Duggan plugs Feb. event when asked about re-election

Detroit — Mayor Mike Duggan hasn’t picked up petitions for re-election, but when asked Tuesday if he would be running for mayor again this fall, he teased an announcement planned for Feb. 4.

“If you come to the Samaritan Center on Detroit’s east side Feb. 4 at 12 o’clock, I’ll make an announcement,” Duggan said when asked by Carol Cain if he’d be running for re-election this year.

Cain was moderating a panel at the Detroit Economic Club’s annual “Big Four” luncheon. Duggan announced at the Samaritan Center his intent to run for mayor in 2013.

As of Tuesday, Duggan was not listed among the dozen residents who have picked up petitions to run for the mayoral post. None of the prospective candidates have turned petitions in yet for certification, according to the city’s Department of Elections. The filing deadline is in May.

In his first term, Duggan has touted major service improvements for Detroit. Among them, the installation of 65,000 new LED street lights, improved police and EMS response times and new city buses as well as added and expanded routes. Duggan has also launched the Detroit Promise, a program to provide two years of free college to graduates of any city high school.

Over the last three years, the city has reported reductions in homicides, carjackings and nonfatal shootings and last year rolled out the Project Green Light initiative to deter crime at city gas stations, party stores and restaurants.

The city has deals welcoming several major automotive manufacturing centers and suppliers and a new Little Caesars Arena will be the future home of the Detroit Red Wings and Detroit Pistons.

Detroit’s massive blight demolition program has been a centerpiece of the Duggan administration. The program has taken down nearly 11,000 blighted houses, primarily with federal funding, since spring 2014. But the effort has also been at the center of a federal criminal investigation and other state, federal and local reviews after concerns were raised in the fall of 2015 over soaring costs and bidding practices.

Officials with the city and Detroit Land Bank Authority, which oversees the program, have defended the effort and said they are fully cooperating with all investigations.

ithibodeau@detroitnews.com

Twitter: @Ian_Thibodeau