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 to improve citizens' 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 reach a range 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 and Mary Waters and Council President Mary Sheffield, as well as mayoral candidate Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Michigan Representatives Veronica Paiz and 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 the woes caused by the Land Bank. Sen. Chang and Rep. Phillips committed to tackling tax breaks for hundreds of LLCs across the city. McKinney blamed the delays in policy improvements on corporate influence, pointing to a current ballot petition to get money out of politics in order to address 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 of the upcoming election complicated the goal.
Officials shared residents' frustration over the Land Bank acquiring public land, and sought 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 drew a resounding applause from attendees. Those who'd suffered the loss of their property to the Land Bank shared, 'We're feeling neglected and disrespected, not understanding where tax dollars go.' Rep. Thanedar responded with his disappointment over hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks for corporations, noting that this — combined with community dollars being spent outside the city — results in an additional $2.6 billion lost to the suburbs.
Thanedar presented a solution to these billions in losses: closing the wealth gap must include building up Black businesses, and he shared a recent income-based 0% loan program. The implication that an income-based program would uplift the Black community without any racial eligibility requirement is problematic, but Reeves proposed the loan be repaid through the tax dollars generated by the business. Thanedar was excited to take the idea back to Congress.
Council member Johnson shared her business-development summit aimed at building on the vacant land throughout District 4. Council member Mary Waters shared her focus on eliminating the red tape that's slowed business development — including alleviating the need for city permits for those who can secure state permits — along with regularly hosting annual business-development workshops. Waters encouraged residents to pool resources to open businesses, and urged existing businesses to become registered city vendors. 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. — Rev. Solomon Kinloch
That sentiment captures how residents who've suffered decades of policy injustice have finally reached a point where a variety of resources exist to begin to address it. Representation from the Coalition for Property Tax Justice shared that the city's current tax assessor is missing the MAAO qualification that legitimizes assessors for cities of Detroit's size. The coalition noted that a first-100-days plan could address this significant issue, as residents have been overassessed by hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes that have crippled the local economy.
While residents were forced to bear the weight of economic uncertainty, the state budget had just passed to avoid a state shutdown — even as the federal government entered its fourth day of shutdown. Chang shared how the budget included $5 million toward water affordability, while admitting it wasn't nearly enough. There was, unfortunately, a lot of partisan blaming, which felt more like an avoidance strategy than insight into the bureaucratic delays.
Fortunately, there was an update on Detroit's Reparations Task Force. City Council is currently awaiting the task force's recommendations after previously granting an extension on its report. There was a shared understanding that residents who've been loyal to the city through decades of trials are now experiencing gentrification through rising taxation and utilities. In response, Sen. Chang shared her efforts to freeze property taxes for certain seniors and to give local governments the authority to regulate rent. Rep. Phillips shared her work on a Winter Shutoff Protection Bill, and asked the group to organize Lansing Lobby Days so more state representatives could hear directly from Eastside residents — and so residents could learn where each official stands.
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 Michigan Economic Development Corporation Community Development Block Grants, and the continuing development of a Community Violence Intervention Fund that enables 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 the public officials who cared to show up and listen. It also let residents see their District 4 and 5 CACs at work and connect the dots between the policies that have impacted them and the resources that exist to address them. The next summit is planned for six months from now — and hopefully the concerns raised today will see progress worth reporting by then.
