Detroit reflects on Mike Duggan's tenure as his final days in the mayoral office near

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FILE - Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan speaks to city employees in Detroit, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)

DETROIT – When Mayor Mike Duggan announced his plan to run for Michigan governor , he did so from a tower in the iconic but aging Renaissance Center overlooking Detroit.

It's not the same city that Duggan inherited in January 2014.

No longer defined by blocks of vacant houses , empty downtown storefronts, rampant crime and scores of broken streetlights, many believe Detroit is finally experiencing its renaissance.

“I wish he would stay,” 40-year-old plumber Thomas Millender said of Duggan, who will step down in January after serving three terms as mayor.

“Duggan did a good job from what the city was to h