Any Chance of Other Cities Ever Being Annexed to Detroit [[Hamtramck, Highland Park)

**jpbollma** · August-16-12, 07:00 PM

So does anyone think that other cities will ever eventually be annexed into Detroit? I mentioned Hamtramck and Highland Park only because they are surrounded by Detroit, shrinking, have similar crime rates and also have financial issues. I am not saying it would be good or bad, however, it has happened in many other large cities. So what do you think? A possibility?

**downtown_racine** · August-16-12, 07:08 PM

Probably not a possibility.

**jpbollma** · August-16-12, 07:12 PM

it seems like if you gave Highland Park another 10 years, it likely won't even be there anymore. They are down to about 11,000 residents. I believe Hamtramck is somewhere around 20,000 people, but it is much more stable than Highland Park. I didn't even mention the more well off suburbs because those people would evacuate in mass if it ever happened.

**Richard** · August-16-12, 07:13 PM

Maybe Hamtramck can annex the eastside.

**313WX** · August-16-12, 07:20 PM

If there's any time to do so, it'll be now.

But the state's Home Rule Law would make that feat improbable.

GUSHI · August-16-12, 07:37 PM

Originally Posted by Richard

Maybe Hamtramck can annex the eastside.

Welcome to Hamtramck farms formally eastside of Detroit, the ultimate rural , urban place in the world,

GUSHI · August-16-12, 07:38 PM

A little touch of Detroit, in hamtramck,

**rex** · August-16-12, 08:03 PM

I'm more surprised that certain neighborhoods haven't defected. Places like EEV and Palmer Woods/University/Sherwood Forest. Decided that they generate enouugh taxes to afford better public safety and services than Detroit is able to offer.

**jpbollma** · August-16-12, 08:25 PM

lol, If that ever happened, Detroit would really be up shit creek.

**Meddle** · August-16-12, 09:05 PM

Other way around. Start cutting it up.

Give everything west of Telegraph to Redford. Give the area near Rouge Park to Dearborn Heights. South of the Fort Street Bridge goes to Melvindale or River Rouge. Jefferson to the River from Belle Isle east could be turned into another Grosse Pointe.

Merge Hamtramack and Highland Park, maybe add some of the surrounding areas.

**MidTownMs** · August-17-12, 08:33 AM

Remember when Eastpointe was East Detroit? They wanted so badly to dissassociate themselves from Detroit that they changed their name.

**poobert** · August-17-12, 08:51 AM

Originally Posted by rex

I'm more surprised that certain neighborhoods haven't defected. Places like EEV and Palmer Woods/University/Sherwood Forest. Decided that they generate enouugh taxes to afford better public safety and services than Detroit is able to offer.

I doubt that is legally possible. Most of us are emotionally proud of being Detroiters, too, but in practice it is very difficult...

Very telling though. The city should give us real city services since we're the areas of the city that look, function, act, pay taxes, and keep up our property like parts of a real city, instead of a God-forsaken hellhole.

Instead the city council panders like all Detroiters are indigents who wouldn't be able to afford 1 dollar to get onto Belle Isle. I could move to the suburbs and with what I'd save in taxes I could buy my own island. Fools.

**iheartthed** · August-17-12, 09:07 AM

It hasn't made sense for a long time for Highland Park to still be its own city. It should have been annexed into Detroit decades ago... And the case for it to remain a sovereign municipality seems to weaken by the day. So I could imagine that happening before 2020.

Hamtramck seems to be more better organized, and the opposition to joining Detroit's chaos is probably pretty strong, so I doubt that it gets annexed any time soon.

ETA: I do like Lowell's argument about richer suburbs taking on the burden of a place like Highland Park, instead of Detroit which is only slightly better off. But Detroit is still far more resource rich than HP or any other municipality in Michigan.

**Danny** · August-17-12, 10:22 AM

According the Michigan State Boundry Commission act of 1978 that was renewed from the Charter Township Act of 1948, Once a village or a charter township becomes a city. It can not be dissolved nor joined to any city. If a township, village of any charter wants to join a city for regional purposes, it has to be petitioned by the people of that city, township or village of any charter, accepted by the Michigan State Boundry Commission. [[ Sometimes The Michigan State Supreme Court judges can have the final say.)

Hamtramck and Highland Park is doing just fine being their own cities. Other surrounding suburbs don't need Detroit woes and other suburban cities rant for amalgamation and regionalizational reasons. So we are stuck with this Metro-Detroit grid for thousands of years.

**Danny** · August-17-12, 10:27 AM

Originally Posted by MidTownMs

Remember when Eastpointe was East Detroit? They wanted so badly to dissassociate themselves from Detroit that they changed their name.

Yes they did! East Detroit did look like East Side Detroit when its neighborhood was built in a grid like setting. Residents in Harper Woods want their name to Grosse Pointe Heights so they could join their [[nouveau riche) lifestyle. I'm glad that they voted NO on the name change.

**Lowell** · August-17-12, 10:47 AM

I said it repeatedly when I lived in Highland Park and was asked this question and I'll say it again here. "Are you nuts? Detroit? How about annexing us with West Bloomfield or Grosse Pointe? Unite us with some city with assets not more debt obligations than us!" LOL

The goal is not to add problems, it's to remove them.

