am and in my voice is something that I really appreciate you for. And again, you you provided that form when you were at Bridge Detroit. You're doing that now with Outlier Media. It's not just your voice, but it's facilitating the voices of many other people in our community.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. And one more thing, one more thing. Okay. I know. I don't want to make you cry. When you are on the news and you are reflecting, and I've told you this before, on post-election debate and or discussions, and you're on the news talking about it, I feel heard and I feel seen because you're saying things that I would have said, and a whole lot of people in the um audience would have said if they had ever been given a microphone. Instead, we keep giving microphones to a couple people, some of whom really don't have insight into who we are as a people.
SPEAKER_00:You do a great job. I appreciate that. And I said on Saturday, it's but by the grace of God, but a lot of the seats that I occupy, if it's even for sure behind the desk at WDIV, uh, the bravery that you see to speak that truth is because I'm carrying all of the East side and everybody who has poured into me, everybody who has taught me something with me ever in every single conversation.
SPEAKER_02:And it's it's difficult because as a journalist, you have to maintain objectivity. You can't appear to have too much bias or people won't trust what you say. And there's journalistic rules and things like that that people like me don't have to live by, but people like you do. And so somehow you find a way to thread that needle that allows you to speak, but also maintain your journalistic stance, and that's unique.
SPEAKER_00:It's God. That's what it is. It is. All right, y'all. It's time for hot takes where we run down some of the week's top headlines in the city of Detroit. So for hot takes. Senate advances plan to end historic shutdown and bipartisan breakthrough. That's what we're calling it political, a bipartisan breakthrough when only six DIMs or eight seven Dems, one independent. Um the Senate voted to break the shutdown stalemate Sunday, paving the way for the government to reopen as soon as later this week. The 60-40 vote to take the first step toward ending the shutdown came hours after enough Democrats agreed to I lost my place. After enough Democrats to support a package that will fund multiple agencies and programs for the full fiscal year and all others until January 30, 2026. In exchange, Democrats have a commitment from the Trump administration to rehire government workers fired at the start of the funding lapse and the promise of a Senate floor vote in December on legislation to extend expiring Obamacare tax credits. In the end, eight members of the Senate Democratic Caucus voted Sunday night to advance the House Pass Stopgap, which is being used as a vehicle for the larger funding deal. The breakthrough came 40 days into the shutdown, and as the consequences were quickly becoming more dire, from legal confusion over the disbursement of SNAP food assistance to the decision to cancel thousands of flights out of major airports to relieve overworked and unpaid air traffic controllers. As a part of the deal, Democratic negotiators agreed to ensure at least eight members from their caucus would approve procedural motions to advance the government funding package. There are still additional steps before the Senate can pass the funding deal, but Sunday's vote sent a strong signal that Senate GOP leaders now have the necessary support in their chamber to pass legislation to end the longest shutdown in history. Progressives, however, are privately warning they will not yield back all the time required before a final passage vote, an act of resistance that could delay the shutdown several more days. Donna, what say you? I know you got something to say. I got stuff to say.
SPEAKER_02:I do have something to say, but it's probably not the same thing that a lot of people have to say. Yeah, you know, you can't stop a hurricane with your fist. Sometimes the best thing you can do is to step out of the path and let the hurricane complete what it's doing. Because if you stand in the path of a hurricane or a tornado, you're going the hurricane or tornado is going to win. We have a chaotic, fascistic, controlling president, uh, an obsequious MAGA Senate and House, and a court, a Supreme Court that refuses to use its powers to stop some of the damage. There is no way that a minority body in the House or Senate is going to have their will on these people and you can try to slow it. But what I think is let them. But this idea that if people are going to do people who are fully empowered are going to commit damage, let them own that damage, and they will. If people's health care um bills go up in December and they cannot afford health care, the people will rise up and that decision will not hold, I don't believe. I think that if you look at what happened in the elections this year, you saw a widespread condemnation of everything that's happening with the economy, with food benefits, with the shutdown, because you saw the rise of new leadership and you're seeing even realignment of some Democrats towards progressives, not just young Democrats.
SPEAKER_00:Which Democrats?
