Forget resolutions. Let's talk about expectations for 2014.
People in and around Detroit are expecting a lot. So much that newly elected Mayor Mike Duggan sounds like he is trying to manage expectations in some of his public remarks.
Duggan will be able to improve delivery of some city services in tangible ways fairly quickly, in part through better management and in part with money freed up by debt obligation relief through bankruptcy.
There are other good things to expect this year: The M-1 Rail project will finally break ground. Woodward Avenue will be torn up to create the kind of purgatory only commuters who generally travel I-96 into downtown Detroit will understand.
We expect Gov. Snyder will run for re-election. What would help him most? Progress in Detroit and a few big wins with jobs — especially from employers who might not have given Michigan a look were it not for its right-to-work legislation.
But here's an expectation of what should happen and probably won't: I expect we will lose the chance in this Detroit fiscal crisis to address the elephant in the room: race relations in Southeast Michigan.
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