Affordable housing, blight cleanup, expanded transit options and community development are among the areas of interest for residents and the long-time council member representing Detroit’s west side. 

District 1 covers neighborhoods in the northwest corner of Detroit, stretching north of Interstate 96 to the city’s border. It includes commercial corridors along Grand River, Lahser and Seven Mile and communities like Old Redford, Brightmoor and Rosedale Park.

The district is home to the historic Redford Theatre and the Artist Village as well as Eliza Howell Park, Crowell Recreation Center, the Detroit Public Library’s Redford Branch and historic neighborhoods. 

The boundaries will remain largely the same in 2026 after the council redrew district lines as part of a legally required process. Hubbell-Puritan, Belmont and part of Bethune Community and Evergreen-Outer Drive neighborhoods were moved into District 2. District 1 lost roughly 5,000 residents in an effort to balance the population in each of the seven council districts. It previously had a population of 100,068, which dropped to 94,815 residents. 

The median home value is $85,510, and median rent is $1,038. The home-ownership rate is 56%.

Who is running

District 1 council member James Tate is running for a fifth term unopposed for the first time since 2009 when he was elected to council

Tate, council’s longest serving member, said he supports expansions of public transportation, including raising wages, hiring more mechanics and purchasing more buses.

Tate said he’s also focused on repopulating the Brightmoor neighborhood, which has a new neighborhood planning document guiding future development and land use. Tate said he wants the neighborhood to turn a corner before he leaves office. It’ll be a slow process, Tate said, which is intentional to avoid consequences of rapid development. 

Tate authored the city’s adult-use recreational cannabis ordinance, which established regulations for marijuana businesses and gave preference to longtime resident. As accomplishments, he also points to saving a historic library from demolition, launching a campaign to raise awareness of mental health issues and legalizing the keeping of chickens, ducks and bees.

Looking ahead, Tate said he is concerned about the city’s financials as federal Covid-19 dollars expire and cuts from the Trump administration set in, including federal grant cuts for housing and health programs.

“We’re going to have to start having those conversations with the community (about) what to expect,” Tate said. “The average person, they don’t know the stuff we do down here. They just know that we’re in charge and their life is either better or not.”

James Chandler and Tashawna Rushin are running as write-in candidates. Their names won’t be listed on the ballot. 

Voices from the district

Gail Tubbs, president of the O’Hair Park Community Association, said a lack of affordable housing is among the top issues holding back her part of the district. Tubbs said the neighborhood also has frustrations with maintaining vacant lots owned by the Detroit Land Bank Authority. She said Tate has been a trustworthy liaison for residents, but wants the community to have more input on business developments.

Tubbs has lived in the O’Hair Park neighborhood for 33 years. She’s stayed through hard times because her community watches out for each other. Tubbs said they pull each others’ garbage cans up from the curb and shovel snow for elders.

“Community input should be interwoven into everything that happens within that community,” Tubbs said. “(Tate) has been solid for us. He’s easily approachable, accessible, will provide answers and let you know when he doesn’t have answers. People appreciate that we can exercise our voice and get some type of action.”

Jetty Wells said Tate was one of the first people she reached out to when she became president of the CNBC Block Club. She wanted the organization to become more organized and effective, starting with installing speed humps and trimming tree limbs that would fall on power lines and cause outages after intense storms. Wells said Tate helped her break through the runaround and connect with someone at DTE Energy that cleaned up trees. 

“He’s put me in touch with many key people from many of the city departments for different issues, as well as other block leaders in District 1 that had been involved a lot longer than I had,” Wells said. “He’s been very helpful to me and the growth of our block club.” 

Wells said there’s still much work to be done to address both neighborhood issues and frustrations residents have with the city government. 

“A lot of residents in the city of Detroit have gotten to a point where they think people who are elected, there’s nothing they can do to change the environment and so their votes don’t count,” Wells said.