Candidate Profile: Coleman A. Young II For Detroit City Council

Coleman A. Young II

Age (as of Election Day)

38

Position Sought

Detroit City Council At-Large

Party Affiliation

Democrat

Family

I am a member of a great family! We are ALL Family!

Does anyone in your family work in politics or government?

NO

Education

I am completing my degree in Communications at Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. I have received 3 certificates from Harvard University for Urban Cities: The Past, Present and Future Urban Life, U. S. Public Policy: Social, Economic, and Foreign Policies and U. S. Constitutional Foundations.

Occupation

CEO of Coleman A. Young II Educational Foundation: During these last 2 years, while I was not elected, I continued to serve families. I started an educational foundation that helps high schoolers in Detroit Public School families to learn more about STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) to get free laptops and attend camps at Google and Princeton in preparation for jobs in STEM. These students also want to secure their success and the success of their families in Detroit. The services and laptops were free for the students, because we are all family.

Previous or Current Elected or Appointed Office

I have 12 years of State elective service as a two-term State Representative and two-term State Senator. During those 12 years I established a record of helping Michigan’s working families and their communities. With my staff, I resolved over 12,000 constituent concerns, because I believe that we are all family.

Campaign website

colemanyoung4detroit.com

Why are you seeking elective office?

I believe that family is the critical word for the times we have endured. It is the family of Detroiters and the region that have come together to keep us safe and healthy. It is family that pushes us forward to do more for one another to help all of us reach success. It is the basic needs of the Detroit Family; togetherness, unity, safety, security and leadership that we all seek and yearn to possess. We all want to succeed. We are all family.

My Father, The Honorable Mayor Coleman Alexander Young, would say, “Always let the people find you working.” I have tried my very best to live up to that edict. I passed 13 laws that help working families while I was in elected in Lansing; laws that cut property taxes; laws that gave working women paid maternity leave and kept their jobs safe; helped residents stay healthy get heat and food; laws that brought money to my district residents and their families. I helped create over 10,000 jobs through movie tax credits. I appropriated over $800,000,000 to my district and the State of Michigan, because we are all family.
The single most pressing issue facing our (board, district, etc.) is _______, and this is what I intend to do about it.

The most important thing for us to do is to compensate those residents whose basements have flooded and their lives have been devastated as a result of it. Then, we need to invest in our infrastructure to prevent this flooding from recurring.

What are the critical differences between you and the other candidates seeking this post?

I have 12 years of State elective service as a two-term State Representative and two-term State Senator. During those 12 years I established a record of helping Michigan’s working families and their communities. I passed 13 laws that help working families while I was in elected in Lansing; laws that cut property taxes; laws that gave working women paid maternity leave and kept their jobs safe; helped residents stay healthy get heat and food; laws that brought money to my district residents and their families. I helped create over 10,000 jobs through movie tax credits. I appropriated over $800,000,000 to my district and the State of Michigan, because we are all family. No one else in this race has this record.

If you are a challenger, in what way has the current board or officeholder failed the community (or district or constituency)

I am running for a vacant Detroit City Council At Large seat.

How do you think local officials performed in responding to the coronavirus? What if anything would you have done differently?

I think that we need to encourage as many people as possible, knock on as many doors as possible, so we can protect life in Detroit and Michigan. Too many people have been lost. Too many people have been buried that are part of our families. I want to encourage as many people as I can to "Take the SHOT!!!!" so we can preserve life and fully reopen the economy.

Describe the other issues that define your campaign platform.

Neighborhood Public Safety, Community/Economic Development, Neighborhood Investment and Beautification, Small Business Entrepreneurship, Affordable Housing, Poverty and Income Inequality, Grants for homeowners to rehabilitate their property.

What accomplishments in your past would you cite as evidence you can handle this job?

I have 12 years of State elective service as a two-term State Representative and two-term State Senator. During those 12 years I established a record of helping Michigan’s working families and their communities. I passed 13 laws that help working families while I was in elected in Lansing; laws that cut property taxes; laws that gave working women paid maternity leave and kept their jobs safe; helped residents stay healthy get heat and food; laws that brought money to my district residents and their families. I helped create over 10,000 jobs through movie tax credits. I appropriated over $800,000,000 to my district and the State of Michigan, because we are all family. No one else in this race has this record.

The best advice ever shared with me was:

My Father, The Honorable Mayor Coleman Alexander Young, would say, “Always let the people find you working.” I have tried my very best to live up to that edict. I passed 13 laws that help working families while I was in elected in Lansing; laws that cut property taxes; laws that gave working women paid maternity leave and kept their jobs safe; helped residents stay healthy get heat and food; laws that brought money to my district residents and their families. I helped create over 10,000 jobs through movie tax credits. I appropriated over $800,000,000 to my district and the State of Michigan, because we are all family.

What else would you like voters to know about yourself and your positions?

As a member of the powerful Senate Appropriations Committee and throughout his 12-year legislative career, I brought over $800,000,000 million dollars back to my district and the Great State of Michigan: $1,000,000 for the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History; $2,000,000 to keep Focus Hope open; $6.8 Million for low-income Heat & Eat Program that gives the State the power to draw down $300,000,000 for additional food and heating for more constituents; $565,000 for Michigan's Autistic Children across the spectrum; $12,000,000 for Fire Protection Grants to Michigan Fire Departments; $40,000,000 authorized for a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) Learning Center at Wayne State University and $84,100,000 for Indigent Legal Defense.