SPEAKER_02:Well, I'm not gonna say out loud, but I'm gonna talk to you about this offline because um well, you know, there's okay, just in the city of Detroit, um Sam Robinson reported that the mayor lex father Horace Sheffield endorsed Abdul El Zyed. Okay, and that's that's saying something, right? I was looking at an event that um was given that was for uh um um Abdul Rashida um Congresswoman Rashida J was there and there were people who are from your more mainstream Democrats who are part of that conversation. And so it's like, hmm, it's not happening in large numbers necessarily. However, if we look and we're gonna talk about this, what happened on city council and the you know the domination of those folks, if you look at what happened in the main the New York Maryland election, then you can see that people and all politics starts local, people in local places are saying, let's do something different. And I think we're seeing generational change. Um when people are determined to cause harm and you don't have the legal authority to stop them, the pretense that you can stop them by holding out, we just needed 10 more days. No, you didn't. Because Donald Trump does not care. He's building his ballroom, he's hosting these dinner parties, he does not care, and they don't have the courage to stand up to him. So if they're going to do this, and this is what MAGA thinks the health care consequences will not just harm Detroiters or people who live in DC or Atlanta or other people he may want to hurt. They will hurt farm workers and farmers who are already losing their shirts because farming has become in impossible. They're gonna hurt help harm people whose hospitals are closing in rural communities. We're not closing hospitals in Detroit. You know, and so I think that the consequences for his actions have to be the things that he owns and his party owns, and they will own this. You can try to call it bipartisan, but like you pointed out, six people is defection.
SPEAKER_00:Well, you okay, respect everything that you said. Um I the the question that I have now is 40 days for what? Right? The government has been shut down for 40 days. And my question, and I think a lot of people are asking this question uh to the DNC, is for what? Because I I think the DNC grossly underestimates the political education that people have. I think uh Chuck Schumer uh grandstanding saying why he's voting no, as if he has he and his party has not organized uh a small faction of the Democratic Senate to vote to end this shutdown. I think what it does, it it further erodes the public trust in the DNC. I think Mamdani's win is a referendum on the DNC.
SPEAKER_02:And that I think that's my point, yes. I think that's the point I was making.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and so I and I respect everything that you're saying because let them let them let them take the blame and stop trying to be the responsible party, and look you it, I I I get all of that, but four people are now saying 40 days for what? So the government is reopening. Did they get anything?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, well, I've I'll tell you they got some narrative. And you're you you're the narrative king, okay? You know more about narrative than I do, right? Here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:We fought for 40 days in the shutdown, and then when we realized we could do this no more because of air traffic controllers and they were stopping food benefits, we gave in, okay?
SPEAKER_00:Or a week after or the week after the election. The week after the election. But now, because that's what it looks like. It doesn't look like, it doesn't look like, oh, this we couldn't figure out Snap, and then um we were not able to fly around uh after the elections, and we saw a Democratic sweep. Now it's safe to put forth these seven Democrats who are not running for re-election.
SPEAKER_02:Right, but I'm I'm not talking about how's Chuck Schumer's. Chuck Schumer's toast, okay? I'm not defending him.
SPEAKER_00:Gotcha.
SPEAKER_02:Okay. Cool. I'm not defending him. These are just questions that I'm having in my mind. That it would be possible for others, not the centrist, but others who are true believers who were not giving in. And it would be possible for running people who are not currently elected to say, Democrats held out for 40 days and look what we got. Because the last thing we need, in my opinion, is a DNC that does not exist. At a time where MAGA Republicans are so strong, we don't have enough time to create a new party.
SPEAKER_01:Okay?
SPEAKER_02:So we've got to figure out how to fix the one that we have. If I wasn't charge of the DNC, I would have some narrative around that. And I would acknowledge, you know, there are some people who and I would also, if I were, you know, in charge of the world, I would also help to primary some of the I rule the world. If I rule the world, I would help to primary some of the most centrist Democrats and bring in more of the activist Democrats, understanding that they are the future of the party. Locally, a lot of people are starting to see that. The DNC is dysfunctional. Nancy Pelosi's not going to run again, thank goodness. Um, Chuck Schumer should not run again. We need new people and not Hakeem Jeffries, okay? We don't need new people appointed by the people who are already there.
SPEAKER_00:And, you know, one of the things, I I think there is a faction, the progressive wing of the Democratic Party is embracing this sort of um collective populism, uh speaking directly to people. And Mamdani demonstrated in New York, and it, you know, the new the New York mayoral election is always an indicator of the party system here in the United States of America. Um Dani's campaign, I think, they have to take a serious look at it. And what I'm hearing, or what I'm not hearing from the Democratic leadership in the person of Hakeem Jeffries or Chuck Schumer, is uh a thoughtful analysis of why Mamdani won in New York and why they stayed there.
SPEAKER_02:They are not capable of doing that. We have to turn over the reins, okay? You have people who really are bought into an old generation of politics that no longer make sense. They can't make sense of this world. You have some people who have been around for a long time who are beginning to see the light. I think L. Sharpton, for example, very early on, endorsed Mandami. He could see where things were going, right? But Chuck Schumer and people who are embedded in those systems, people who have been paid for by those lobbyists who are really ideologically not that much different than Ronald Reagan. I'm not going to say than Trump, but than Ronald Reagan. Um, people who embrace neoliberalism are not also going to embrace progressivism. And we don't need them to. We just need to replace them.
