For decades, Hamtramck was known as Michigan’s “Little Warsaw,” a city of just two square miles of tightly-packed houses and factories, spitting distance from downtown Detroit.
In the 99 years since its incorporation, every mayor of Hamtramck has been Polish American. That ends January 2, in Hamtramck’s centenary year, when Amer Ghalib will be inaugurated, along with an entirely Muslim city council.
Hamtramck will become the first known city in the US with a government made up entirely of Muslims, according to the Muslim Public Affairs Council, which says it has no record of any other such administration.
The news network couldn’t be more thrilled at the displacement.
Hamtramck is a palimpsest — where new immigrants have laid layers of culture and society on top of what was already there. You can enjoy a sizzling Yemeni foul — a spicy bean stew — and flatbread for breakfast, and still find a kielbasa or a pierogi for lunch. And Hamtramck is now back on the rise, one of the fastest growing cities in Michigan, census figures show.
Actually, it’s the poorest town in Michigan.
Hamtramck was ranked the poorest town in Michigan in a 24/7 Wall St. analysis examining small, lower-income communities where households earn much less than the nation’s median annual household income.
With a population of 21,941, Hamtramck recorded a median home value of $64,500, based on the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey.
Hamtramck’s poverty rate was pegged at 49.1 percent, and its median annual household income came in at $25,478.
It also has the school district with the second-highest child poverty rate in the state. You can get Yemeni foul, but some 84% of kids are on subsidized or free lunches.
That’s some palimpsest.
