Relative prosperity of Hammtramck

[Modusvivendi]

Just to lay all my cards out on the table, I'm new to this forum and not from Detroit but have a lay interest in cities and their development, especially Detroit's. I've never been to Detroit but it's a place I hope will see better days in the future.

One thing I've noticed just exploring the area on google street view and google earth is that hammtramck seems to be an island of relative stability in the middle of Detroit. It doesn't look like houses have been demolished en masse and I understand that home values there are several times what they are in Detroit. Why is this? Is this mainly a function of hammtramck being its own municipality and being able to maintain better government?

[animatedmartian]

Hi and welcome to the forum!

Partly yes and partly no. From an "average city" standpoint, Hamtramck isn't probably all that special. It's most valuable asset is its ethnic heritage. Most of its preservation comes from the fact that people have just never left Hamtramck [[or at least at a super fast rate like Detroit's). It has a high population density especially for a town it's size which is probably a big factor. And I'd assume people are probably satisfied with its government, but in that sense, it's very similar to many other suburban cities in that it's almost a bedroom community.

[Dexlin]

The relativey 'health' of its neighborhoods belie that fact that exactly a year ago, it was literally begging for a municipal bankruptcy that was only averted because they struck a settlement with already fiscally teetering Detroit over Poletown Plant revenue sharing. Great little town, but animated is really kind of right when he says it's most valuable asset is its ethnic heritage; that and its aggressive push at attracting foreign-born citizens that stick together in tough times. While the surrounding communities have foreign-born populations in the single digits, a good 40% of Hamtramck at the 2000 Census was foreign-born. In fact, that it's only real and tangible valuable asset, because it's financially as poor as just about anywhere you'll find. It is no mistake that it was under state fiscal management for most of the previous decade. What they get kudos for, again, is maintaining a true community under very dire circumstances.

[Hypestyles]

...how can detroit promote itself more to attract immigrant communities..

[DetroitPlanner]

...how can detroit promote itself more to attract immigrant communities..

Jobs help.

[Bham1982]

Hamtramck is obviously healthier compared to Detroit and HP because of immigrants.

[Wesley Mouch]

It may be the immigrants [[new & old), but its not just their mere existence. Look at the area just north. It was being populated my immigrants, and its just collapsed into dust.

I think Hamtramck 'works' because it is a community of a reasonable size that can look out for its residents [[me) own interests -- and has a police force to enforce its interests.

All the ethnicity in the world doesn't make a community work. It needs to be enforced, and Hamtramck does that.

[Danny]

All the Yemeni Arabs, Begladeshis, Sri Lankis, East Indians mixed in with Poles, Albanians, Checzs, Germans, Hungarians and low-income blacks. Hamtramck is like living in a mini-New York like enviroment.

As for Downtown Hamtramck, is slowly dying! It have lost over 100 businesses since 2008 housing crisis and fewer new businesses have been popping up.

[Wesley Mouch]

All the Yemeni Arabs, Begladeshis, Sri Lankis, East Indians mixed in with Poles, Albanians, Checzs, Germans, Hungarians and low-income blacks. Hamtramck is like living in a mini-New York like enviroment.

Isn't it great! You can get such a variety of great food -- not just Polish.

As for Downtown Hamtramck, is slowly dying! It have lost over 100 businesses since 2008 housing crisis and fewer new businesses have been popping up.

This makes it no different than most cities in the USA.

[davewindsor]

As for Downtown Hamtramck, is slowly dying! It have lost over 100 businesses since 2008 housing crisis and fewer new businesses have been popping up.

Slowly dying? I'd have to disagree. It's definitely not dying. I'd say the dynamic is evolving. I walked around/drove down Jos. Campau about half a year ago. It was lined with storefronts that were mostly rented. It reminded me a lot like walking around/driving down Wyandotte St. in Windsor. It wasn't high end, but it also didn't feel like anything within Detroit's city limits.

[Bham1982]

Slowly dying? I'd have to disagree. It's definitely not dying. I'd say the dynamic is evolving. I walked around/drove down Jos. Campau about half a year ago. It was lined with storefronts that were mostly rented. It reminded me a lot like walking around/driving down Wyandotte St. in Windsor. It wasn't high end, but it also didn't feel like anything within Detroit's city limits.