SPEAKER_00:Really quick, before we move on, I want you, because I know you have words for this, uh, to sort, you know, some people were giving uh Supreme Court Justice Kentanji Brown Jackson a hard time for uh sending uh the SNAP benefit case uh back. And without and people were mad and did not have the context as to why she did that. Can you clear that up?
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I mean, I think that first of all, it's okay for people to get mad. Yeah. Um that's in a democracy, in free speech, you can get mad at people when you don't understand things. I, for one, said I was disappointed. I, for one, said it was very hurtful to me that it was her because I saw the headline and I read initially, and there was no explanation for it. Now I'm not a judge and I'm not an attorney. Um my understanding is that she understood that the Supreme Court would have lifted this anyway. And that if the Supreme Court did that, then it would be in the Supreme Court's hands. And we didn't want the Supreme Court to get hold of it because we knew the Supreme Court would probably, you know, sanction everything that Trump did. So she had the ability, because of her role in the Supreme Court, to jump in, to send it back to the appeals court and put a timetable on them ruling, which they did last night, by the way, um, that they ruled that they're not going to live to this, but she gave it back to the full court to give it more power and also to slow down whatever the Supreme Court might want to do. Um, and you know, so there's people, and I and I I think it was wise, right? And sometimes people who are leaders do things we don't understand.
SPEAKER_00:All the time. Listen, we're both CEOs.
SPEAKER_02:We And it's okay. It's okay if people question what we do, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:To have it so that, you know, I went to this church um about 40 years ago. Oh, just about 40 years ago, I went to this church, and after service, um, this man came out, he was not the pastor and said, There's gonna be some news um that comes out and don't believe anything you hear. I want you to repeat after me, Pastor So-and-so is a good man, and he would not have done so-and-so. And he had people repeating this. And I'm sitting there like, I refuse, and I never went back to that church. And I mean, I will I reserve my right to be mistaken, to speak out, to interrogate. If you don't interrogate, then nobody gets to the truth. If we just give blind allegiance and refuse to challenge or question, also we can learn, right? And so when I learned more, I thanked people for learning more, but I had people going in there attacking people for being upset about something that is so harmful because no matter how you cut it, and this is my view, no matter how you cut it, the Supreme Court and the judicial system does not have the the ability to be responsive to human needs in the way that it should. To pretend as though the American system of justice is just and we just have to follow the rules. The rules are insane to me. I'll be honest with you, the rules don't make any sense. However, she is the respected jurist and she is effective at her role. And ultimately, I understood. When she issued that opinion, she didn't issue the opinion and say, hey, listen, this is what I want done, because I would have read it. And I made a point of trying to read and understand. I don't watch television news on purpose, and therefore, everything I get by way of news, I'm reading or listening to podcasts, and there's very few-that's the uh that's the key right there. That's the uh the key. But there's been very little written to explain it. And so a lot of what was used as explanation was by talking heads on television shows that I'm not going to watch. And so again, I became educated. Other people can become educated. She was not siding with those with the people who wanted to cut off SNAP benefits. She was actually using a strategy and a legal maneuver to try to buy time and also to protect the court's ruling.
SPEAKER_00:And we have to make, I agree with you, we have to make space uh for anger, we have to make space for reaction, and we have to make space for questioning, even if you know we're so excited about representational appointments and elected officials, um, everyone uh in power, especially, uh, should be able to be criticized, should be able to be questioned. I remember back in the day I said something about President Obama on EMU's campus on my radio show, and I got dragged for thinking that I could critique President Barack Obama at the time, right? And I'm just like, why shouldn't we be able to critique the president of the United States?
SPEAKER_02:You know, somebody compared my comments to their personal attacks against uh Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield during the campaign. I did not attack the the character, the I didn't impugn motives, I said I'm disappointed, right? We can be disappointed with leaders. Sometimes I'm disappointed with myself, if I'm being honest, okay? And I'm honest about that. When I think I messed up, I we're we're we're all human. Yeah. And it's okay to be disappointed with people. You did not do the Cornell West and use, you know, play the dozens with President Obama. You asked some critical questions. We lived through eight years as black people of being afraid to hold him accountable. And that was not good for us. That's not good. And then what ends up happening is a lot of resentment because all that pent-up silence feels like complicity. And I refused.
