London's Guardian newspaper, which keeps tabs on Detroit, includes Mike Duggan in an article on the first 100 days of five big city mayors in the U.S.
The paper writes:
When the Democrat took office, in January, he inherited a city $18 billion (£11 billion) in debt, trudging through the largest municipal bankruptcy filing in American history and under the supervision of an emergency manager appointed by Michigan’s Republican governor.
The circumstances were unprecedented, but Duggan – the city’s first white mayor in 40 years – convinced voters he was the man for the job. He promised to rebuild the Motor City by turning on its streetlights, shortening ambulance response times and getting the buses running on time.
To some extent, the self-proclaimed “turnaround specialist” has made good on his promises. The Detroit Free Press points to the mayor’s aggressive plan to relight the city and his programme to fight blight by going after negligent landlords to fix up abandoned homes.
Some critics blame him for giving up too much power to Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, the paper notes.
The story quotes local pundit Greg Bowens, who says:
“As it stands now, the mayor has not slain any dragons or rescued any damsels in distress and everybody's looking for a hero."
-- Alan Lengel
