Detroit Mayor Mary Sheffield said she’s already reoriented city government before she reaches her first hundred days in office.
During her first State of the City address, at Mumford High School Tuesday night, Sheffield touted some of the new policies she’s already put in place.
They include a department devoted to addressing violence without police involvement, and an executive order she recently signed: Whenever the city sells a piece of commercial property, 100% of the proceeds goes into Detroit’s Affordable Housing Trust Fund.
“That means an additional $4 million is available this year alone for the development and in preserving affordable housing in our city,” Sheffield said.
The mayor also announced that starting Wednesday, all students at Detroit’s public and charter K-12 schools can ride city buses for free with a student ID. And she issued a challenge to Detroit’s corporate leaders and employers: “If Detroit can pay its workers a living wage, you can too.” (Sheffield recently signed an executive order meant to jumpstart the process of ensuring every city worker meets a minimum income threshold).
And she says that Detroit is now the largest city in the country participating in the Rx Kids program. So far, the program has approved over 1,200 applications, and distributed $1.6 million in cash assistance to Detroit mothers and infants, or people who are expecting a new baby.
Shifting to broader themes that characterized her campaign to become Detroit’s first female mayor, Sheffield told the audience that “now is the opportunity to show that Detroit's future is not only defined by a few square miles of downtown” and “this administration will ensure that Detroit's future is built block by block, neighborhood by neighborhood.”
“If you stayed in Detroit, this is for you,” Sheffield said. “More investment in neighborhoods, more housing, and more opportunities for you and your family. You held it down. The city is investing back into you.”
But, she added: “If you left Detroit, this is your sign. New developments, new opportunities. The whole city is evolving. The Detroit you left is not the Detroit you're coming back to.”
