In the third in our series of conversations with candidates for Mayor of the City of Detroit, I sit down with current Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield on a number of issues from entrepreneurship to transit to much more. 

Above you'll find a video version of our conversation. Her campaign website is here.

So you know, my plan and hope is to talk with every candidate at least once ahead of the primary about the important things facing the city in the next few years, to help you make the best choice. 

Jer Staes: Joining me at the table at Tech Town is the Honorable Mary Sheffield, Detroit City Council President and candidate for mayor. Welcome to the show [for the] first time!

Mary Sheffield: Yes, it is. Excited to be here!

Jer Staes: I'm so glad that you're joining us to talk about these issues that face the city. You are somebody who has a long history of public service, of being involved in the city. So what ... what called you to public service?

Mary Sheffield: You know, I like to believe that it is something that I literally was born into. On both sides of my family, starting with my father, my grandfather, coming from over an 80 year legacy and lineage of civil rights and social justice organizing and mobilizing. At a young age, I was literally exposed to the fight for justice through organizing and mobilizing.

And then on my mother's side of the family come from nurses. All of them were nurses. My mother was a professor of nursing at Wayne County Community College District for 18 years. And, they really taught me compassion and how to look after the least of thee and to care for people.

And so having that blend of advocacy and fighting for justice, but also that compassion, I think naturally kind of led me to want to fight for the betterment of my city where I was born and raised.

Jer Staes: Yeah. You've been a council member for a while. What are some of the things that you've learned doing that?

Mary Sheffield: Well, I learned that it takes partnerships to get things done. I've learned that it's not always easy to stand for what's right but it's okay to stand alone. And that sometimes challenging the status quo is not easy, but it will move the needle on a lot of issues.

I remember a lot of times in Detroit when I first started being elected and when I was 26 years old, my first term, I challenged a lot of things. A lot of people thought me and the mayor didn't get along because I would always push back on things and really raise my voice and advocate. And those times, while they may have been difficult, they were necessary.

And I look at where we are today, when it comes to water affordability, housing and home repair grants, and foreclosure prevention. These are all things that I fought so hard for ... to lay the foundation to see the the movement and the growth that we have today.

So, that taught me a lot about using your voice even though it may be difficult, and I really understood and have learned how powerful local politics is over our day-to-day lives. We understand that national politics and the federal government plays a huge role, but all politics are local and who we elect as mayor and our city council tremendously impacts our quality of life here in Detroit.

Jer Staes: Well, that's something we talk about on Daily Detroit a lot is that you could ... there's so much conversation around the presidency and the governor and things like that, but the stuff that impacts you day-to-day, whether it's dealing with parking or dealing with the lawn or dealing with your street getting fixed ... that's not the president. That's in your neighborhood. And by the way, you probably can like run into them at the grocery store and tell them about it, right?

Mary Sheffield: And we hear it all the time. No matter where I'm at, it's ... residents stop me and they either are letting me know how well things are going or complaints of things that are not happening well in Detroit. So, yes, that's so true!

Jer Staes: You were talking about sometimes standing alone, and it made me think of the importance of authenticity. Because I am somebody who's been in Detroit a long time as as an adult. I grew up, you know, around Indian Village.

If there's one thing that Detroiters respect, it's authenticity ... authenticity as to who you are, even if they don't agree with you or they're a little suspect at first, but Detroiters, we know if somebody's like being that guy, right?

Mary Sheffield: Yeah. That is so true. And I think honestly, I think that has ... is what has allowed me to serve for 12 long years in Detroit, is that authenticity. Always trying to be as honest as I can, as forthcoming as I can. I'm always honest with voters or and residents.

I may not know it all, but I will go do my research and find the answer. Or if I cannot solve the issue, I will make sure I get the appropriate people who can.

And, I think being authentic is something that I think sometimes is missing in politics. And, I try to always stay true to myself, and who I am, and my values as well.

Jer Staes: Well, I mean, even in the press, we know the difference between a statement that came out of somebody's mouth and then somebody wrote it. Right? You know right away. And you all know it too, right? Like it's one of those things.

