Mayoral candidate Solomon Kinloch says he can end Detroit's 'tale of two cities'

Detroit — When it comes to poverty, a deep-seated issue that reverberates across Detroit even as the city makes strides, the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. knows firsthand what that's like.

As a child, one of six in his family, Kinloch's family had their lights and utilities shut off after his mother lost her job and his father wasn't working full-time. At age 6, he and part of his family squatted in an abandoned home in the city.

"As a kid, you can imagine being so scared and thinking, 'What the heck is going on?' Lights getting turned off, and utilities and whatnot," said Kinloch's brother, Jonathan, now a Wayne County commissioner. "I remember looking out the window and crying, saying, 'God, why are we going through this?' and praying."

That adversity has given Solomon Kinloch Jr. a keen sense of why he often describes Detroit as a "tale of two cities" — the one with new residents and billions of dollars in investments and the other where half of all children live in poverty, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Detroit's poverty rate also increased last year to 34.5%.



https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2025/10/09/solomon-kinloch-detroit-mayor-end-tale-two-cities-poverty-profile/86417460007/