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?