SPEAKER_00:And I got in trouble. He came to the uh, I know we got to move on. He came to the Kresky Centennial. He was talking about his presidential library, and I I just I had so many questions um and follow-ups around um the community engagement strategy, the community benefit, the silencing of activists in the south side of Chicago who organize community to demand things that they didn't get. Um, and the president uh just sort of dismissing uh real community concern. I'm just like, this is cool.
SPEAKER_02:Anything I say beyond what you said will get me in trouble.
SPEAKER_00:So let's move on. All right, as DTE seeks speedy approval to power massive data centers, some officials push back. As developers celebrate a deal to bring a multi-billion dollar data center campus to southeastern Michigan, DTE has asked state regulators to sign off on its plan to provide power to the massive project without the usual regulatory process. And that request to expedite a special contract between DTE and the developer is drawing ire from some elected officials who argue a project of its size needs to be scrutinized by the state board tasked with overseeing utilities in Michigan. On October 31st, DTE attorneys file an ex parte motion with the Michigan Public Service Commission to approve a contract to provide energy for the planned facility, intended to power OpenAI and Oracle's Stargate project. An ex parte motion is a request to approve a contract outside of the usual regulatory process. In this case, seeking to bypass the public hearings and expert witness testimony utilities are typically subject to in front of the Michigan Public Service Commission. OpenAI operates the popular generative artificial intelligence platform, ChatGPT, and the data center campus slated for Celine Township is expected to include 1.4 gigawatts of computing power. For comparison, that's more power than DTE generates at its Fermi 2 nuclear plant in southeast Michigan, which can provide power for more than a million homes. DTE says its contract for the Stargate campus doesn't need to go through the regulatory process because it won't affect residential energy rates. But some state officials say public hearings need to be held so the Detroit-based utility can prove its claims. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel's office filed a notice of intervention November 6th in DTE's case with the Michigan Public Service Commission. Questions all have also been raised about how DTE will power such a massive campus without tapping into new energy generation. Jill Wilmot, DTE's Director of Corporate Communications, said developers are paying for battery storage as part of the data center project intended to power the Stargate campus. While some have pointed to data centers projects as a way to promote job growth, opponents have countered by raising the amount of water and energy needed to operate them, especially at larger scales. Additionally, some critics say data centers don't provide the jobs they promise because once built, the facilities serve a more infrastructural purpose than a typical business. Michigan Secretary of State and gubernatorial hopeful Jocelyn Bisson's husband, Ryan Friedrichs, serves as the vice president of related companies. Related companies is developing the data center project in Celine Township. Donna, we're going to take a quick break and we're going to be right back with Donna's hot take. We'll be right back. Detroit 1 Million is a journalism project started by Sam Robinson that centers a generation of Michiganders growing up in a state without a city with 1 million people. Support the only independent reporter covering the 2025 Detroit mayoral race through the lens of young people. Good journalism costs. Visit Detroit1Million.com to support black independent reporting. Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. We just read down this hot take about DTE seeking speedy approval to power massive data center. Some officials are pushing back. Donna, what say you?
SPEAKER_02:The last time a big corporation was seeking speedy approval to do something that I'm aware of, that's when we ended up with this Stellantis plant with no environmental protections, without clarity on so many claims that they made. And in fact, when they built the plant, they had promised they had some new innovative technology that was going to reduce the pollution. And then a year or two later, after many complaints about air quality, they said, Oh, we have not assembled it yet. So the purpose of public hearings is to demonstrate and document your point. If you to show improv if you have a good plan that will not cause the kind of consequences that people are realistically concerned about, then you should not mind that level of scrutiny. If we are going to give money and help give tax incentives and brag about bringing something to the community, at the very least we need to make sure the community is not harmed. Is there an example of a data center anywhere in America that has been put in place that has not had an environmental impact and also the impact on people's bills? If so, bring that to the table and show let the experts show because everything I'm hearing is um causes me to be concerned.
SPEAKER_00:Um It's really a massive project. Uh when we talk about uh 1.4 gigawatts of computing power for comparison, that's more power than DTE generates at its nuclear plant. And it's it can provide which could provide power for more than a million homes. That's a lot.
SPEAKER_02:There are there are. And then what are the community benefits, right? With a project of this size, are there community benefits? I live in a community, we work in a community where the electric grid is already outdated, already unreliable, already expensive. And now we're going to add a bur a tremendous energy burden to the same system, although, you know, located in Celine Township. And everything I know is that these data centers end up increasing prices. Now they're saying we won't. We have storage opportunities and things like that. Great, prove it. We need experts to review that because I don't have the technical capacity to review it. It sounds good. And I don't want members of the Public Service Commission to be making decisions based on scientific information they don't quite understand without getting a counter-argument and being able to weigh both sides.
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_02:What's the hurry?
