Joel Haashiim is running for Detroit mayor as a critic of the status quo.
The businessman says voters should pick a candidate who is independent of corporations that don’t benefit them. Since filing to run for the position in 2023, Haashiim’s profile has been quiet, with no public kickoff and no fundraising activity to report. Instead, his campaign is fueled by $18,500 from his personal funds.
Haashiim is among six other candidates who have emerged so far. Three held public campaign launch events, and Triumph Church Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. has an announcement scheduled for next week.
Born in Philadelphia and raised in Detroit from the age of 3, Haashiim opened his first business, a party store on Seven Mile Road and Hartwell Street, at 20 years old. The venture led to a career in the wholesale industry.
Now 73, he’s the oldest candidate in the race. When asked how he would relate to youth and get them interested in politics, Haashiim said having nine children and 18 grandchildren gives him a vested interest in the future of youth.
Haashiim sat down with BridgeDetroit for more than an hour at our co-working space in the Chroma building.
He opened by recalling a past effort to build housing in his old neighborhood near Kettering High School. Haashiim said he had financing and a builder on board but the project fell apart when he struggled to obtain city-owned land. Haashiim argues it’s a long-running example of Black developers not “getting a piece of the pie” in Detroit’s revitalization.
“That hit me pretty hard, and so I began to take a look at Detroit politics,” Haashiim said. “I’m being told by different people about different projects they were denied.”
Haashiim wants to give residents more say in land use planning by restoring Citizens’ District Councils. They were established to address inequities stemming from “urban renewal” projects that displaced Black neighborhoods. City agencies couldn’t approve development without consulting with councils that represented residents from the surrounding area.
Former Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr repealed city law allowing CDCs through a unilateral order. At the time, community advocates argued it stripped residents of their voice.
State law currently prevents Detroit from establishing a CDC. That power is only granted to cities of over 1 million residents, and Detroit’s population dropped well below that number since the law was originally passed.
Community Advisory Councils were created in Detroit’s 2012 Charter revision. They operate in each City Council district and are composed of five elected members, plus two people representing youth and seniors.
Detroit voters passed a Community Benefits Ordinance that requires developers of certain projects to negotiate investments with surrounding neighborhoods before receiving tax breaks. But Haashiim said these tools fall short of giving residents real authority and self-determination.
Here’s more from Haashiim on the issues important to his campaign.
Editor’s note: This interview has been slightly edited for length and clarity.
BridgeDetroit: Why do you feel longtime Black residents aren’t getting enough opportunity to participate in the city’s redevelopment?
Haashiim: The oligarchs, the corporations and the rich pretty much make the decisions as to what takes place in Detroit, and it shouldn’t be that way.
The people should have a right to determine what goes on in their city. They should have a right to benefit from it and enjoy the pursuit of happiness like any other community. We can clearly see that gentrification hit our communities very hard, and those same people who are responsible for the gentrification are going to cash in on the taking of people’s property.
We had a predatory city government, county and state, along with the corporations. They have gentrified the city of Detroit, they overtaxed residents by $600 million. Everybody says, ‘where’s the money?’ The political apparatus says, ‘that money is spent.’
I grew up in the 60s and 70s when the community was a little more aware of what was happening. We had so many businesses, from the time of Paradise Valley and Black Bottom, and the powers that be ran the freeway through there and displaced people and businesses.
Now people say they want reparations, but I don’t focus on reparations. I think we need to focus on what we can do to build a future for our children and grandchildren in the city of Detroit.
Restitution is important, but clearly it’s been a difficult time for a displaced community. They took away the Citizens’ District Councils.
BD: You’ve called for restoring the Citizens’ District Councils. What function could that serve?
Haashiim: I want to bring it back because we’ve taken the power from the people and put it in the hands of corporations. The councils are where citizens make determinations about what comes into their community.
They would have some recourse as to whether it’s an industry that will provide jobs. These tax abatements, tax captures, and tax increment financing has hurt Detroiters tremendously. It’s taken dollars from our school system, and so much from communities in the city.
If you want to bring an industry in on any type of project, residents should have input. The corporations and the rich are financing a majority of the mayoral candidates. I don’t need a job, but I do need to make sure this city can give my children and grandchildren the opportunities they deserve.
BD: Recent campaign finance disclosures show most of the money being donated in this race is coming from people outside the city. How do you feel that money influences Detroit politics?
Haashiim: When you talk about self-determination, talk about freedom, we’re not going to have either as a people. We have voting power, but we don’t have political empowerment. We have money, but we don’t have economic empowerment. We have personal education, but we don’t have educational empowerment.