So what ... you're running for mayor. What do you think you can do as mayor that maybe you found you couldn't do as president of the city council? Because as president of the city council, there's a lot of things you can do. There's [the] budget, there's things like that.

Mary Sheffield: Yeah, I mean ... I think for me it's really going to be building upon a lot of the groundwork and the foundation that I've laid on the council around a myriad of issues to be honest. But, I think the mayor sets the tone.

The mayor really sets the standard. The mayor has the authority when they're, you know, negotiating development deals to say, "Hey, you know ... We want you to focus on our neighborhoods." You know? And so, there's a greater authority as a CEO and the visionary of Detroit to really set the standard of the direction of what way our city will go.

And so, I plan on leaving a huge mark in the area of housing, for example. I want to be able to be a leader in Detroit getting back to a place of home ownership and really leading the country and the nation as a place to grow and start a business, become a homeowner, to have the strongest middle class that we used to have and be defined by in Detroit.

And so, I think you can lead the way in a lot of those issues. I also think that the mayor can be a lot more instrumental in education. I have so many ideas about how this next administration, which I'll be leading can play a role in being a better partner.

Creating a task force to address literacy, and youth after school programming and tutoring, and ensuring that we are providing more community hubs to address the social issues that our kids go through. So, I think there is a myriad of issues.

My vision and my focus always will be on safety, followed by public ... not public housing, but investing in quality, safe, affordable housing, investment in our neighborhoods, ensuring that there's economic empowerment, that we're raising the wages of Detroiters, adequate investment in our public transportation system, and then lastly again, of course, improving overall outcomes in the educational realm for our children.

Jer Staes: There are a few different threads that I'm going to pull from that. And the first one, I think is ... you know, the median household income of Detroiters has been going up. It's still not, I think, personally where it needs to be. I would love to see the city at parity with the suburbs. Because, I think there's a lot of problems in the city that would start to heal if the people had the money, right? The people need the money.

How do you see a plan to to get there, right? To to make it so that ... Yeah, Detroit was home of the middle class ... But to be home of the middle class again, aren't there going to have to be some things that adapt to 2025 instead of 1955?

Mary Sheffield: Yeah, I do. I think we have to innovate ourselves. We have to continue to invest in people. I think that really is the key that all as programs come and, as resources are created, that we're directing them to the investment in people.

Job training, skill trades, ensuring, that we are developing and cultivating the gifts of Detroiters, I think is important. And that we're also attracting high growth and high wage jobs and industries to Detroit. But oftentimes, those industries may or may not come because of the many barriers that it takes to do business in Detroit. And because we also may not have the base or the talent base here in Detroit. And so, we have to do both at the same time.

We have to continue to invest in people, ensuring that we're creating programs like earn to learn, skills for life. These are programs that will train our Detroit residents as they go back and get certified and get the training that they need from an educational standpoint.

And so I'm looking forward to implementing programs like that and being creative like universal basic income. It is a program that has been used in other cities around the country that will provide some of the lowest income residents a universal income for a certain amount of time, to allow them to have upward economic mobility.

So, I think we have to be innovative in our approach to see what is working in other cities. But the main thing is, not being unashamed, but being bold to invest directly in people.

Jer Staes: One thing that I think some people may forget is that it's really expensive to be poor. You end up paying more in the short-term for many things. And that's why concepts like UBI, universal basic income, have a little bit of interest for me because there are so many things on a day-to-day basis where it's like I can only, man ... You know, if you're going to the dollar store and you can only buy X, but if you go somewhere else and get more of that for less, you can start to get yourself ahead. It's amazing, and we learned this, I think during the pandemic, just a little bit can go a long way. And freeing people up.

Mary Sheffield: Yeah! Most definitely. Most definitely. I mean, everything you said is so true. And I think also the cost of what we, as a city, have to invest in when people are struggling and possibly losing their home and going into homelessness.

I mean, the economic, return on that and the hit that we take as a city doesn't make, feasibly, sense. And so I think to be preventative and to address those things at the front end ultimately does all of us a way to address it.

