The Detroit of a decade ago is not the Detroit of today.
A new skyscraper has been added to Detroit’s skyline. The Pistons have returned to Detroit and play at the Little Caesars Arena — soon to be joined by a WNBA team. Property values are increasing, and Detroit isn’t actively losing residents. Ask the mayor or City Council, and they’ll likely credit the city’s policy of awarding tax breaks to developers.
But if you ask Detroit residents, especially those who have lived in the city for decades, they’ll probably tell you the progress downtown hasn’t reached their neighborhoods. It’s not hard to see why. Twelve years ago, they were promised that every neighborhood in Detroit had a future. Yet, instead, the story of Detroit is a Tale of Two Cities: a Detroit where the wealthy, powerful corporations and property speculators game the system to their own benefit, and a Detroit where 66% of workers reported living paycheck to paycheck and 1 in 3 live below the federal poverty line.
According to an analysis of 2023 census bureau data, approximately 20% of Detroit residents work service-industry jobs in hotels, restaurants, bars and retail. More Detroiters work these jobs than in manufacturing. The service industry is notoriously plagued by low wages, scant benefits, hard labor and unpredictable schedules. Many workers in these industries cobble together multiple part-time jobs to reach 40 hours a week.
District Detroit, a sports and entertainment arena district under development, received $615 million in subsidies and incentives. After construction, developers estimate that the project will create 5,790 ongoing jobs — 4,250 office jobs, 1,110 retail jobs, 30 property management jobs and 390 hotel jobs. Non-office workers in District Detroit will earn $28,510 and $31,938 a year — for $13 to $16 an hour in buildings that receive hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies.
Downtown developments promised to create thousands of service industry jobs, presumably held by Detroiters. If the city is giving developers massive tax discounts to create jobs, and Detroiters hold those jobs, why should those Detroiters still live and work in poverty?
Fixing this issue would bring the progress downtown into Detroit’s neighborhoods. The Detroit Economic Justice Coalition (DEJC), along with researchers, grassroots leaders and policy advocates, is pushing for a shift: center housing, jobs and equitable wealth building in every conversation about Detroit’s future growth and pair it with tangible actions by the next mayor and city officials.
Detroiters need more than assistance programs; they need stable jobs and affordable health insurance. Raising people’s incomes would improve neighborhoods more than anything else. But that’s not what the City Council has done — and not for the reason you think.
In 2015, the Michigan Legislature passed PA 105, which banned local governments from passing laws regulating wages and working conditions, including for development projects. Because of this law, even if Detroit’s elected leaders wanted to, they can’t attach any conditions to jobs that taxpayer dollars incentivize and create. Candidates for office need to be clear with voters that in some instances, the city’s hands are tied and changing the law in Lansing is the only solution.
If Lansing repealed PA 105, Detroit could establish a higher minimum wage. A living wage for one adult in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn area is $21.23, much higher than Michigan’s minimum wage of $12.48. Many employers also refuse to give service industry workers 40 hours a week to avoid paying health insurance, leaving many people underinsured and forced to rely on assistance programs. Requiring that a high percentage of taxpayer-subsidized jobs offer health insurance or full-time hours would create stability and reduce reliance on government assistance.
Detroit’s next cadre of leaders should be primarily focused on creating prosperity for legacy Detroiters and strengthening neighborhoods. That means creating good jobs with good benefits — the kind of jobs that built Detroit in the first place. That means holding developers accountable. If Detroit’s next mayor and City Council want to do that, state laws that hold Detroit’s prosperity back need to be changed.
Branden Snyder is Michigan State Director for the Working Families Party.