SPEAKER_00:What's the rush? That's my question. What's the rush? Why try why try to rush a contract through the public accountability mechanism uh that helps provide a check? Well, that's the rush. I think they don't want the accountability.
SPEAKER_02:I think they don't want the accountability. And quite frankly, I think there are people who work in government who want the win. It's always a win on day one to be able to say this is something that we have happen. Keep in mind also that once these centers, these projects are developed, and we've invested tax dollars and other even tax breaks and all kinds of concessions, once they're developed, if they don't, you know, fulfill those promises, if electric rates do go up, if the grid is not able to keep up, if the um water is polluted, if air is polluted as a result of this, there's no clawback. They're just there. So I can give you a wink and a nod and make a promise, and there's no mechanism for accountability. We have battery plants that open and close, leaving behind pollution that will be there for many years until somebody pays to clean it up with our tax dollars and build something new that also pollutes. We have got to stop this cycle of destruction. If we're really about sustainability, then we work collectively with these industrial entities to figure out how you can come in in a manner that meets the needs of the community. And if you're going to make billions, you need to spend millions, tens of millions in our community helping to safeguard and address some of the issues and concerns that we have.
SPEAKER_00:Interested in renting space for corporate events, meetings, conferences, social events, or resource fairs? The MASH 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 MASH Detroit, contact Nicole Perry at nperry at ecnetroit.org or 313-331-3485. Welcome back to Authentically Detroit. We are back here live. It's just Donna and I, and it is time for the 2025 Municipal Election Recap. So, uh a historic election, a historic election in the city of Detroit. One of the things that stands out to me, Donna Givis-Davidson, is that there is going to be a really progressive caucus at the city council table. And I'm really interested to see how that will play out uh moving forward. I mean, you have Gabriela Santiago Romero, uh, you have uh newly elected Denzel McCampbell, and then you have Letitia Johnson here in District 4. It feels like a real progressive wing is being formed at the city council table.
SPEAKER_02:I think the other people seated on city council. I'm not certain about that, but I think they are. No, they are. Yeah. So we have two young folks, and then we have Letitia, who is, you know, not sort of in between, right? I don't know what her birthday is. I don't ask people that, but you have She just had a birthday. She just had a birthday. Okay, yeah. It's we have um this movement of people with younger thinking, these people who are really connected to where people are in so many ways. They're all connected with the working families party. They're all connecting with Demos um Democratic. Well, I don't know about Letitia Letitia, but I know that Denzel and Gabby are connected with Democratic Socialists of America. And I know that Mary Sheffield endorsed um Gabby. I don't know about Denzel, but I think that there is um the possibility of a good working relationship with between the mayor and these city council members based on you know prior knowledge. And so um we need to have that kind of energy at the city council table. Um I think that all of them, I mean last last term, we got support from Gabriela Santiago Romero for stuff we were doing on the east side of Detroit. Um I know Letitia has been involved in projects in other communities, and I know that Denzel is going to be um accountable to us as somebody who works for the entire city, but it was elected by his district. Um so I'm hopeful about what that means.
SPEAKER_00:Can we talk about um the at-large uh races? Um, because it was really interesting to me uh that um challenging uh Mary Waters and Coleman Young were uh uh fire uh commissioner or fire chief James Harris and uh former city council person um Janae Ayers. Yeah uh who the FBI quietly um said earlier on this year um that you know we're no longer investigating her. She's no longer or her her former office, she's no longer of interest. There was not we found nothing, you know what I mean? Um and you know, we I believe as a result of that election, as of that investigation, she lost her, she lost her uh council seat. Uh what do you make of the at-large race and Janae Ayers trying to get back in? Because one of the things that I did not see uh from media is um I did not see media cover the closing of that FBI case on Janae Ayers. I think she she that story didn't get out.
SPEAKER_02:I I saw it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, I saw a story.
SPEAKER_00:Um I saw it in Nancy's um on at a a Nancy Caffers editorial page on a free press once, but I didn't see it anywhere else.
SPEAKER_02:I I don't know.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:I don't think that covering that story would have helped her much. Yeah. Um because I don't know that it was clear why she was running. And so if you're running against the power of incumbency in Detroit is tremendously, okay. If you have that seat, you have to be really messing up for somebody to take it from you, right?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Or you have to be really inspired in order to have somebody take it from you.