Jer Staes: So one thing that we have talked to a number of entrepreneurs on the show about has been that honestly, sometimes it's a little difficult to work with the city. Let's put it ... let's be kind about it.

Sometimes it can be very frustrating, whether it's inspection delays or paperwork or even Byzantine rules that to me back to that, you know, the city that maybe used to be but maybe it doesn't fit for today. Right? Maybe you want to put a bike rack somewhere. But, you know, back then, this was a super busy street, but now it's a lot quieter.

Like how ... what would you do to try to like build on the progress that we've made over the last few years where it becomes somewhere where it's like, "Hey, there may be costs to do things in Detroit, but it's more friendly to get things done," especially for small business owners.

Because, what I hear in the streets is that when you're talking about say minority developers and things like that who don't have the access to capital ... the big guys, the billionaires, they have the lawyers. They have it.

And so a system with lots of extra regulation ends up, in my opinion, and please feel free to push back, it ends up favoring those ultra rich because they have the lawyers. They have the time. They have the resources, whereas you've got somebody trying to do a four unit or an eight unit, say out on the west side, they don't have time for those games.

Mary Sheffield: Yeah, yeah. No, I mean you raise a great point. Our administration is going to focus on making Detroit the best city in the country to start and grow a business. We're actually doing the work now.

I'm going to be sponsoring an ordinance while I'm on the city council that's going to really streamline some of our zoning and permitting so that it would reduce almost six to nine months for a business to start up. And so, we're working on some of those changes now proactively.

I would like to launch an office of small business affairs that would give that ecosystem to support smaller developers and entrepreneurs who are trying to navigate departments, zoning, you know, what type of tax abatements are available, all of those things that typical entrepreneurs go through but do not know how to navigate the bureaucracy like typical larger developers do through the DEGC [Detroit Economic Growth Corporation].

They have that support, but our smaller entrepreneurs do not have that assistance. And so, I would like to set up a office of small business affairs that would assist with that navigation and that ecosystem of support.

We're also going to be looking to create a ... develop a business development fund partnering with our philanthropic and private sector to create a fund to further explore ways to create access to capital for our businesses. We know that that's one of the number of issues is how we get access to capital, and so [I] would love to figure out how to expand that as well as the various programs that we currently have through the DEGC, Motor City Match, the Detroit legacy business that I just created that's giving grants to businesses to grow and to expand.

We have to continue to explore ways to grow those programs to ensure that people do have access to our residents and our businesses have access to capital.

Jer Staes: Well, the the issues in Detroit are multi-layered, right? Because not only do you have poverty, not only do you have some issues with access to capital, but because you have that poverty, you don't have the generational wealth.

There's a big gap for a lot of people where they don't have that uncle. They don't have that granddad. They don't have that ... whatever... for that 5 grand, 7 grand, those little things that's like, "Oh, let's try this thing," and it's not going to hurt that. You know what I mean? That is an issue that is ... I think I've noticed different between Detroit and the suburbs.

Mary Sheffield: Yeah. Yeah. The ability to pass on the generational wealth, is that?

Jer Staes: Yeah.

Mary Sheffield: Yeah, I mean ... I think it's a real thing, and I think it starts with us investing in people and ensuring that, as it's really a culture thing, we have to teach people not to just be consumers but to be owners — that entrepreneurship is a route.

And, you start that at a young age, in high school, showing young people how to start a business, what's the importance of keeping your home, and your family to pass on that generational wealth through home ownership. And so, I think some of it is educational, but also the city investing in young people at an early age to start opening up their mind to think more of entrepreneurship as a route to generational wealth as well.

Jer Staes: Now, some people might not know this, but the city of Detroit has among the highest percentage of carless and low car access homes in the country. I think we're in the top 10. Don't quote me off the top, but you wouldn't think it. We're the Motor City, right? So that brings up two things.