Yes, Jos Campau is better than almost any retail strip in Detroit city limits [[though probably not better than W. Vernor in SW), but it's still pretty bad, and definitely in decline.

Jos. Campau was lined with tons of fashion retailers for the working class as recently as 10 years ago. That's mostly gone, and there are lots of vacancies and crappy stores.

IMO, Hamtramck looks good compared to adjacent neighborhoods in Detroit, but still appears to be in pretty bad shape. I don't recall abandoned buildings and slummy looking streets in the past, and you definitely see them today.

[Danny]

Slowly dying? I'd have to disagree. It's definitely not dying. I'd say the dynamic is evolving. I walked around/drove down Jos. Campau about half a year ago. It was lined with storefronts that were mostly rented. It reminded me a lot like walking around/driving down Wyandotte St. in Windsor. It wasn't high end, but it also didn't feel like anything within Detroit's city limits.

Oh yes it is! I've been down there a couple times. Even Days clothier store [[ been in business since 1924) has been close for a while. Long gone is the Old Federal's Department Store [[Shopper's World) been close since 2007. The economic crisis of 2008 made it happen.

[Detroitnerd]

It may be the immigrants [[new & old), but its not just their mere existence. Look at the area just north. It was being populated my immigrants, and its just collapsed into dust.

West of Joseph Campau is really dicey, but I have some friends moving north of Carpenter on the east side. Not too bad over that way, until you get to Davison. Beyond there, it's deeply troubled.

I think Hamtramck 'works' because it is a community of a reasonable size that can look out for its residents [[me) own interests -- and has a police force to enforce its interests.

Detroit used to have a ward system. Maybe bringing back district voting will help in this way.

By the way, Hamtramck is the densest, most walkable, most diverse city in Michigan. Hands down.

[Scottathew]

By the way, Hamtramck is the densest, most walkable, most diverse city in Michigan. Hands down.

Hamtramck, according to the source I found, is the 13th densest city in the entire United States. 10,000+ per square mile!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...lation_density

[gameguy56]

What does the future hold for Hamtramck? More decline with the rest of the state? Will it be revived by young people?

[Hamtragedy]

And the police show up in two minutes or less. 876-7800.

[Dexlin]

And the police show up in two minutes or less. 876-7800.

I'd sure hope that'd be the case in a city of 2 square miles. Hell, you can nearly throw a stone across the entire city. lol

[rjk]

I wonder if the poletown plant never went up if it would have had any effect on Hamtramck? I don't know much about that area pre PP, but based on what my relatives have told me and things I've read it wasn't the best area. My grandmother lived a few blocks east of the PP and I know her area was getting bad pretty fast around that time.

I-75/buisnesses on the west side and the Poletown plant to the south and Hamtramck is isolated on two side from bad or soon to be bad neighborhoods.

[RickBeall]

The relative prosperity of Hamtramck is largely due to its being its own political entitity. If Detroit owned Hamtramck, then Hamtramck would have been treated like Delray or Poletown.

Are we saved by the immigrants? Yes! But why do they come to Hamtramck instead of Delray? Delray was ethnically very similiar to Hamtramck. It is because we have our own little government, fire dept, and police force. We sometimes do not know how we are going to continue to pay for our city services, especially when you factor in the retired city workers of various sorts, but those city workers give the rest of us enough safety to live our day to day lives.


Is my theory about being our own local government the total answer to Hamtramck's success? No. Look at our northeast border with Highland Park. Highland Park is not a success. Looking in that direction, you do get the feeling that the continued inflow of immigants is a very important piece of the secret Hamtramck sauce.


I would tell you the rest of the secret, but, then I would have to kill you. With kindness though, paczki, Amar Chicago Style Pizza, Maria's Comida Ghost pepper hamburgers, beef shawarma ..... You wouldn't want that, would you?

[Danny]

The relative prosperity of Hamtramck is largely due to its being its own political entitity. If Detroit owned Hamtramck, then Hamtramck would have been treated like Delray or Poletown.

