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Mayoral candidate Hansen Clarke is currently State Senator from Detroit where he serves on the Senate Appropriations committee and on the Michigan Legislative Black Caucus. Previously, he served three terms as State Representative for the City of Detroit. As a college student he headed east to Cornell to study Art, eventually switching to law. He received his Juris Doctorate from Georgetown Law School and then returned home to Detroit - the city in which he was born and raised, and which has fought tirelessly for throughout his career as a public official. (For much more information about Clarke and his ideas, please see his website.)

Clarke sat down with Nick Sousanis for a few minutes to answer our famous four questions.

(For a look at the Clarke campaign, please click here. For more about his involvement in the art world see our companion story here.)

WHY DETROIT?

I was born here and raised here. My entire view of life and the world was shaped here in Detroit. I lived on one street until I was 25 years old - Baldwin right off of Mack Avenue. That shaped everything. I did get the opportunity to go away to school, opportunities that kids in my neighborhood really don't have. That did help me see other things in the world - like I was able to go out east to school and go away to college and law school. But all that time my home was Detroit, the east side of Detroit, the inner city of Detroit. It means everything to me.

My mother died when I was 19, my freshman year of school. My dad had been dead for years, so it was just her and I. She told me then, standing on her front porch, "Son, this house means nothing to me. Don't come back for this house. I want to get away from this city so you can have a future someplace. Don't come back home for this house. I only kept this so you'd have a place to stay." I think she knew she was sick, she died soon after.

But I came back anyway.

There was something…. I was in law school in [Washington] DC - I really enjoyed it, New York City was the center of the art world and I was in college in upstate New York [Cornell]. But something drew me back to this city. It was something beyond my own will. It was like my heart was here and it's that same thing that compelled me to run for this office.

WHY CITY ADMINISTRATION?

I want every child, every family to succeed in this city. And I want Detroit to be a thriving prosperous place. That's why I want to run. But personally, something more compelled me to do this.

For a long time as a member of the senate appropriations committee, I've been fighting for Detroit. The state of Michigan is experiencing a tremendous budget crisis, which means there is less money to go around for institutions that mean a lot to me. Things like Detroit Public Library and Children's Hospital, that provides care to people on Medicaid and have no health care whatsoever. On top of it, I'm part of a partisan minority in the legislature and my Republican colleagues who control the votes also want to have more money for their libraries, their hospitals, and they target Detroit institutions to take that money. So not only was I operating in a state government where resources were scarce, but then I had to deal with political attacks trying to take money away from Detroit institutions where we need it the most. But many times I would win to preserve money. One time I helped restore a $65 million scholarship program for low income kids so they could go to college in the state of Michigan. I actually got some republicans together and we were able to get that passed. So I am trying to help the city of Detroit directly.

When the city needed short term borrowing of $55 million dollars, I went to the state treasurer's office in advance, and said, "I want to make sure that the city gets this approved by you and that there's no problem." They said, "Oh, there will be a big problem because the city has not yet turned in its audit which was due at the end of last year." This is a conversation I had the first of April of this year. I was infuriated. I went and made some calls and helped get that audit sent to the state of Michigan. Then the heads of the firefighters union and the police officers union called me to see how I could help them not get their budgets cut. I said, "Absolutely. People feel unsafe as it is in Detroit, the last thing I need to do is cut back on public safety." So I went and met with the mayor's people to see what I could do. And that's when I learned that the financial situation was so dire with the city that even with the $55 million short term loan, it wasn't enough to keep the city from laying off firefighters and police officers. Then I realized how grave the situation was here.

Now, I'm compounding it with personal things that happened. A young boy that grew up across the street from me on Baldwin and Mack was able to get out of the neighborhood. His mother and I are very close friends because she saw me grow up as a teenager. That young boy is now a grown man, 31 years old. He came back to visit the neighborhood, the same block that he was raised on, and was killed by a drive-by shooter in front of the house he lived in across the street from the house I lived in. His mother had to tell me that. Think about how she must feel. It's horrible.