I think number one, transit, and number two for the people who are going to drive things like car insurance. Those are two like key issues. Getting to those jobs is so important because people can get locked in geographic poverty, right? So why don't we kind of look at the transit side? What is what is your vision for that? 'Cause look, I took the Woodward today. I had a ghost bus, right? Right? Like it's it's a thing that we need to improve – that reliability and if you think about where the city is, in my opinion, [cities] that are attracting top talent, they're investing in these things.

Mary Sheffield: They have great transit. Yeah, they have great transit. Well, I'm first proud to say that in this last budget, we allocated $20 million, roughly $20 million into DDOT, which was the first we've done in over 12 years that I've ever seen that that amount going directly into our public transit system.

So, I think that sends a huge signal that we are looking at transportation and taking it serious. And so, my vision is that we create more accessible, frequent, and reliable routes through DDOT, that we have more bus rapid transit, that we are connecting up and down our commercial corridors, and that we have more availability to have our route stops be hopefully 7 to 10 minutes max waiting time.

Right? And so that's important to me. I think also from a regional standpoint, we have to be able to connect regionally. And I'm excited to see that there was a bill passed in Lansing that now allows or does not allow for counties to opt out of the SMART system because at one point in time, out of the 43 counties in Wayne County roughly, 17 opted out.

And so, you have the ability where Detroiters could couldn't really fully get around. Yeah, those cities, Livonia was one of them. Exactly. And Detroit was one as well. We did not choose to opt-in. And so, we did not have the regional aspect of transportation.

So for me, I would like to see a more regional approach, and I am excited to see the ability now for us to connect regionally with SMART to improve transit up and down our corridors. I had a meeting actually not too long ago with Roger Penske talking about is there a possibility to expand the QLine possibly to 8 Mile? There is some possible funding that may be forthcoming to do that, so, looking at that as an alternative.

And then also, there's a study being conducted right now to re-examine the People Mover. That study will be done next year. That will do a overall analysis to see if it's feasible and how much it will cost to expand the People Mover. But again, I think exploring all mobility options, but the primary one is that we have to invest in our own public transit and make sure that there's regional connections.

Jer Staes: When you think about say like a People Mover expansion or bus rapid transit, all that would have to tie, I think, to various hubs in the neighborhoods, right? Because, I think there's downtown, and then there's the neighborhoods. But, I also think that the neighborhoods deserve their own downtowns. Right? They need to have their own places that they ... like I live in the North End, right? If I want coffee, I don't go to Downtown Detroit. I go to Café Noir. Right? But because there's that little strip right there on John R, and it's really cool, right? So I feel like that's part of more of like a complete city where, yes, there is Downtown, but also neighborhoods have services right near them 'cause it can be a minute. Like the ride from Grandmont Rosedale to Downtown is a minute.

Mary Sheffield: It is. I just drove that today, literally. I was over on Grand River in Council President Pro Tem Tate's district. But no, I agree. I think we have to revitalize our communities, create amenities right within our neighborhoods that are walkable and vibrant. Almost a 10-minute, I think it was a 5-minute, 10-minute communities where you can, you know, within 10 minutes get to a school, to a church, to a grocery store, to any amenities, a coffee shop right within a 10-minute walk of your home.

And so, I think that is a part also of changing the culture of how business is done in Detroit because right now it's extremely hard to open up a restaurant or a coffee shop. So, often times, business owners go to the suburbs to do it because it's easier. The cost of entry is cheaper. And so as we talk about revitalizing and creating these downtown neighborhoods, we have to also change the culture and create a more business-friendly environment for those businesses to open up shop.

Jer Staes: My next question ties into the transportation piece, but also dealing with Lansing and dealing with Washington. Right? As a mayor of Detroit, it's a very important position. I think it's important nationally. Detroit is important. And also key to that is going to be dealing with those other office holders. You know, we talk about ...I mentioned car insurance. That's something that's ... a lot of stuff's going to have to happen in Lansing, right?

To make some of those changes, how are you going to advocate for things like that or dealing with an administration that doesn't, you know, that isn't ... has said some things about the city before. Yeah. Right? Like I'm sorry, but I take, I don't mean to pick sides, but I take that as a sign. Yeah. Right? When when someone says that about my town.

