For you Detroiters waiting patiently for a Chipotle to open within a comfortable walking distance of your home, you'll just have to wait a little longer. Since Mike Duggan has been sworn in as mayor, things have moved at a glacial pace — and not just because of the polar vortex.
Last week Duggan was sworn in as mayor after defeating Benny Napoleon in the city's most boring race ever. However, when Duggan was elected, there were fears that a new white mayor would bring a boatload of white people along with him.
Not so much. While Duggan has concentrated on menial things like plowing residential streets and mandating garbage pickup despite frigid, snowy conditions, Detroit still lacks the necessary amount of tea rooms, sushi bars and vintage record stores that the media tells me that young, white people like but black people can't possibly enjoy or afford.
Fear not, because Detroit's political gentry is making other strides in the wake of molasses-slow gentrification. Newly elected city council president Brenda Jones — whom you might remember joined in JoAnn Watson's Belle Isle "rape" chorus last year — is going to be so busy leading the council that she won't have time to talk to reporters about it. Council President Pro Tem George "Cush" Cushingberry, Jr., however, has plenty to say to the media.
Still No Gentrification A Week After Detroit's White Mayor Sworn In