Impact Detroit Magazine Impact Detroit Magazine 2013 | Page 8

Candidate For Mayor of Detroit - Mark Murphy Jr Source: HuffingtonPost Mark Murphy Jr. is a community advocate who says he has a 500-day plan to improve the City of Detroit. His priorities as mayor would include streamlining city operations, neighborhood cleanup, acquiring new emergency equipment and streetlights, taking care of abandoned structures and beginning citywide bulk monthly trash pick-up and recycling programs. Murphy believes the city's budget issues could be partially addressed by encouraging city-facilitated volunteerism. He sees himself as a grassroots candidate. "I'm actually out here in the city -- actually on the ground in the city," he told The Huffington Post. "I walk the neighborhoods. I walk through the alleyways. Other people in the city should relate to me, compared to some of the others [who] have been entrenched in professional political positions." Murphy grew up in Southwest Detroit and graduated with honors from Charlotte Forten Academy in early 2004. In 2009, he ran as a candidate for Detroit City Council. His professional background is in landscaping and property cleanup. Candidate for Mayor of Detroit - Tom Barrow Source: HuffingtonPost Tom Barrow ran against Detroit Mayor Dave Bing in the city's 2009 mayoral election and is a candidate in the 2013 race. Jobs, financial stability, protecting the city's assets and establishing family safety zones with a heightened police presence were among Barrow's priorities during his previous mayoral campaign. He also challenged the election results of that race, alleging vote tampering and pushing for a criminal investigation, according to the Metro Times. control of city assets. More recently, Barrow has criticized Gov. Rick Snyder's expected appointment of an emergency manager to Detroit, which he has called a "throwback to Jim Crow." In an interview with The Huffington Post, Barrow, a certified public accountant, disputed the findings of the state's emergency review board, saying they had used "phony financial data" in order to declare a financial emergency in the city that he believes would be used by the state to take Barrow was born in Detroit and graduated from Wayne State University with a bachelor's of science degree with a concentration in accounting. He worked at the Arthur Andersen accounting firm before later starting his own public accounting company Barrow, Aldridge & Co.