Several candidates want to replace Mike Duggan, the only mayor the city has had since its financial crisis. Detroit’s next challenge, residents say, will be reviving forgotten neighborhoods.
The last time Detroit voters chose a new mayor, the local government was largely controlled by the state, the population was in free-fall and the city was careening through the largest municipal bankruptcy in American history.
A dozen years later, Detroit is functional again. Local control of City Hall was long ago restored, the city’s bond rating is on the upswing and the streetlights are back on. And after decades of hemorrhaging residents, the city has seen slight upticks in population in the last two years, according to Census Bureau estimates.
Now, with Mayor Mike Duggan not running for a fourth term, a large field of candidates wants to lead a changed Detroit, population 645,000. The candidates and their supporters broadly agree that Detroit is better off than it was, and that the city’s downtown and Midtown were transformed in the Duggan years. At stake now, residents say, is Detroit’s next chapter, and whether the renaissance in parts of the city will spread to still-struggling neighborhoods.
The New York Times
By Mitch Smith
Aug. 4, 2025