Outgoing Mayor Mike Duggan reflected on the biggest moments across his three terms in office during a Monday “exit interview” hosted by the Detroit Economic Club.
Duggan decided not to seek reelection so he could run for governor of Michigan in 2026 as an independent candidate. He leaves office with high approval ratings, according to recent polling, and strong support from Detroit’s business community. The Monday discussion with Huntington National Bank Chairman Gary Torgow had a friendly and effusive atmosphere.
Here are some of the top takeaways from the interview:
1. Detroit’s NFL Draft almost fell apart
Duggan considers hosting the 2024 NFL Draft among the high marks of his time in office, but he revealed the event was very nearly a disaster.
Duggan said the event was positioned downtown to maximize the impact for local businesses, but the public safety plan hinged on real-time monitoring through a network of surveillance cameras. Those cameras went offline two hours before gates opened to the public, with hundreds of unaware fans already in line.
A construction crew working on the JW Hotel at Water Square severed a fiber-optic cable. Duggan laughed about the incident on stage with Torgow, who founded the real estate development company building the hotel.
But it wasn’t as funny at the time. Duggan said the loss of camera coverage sent his team into a panic. Then-Police Chief James White couldn’t allow the event to start without getting them online.
Duggan said he called AT&T President David Lewis, the only person who could fix it. Forty-five minutes later, the cameras were back online and the event continued without delay.
Duggan said it wasn’t the only aspect of the draft that required some flexibility.
He was originally asked by the Detroit Lions to announce their fifth-round pick, which Duggan said was flattering but also not the most consequential pick. The Lions offered to let him announce the third-round pick, but that fell through when the Lions traded with the Vikings. Ultimately, Duggan announced the second-round pick alongside Lions legend Barry Sanders.
Duggan said it was among the best days he’s had as mayor.
2. Growing population is great, but families aren’t moving in yet
Duggan famously encouraged residents to judge his success as mayor by whether he was able to reverse a decades-long population slide and add new residents. It happened, but Duggan said the long-term challenge is to add families with children.
Growing the city’s population was harder to achieve than Duggan thought, he admitted on Monday. It took most of his term, but the city’s population increased for the last two consecutive years..
U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 estimate marks the first year of population growth since 1957, a modest gain of about 1,852 people. The city added 6,791 in 2024, a 1% increase, according to the Census.
Detroit’s population remains down by roughly 37,000 since Duggan took office in 2024, but he celebrated the trend reversal and Detroit’s rise to the 26th-largest American city.
Meanwhile, Duggan said most of the newcomers are single adults or couples without children
“Almost no families with school-age children are moving into the city, and ultimately public schools in not only Detroit but across the state need to turn around,” Duggan said, sliding into his gubernatorial campaign pitch on education. “The state still diverts $1 million per year in that six-cent sales tax you were promised was going to schools. We’ve got to put the school’s money back in schools.”
3. Duggan is ‘obsessed’ with riverfront development
Detroit’s riverfront is among its most important “underutilized” assets, Duggan said, and restoring vacant sites to public use was something he was “obsessed with every single day.”
Duggan highlighted two projects as vital for the ongoing development of the riverfront: A WNBA headquarters and youth sports complex, and Dan Gilbert’s vision for partially demolishing two Renaissance Center towers to make room for an enhanced public square.
“I’m telling you, the continued development of the riverfront is what’s going to define the city over the next 20 or 40 years,” Duggan said.
Duggan celebrated the plan to build 40 acres of youth sports fields on the long-abandoned former Uniroyal site on the east riverfront. He said it’s a better use than a previous development plan that sought to build private waterfront condos.
The mayor also vouched for Gilbert’s $1.6 billion plan for reshaping the Renaissance Center, which received a $75 million cash commitment from the Downtown Development Authority. The plan includes tearing down two of the five office towers closest to the river and a podium at the base of the complex and constructing a family-friendly waterfront entertainment district comparable to Chicago’s Navy Pier.
“You are talking about as spectacular a riverfront as anywhere in America,” Duggan said. “It helps you bring young people who want to live here. It helps you recruit businesses that want those young people. It helps college students. People are enrolling in college at Wayne State because they want to be coming to Detroit.”
Duggan said the projects expand on earlier efforts to create the Detroit Riverwalk, which will connect both sites to the newly-opened Ralph C. Wilson Centennial Park and the under-construction Joe Louis Greenway loop.
4. Sheffield’s transition, preparation is impressive
Duggan said Mayor-elect Mary Sheffield will have a “learning curve” to overcome, but he’s impressed with the way she’s been handling her transition before taking office in January.
