Overview:

-DaNetta Simpson operated a salon in Detroit for 30 years and has been a landlord just as long.
-She supports a freeze on property taxes and establishment of a city insurance program.
-Simpson previously ran for mayor in 2017 and 2021.

DaNetta Simpson, a self-employed Detroiter who lives on the city’s northeast side, is on the primary election ballot Tuesday as a candidate to replace outgoing Mayor Mike Duggan. 

Simpson formerly worked as a cosmetologist and owned her own salon in the city for more than 30 years, and she’s been a landlord in Detroit for three decades as well, she told Planet Detroit. Simpson started a political party, the Independent Non Affiliation Party. She’s run for mayor twice before, in 2017 and 2021. 

A lifelong resident of the city, mother of four, and grandmother of five, Simpson said she has something in common with many Detroiters: she’s a graduate of Kettering High School, and her children grew up in the city’s school system. 

Simpson spoke with Planet Detroit about topics including the city’s environmental and public health challenges ahead of the election. This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. 

What’s the aim of the Independent Non Affiliation Party?

“We citizens — we want to be treated equally under the law,” Simpson said, giving the example of people who are sentenced to less time than another person who committed the same crime. She also raised the issue of criminal defendants who can’t make bond. 

Certain misdemeanors can be handled by sending defendants a court date, rather than making an arrest, Simpson said. 

If elected mayor, Simpson said she would have Detroit police officers spend more time in the neighborhoods, and ensure officers have training on searches and seizures. 

“I want to make sure they’re not illegally stopping people, harassing citizens, and illegally searching them,” she said. 

What would you say are the main issues you’re trying to bring to the table in this race?

“Neighborhoods,” Simpson said. “Everybody doesn’t qualify for grants and loans. So I want to come up with city insurance that will help landlords keep up their properties, and it would help homeowners get gutters, roofs, get their porches and stuff fixed.”

City insurance would help landlords keep lead exposure down, she said. 

Commercial buildings and small businesses need help as well, Simpson said. 

“That would be a way of addressing blight, and also people who live in the parts of the city that haven’t received as much attention.” 

Simpson is in favor of freezing property taxes and “grandfathering in” Detroiters who have lived in their houses 20 years or longer, she said. 

What is your stance on Detroit’s new rental inspection ordinance?

“There needs to be some stipulations on the tenants too, as well, because you think that a landlord is the only one that has a duty, but the tenant has a duty too,” Simpson said.
Tenants must report repairs in a timely fashion, and landlords need time to complete them, she said. 

“They don’t pay for trash pickup, and they are causing 40% of the blight in the city of Detroit. When they move out, they don’t prepare themselves to move, and they should be charged a trash fee,” Simpson said. 

“For example, I had a tenant that moved out of the house four months after the judge ordered her a court date for three months later. When they ordered a court date, she didn’t prepare herself to move, and then when she moved out, trash was everywhere.”

Does the mayor have any role to play in regards to air quality as we’re seeing the EPA roll back some pollution standards under Donald Trump?

“Everything would be a concern to me, and I need to know what has been tested and what has not been tested,” Simpson said. “And I need to know: what things are we inhaling in our environment?”

Do you have a stance on urban agriculture and composting? For example, would you support a new composting ordinance that allows standalone operations?

Follow-through is key for urban agriculture, Simpson said. 

“The community gardens, they look nice, OK, but — some of them look like junk gardens to me,” Simpson said. “I want to know, are they using the funds properly, or are they just putting the stick in the ground?” 

If Detroiters are starting a community garden stating it’s for vegetables, “you need to plant those vegetables,” she said. “Not only a few of them, and they need to be consistently watered.” 

How can the mayor address the issue of utility affordability with DTE Energy and Detroit Water & Sewerage?

Simpson said she wants more Detroiters to be eligible for utility affordability programs beyond residents with low income. 

“Water is not only a need, it is a right,” she said, adding that she would maintain a relationship with the commissioners overseeing utilities to ensure residents’ utilities are not being cut off for small debts. 

When Simpson previously ran for mayor, she said she pitched a water affordability plan that called for every citizen to have a right to water, whether they are a homeowner or renter.

On the subject of DTE Energy, Simpson said electricity should not be shut off on days with extreme heat, and added that she would keep customers informed of rate increases, and work with commissioners to ensure Detroiters are charged a fair rate. 

MORE PLANET DETROIT REPORTING

How would you address Detroit’s growing flooding problem? What can the mayor do to help?

“I know that there’s an infrastructure problem in certain neighborhoods, and I will seek funding to address those and make sure those projects continue from Duggan’s administration to mine,” Simpson said. 

“It’s also a tenant or homeowner neglect problem too,” she said, adding that residents put items such as wipes in the pipes that shouldn’t be there. 

“I will continue to educate the public on what not to use and what to use in your drains to help the infrastructure.” 

What is your stance on ICE enforcement in Detroit and the city’s friendliness to immigrants?

Simpson said she can’t overrule the federal government, “but I will try my best to help” immigrants.

Under Simpson, the Detroit Police Department would ensure that ICE is not violating citizens’ rights, she said. “That’s one more eye on them pressing the Constitution.” 

Dustin Blitchok brings extensive editorial leadership experience, having served as an editor at Benzinga and Metro Times, and got his start in journalism at The Oakland Press. As a longtime Detroit resident and journalist, he has covered a wide range of public interest stories, including criminal justice and government accountability.