**Detroitnerd** · August-17-12, 11:23 AM

Originally Posted by Lowell

I said it repeatedly when I lived in Highland Park and was asked this question and I'll say it again here. "Are you nuts? Detroit? How about annexing us with West Bloomfield or Grosse Pointe? Unite us with some city with assets not more debt obligations than us!" LOL

The goal is not to add problems, it's to remove them.

This will be a long process. But, eventually, I imagine one government will preside over the developed area.

Bear in mind, though, the developed area will likely be about one-quarter, if that, of what it is now.

**rex** · August-17-12, 11:43 AM

well. I'm not suggesting you shouldn't be emotionally proud to be a Detroiter. If say Green Acres, Palmer Woods, University District, and Sherwood Forest were to break off and incorporate as a self governing entity it would be one of the nicer in the metro Detroit area. Too bad it doesn't really seem to lend itself to a small downtown area. Would taxes increase or go down? How about auto and homeowner insurance? People in these areas pay way too much for what they get in return from the city. Either that or absorb into Ferndale which already has a school system, police and fire.

I dont like any argument of richer suburbs taking the burden of a place like HP. It's like saying: Hey Birmingham residents, you guys finished high school and then paid tens of thousands for additional education and now work 40-60 hour weeks OR maybe took chances and succeeded in starting a businesses, perhaps both. However, your neighbors to the south in Highland Park didn't make the same good decisions despite the fact public education is free and grants to attend college are available... because of it their per capita income is just above 12K a year. they're struggling and its time for you to involuntarily fix the mess they have created for themselves.
People in more wealthy suburbs already pay the taxes that go toward the public assistance and food assistance that the many of HP residents probably receive. In a sense they already do take the burden. If anything areas like HP should be the states responsibility. If the state deems it necessary they can allocate more tax dollars to stabilize HP. Im neither suggesting they shouldn't or trying to be insensitive.

**iheartthed** · August-17-12, 12:01 PM

Originally Posted by rex

I dont like any argument of richer suburbs taking the burden of a place like HP. It's like saying: Hey Birmingham residents, you guys finished high school and then paid tens of thousands for additional education and now work 40-60 hour weeks OR maybe took chances and succeeded in starting a businesses, perhaps both. However, your neighbors to the south in Highland Park didn't make the same good decisions despite the fact public education is free and grants to attend college are available... because of it their per capita income is just above 12K a year. they're struggling and its time for you to involuntarily fix the mess they have created for themselves.

Yeah, I'm 100% sure that the average Birmingham resident grew up under similar socioeconomic conditions as the average Highland Park resident.

**Detroitnerd** · August-17-12, 12:18 PM

Why would the anointed few of Galt's Gulch want to share their wealth with the residents of the rest of the world?

**rex** · August-17-12, 12:40 PM

If you need help with rent there is sect 8 and public housing, You need help with food get a bridge card, you need clothes and shoes, salvation army, you need help with your energy bill? Call DTE, I see commercials occasionally that suggest they have programs. You need money too? Go to the FIA. Need health coverage? You got it. You go to school and there are free lunch programs, you graduate and your family is around and about the poverty line... You easily qualify for a Pell Grant. It will probably pay your entire tuition and typically a check every semester after the classes are paid for. Get low interest school loans.
Only help i've ever received were school grants. Its safe to assume there are people that receive way more a month for free than I have earned at low wage menial full time jobs along the way. Only reason I wouldn't qualify is I had a lousy job and no kids. I'm certainly no more intelligent or capable than your avg HP resident. No trust fund or super human strength. Who pays the taxes that pay for those programs? Do the recipients contribute??? How much more help do people need?

**Detroitej72** · August-17-12, 12:44 PM

Originally Posted by Meddle

Merge Hamtramack and Highland Park, maybe add some of the surrounding areas.

What is it with you people wanting Hamtramck and Highland Park to merge? The only thing HP has in common with Hamtown is they are surrounded by Detroit. Hamtramck has viable, walkable neighborhoods, a thriving business district and good response time for police. Not to mention a steady stream of immigrants who fix and rebuild the older housing stock.

Highland Park has very few viable neighborhoods, poor police response, and not much of a downtown anymore.

**corktownyuppie** · August-17-12, 12:44 PM

I think that you are gradually going to see a movement toward regional government. It will likely make people on all sides bat-shit pissed off. Which is a sign that it will likely bring on better results.

The outsider "Detroiters cause their own problems" mentality is no better than the Detroit "keep your hands off our stuff" mentality. We spend half a century trying to expand our geographic footprint just so that we wouldn't need to live near each other. White collar vs. blue collar, college vs high school vs GED vs drop out. Well, guess what...we can't foot the bill for it anymore.

Cities may never combine, exactly. But it will not surprise me to see cities in the inner ring suburbs, or even individual neighborhoods within Detroit to start contracting and combining services at the county or state level.

**rex** · August-17-12, 12:51 PM

lots of cities elsewhere must be combining. If you look at the wiki US cities by population page Detroit may have slid to 18 but is smaller in area than all but 4 of em. I mean Jacksonville FL as almost 750 square miles.

**maverick1** · August-17-12, 02:45 PM

Originally Posted by iheartthed

Yeah, I'm 100% sure that the average Birmingham resident grew up under similar socioeconomic conditions as the average Highland Park resident.

Cosign. Highland Park could be just like Birmingham if 100% of the residents there just worked harder just like 100% of the residents in Birmingham work hard, excelled academically, and earned everything they have with no help or breaks from anyone.