SPEAKER_00:Uh Angela Whitfield Callaway was challenged by Roy McAllister. Yeah, didn't she take his seat? Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:She took his seat.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And he couldn't take it back. He couldn't take it back.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:He thought he could because of the the way, and you know, she didn't go to anybody's forum. She didn't answer any questionnaire. She was like, you know what, I'm here, and you know who I am. I suppose that's what her thinking was. I have we didn't have a chance to talk to her. But I think, you know, the power of incumbency is so strong. When Denzel was running for city council, he was running against somebody who was a state legislator with a terrible reputation in some quarters, but who was really popular in her district. He didn't just run to say I'm here. He didn't just run against her. He ran with a plan and a vision for what he was going to do as a member of City Council. If you are going to try to take down the top two vocators at large, you better have something more than name recognition, and I'm not a good criminal. You have to have a vision. And what I didn't see was a visionary run for office by anybody in city council other than those two. A lot of times people just run, I'm a good person, whatever, but when you have entities like the Working Families Party or other entities that are organizing people and helping to imbue them with, you know, some type of um political focus and um strategy, you're going to be, you're, you're going to Denzel and Gabby were helped by those parties. Nobody else ran like that. I mean, James Harris is a nice guy. I met him um a week before the election. Very nice guy. I'm sure he's very well qualified. What was he going to do? And if I don't know what he's going to do, then why should I vote differently? I'll just vote for the people I know, the devil I know.
SPEAKER_00:And um A lot of folks think that way.
SPEAKER_02:That's the way we think, right? And so Mary Waters um was number one, um, Coleman Young was number two. We know who they are. Um, but I think what's gonna be really interesting is to see what happens under this new administration with this trifecta.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, because we're we're we're we're we're thinking, I think uh the assumption is that uh Council President Pro Tem James Tate uh would move into the presidency. Uh we don't know who would uh be where are we thinking that?
SPEAKER_02:Uh you know, uh succession. I think some people are expecting that um Letitia Johnson is going to She's gonna run for president. Yeah, that she's gonna run for president. That will be really interesting. You know, if she already has um some folks on her team. I don't know if it'll work, but I know that there are people who want to see that happen. I don't think succession should be the rule. I think what are you running on? And what how what kind of leadership will you bring to the table? And who will have the best ability to get it done?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:So I think the jury's still out. Yeah, we will see. This is gonna be interesting. And it's gonna be interesting to see Mary-elect Sheffield interact with this council, having been a legislator for the last decade or we've never had a city council person um release.
SPEAKER_02:In fact, people said this the way when you try to go to city council, being a president will not get you there. That's another historic first. She's got so many for firsts rolled up in her background. Um, but I think having served as president of the city council, um, she should be leading the city with a healthy respect for the work of city council in ways that we did not see in the role, in the role of city council, in ways that we did not see from the last mayor, quite honestly, or the current mayor. Uh, what we saw from uh Mike Duggan was him seeking to control or to, you know, uh manage city council, not partner. And a partnership, a true partner. She knows you announced as a partnership, I'm partnering with so-and-so after I twist your arm behind your back. But this looks like I I think there's opportunities for a true partnership. And you know, um, I do think that as I've said, and this is a stereotype, so work with me, but I think in general, women leaders tend to lead with a more collaborative approach than male leaders because of how we're socialized. Men are taught to dominate, women are taught to cooperate. And so that is ingrained in us from the time we're young that we need to bring other people along with us. There are some women who have gotten ahead by learning to adopt that other type of thinking. And certainly there are women who, you know, don't cooperate or collaborate. But in Mary Sheffield, what we saw with her at City Council is her strong ability to bring other people along with her on many things. That's how she became the youngest ever city council president and got a lot of work done.
SPEAKER_00:Um victory. I mean, it wasn't even close. What did what does that mean? What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02:You and I, you and I um held how many debates? We were I mean, we held how many interviews?
SPEAKER_00:A lot. I can't count.