“We’ve had ongoing conversations, but the advantage of having somebody who’s been in city government for 12 years, she is as prepared as any mayor has ever been,” Duggan said. “She knows what she’s doing, and I’ll be around when she has questions.”
Duggan said Sheffield’s decision to convene public discussion and invite feedback from residents is a smart move. He said it’s important for mayors to build consensus and public trust before embarking on major policy decisions.
Sheffield’s transition chair, Melvin Butch Hollowell, also advised Duggan’s transition in 2013. Hollowell said one major difference is Duggan was somewhat handcuffed by having a state-appointed emergency manager running Detroit’s government when he took office.
“It’s hard to describe how hopeless things were in 2013,” Duggan said. “You had 1,300 people a month moving out, the highest murder rate and unemployment rate in the country and we hadn’t hit bottom. Now, I think people can see the potential for this city. They’re imagining the city they want.”
5. Data center ‘fiasco’ could have been avoided
Duggan argues Michigan needs to have predictable policies for recruiting businesses, saying data center projects look like “fiascos” when residents are left in the dark.
Michigan communities are up in arms over incoming data centers that consume massive amounts of water and electricity, raising concerns about the environmental impact and utility costs for residents. DTE Energy attempted to “fast-track” approval of a massive project in Saline Township for a tech firm partnered with artificial intelligence companies, sparking outrage and protest from environmental groups and Michigan residents.
The Michigan Public Service Commission declined to rule on the contract request, delaying the decision until Dec. 19. Attorney General Dana Nessel intervened to oppose the “secret deal” from being rushed through, while Gov. Gretchen Whitmer advocated for the project’s economic impact.
“This is a matter of national security and economic competitiveness, and if we do not act, it will cost us thousands of jobs and billions of dollars of investment in our economy,” Whitmer said in a Dec. 3 statement.
Duggan didn’t exactly say he opposes data centers, but argued that better public outreach would prevent residents from feeling like they’re on the sidelines of decisions that affect their communities. The 2026 gubernatorial hopeful also said data centers must guarantee utility rates won’t increase or pass costs on to residents and protect waterways.
“We need, as a state, to have a single standard up front, instead of popping up these deals out of secrecy,” Duggan said.
Duggan said he encountered a similar protest when an Amazon Fulfillment Center came to Detroit, but he navigated the pushback by meeting with residents and meeting their demands for park investments in exchange.
“We’ve lost a lot of big projects, not just data centers, and in each case the neighbors were angry,” Duggan said. “The neighbors have got to feel a part of these major developments. And so when I get (elected governor), there’ll be a single standard. It’ll apply to everybody, and my team will be sitting with neighbors saying, ‘let’s develop this in a way that your community can support.’”
6. Will peace prevail on the City Council?
Duggan has repeatedly praised the City Council for working together and avoiding petty squabbles that undermined the work of the body in the past. He returned to the topic Monday, saying the council deserves “enormous credit” for constructively working through disagreements.
The mayor said maintaining those relationships is essential to landing business investments and implementing Sheffield’s agenda when she takes office. Voters reelected all incumbents who ran in 2025, resulting in seven of nine members staying in place. District 5 will be represented by newcomer Renata Miller, while District 7 will be represented by Denzel McCampbell.
Duggan was asked by The Detroit News what he makes of voters electing two Democratic Socialists to the City Council — McCampbell in District 7 and incumbent Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero in District 6.
“It told me candidates who worked the hardest and knock on the most doors win in the city,” Duggan said. “I’m not sure the philosophy was the reason.”
Duggan said D7 Council Member-elect Denzel McCampbell “worked really hard,” and “you’ve got to admire that kind of campaign.” Duggan said he and D6 Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero “got a lot of things done together.”
7. Duggan retained police chiefs with ‘Harbaugh contracts’
Reducing carjackings and violent crime was a major achievement Duggan has highlighted as instrumental to the city’s recovery. One of the keys to that success, he said, was locking in talent in the public safety department.
Duggan said chiefs were offered contracts that ensured two years of job security but required them to buy out of the contract if chiefs decided to leave. Duggan called it a “Jim Harbaugh contract” — the former University of Michigan football coach had a similar clause that required him to owe the university millions if he left early.
Police chiefs who left during their contract would have had to repay the equivalent of two years of salary to the city of Detroit, Duggan said.
The mayor said Police Chief James Craig, James White and Todd Bettison all took the deal. Bettison offered the same deal to his three assistant chiefs to prevent them from being poached, Duggan said.
“You would only take that deal if you were committed,” Duggan said.
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