Hamtramck demographics

[rjk]

I'm specifically interested in the number of Hamtramck residents who are of Polish decent. I've heard 22%, but those numbers seem to be from back in 2000.
A few searches didn't lead me to any current stats.
Thanks for any help.

[DetroitPole]

I'm specifically interested in the number of Hamtramck residents who are of Polish decent. I've heard 22%, but those numbers seem to be from back in 2000.
A few searches didn't lead me to any current stats.
Thanks for any help.

This is likely because the US Census stopped tracking ethnicity. So I don't know if anyone really knows anymore.

Rest assured, the number has dropped from 22%. The Bengladeshi population of Hamtramck has exploded in the past ten years. Many of the Poles were older and many have died off or moved to the suburbs. Still there are quite a lot of Poles still living there, both older and some working class younger folks. This is anecdotal, of course, but it's basically all we have anymore.

As long as the Polish churches and Polish businesses remain, so will at least some of the population. It is what many are comfortable with.

Top that off with the heavy restrictions against Polish immigration to the US, and the lack of a Catholic school in Hamtramck, and you're probably not going to see much growth in terms of the Polish population.

[Detroitnerd]

I think the only source for numbers like that are the Piast Institute ...

[hamtown mike]

I am the closest thing to a little old polish lady on my street.
I second the below 22%. wayyy below.

[Detroitnerd]

But there are no majorities anymore. It's like everybody is a minority in Hamtramck. I'd say you have a lot of Bangladeshis, Yemenis, Catholic Albanians, Poles, Serbians, Macedonians. The non-ethnic contingent of black and white folks is pretty cool, some artists, some hipsters, and some old Bob-and-Betty types from days of yore.

[hamtown mike]

Don't forget the mo's. There are quite a few of us with a steady stream of more coming to town.

[Detroitnerd]

What's a mo?

[bailey]

What's a mo?

teh gheys......

[Detroitnerd]

That's cool. You guys need a bar in town...

[bartock]

Don't forget the mo's. There are quite a few of us with a steady stream of more coming to town.

I hear them real estate folk been sending you all out on bikes in the neighborhoods, scaring away all the straights.

[Detroitnerd]

I hear them real estate folk been sending you all out on bikes in the neighborhoods, scaring away all the straights.

No, those kids are Mormons...

[canuck]

A whole tabernacle choir on Schwinns and Huffys, whew!

[Danny]

According to the 2010 Census Hamtramck's Population is:

53% White

19% black

21% Asian

1.5% Hispanic

15% Far East Asian

Hamtramck used to be a Polish-German dominate community. The city had a long history of keeping black folks away from its white community. So Black families were placed past South of Joseph Campeau St. and Mt. Elliot St. and west of Dequinrdre St. Fewer homes in the black section of Hamtramck were torn down. HUD responded by having Hamtramck City Council to build housing projects west of Dequindre St. When the I-75 FWY was built, its was served as a demarcation wall separating from the Black community at its projects and the white middle class community. The Yemeni Muslims arrived in the 1960s to work at the plants. They settled from the southern areas along the Detroit/Hamtramck borders by the 1980s as Poletown was destroyed by GM planned by Coleman Young under the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979. It lured more immigrants from all over the Middle East and East Asian nations to work, settle and lived there. By the 1990s Bengladeshis, Sri Lankis and East Indians come to Hamtramck from Astoria community of Brooklyn, New York City. They settle along Conant Ave. even to Conant Gardens area in Detroit. Today they are the dominant in that ghettohood. This is due to lack to housing space and rentals in Hamtramck neighborhoods. So Hamtramck its very ethnically diverse with cultures shops and well kept up cookie cutter wood frame workmen's homes.

[Detroitej72]

As part of the Polish crowd, I can attest the current Polish population is still close to around 25%, which is about tied with the Bengali's for the largest ethnic group. But, like Detroitnerd said, there are so many different groups in town, it's quite the melting pot.

[rjk]

As part of the Polish crowd, I can attest the current Polish population is still close to around 25%, which is about tied with the Bengali's for the largest ethnic group. But, like Detroitnerd said, there are so many different groups in town, it's quite the melting pot.

What are you basing that on?
I haven't done a scientific survey myself, but just using my eyes and being familiar with most of the neighborhoods I have a hard time believing the Polish pop. is 15% let alone 25%.

[Hamtragedy]

There are at least 50% Polish on my block. The people who have moved on tend to rent their houses to newer poles, who often don't speaka' da English. And I would be willing to bet that in the immediate vicinity of Campau west to Fleming from Carpenter to Caniff you could still find a similar result, with a handful of exceptions. The areas where the Poles left, and a long time ago at that, are left to the oldest of the "Babcia's" and the latest wave of immigrants.

In my own personal observations, the amount of young Poles, who seemed to come to Hamtown in droves in the 90's, now have nicer places to go with just as much opportunity without having to cross the drink. Lax immigration policies towards Europeans in the 90's and easy credit made coming to Hamtramck the American Dream, where one could work for a roofer, make more money than ever before, get a credit card, get a Mustang, get plowed every nite, wreck said Mustang, and by the time winter would roll around, not work, not pay the bills, and after a year or two, head back to the old country with nary a trace.

