Duggan Dropped Out Because He Oversaw Detroit's Poisoning
Michigan Enjoyer has spent a year revealing how city contractors filled demo holes with toxic dirt under his watch
Former Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan is out of the governor’s race, and we all know why. It’s not because he couldn’t garner the support of Michigan's business elite as an independent. And it isn’t because he’s afraid of Jocelyn Benson or the Republican field.
He’s out because he oversaw the mass poisoning of Detroit, and because Michigan Enjoyer was here to tell the story.
Some numbers: In January, a poll from the Duggan-boosting Detroit Regional Chamber showed the former mayor in a dead heat with Republican John James and Democrat Jocelyn Benson.
Less than four months later, a poll from the same group showed him in a distant third, having fallen seven points.
Why the drop? For nearly a year, Michigan Enjoyer’s Charlie LeDuff has catalogued the Flint-level scandal now facing Detroit: Demo holes all around the city were filled with toxic dirt under Duggan’s watch.
We didn’t just tell the story in the written word, we showed Michiganders the truth through cutting-edge video reporting splashed all across social media. And everyone watched.
We showed how neighborhood lots where children play were filled with broken-up highways, demolished wings of the Northland Mall, and whatever else contractors could find. Testing of the dirt at these lots is ongoing, but a large portion to date has been found unfit for human touch.
Talk to Detroiters on the street, and they all know something isn’t right with the demo holes. The lots are full of gravel, and when it rains they fill with fetid water.
If Brian McKinney, the CEO of a now-defunct demo outfit called Gayanga, is to be believed, the Duggan administration didn’t care whether the dirt the contractors used was safe or not. They just wanted the job done so the media could spin yarns about how Duggan was cleaning up the city.
The media ignored LeDuff’s reporting on this environmental disaster until he revealed that McKinney and Mayor Mary Sheffield had an affair while she was voting to award his firm contracts from her seat on City Council. Steamy innuendo caught their attention in a way that the prospect of higher cancer rates in Detroit never could.
But as the tired old outlets kept cheerleading Duggan’s independent gubernatorial run, Metro Detroiters knew better.
With Duggan out, the establishment Democrats will surely reward him with some high post running the University of Michigan or pulling the purse strings at the MEDC for helping clear the way for Jocelyn Benson.
But because of Duggan’s willful disregard for the health of Detroiters, the city might be facing an environmental cleanup costing $100 million. His true legacy might be bankruptcy No. 2.