Are we saved by the immigrants? Yes! But why do they come to Hamtramck instead of Delray? Delray was ethnically very similiar to Hamtramck. It is because we have our own little government, fire dept, and police force. We sometimes do not know how we are going to continue to pay for our city services, especially when you factor in the retired city workers of various sorts, but those city workers give the rest of us enough safety to live our day to day lives.

Let's compare Del-Ray to Hamtramck.

Del-Ray was and still is a early boomtown area. Immigrants from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia come to work in its River Rouge plants to the underground salt and coke mines. This is from 1900 to 1970s. When suburban development loomed in most downriver areas and other Del-Ray neighborhoods were slum cleared to expand its plants, lots of its future descendents quickly move away. The area was replaced by Appalachians, few blacks and later Mexicans and other Latinos. By then Del-Ray neighborhoods became an instant ghetto and fell into despair, a blighted urban prarie with little or no new housing development.


Hamtramck was and still is early boomtowm area. Immigrants from Germany, Poland, Albania, Czechoslovakia come to work in the Packard Plants, Ford Highland Park Assembly Plant and other plants around Detroit and Highland Park borders. By the 1950s most suburban areas like Warren and Sterling Hieghts had offered GM, Ford and Chrsyler cheap open land, they built their factories along Van Dyke and Mound area to 20 Mile Rd. Thanks to those Automotive plants, suburban development increased and lots of second to fourth generation descendents left Hamtramck. Then as Poletown was destroyed by Coleman A. Young and his friends from General Motors and Chrysler to build their main plant, Hamtramck was replace by new immigrants from Yemen, India, Bengladesh, Sri Lanki. However there are some Poles, Albanians left in Hamtramck.

[GUSHI]

hamtramck, prosperity, same sentence. The south side is ghetto. Miller Dorothy, Oliver all ghetto, the north side even more ghetto. With the future closing of catholic church, those neighborhoods gonna be come hoods to.

[gameguy56]

hamtramck, prosperity, same sentence. The south side is ghetto. Miller Dorothy, Oliver all ghetto, the north side even more ghetto. With the future closing of catholic church, those neighborhoods gonna be come hoods to.

The area is only 22% polish now. I think there's already been a demographic shift towards new immigrants as opposed to the existing catholic poles.

[GUSHI]

The area is only 22% polish now. I think there's already been a demographic shift towards new immigrants as opposed to the existing catholic poles.

The new wave is mostly Islamic, you may have a few poles and Albanians that live there that are catholic, the older poles are dying out, the Albanians moving out if they can afford it, I went to st lads and florian, campau has changed, I just hope they don't close florian or lads, would be a shame,

[Hamtragedy]

Two things:

If Hamtramck is to remain viable it must step up code enforcement on some of the businesses and not just landlords. It must respond to neighbors complaints the first time when a complaint is received by their office, because, frankly, I finally got tired of calling about the trash the bar down the alley throws over the fence into the alley, or the dumping that remains in alleys off of Jos. Campau all summer long while several businesses are "remodelling." The proliferation of amateurishly painted signs also needs to be reigned in. And I'm sorry, some of the businesses should not be allowed to open until the exteriors meet a required standard. Brick covered in Liquid Nails looks great to some people, but not to me or the neighbors. And if I see another beautiful brick building get painted tan, sans primer,.....................

Second, Hamtramck needs to recognize how important their border blocks are. Because the residences and landlords of my block manage to maintain their own properties, [[and often maintain several other properties), the several blocks south of us are the direct beneficiaries of our efforts. If our block falls, then the northern portion west of Campau is in trouble. We call police, we call about issues in regards to code enforcement. We hate when our complaints are not addressed. This needs to change.

[rjk]

If Hamtramck is to remain viable it must step up code enforcement on some of the businesses and not just landlords. It must respond to neighbors complaints the first time when a complaint is received by their office, because, frankly, I finally got tired of calling about the trash the bar down the alley throws over the fence into the alley, or the dumping that remains in alleys off of Jos. Campau all summer long while several businesses are "remodelling." .

Hamtramck does have a big problem with litter. Whenever I take some of my Polish relatives who live out of state to Hamtramck they always comment how dirty JC looks.