This Detroit Mother Lives Among Duggan's Poisoned Dirt Holes
The former mayor claimed he cleaned everything up, but she calls it a "lie" as gaping holes collect rainwater and trash on both sides of her house
There is a working mother on Detroit’s east side with four young babies.
Andrea Smith should be worried about the price of gas and formula and diapers.
But that’s the least of it.
She’s more concerned about the gaping demolition holes on each side of her house, filled with muck and rainwater and debris.
“Mayor, clean this up,” she fumed. “I got four kids, what if my kids fall in here?”
As far as Ms. Smith is concerned, Mike Duggan belongs nowhere near the governor’s mansion. He belongs in a defendant’s chair.
The city of Detroit, under his 12-year stewardship, finds itself the victim of a mass poisoning of unknown proportions. Toxic dirt was used to fill the city’s demolition holes. And Duggan, by all accounts, pushed his demolition executives to the breaking point so he might have something good to campaign on as he makes a run to become Michigan’s next governor.
But the mud pie has exploded in his face. With no real plan to fix things, Duggan and the new administration of Mayor Mary Sheffield engage in stupidity and budgetary sleight-of-hand to keep a lid on an environmental scandal that could rival Flint.
Some quick but necessary background here. The U.S. Treasury Department in 2014 sent $260 million to the city of Detroit to help eradicate its enormous blight. Demolition contractors were allowed by Duggan to charge whatever they wanted for “clean” soil to fill the holes. Incredulously, no receipts or proof of purchase were required.
That is until federal agents caught the contractors and fined the city $5 million. The city agreed, going forward, to require invoice receipts for the dirt.
But the city never did collect those receipts. Once again, in 2021, the Treasury Department spanked the city over $13 million in bogus dirt. Duggan, who’s dodged more grand juries in his career than John Gotti, settled with the U.S. government for $1.5 million.
Duggan then pushed for another $250 million from Detroit taxpayers to continue his blight crusade. And again, neither he nor his minions required proof that the dirt was clean.
More than 27,000 houses were demolished under the stewardship of the Teflon Leprechaun, and people like Ms. Smith have no idea just how bad things are in their neighborhoods.
So far, the city has admitted to 600 suspect holes and is now in the process of testing them. But how do we know that’s the extent of it? Remember, Duggan never required the demolition contractors to provide proof of the origin of the dirt going back a dozen years. Is it hundreds of lots? Thousands? Tens of thousands? We could be talking about hundreds of millions of dollars in clean-up costs.
And now we come to find out that Duggan’s hand-picked minority contractor, Brian McKinney of the Gayanga Company, was allowed to illegally work without construction insurance.
Current Mayor Mary Sheffield certainly knew of this. She was dating the guy, after all, while simultaneously voting to award millions in contracts.
So now, the taxpayer is on the hook, having to pay twice for the same dirty jobs.
Just a few weeks ago, Duggan was cornered by the press, who are suddenly interested in dirt.
“As of December 31st when I left office, every single site that had been tested at elevated contaminants had been removed and clean dirt replaced,” said an exasperated Duggan, who looked like he’d been beaten with a feather pillow.
Naturally, this was a lie.
Just take a trip to Tacoma Street and ask Andrea Smith who is living with her four children in a hellscape of incompetence and danger. No less than eight gaping holes blight her street. The toxic dirt was removed last November as Duggan claimed. But no clean dirt has been poured to fill them. Instead, there are craters the size of municipal swimming pools.
With the spring ground thawing, the holes have transmogrified into a quagmire of clay and rock. If a dog fell in, it wouldn’t be able to crawl out, much less a toddler.
“It’s been like this for a minute,” said Smith.
“How long?” I asked.
“Since before Christmas.”
“What?”
“Before Christmas,” she emphasized.
“Well, the mayor said he cleaned it all up.”
“No.”
“It’s a lie?” I asked.
“Yes, it’s a lie,” she answered.
“You gonna vote for him for governor?”
“No.”
With the dirt scandal spreading across the region, Ms. Smith’s solitary vote is the least of Duggan’s worries.