Then on top of it, a few days before I decided to announce I was running for mayor, my aide in my office tells me that the home that I was raised in, the one my mother as a single parent provided for, paid off the mortgage by working as a school crossing guard and cleaning other people's houses, was now abandoned and was being used to sell drugs. I almost went ballistic. That was it. I didn't care about the political repercussions or anything. So on May 6, I went in front of my house and announced I was running for mayor. And that's when I first saw the house, no trespassing signs on it, dog feces on the porch, it was terrible. Now I'm able to talk about it, a month ago I'd get tears doing so.

That's what caused me to run - I couldn't take it anymore. And I knew it wasn't just me who's experiencing this. Every household in the city of Detroit was losing hope. My friends, especially those of middle class, middle income, are leaving the city in droves because they can't afford to live here. They move out to the suburbs, they buy a more expensive house and it costs them less. So I had to announce I was running, so people knew they have an alternative. They don't have to leave Detroit to have their kids raised with a future. They don't have to leave the city to not be afraid their grandkids would be murdered.

Now I'll just say this on the record, I don't have the personal ambition to be mayor. I enjoy being a senator. That's a lot of fun. I work as a small group. If there's problems out there that I see, I can go and try to get them solved. The governor is a great person to work with. Not everything goes well all the time. We have the partisan issue, but that's not a problem. Everybody's really the same, regardless of what party you are, where you're from, what your race is, people all want the same thing. So I try to appeal to the common denominator of people. So that's how I enjoy the senate. Again, for the other personal issues I talked to you about before, [see accompanying article] that the senate would allow me to do, but I decided to put that on hold.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF DETROIT?

Detroit has a great future. There's only one Detroit, and I don't mean there's only one city named that - there's only one place that's the home of the automobile, that's the home of General Motors, that has a great riverfront, that has so many single family homes that are available and affordable (once we lower the taxes and auto insurance), and there's only one Motown. We've got everything going for us to build upon. Although I'd say now, the situation in the city of Detroit is extraordinarily grey. Fiscally we could be on the verge of receivership: payless paydays, not being able to make our short term debt obligations. Maybe more tragically I feel that people who live in the city are losing hope. Many that can live have already left. Those that are here are struggling; they're struggling for their very survival.

When I was a kid, I got breaks in my life from my elementary school teachers and Jr. High teachers, because I was viewed as being raised in a disadvantaged household - I was one of the few kids on the block that was raised by one parent. Now, today in Detroit, there isn't a family that doesn't have a mother like my mother working hard with little money and no manner of support and they're struggling. Families are struggling here. My belief is that Detroiters pay enough in taxes, to pay for the services that they deserve, like having a safe neighborhood, having clean streets so we can live in a city that we can be proud of, and having job training for those jobs that are currently available for people to be hired into in Detroit. And yes, even with a high unemployment there are a lot of jobs here. I know that. There are a lot of jobs here we can train people for, and I can make sure that Detroiters are trained for those jobs. But we need to use our resources to help stabilize our city, to provide people with job opportunities, and then make sure that whatever money that they make, they can spend on themselves.

Probably within a year after I make sure that the budget is balanced, I'll cut property taxes in the city of Detroit in half, and ask Wayne County and other taxing authorities to follow suit, so we can provide Detroit home owners with some real property tax relief. But I mean a property tax cut not just for select neighborhoods, but for every property owner across the board across the city.

We have to make the neighborhoods safe. I don't care how low taxes, even car insurance, people have to know that they're going to be safe in this city - families and business. No business person wants their business broken into and their employees robbed. Same for families. I want to have a strong, visible police presence in the city - on every neighborhood, maybe on every block. The police officers will be properly trained though, so they know not to harass people and treat suspects if they are arrested in a manner which is appropriate. Be tough but be fair.

