Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan attends his last Motor City Match program ribbon-cutting

Mayor Mike Duggan attends final ribbon-cutting ceremony before leaving office

The Motor City Match is the vision of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to open doors for Detroit entrepreneurs who often find doors closed when searching for financial resources and opportunities to grow.

DETROIT (FOX 2) - The visionary behind the Motor City Match program, Mayor Mike Duggan, attended his last ribbon-cutting ceremony before leaving office on Tuesday.

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The Motor City Match is the vision of Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan to open doors for Detroit entrepreneurs who often find doors closed when searching for financial resources and opportunities to grow.

"We thought we had a lot of talented people in the city who had the drive, the business plan, but maybe didn’t have the relative to write them a check to get them going," he said.

Motor City Match removed barriers for grant recipients, many of whom are women and ethnic minorities. Ebony Cochran’s business, The Debt Survivor, is the 200th Motor City Match business to open. She received a $50,000 grant through the program that helped her renovate this building.

Its support Ebony didn’t have when she launched her first business 20 years ago.

"Single mom on welfare, public assistance, but it was me in a library — that library had a lot of resources," she said.

What's next:

This was Duggan’s last Motor City Match ribbon-cutting ceremony before leaving office. This vision is now part of his legacy — a legacy he wants to continue if he is elected Michigan’s next governor.

"There’s no reason you couldn’t replicate this in Alpena, Ann Arbor, or Jackson right now. But right now, I’m just celebrating 200 in the city of Detroit. All right, I am now. Let me— well, if you want to clip some teas, you can. OK, I’ll move, and the sound bites, the sides are in order."