Detroit voters will elect two at-large city council candidates from a field of four.

Incumbents Coleman Young II and Mary Waters are on the ballot with former council member Janeé Ayers. The fourth candidate is James Harris. He’s the Detroit Fire Department‘s Community Relations Chief.

Why is he running?

Harris says winning would fulfill a dream he’s had since a city councilman came to his elementary school and spoke to his fifth grade class.

“He made us feel like our voice counted,” Harris says. “And I said one day I want to serve the citizens in that capacity.

Harris is the only at-large candidate without council experience. He says that’s not necessarily a disadvantage.

“The majority of people say we need some fresh blood in there,” he says. “The city always needs to change.”

One change Harris says he wants is to make it easier for new businesses to start up in Detroit. He says it’s frustrating for many entrepreneurs to cut through red tape.

“I’d make it a simple one-stop shop,” he says. “You get your certificates, you get all your compliance done, bam! You’re ready to go.”

Public safety matters

Harris has been a Detroit firefighter for 28 years. He says that experience is something his opponents do not have. He also says public safety starts with the citizens.

“You can’t have a police officer on every corner, every block, every house, but you do have citizens,” Harris says. “When you build that bridge with the citizens, with community violence intervention, it works.”

Harris says he does not want to see the National Guard policing the city.

“We have one of the best police departments in the world,” he says. “Our police officers, our citizens, our block clubs have a relationship.”

His vision: an affordable, walkable city

Harris says one way to increase affordable housing in Detroit is to lower property taxes. Another is to keep building housing projects that working class people can buy. He also wants to make Detroit more walkable. Harris says people should be able to walk to work, school, church, and recreation centers safely.

“I will work with the eight other council members to see what we could do to have more walkable communities.”

Election Day is Nov. 4, 2025.

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Detroit voters will elect two people to at-large seats on the City Council this fall.

Incumbents Mary Waters and Coleman A. Young II are on the ballot with former council member Janeé Ayers. James Harris is also running. He’s the Detroit Fire Department’s Community Relations Chief.

Housing is a vital need

Voters elected Waters in 2021. She says she’s done a lot during her first term, such as starting a dedicated call center for people who are looking for housing.

“The people need a one-stop shop because they become very frustrated when they can’t find a decent place to live,” she says.

Waters believes people are also frustrated with the Detroit Land Bank Authority. Since its inception, the DLBA has fixed up and sold more than 100 homes and over 30,000 vacant lots.

While the program has been largely successful at reviving home ownership in Detroit, Waters says potential buyers sometimes get tied up in red tape. She says some have even lost their homes because they weren’t able to meet the authority’s repair requirements.

“They’ve invested thousands of their dollars, their hard-earned money, only for the land bank to say, ‘well, this is not good enough, you didn’t meet the deadline, so now we’re going to evict you,'” she says.

Waters, a former state lawmaker, has asked the Michigan Legislature to hold out-of-state landlords accountable for the properties they own, especially those shielded by limited liability corporations.

“It’s very difficult for our Board of Review and our assessor’s office to locate them because they are hiding under one LLC after another,” she says.

Waters also supports rent control to protect people who don’t own their homes from eviction.

Detroiters can protect the city without military intervention

Besides better housing, Waters says she wants to make city streets safer. Detroit recorded its fewest homicides since the 1960s in 2024, and Mayor Mike Duggan says murders are down 15 percent so far in 2025.

Waters says she supports the city’s Community Violence Intervention program, as well as a curfew for minors.

“Sometimes if young people are out late, there’s a possibility they could commit a crime,” she says.

Waters would also like to see the city put more foot patrols in neighborhoods and restore funding for block clubs.

“When block clubs were funded and they had the support of the municipal government, they were able to patrol their neighborhoods,” she says.

Waters does not want to see the National Guard fighting crime in Detroit, but she says President Donald Trump can help in other ways.

“What I want [him] to do is make sure that municipalities like ourselves have the necessary resources so that we can do this ourselves,” she says.

Water says if voters re-elect her, she will keep working to train people for skilled trades jobs and to provide services for seniors and veterans.

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