As a community, individuals may have empowerment, but as people we don’t. We’re not going to have it as long as we bow down to money.
I heard someone who’s running for mayor say they’re proud of their record. It blew me away. I’m referring to Mary Sheffield. When we drive around her district, we do not see development for the people.
BD: Would you have voted against the tax abatement for the Hudson’s site, or are there things you would have tried to add to that deal?
Haashiim: I would have been a complete no on the (Hudson’s) vote. I’m not against corporations, I’m not against oligarchs if you’re going to be a good corporate citizen. I understand some of them set up foundations and they’re supposed to be helping the community. For all that they claim they’re helping, we wouldn’t have none of the problems that we have if their foundation was really doing the work that it said it was going to do.
Developers promise jobs. We get a small percentage, if any, of those jobs from these projects that come into the city. This community benefits ordinance is not enforceable. When they come in with a project and they want 30 to 35 years with no property taxes, they’re not giving anything to our children. They’re doing little to nothing to improve the quality of life for the residents. I would not vote for those tax abatements.
BD: When you talk about the influence of the business elite, who are you talking about?
Haashiim: I’m speaking of Dan Gilbert, I’m talking about the Morouns. I’m talking about Penske. All of them make up a committee that makes decisions for Detroit. I think they’ve exploited Detroit. The day is coming when the community will realize they have been buying our leaders and our leaders have been following their instructions.
I will make Detroit residents a priority. I will make sure they have inclusion. The problem that we’re having is we have this sagging economy where the residents do not have any economic empowerment. They don’t have a strong enough business community for money to circulate in our community.
I want to change that, but I’m all open to working with the corporations to make sure that they bring in inclusion. They’ve had too many projects where they promise so many jobs to the community, and they have fallen short on their word and so consistently. You can’t be allowed to fall on your word when it comes to giving people in the community opportunities.
BD: What would you do to make it easier to complete the kinds of housing projects you once tried?
Haashiim: We would expand our housing department and train people who are interested in the building trades. I understand the land bank is trying to give vacant lots to different corporations and again the residents are getting the short end of the stick.
I’m also proposing a public bank. California has public banks, Philadelphia, Arizona have public banks and many more municipalities are looking into the idea.
Public banks allow us to finance urban renewal, housing and business partnerships, group development, general partnerships and more. The residents of the city will own the public bank.
So, now you have a financial tool that can actually attract or bring in international companies, other industries from across the country because now you can partner with them to make that happen and make it lucrative for the residents and for the city.
BD: You were 20 when you started your first business. Do you think a 20-year-old in Detroit has the same opportunity now?
Haashiim: No. The land values are higher, the rent is much higher. I started my store with about $8,500. I think that’s almost an impossible feat now.
I ended up having three stores in Detroit, and made the decision to sell them to someone in the community. Then I went into wholesale distribution and so I was selling to party stores in Detroit, Flint, Saginaw, wherever I could sell my products. I ended up with an opportunity to sell to chain stores and that started me to travel the world, doing business and learning how to bring products and imports to the chain stores.
To attract businesses, domestic or international, into your community, in order to do that, you must supply land, water and cheap energy. That’s the recipe.
What we were suffering from was politicians that did not know what to do or did not have the people’s best interests at heart. I speak about the Detroit River as an asset, we have the technology for an underwater hydroelectric system.
We will look at expanding the hydrogen energy to produce cheaper energy here in the city, it will light our city up. It will give our customers options.
I’m against solar. Solar farms take up too much usable land. We can utilize solar panels on highways and buildings.
BD: You have ideas people might be interested in, but I don’t see you doing public events. What are you doing to get out and talk to voters?
Haashiim: (Other candidates) are bringing in people from out of town, people who don’t really know the facts about Detroit, but they’re utilizing those big names like the Kamala Harris campaign.
If people worship money, as opposed to change, if they want to make history by having the first woman mayor or another young person or another attorney, then Detroit is going to stay in the same condition.
I was always taught you cannot serve two masters. They’re claiming to serve the people, but their record shows they’re serving the corporations and the rich at the expense of the people.
Thus far, I’ve spent about $18,500 of my own money. I did it that way because I did not want to be beholden to no one but the people.
We’re now going after money for our campaign. And I hear a lot of people say, ‘Well if you don’t have any money, you can’t win.’ But what they don’t understand is when people are suffering and people are tired of the shenanigans that have been going on in Detroit politics, then they need to know that Joel Haashiim is standing up for the people.