Daily Detroit News Byte

It might surprise you that the 2.1 square miles of Hamtramck is the densest, as far as residents per square mile, of any in the state. With roots to before 1800, the city has seen a succession of immigrants. founded by French Canadian Commander Jean Francois Hamtramck, the township was settled by people from what we know today as the province of Quebec in Canada. Since then, it's become a village of German farmers. And then, with Polish immigrants as the automobile industry rose in the first quarter of the twentieth century. By 1922, Hamtramck had turned itself into a city to stop it from being annexed by the city of Detroit. Today, it has a very diverse population, including those germans and poles… African American… and immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Yemen, and many more. it's also very walkable, unlike most of metro Detroit. There are corner bars and grocery stores. Churches and mosques. Hardware stores. Community festivals. Walking the streets of Hamtramck, I see the physical cityscape of Detroit t