Courtesy of Olympia Development of Michigan/Related Cos
A conceptual rendering of the planned Fox Hotel in the Fox Theatre building on Woodward Avenue in downtown Detroit.
An overwhelming majority of Detroiters are opposed to tax handouts for wealthy developers and believe incentives should instead benefit neighborhood services, affordable housing, libraries, and recreation centers, according to a new poll.
The survey of 430 Detroit voters, conducted by the independent pollster American Pulse Research & Polling, found that only 6.1% support prioritizing tax incentives for retail, dining, and entertainment districts. An additional 8.1% of voters support incentives for projects in Midtown and downtown.
Despite the findings, a vast majority of the hundreds of millions of dollars in tax incentives in the past decade went to billionaire developers working on entertainment projects in downtown and Midtown.
In March, the Detroit City Council approved more than $615 million in tax breaks for two white billionaire developers — the Ilitch family and Stephen Ross — to develop District Detroit, an entertainment district that previously received roughly $400 million a decade ago to build Little Caesars Arena and surrounding neighborhoods that never came to fruition.
“This polling shows what our communities have known for years: Detroiters want and urgently need stable and safe housing, thriving neighborhoods, and equitable development – but policymakers continue to siphon the peoples’ money towards projects that stand in the way of making this a reality,” Linda Campbell, director of Detroit People's Platform, which commissioned the survey, said in a written statement. “Despite political resistance, we’ve built power to win concessions for our communities, but we need wholesale reevaluation of development priorities to build a truly just and equitable Majority Black Detroit.”
The survey found that 88.8% of Detroiters support tax incentives for youth and senior services, libraries, schools, recreation services, public transportation, affordable housing, and small businesses.
For decades, the cash-strapped city has struggled to provide basic services for residents, many of whom are living at or near poverty. Libraries and schools have closed, bus service is infrequent and unpredictable, and housing is often too expensive for the average Detroiter.
Nearly 90% of respondents said Detroiters should also have a greater say in how tax resources are invested.
The survey comes at a time when Detroit’s Black residents are moving out of the city at an alarming rate, citing a lack of jobs, inadequate city services, and crime.
Since 2000, Detroit has lost about 295,000 Black residents, or 37.4% of its African American population. No other American city has lost more Black residents.
While Detroit’s white population declined by 44,300 between 2000 and 2010, it has since grown by more than 5,100. Its Hispanic and Asian populations have also grown.
Black people now account for 77.2% of the city’s overall population, compared to 82.2% in 2010, when Detroit had the highest percentage of Black residents in the country.
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