Poletown East is a

neighborhood A neighbourhood (Commonwealth English) or neighborhood (American English) is a geographically localized community within a larger town, city, suburb or rural area, sometimes consisting of a single street and the buildings lining it. Neigh ...

Detroit, Michigan Detroit ( , ) is the List of municipalities in Michigan, most populous city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is situated on the bank of the Detroit River across from Windsor, Ontario. It had a population of 639,111 at the 2020 United State ...

, bordering the enclave city of

Hamtramck Hamtramck ( ; ; ; ) is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An enclave of Detroit, Hamtramck is located roughly north of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded by Detroit on most sides. As of the 2020 census, the city had a po ...

. The area was named after the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

immigrants who originally lived in the area. A portion of residential area known as Poletown became the

General Motors General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. The company is most known for owning and manufacturing f ...

Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly Detroit/Hamtramck Assembly, also referred to as Factory Zero (and historically as GM Poletown), is an automotive assembly plant located on the border between Detroit and Hamtramck, Michigan, United States, owned and operated by General Motors. I ...

plant in 1981 with those residents relocated by General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck which claimed eminent domain in order to make way for a new automobile plant.

Geography

The boundaries of Poletown East as defined by the city's planning and development department include the city of Hamtramck, St. Aubin Street and I-94 to the north,

I-75 Interstate 75 (I-75) is a major north–south Interstate Highway System, Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes and Southeastern United States, Southeastern regions of the United States. As with most Interstates that end ...

to the east, Warren Avenue to the south, and Mt. Elliot Street to the east. West of St. Aubin and south of I-94, as well as well as the area north of I-94 between St. Aubin and Mt. Elliott, are industrial in nature. The area bound by St. Aubin, I-94, