Duggan one-on-one: Mayor reflects on last term, looks ahead at Detroit's future

DETROIT (WJBK) - In his first sit-down interview since winning re-election, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan talked about what he's most proud of, what he would do differently and what's on the horizon.

FOX 2’s Roop Raj sat down with Duggan as he begins his second term as mayor of the Motor City.

First up: When asked what he thinks of the "Tale of Two Cities" idea, Duggan said his first thought: the media.

"Media is what goes through my mind. You go to Boston, Cleveland, Chicago, they have wealthy areas, and they have poor areas. They have people who are doing well, and people who are not doing well. Under your definition, there are two Bostons and two Chicagos and two Clevelands - There's two Southfields," he said.

Duggan is adamant about Detroit being one city. Different experiences, sure, but a downtown on the comeback. Neighborhoods are also seeing a resurgence.

Two things he touts in the last four years - lights on and blight out. Despite a federal investigation, looking into the demolition program in the city, the mayor says the people he sees on the streets don't talk to him about federal oversight. They talk about houses coming down.

"The media talks about the investigation. Neighbors say, when are you going to get down the vacant house on my block? And the feds have just released another $88 million. We're taking down 100 houses a week right now. I think people see the progress," Duggan said.

FOX 2's Roop Raj asked the mayor if he would've done anything differently.

"I would have put a stronger corporate compliance team in place earlier and I wouldn't have pushed the land bank to move as fast they did. But we sat down with the state, we retooled the system, we put a compliance system in place, and we're moving full speed ahead," he said.

The mayor had also hoped to curb sky high auto insurance rates but a plan to reform to reform the rates failed by a handful of votes.

"We were about 12 votes away a year ago. We're going to get there but it is really a tragedy that Lansing is making people in Michigan pay the highest car insurance in the country," Duggan said.

But how will they tackle the high rates in the future?

"You could have different legislators. You could have different packages. We'll see," he said.

A recent poll put Duggan ahead of other contenders in the 2018 gubernatorial race if his name were to be on the ballot. Freshly re-elected mayor, we asked if the next go around would be the right time to run. He'll be 63 having served two terms as mayor of the City of Detroit.

"I have no idea. We'll see. We'll see if I'm healthy in four years. We'll see how the voters feel about me in four years. I don't know what four years is going to look like, I'm focusing on next week," Duggan said.

He says he's definitely not running for governor in 2018.

"Down the road, I don't know how I will be physically or what God has in store for me," he said.