What even happened this year?

Welcome back. I’m still Malachi Barrett.

I’m writing to you before taking a holiday break, so I guess that makes me the ghost of Christmas past. Let’s look back a bit before talking about the future.

I published over 150 reports this year, including this notebook. We started it in 2023 to provide Detroiters with reliable information about the City Council.

Traditional news formats make it hard to know everything noteworthy that happened in council meetings with dozens of agenda items.  I figured people wanted to know more. You proved that true.

Read all City Council coverage here – and tell your friends to subscribe for free, high-quality reporting.

Huge thanks to Khary Frazier for producing and co-hosting “Public Comment,” a weekly video companion to the notebook. I also appreciate our friends at WDET and Roop Raj at Fox 2 for inviting me to talk about these stories on their programs. 

It was a good year, right?

We dove deeper than ever into the budget process, covering all department briefings to show how Detroit decides to spend your tax dollars. We also helped show the limits of the council’s power.

We kept watch on federal pandemic relief spending too. Contracts that came through the council inspired us to follow up with reporting on recreation center upgrades and a new street health team.

Using taxpayer subsidies to fund gargantuan downtown projects and build cheaper housing units remained a major topic. New research found many Detroiters don’t benefit from tax capture practices that move money from schools and city services into downtown projects.

The City Council will hear General Motors and Dan Gilbert ask for tax breaks to revitalize the Renaissance Center in 2025. Maybe we’ll live to see District Detroit start construction next year too.

Somehow, we started and ended 2024 talking about a possible tax on downtown events. Will supporters, including mayoral hopeful Mary Sheffield, have the juice to get it through Lansing?

Sheffield is one of several candidates lining up to replace Mayor Mike Duggan. Council Member Fred Durhal is also taking a swing. We’ll keep following the money – don’t you love campaign finance reports?

Every decision council members make could have extra scrutiny in an election year. The full council is up for reelection using new district boundaries that many folks may not know about.

Duggan will run for governor after his term ends next year on a plan to grow the state’s population. Detroit added roughly 1,900 people from 2022-23 – still smaller than when he took office but enough for Duggan to cite some success in adding new residents.

Michigan elites started their 2024 in Detroit to discuss ways to spark population growth. They’ll be back again for the Detroit Policy Conference in early 2025.

Coverage in the notebook was often a starting point for larger stories, like this report on police tether launchers, or a rejected contract that sparked an ethics investigation into former Planning Director Antoine Bryant. 

We tracked conversations around property assessments, reducing gun violence, preventing dust pollution, legalizing small livestock, obtaining elusive land bank property, troubles with the reparations task force, wide concerns with the I-375 redesign, plus tons of other issues.

We also centered the voices of residents in 2024 election coverage while exploring how Kamala Harris courted Detroit voters.

That left us able to explain what went wrong with her campaign and why more Detroiters ended up backing President-elect Donald Trump.

You’re still here? There’s more stuff, but you get the point.

Conversations with readers left me reassured that our strategy is working. Still, I’m ending this year with the general sense that we Americans exist in a broken information environment.

As a reporter, it feels like we’re failing to foster an informed citizenry.

That’s lame! But we don’t have the luxury of giving up.

BridgeDetroit is making plans to reach people in new ways and help folks understand what’s at stake with the political battles yet to come. Got ideas? Good, let’s talk.

You can always reach me at mbarrett@bridgedetroit.com or by cell at (313) 690-5343.

Shoutout to those who responded to my question prompts and offered their advice, expertise and feedback. I won’t name you publicly, but you know who you are.

Special thanks to all of the coffee shops that kept me caffeinated on deadline, hosted source meetups and sparked interactions with strangers. In no order: 

• Anthology Coffee
• Cafe Noir
• Milwaukee Cafe
• The Gathering (rest in peace)
• Trinosophes
• The Red Hook
• Dessert Oasis Coffee Roasters
• Kitab Cafe
• Alba
• James Oliver
• Cafe 1923 
• The Commons 
• Give Thanks Bakery
• Spotlite

In the same vein – much appreciation to Woodward Coney, Louie’s Ham & Corned Beef, Cadillac Square Diner, Supino Pizzeria and Gratiot Grill for providing fast energy.

Worst wishes to the pothole on Mack Avenue heading west by Mt. Elliott.

Thank you for all of your support. I’ll be back in January.