As for the gay community, I say please to "here comes the neighborhood." but the strict Muslims have already expressed their opposition to that. As for immigrants in general, in 2007, there were as many as 24 different languages being spoken in the school district.

[Dexlin]

The Census hasn't stopped tracking ethnicity, it just doesn't do it in the 10-year census, anymore. Ancestry is now tracked for the Census Bureau's annual American Community Survey.

[Scottathew]

The Bengladeshi population of Hamtramck has exploded in the past ten years.

Bengladeshi flight is underway. My neighborhood in southwest Warren is a landing spot. I spoke to many of my new Bengladeshi neighbors and they all say they came from Hamtramck

[Lowell]

Hamtramck is such a colorful place which, over my years, has seen several waves of immigrants. It is our own little Ellis Island. Beyond the core Polish community, it became the home for Displaced Persons from WWII, particularly eastern Europeans, such as Ukrainians. When the Balkan Wars erupted, many Yugoslavs arrived. When Bengali's in Brooklyn discovered they could own homes for less than what they paid for rent, they came. In turn it has become a Moslem-friendly home for people from many countries. Throw in the artists, hipsters and others as Detroitnerd mentions and an eclectic community of interesting shops, restaurants and people has emerged and continually evolves.

BTW, there is an fascinating largely Muslim neighborhood just east of Hamtown, centered around Dwyer and Miller, with a mosque in a former Catholic School.

[Danny]

I have been over there, Mr. Boileau. The Yemenis have a great stronghold at the Detroit-Hamtramck border since the 1960s. That area was once a Polish-German communty with a Catholic Church in Dwyer St. Many black middle class and low-income familes arrived into that area since the 1940s to the 1990s. As the neighborhoods of Poletown was totally destoyed by GM and Mayor Young under the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979; the rest of the surrounding neighborhoods turned ghetto and blighted. The influx of Yemeni Arab Muslim quickly move there. This is due to ethnic steering and lack of housing in Hamtramck neighborhoods. The Yemenis turned a old Catholic church into their Mosque and a new Islamic school was established. New corner store shops were set up and thus " Little Yemen" was born.

[Danny]

Bengladeshi flight is underway. My neighborhood in southwest Warren is a landing spot. I spoke to many of my new Bengladeshi neighbors and they all say they came from Hamtramck

It depends if they have the money and know to leave their community along at the Conant Gardens area along Carpenter from Chrsyler [[I-75) FWY. to Conant and 6 Mile Rd. Still More Begladdeshi maintian a stronghold there and still growing. They already spreading to fewer homes on northern part of Hamtramck and West of Joseph Campeau where it was a black and blighted ghettohood. The determined to keep those homes up nice and pretty until they have the knowhow to adapt to the American Dream and move on to other neighborhoods.

[DetroitPole]

As for the gay community, I say please to "here comes the neighborhood." but the strict Muslims have already expressed their opposition to that. As for immigrants in general, in 2007, there were as many as 24 different languages being spoken in the school district.

Ah the irony. A group that was unwelcome a decade ago [[and still, in some circles) by a vocal minority of white folk in Hamtramck now takes their turn at being discriminatory. Also there is the irony that any businesses the gays would bring would be undoubtedly be better than the plethora of dollar stores/Sanford & Son random shit stores that line Campau that are run by strict Muslims.

Note: I know not all businesses run by Muslims in Hamtramck and elsewhere are are junk shops. There are good places too - especially the food, IMO.

[Detroitnerd]

Bengladeshi flight is underway. My neighborhood in southwest Warren is a landing spot. I spoke to many of my new Bengladeshi neighbors and they all say they came from Hamtramck

Haha. Bangladeshi flight? Rather, I think, they're going through the Hamtramck experience. All those affordable homes and storefronts to open new businesses in. And, as they grow more stable, Americanized and prosperous, it's only natural they follow the Polish population north. [[Heck, Hamtramck was formed originally by Poles moving north from Detroit to Hamtramck Township in the 1910s.) Frankly, there are so many Bengalis coming in that I doubt the Hamtramck community is shrinking. if anything, it's growing. Seems there's a new restaurant on Conant every year, and new markets [[I love them) and sari shops [[well, not my style) and stuff. They definitely sweep their porches. I only wish they weren't so socially conservative...

[Detroitej72]

As for the gay community, I say please to "here comes the neighborhood." but the strict Muslims have already expressed their opposition to that.

That is true. They declared war on a former council member who was openly gay and voted him off the council because they felt he promoted too gay of an agenda.

[Detroitnerd]

That is true. They declared war on a former council member who was openly gay and voted him off the council because they felt he promoted too gay of an agenda.

Anti-gay Gary Glenn and his American Family Association of Michigan and the religious goofs at the Thomas More Legal Center sort of elbowed their way into town, aligned themselves with the most regressive Bengali leaders, and overturned a human rights ordinance that offered protections for the LGBT contingent. Shame on you, Gary Glenn!