Mary Sheffield: For sure. And by the way, I did respond when he made that comment back then, but I think it's only fair. Yeah, it's only fair. I have to stand up for Detroit. But no, in all seriousness, you know, we I'm going to have to work with whomever is in office. Red or blue, green or white, no matter your background, your race, your color, your beliefs.

I come from a legacy of people who've already done that. And, I have already established a lot of relationships in Lansing, in the federal level as well too, and will continue to build those relationships to get things done.

To me always it's about finding common ground. How we can maybe disagree to agree. There has to be a common thread or a common theme or something that we can unite on to benefit the residents in Detroit.

So, it may not be easy, but it's do-able. And, I've served under a former Trump administration in the past. I know this is a different one, but, I know that it can be done. And, I will always stand bold and will always speak up for anything that is detrimental to the residents of this city, but also understanding that when I need to go speak and advocate, I will have to do that because that is who is serving in our government at this time.

Jer Staes: I want to end on vision. Okay? Because the city has a very important opportunity right now to, like, set a future course. And whoever selected for office, and I love the confidence, by the way. What is your vision? What do you want to see in four years? We come back to this table. You're running again, right? Let's let's visualize here.

Mary Sheffield: Okay, I'm closing my eyes.

Jer Staes: Right? Right? But I want to, what do you want to see as wins? This [thing] that you're going to talk about where you want to take this city in the like ... Where are you thinking?

Mary Sheffield: Yeah. Well, you know, my vision would be creating a destination of opportunity. One in which our families, our youth number one, stay in our city, but also we are attracting people to come to our city because of the amazing home ownership opportunities, the walkability, the vibrancy of our neighborhoods, and where our commercial corridors are vibrant as well.

Our educational system has improved, and people feel comfortable moving their families and their children into our communities and our neighborhoods. And that our middle class is strong, and we're building that as well too. And so, that is my vision ... is that we're really creating a world class city that I know that Detroit deserves.

I would love to also see within the next 5 to 10 years the wages of Detroiters increase and that people are moving upward economically and creating that generational wealth that we talked about.

And so, I would love to see population increased more people becoming home owners in our city, the creation of more infill housing being developed within our communities and our neighborhoods, and the activation of several other commercial corridors and neighborhoods that have new restaurants, new businesses flourishing and thriving in our communities; and everyone's quality of life is improved.

I think the the perception and the culture of Detroit not being the place to be. I mean, I think Detroit is just as good or better than DC, LA, New York, Miami. And so, my goal also would be to really change the perception of Detroit on a national level that Detroit is a place to be. It is a cool place to be. It is a place to grow, to live and to develop.

And so, a part of that goal and that vision is to also change our perception nationally so that people actually feel that this is a place to go and to be.

And often times, when young people graduated, they get their education, they leave because that's traditionally what we've been taught to do. We go to these cool cities. But we're going to change that culture and that perception.

You graduate. You get educated. We're staying in Detroit because Detroit is the next Miami, right? The Chicago. The New York. And so, a part of this growth also is really changing the perception that Detroit is just as good, I should say, or better than these other major cities.

Jer Staes: Well, there's a reason why at times it's been called the Paris of the Midwest. Paris is a pretty good comparison.

Mary Sheffield: That's a great one!

Jer Staes: Well, Honorable Mary Sheffield, Detroit City Council President and candidate for mayor. Thank you for your time on Daily Detroit! Doors [are open]. [You're] always welcome.

Mary Sheffield: Thank you so much!

Jer Staes: Thank you so much for listening, and thank you to our members on Patreon! Patreon.com/dailydetroit. Local media requires local support to survive and to make episodes like this so I really appreciate you.

Don't forget to drop five stars on your favorite podcast app and tell a friend about the show.

And as always, if you've got feedback, dailydetroit@gmail.com. [We] would love to hear from you.

I'm Jer Staes. Remember that you are somebody! And, we'll talk tomorrow.