SPEAKER_02:We can't we interviewed every single candidate one-on-one, and we hosted a debate, and we brought the entire field there. And there was one person in every forum I saw who knew the city backwards and forwards, who had very specific and precise plans. And her name is Mary Elect Mary Sheffield. She did her homework, she understood the issues, she was able to communicate the issues. And you know, some people talked about her announcement video where she was running through the community saying hi to people and stuff like that. And they're like, what is that? But what I saw was somebody who loves Detroit and who's comfortable being in these different places of Detroit. And when you contrast that with her opponent who never communicated a real positive message about who Detroit is, all I heard was this is the worst crime ever. We're the, you know, we're so poor, we're all of that. But you know, we're also fly. We're also creative, we're also people who've accomplished things even in these moments. And if you don't know what that is, and you think that you have to just come in here and fix everything from the mayor's office, then maybe you should not be mayor. And I think what people saw was somebody who they could believe as a leader and they could connect with as a leader. I was at her victory party, and it was electric. It was like, wow. First of all, not my music. I don't know who any of these people are, other than Big Sean, right? But the whole You know Icewear Vetto. No, I do not.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:No, I do not. I don't know T Grizzly. I don't know any of those folks. I don't listen. I don't. Okay. And that's it's perfectly okay, right, Bob? I'm I'm of an age where I not expected to. I think a whole lot of people my age who were there bopping with didn't know who we were dancing to either. And that's okay. But the reality is most of the people in the room did. You had so many young people who were out there. This is an opportunity for young Black Detroit to stand up and be seen and heard. We are not going to be marginal anymore. I'm not young, but you know, younger people are not going to be marginal anymore. Black people are not going to be marginalized. When I first got to ECN, I went to a um meeting at the planning department. And we were sitting around a great big conference table. And I was one of three. I was there. Oh, I'm sorry. I was there with you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Orlando. I forgot you used to work here. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. We went to this down, and you remember we're like the only black people on the around the table. I was like, there are no black people sitting around this table representing the city of Detroit. It was shocking to me. And of course, that has been, you know, addressed and corrected. But that feeling of being marginalized in our own city is something that a lot of people have felt uh politically. And it's not going to happen this time.
SPEAKER_00:You know, Donna, such a decisive victory, I think, is also a mandate. What do you think that mandate is?
SPEAKER_02:Um, well, uh what Mayor Alex Sheffield said she was going to do, she was going to create a Detroit for everyone. And that means invest in neighborhoods, invest in housing, invest in jobs that actually employ the people who live in this city. You can invest in jobs and have all kinds of jobs growth, but you can see a lot of the people who work in the city of Detroit in these new jobs don't live here. They're not for us. They are the highest paying jobs are for Detroit Future Cities has done studies on this, and we can see what's happening. And so she's promised that. She's promised wraparound services in schools, improved transit. Um, housing is a big, you know, and and home repair grants. And she's done a great job with home repair grants, even on city council, making sure it stayed front and center, inclusionary housing, making sure it stays front and center. And so I think the mandate is to do what she said she was going to do. And that's going to mean making some political choices that the mayor has the privilege of making. And also it's going to mean that those of us in the community who are already engaged in some of this work have to be willing to roll up our sleeves and partner with her because no mayor can fix an entire city. It's all of us who have to fix it together. What we need is um support, permission, encouragement, and you know, just I don't know, um to partner with the city. And I think it's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00:Um, I ran into um Department of Delections director Daniel Baxter at the East Side Extravaganza. Um, and we were having a conversation about turnout. What does last Tuesday, Tuesday's turnout uh mean? Um and is there and we were also sort of having this conversation about what the clerk should be doing and what candidates should be doing and what coalitions should be doing. Uh we had a turnout of about 22%, uh, which I welcomed and celebrated because it's up from 16% from the last mayoral general. We should applaud that. Um, what does it mean? Are people getting excited? Is is this an opportunity to build upon momentum, or are people still, you know, just mad Detroit don't come out? And you know, this is your podcast too, Donna.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, it is. Um my phone is on do not stir, I'll have you know, so I don't know why it came through. Um but um mandate.
SPEAKER_00:Turnout.
SPEAKER_02:Turnout.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Um, I think that we look at turnout um through the wrong lens. 60% of the people who turned out turned out prior to election day. And so a lot of people are looking at relatively empty polling sites and saying nobody's here. And I was one of those people, it's a ghost town. Um, we're not going to be able to see what turnout is when we go to vote if we vote on election day. And so I think I was saying to people like a lot of people voted early in absentee, don't be discouraged. Right. So if we're comparing this to 10 years ago, it looks like we have less turnout, but in reality, we don't. Um, so that's my opinion. Actually, if you look at, and I was looking at some old voting statistics, and I really want to do a better job of it. I think the other thing is that we have more registered voters than we did sometime ago.
SPEAKER_00:519,000 registered voters in City Place.
