Eastside Policy Summit Reveals Detroit at the Intersection

This past weekend the Eastside Summit was hosted in service of District three through five residents by the District 4 and District 5 Community Advisory Councils. Detroit’s Community Advisory Councils (CACs) were established recently in order to improve citizen’s access to government and are made up of volunteers, elected district residents including teens and seniors.  

The summit was designed, not as a debate, but as a direct pathway for residents to a range of of their local public officials from the city to the federal level in order to address residential concerns, provide concrete solutions and share established resources.

Panelists included City Council members’ Latisha Johnson, Mary Waters and Council President Mary Sheffield as well as Mayoral candidate Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Michigan Representatives Veronica Paiz, Donavan McKinney, U.S. Representative Shri Thanedar (who sponsored catering for the event) and Michigan State Senator Stephanie Chang. The panel was moderated by Eastside Economist Toinu Reeves.

With the intent of uplifting the interests of those “across the city who get less attention”, the majority of concerns were grounded in economic insecurity. For decades residents have been entangled in poorly executed policies from overassessed property taxes to the proliferation of LLC landlords and woes caused by the Land Bank. Sen. Chang and Rep. Phillips committed to tackling tax breaks for hundreds of LLC across the city. McKinnney blamed the delays in policy improvements on corporate influence, pointing to current ballot petition to get money out of politics in order to address all these associated issues. 

The lack of trust between residents and representatives isn’t exclusive to Detroit. Government representatives struggle to communicate how they’re serving their constituents nationwide. While this was an opportunity for panelists to do that, the intensity caused by the upcoming election complicated this goal. 

Officials shared with residents’ frustration over the land bank acquiring public land, seeking to reform it by renegotiating its MOU with the city. One strategy was eliminating the Nuisance Abatement Program (NAP) which requires a city council vote. Others preferred dissolving the land bank entirely which got a resounding applause from attendees. Unfortunately attendees who’d suffered the loss of their property by the Land Bank shared, “We’re feeling neglected and disrespected, not understanding where tax dollars go”. Rep. Thanedar responded with his disappointment in hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporation. He shared that this in combination with community dollars being spent outside of the city results in additional losses of $2.6B dollars spent in the suburbs.

Thanedar presented the solution to these billions of dollars in loss for the city by saying that closing the wealth gap must include building up Black businesses, sharing a recent an income based 0% loan program. The implication that an income based loan program would uplift the Black community without any racial eligibility requirements is problematic, but Reeves proposed the loan be repaid through the tax dollars generated by the business. Thanedar was excited about this idea to take back to Congress. 

Council member Johnson shared her business development summit targeted towards building on the vacant land throughout District 4. Along with this, Council member Mary Waters shared her focus on eliminating the red tape that’s slowed business development including the need for city permits being alleviated for those able to secure state permits along with regularly hosting annual business development workshops. Council member Waters encouraged residents to pool resources together in order to open businesses as well as for those with businesses to become a registered vendor with the city. Representative Phillips reminded attendees of the free technical assistance provided by the Michigan Economic Development Corporation  and the collective push to implement Obama’s Jobs’ Act.

“We’re at an intersection of opportunity and choice” says Kinloch, a statement that beautifully represents how residents who’ve suffered decades of policy injustice have finally reached the point where a variety of resources exist to begin to address those injustices. Representation from the Coalition for Property Tax Justice shared that the current city’s tax accessor is missing the MAAO qualification legitimizing assessors for cities of Detroit’s size. The coalition shared that first 100 days plan would be able to address this significant issue as residents have been overassessed hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that’ve crippled the local economy. 

While residents were continually forced to bear the weight of economic uncertainty, the state budget had just passed in order to avoid a state shutdown while the Federal Government was in its fourth day shutdown. Chang shared how the budget included $5m towards water affordability though admitting it wasn’t nearly enough. There was unfortunately a lot of partisan blaming happening, which felt like more of an avoidance strategy than insightful reasoning behind bureaucratic delays.

Fortunately there was an update on Detroit's Reparations Task Force. City council is currently waiting for the task force’s recommendations after having previously granted an extension on their report. There was a shared understanding that residents who’ve been loyal to the city through decades of trials are now experiencing gentrification through increasing  taxation and utilities. In response, Sen. Chang shared her efforts to freeze property taxes for certain seniors and give local governments the authority to regulate rent in order to address gentrification. Rep. Phillips also shared her efforts on a Winter Shutoff Protection Bill and requested the group organize Lansing Lobby Days that would allow more state representatives to hear directly from Eastside residents about their concerns and for residents to connect directly with where each state elected official stands on these issues. 

Several resources were shared during the summit including an ongoing community development RFP, income based 0% interest business loans, District 4's business development summit, free technical assistance through the Michigan Economic Development Corporation Community Development Block Grants, and the continuing development of Community Violence Intervention Fund enabling community organizations to respond to instances of violence in place of the police department.

This summit was a valuable opportunity for residents of Detroit's Eastside to voice their concerns and witness those public officials who cared to show up to hear them. It also served as a platform for residents to witness the efforts of their District 4 and 5's CACs at work and connect the dots between the policies that have impacted them and the resources that exist to address those. The next summit is planned to be hosted in another six months and hopefully the concerns raised today will see progress worth reporting at that time.