Council Member Gabriela Santiago-Romero is running for a second term against state Rep. Tyrone Carter, presenting voters in Southwest Detroit with a choice between a younger progressive and a seasoned moderate. 

District 6 is home to growing multi-racial communities and vibrant businesses in some of Detroit’s oldest neighborhoods, gentrifying corridors and precariously close to an expanding industrial footprint. 

The district contains prominent business districts in downtown, Midtown and Corktown and stretches across the entire southeast corner of Detroit. It includes longtime anchor institutions like Wayne State University, the Detroit Medical Center, several museums, the Detroit Public Library main branch and newer investments like Michigan Central, the Joe Louis and Southwest greenways, Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Centennial Park, the Gordie Howe International Bridge and incoming Detroit City FC Stadium. 

Residents are 45% Hispanic, 32% Black and 19% white. The population is younger and contains more renters compared to other districts, according to the Neighborhood Vitality Index.

Communities included in District 6 largely remained the same after a charter-mandated redistricting process. The district shed roughly 3,300 residents for a total of 91,087.

The new district dropped an area east of Woodbridge between West Forest and I-94, along with a row of homes between Grand River Avenue and I-96 between West Grand Boulevard and Maplewood Avenue. 

Data from the Neighborhood Vitality Index shows most District 6 residents feel the impact of environmental pollution. The tool was created by a group of partner organizations, including Data Driven Detroit and Community Development Advocates of Detroit, to track the health of communities across the city. 

District 6 has a 44% homeownership rate, below the citywide average. The median housing value is $73,877 and median rent is $965.  It has a higher percentage of empty lots (39%) and a higher percentage of industrial (18%) land than the city as a whole. While 49% of parcels are vacant, only 7% of residential structures are vacant. 

Who is running

Santiago-Romero, 33, is seeking reelection to the council after handily securing her first term in 2021 with 74% of the vote. She’ll likely find a tougher opponent in Cater, a 63-year-old state lawmaker and former executive lieutenant with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.

Both candidates agree that the top issues facing District 6 are affordable housing and environmental pollution.

Santiago-Romero chairs the Public Health and Safety Committee and is co-chair of council task forces on immigration and equitable development. In her first term, she focused on police oversight, language access, historic preservation and regulations to protect residents from industrial pollution.

She’s been skeptical of offering tax abatements to large developers without tangible community benefits and turned down a campaign donation from Dan Gilbert’s political action committee to uphold a pledge to reject corporate contributions. Santiago-Romero is a Democratic Socialist and youngest member of the council. 

Santiago-Romero led the passage of a fugitive dust ordinance requiring industrial facilities to curtail the spread of airborne particles. She’s also planning to introduce an ordinance to keep commercial truck traffic away from residential areas.

She authored a resolution in 2023 calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and release of Israeli hostages. Santiago-Romero also championed an ordinance creating protest buffer zones around health clinics to prevent harassment of health care workers. 

In the latest budget, Santiago-Romero added funding for home repair programs, entrepreneur grants, translation services and staff to work through citizen complaints filed to the Board of Police Commissioners.

Santiago-Romero was born in Mexico and obtained her citizenship after immigrating to the United States as a child. She’s been a vocal advocate for undocumented residents fearful of deportation, which has also made her a target of racist attacks. 

Carter has served seven years in the Michigan Legislature. He currently represents the 1st House District, which encompasses a similar area as the council district but doesn’t stretch east from I-96 into downtown or midtown. 

In the Legislature, Carter was chair of the Detroit caucus in 2024. He serves on committees focused on regulatory reform, finance, the judiciary and protecting small businesses. Carter says he’s brought $1 billion in state appropriations to Detroit. 

Carter sponsored the Clean Slate Act of 2021, which expanded the ability of returning citizens to expunge their criminal records and the Earned Sick Time Act, which required most employers to give paid sick time to workers. 

This year, he introduced bills that would allow residents to obtain state identification cards or driver’s licenses regardless of their immigration status, allow cities to establish rent control policies, give city water systems the authority to pass ordinances, and ban employers from discriminating against people because of their appearance. 

Carter also ran for the City Council seat in 2017 but narrowly lost to then-incumbent Raquel Castaneda-Lopez by 413 votes. Carter was elected to the Michigan House in 2018 and was reelected in 2020 and again in 2022 in a newly drawn district.

Neither candidate was required to file campaign finance statements this year because a primary election wasn’t held for District 6. Santiago-Romero reported raising $11,371 in 2024 and ended last year with $13,381 to spend on her campaign.

Carter formed a fundraising committee in April. His state committee reported a balance of $34,925 in July.

Anita Martin has filed declarations of intent to run as a write-in candidate.

Voices from the district

Ethelyn Carroll, president of the United Block Club Council, said Santiago-Romero and Carter have attended community meetings in recent months to learn more about issues affecting residents. She said residents have little agency in stopping industrial development and getting help to clean up overgrown alleys behind their homes. 

Carroll said there’s a need for more schools and grocery stores in the northern part of the district around the Midwest-Tireman neighborhood. She’s also hoping to build neighborhood pocket parks, expressing some frustration that resources have been focused on the riverfront. 

“Before you have one plan, ask the people what they want and that does not happen at all,” Carroll said.

Safia Haniya Yusuf, 24, is a second-year medical student at Wayne State University. She wants to see the council advocate for public transportation improvements, saying it’s often inconsistent and unreliable for students like herself and patients she interacts with. 

“In order for Detroit to become a city much like the other metropolisies like Chicago or New York City, it absolutely has to revamp its transportation system,” she said. 

Yusuf said she’s seen rent prices escalate dramatically in the last six years she’s lived in Detroit, and friends have been forced to deal with property management companies that ignore repair issues. She’s wary of development projects that create trendy “commodified” pockets of the city for visitors while pushing away people of color. 

“Whatever love that has been poured into downtown and Midtown needs to be expanded so all of Detroit gets that same love and becomes a much more sustainable equitable place to live in, making sure all of our native Detroiters aren’t pushed out,” she said.