SPEAKER_02:And in in 2013, I think there were 400 and some, there were more people. There were more people, but fewer registered to vote. So when you have more people registered to vote, turnout, you know, looks worse because we've had voter registration drives, even if more people are voting. So I think that that's one of the issues that I think we need to be really clear about is what does um what does turnout mean? Um how do we measure it so we can get all those numbers correct? How do we experience turnout in terms of going to the polls? I was encouraged by 22%. And I think it will get better to the extent that our political leaders do a better job of making people feel represented. I think some of the negativity around the campaign, none of these people are qualified and all of that kind of stuff, really does resonate with some people. And so they're going to need to see the kinds of changes, and it could be small changes, right? Um, like they're building houses in my neighborhood or this store across the street is opened up that means something to me. It could mean that there are, you know, changes in my child's school, and those things are incremental. But I think the other thing that we have to keep in mind is that we have a chaotic president, and we talked about that, who is determined to make um black and brown folks suffer. And that could mean budgetary losses in the city of Detroit, which means we're going to need to see some movement and Lansing supporting the generation of additional revenues in our community so that we can replace what we know is going to be lost. It's going to mean, you know, maybe tightening up in some departments so that we have money to spend in others. And that's the task of the new administration. And we have to be patient. Yeah, we have to be patient, right? It's not going to happen overnight. Um, but I think if we continue on this path of representative government, of government that is doing the work that Denzel McCampbell says he's going to do, that Gabriel Santiago Romero says she's going to do, that Letitia Johnson is working to do, and that our mayor elect is working to do. If we continue seeing that progress, more people will be connected and continue. And it's our job also, yours as a journalist, mine as a community development corporation leader to continue to engage the community and help them connect with these folks. We're having a meeting here on the 15th on Saturday with um council member um Letitia Johnson to talk about budgeting. And so partnering with our elected officials to bring people into various city processes has to be part of the equation.
SPEAKER_00:All right. On from campaigning now on to governing. What are you most excited about? Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_02:I don't know. I can't stop smiling. Um I am so excited that we have broken a log jam in our government. Um Detroit's politics are changing.
unknown:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:I can feel it. I can see it. And I've wanted this for so long. Um to see that um younger people are in charge, to see that progressive policies are now becoming mainstreamed in our community. When my friend, and I've said this before, Keith Ellison ran for Congress in 2006. He said, You should run too, Donna. And I said, if I ran on what I believed, and I'd never be elected to Detroit. And, you know, and I feel as though people who believe what I believe can be elected in the city of Detroit, and that is a sea change in 19 years. So hats off to Detroit for not just, you know, what we're doing here, and also hats off to people around the nation who are taking charge and saying we believe in democracy and we're going to make it work. Because the worst thing that we can do is say democracy is dead. That also scares people and demoralizes people. Democracy is alive and well in America. The presidency is broken, but not democracy. And we need to keep on working together at the grassroots level to make it work.
SPEAKER_00: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, and Twitter, or you can email us at authentically Detroit at gmail.com. All right, it's time for shout-outs. Let's start with you. You have any?
SPEAKER_02:I want to shout out to all of our award winners on Saturday. I want to shout out to Henry Ford Health as our corporate champion. Hey Bob. Hey Valencia. Um and yes, and of course, Valencia, we love her, right? We love Valencia Steidemeyer. Um, I want to shout out um 42 Forward as our community partner and Genesis Hope as the um Innovator Award.
SPEAKER_00:And um Shout out to their fearless leader, Janine Hatcher.
SPEAKER_02:Janine Hatcher and Molly Sweeney, of course, um 42 Forward. And what what I love about those organizations is they brought everybody to the stage. They did.
SPEAKER_00:I was like, what is this? The source awards? I love it. They brought the whole entourage of the stage. I love that. It was so great.
SPEAKER_02:It is so amazing, right? Um, who am I missing? Um we had our um Marla Stademeyer um Dream Hampton Hampton was our Eastside Legend Award. A lot of people don't know of her work, but what I really love about her is that she takes the east side with her. And she actually lives on the east side in Lafayette Park, by the way. She's still here. Yeah. Um, and let me see, who did I miss?
SPEAKER_00:Um All your most outstanding on the East Side awardees. And so uh Savoy Restaurant, um the Detroit Yacht Club, Chandler Park, um Strength and Unity Block. Strength and Unity Block Club, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and then our two youth awardees. Yeah, the youth awardees.
SPEAKER_00:Special thanks to Curious Enterprises and MacAlter Square LLC for sponsoring those scholarships.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. So I mean, um I everybody, I'm just shouting out all of the people who won, all of the people who contributed and continue to build power in our community and make this a livable place.
SPEAKER_00:And to everybody who made the event possible, all of the sponsors, um, I saw Carla Walker Miller there, and I saw Robert Lockett there, I saw that USNatback had a table, and Detroit Future City had a table, and Portia Powell, ECN's, one of the ECN's newest board members, when Detroit Credit Union had a table. So everybody who contributed.
SPEAKER_02:You know, when you have icons like Carla Walker Miller at our event, knowing that the DIA was having an event that same night that says something about um the connection between some of these leaders in our organization. Um, shout out to everybody. I really appreciate it. And of course, you, Orlando. I'm so proud of you and appreciate having you as a friend. Um, I think you're an unusual person who has friendships with people in their 70s and 60s.
SPEAKER_00:I value it all. I value it all. We thank y'all so much for listening, and until next time, love on your neighborhood.
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