In addition I believe we can build the city, by building regional cooperation. Here's what I mean by that. We bring investment into the city by building our neighborhoods so that they're safe, so that they're clean and then building regional cooperation, because Detroit is part of a regional economy. I would work with the tri-county leadership along with the governor's office to establish a regional development plan that recognizes the city of Detroit as an integral part of our region's economy. The foundation of this regional development plan would be regional transportation. We have a lot of Detroiters that can't afford car insurance, jobs here are all over the region and people need to be able to get out there and get back, that's a regional issue which we need to solve on a regional level. Also, I believe Cobo Hall is a great economic engine, but it is one that serves the entire state, definitely the entire region. That could be a regional convention facility and part of a regional development plan.

Another component of my regional development plan has nothing to do with taxpayer dollars; it has to do with putting together educational partnerships. Businesses out in the suburbs, private non-profit organizations that serve children and families - I would invite them all to provide mentoring and job training services in the city. Even an organization like Automation Alley indicated that they were interested in mentoring to our kids here in Detroit. So that's how we could actually strengthen Detroit public schools and it wouldn't necessarily cost any more taxpayer dollars. People want to help, they want to contribute to Detroit. I just need to allow them to do it.

Encouraging regional partnerships doesn't necessarily require an agreement among business leaders or elected officials. It doesn't require a regional development authority, but it's by the moral authority of the mayor of the city of Detroit. There are a few barriers between the city and the region working together. One is race, certainly this area is racially segregated. Maybe more divisive though, is divisions on account of economic class. African Americans are moving out of the city of Detroit, because they're middle income and they can afford to do it. That's something I feel I can bridge.

The final obstacle between regional cooperation involves the political culture of the city. For decades it's been that elected officials get in office so that they can be served by the people. They have an attitude of arrogance and entitlement that goes along with it. That's the reason why I feel city government hasn't worked for families. Because it's been designed to work for the elected officials, their friends, and their family members. I intend to change that political culture by destroying that political bureaucracy. That's how I'll build up the city. I'll lay off and fire virtually most of the people that are hired only for political reasons to carry out political jobs. And I'm going to change the culture of government from one that expects to be served by people to one who's job is committed to serve the public, especially those people who need help the most. So that by breaking that cultural barrier down, they'll see me as mayor who's there to help people, not to serve myself, not as some imperial governmental leader - that will help bring the region and Detroit together.

WHAT IS THE FUTURE OF CITY ADMINISTRATION IN DETROIT?

You check out some of the people running for office. They act like they're it. They're going to be the mayor, they are the MAYOR. You know, that person is being hired by the people of Detroit. Their paycheck is being paid by people who are struggling to make a living right now, who can barely make it, who live on a fixed or low income. That person's job is to serve those people. I think about those guys that get their lunch out of garbage dumpsters behind my building. The Mayor's job is to make sure that that person who is suffering from mental illness doesn't have to use drugs to medicate themselves, to provide them with the substance abuse treatment that they need and the transitional housing, so that they can clean themselves and be able to live a productive and fulfilling life.

That's what the mayor's job is for.

Not so they can ride around in a limousine and an Escalade, to live in a mansion and be surrounded by security like they're some big shot. When I'm mayor, you know who's going to be big? The people living in the neighborhood. They're not going to be looking at me and what I'm dressed like, they're going to be happy that they're neighborhood is cleaner and safe. Instead of looking at me, they are going to be concerned about what their children's future is going to look like. They are going to see some promise there. What will happen though is that people will not be concerned about me in terms of my personal identity - they'll say, "we want you to do something about the city." I want that, I want them to start holding the mayor accountable - the people won't allow it to fall apart. The people will make it better, they will clean up this city. I believe it can be done.

For much more about Clarke and his campaign, please click here. - Nick Sousanis ws@thedetroiter.com

Look for Four Questions with the Mayor and Council Person McPhail next time.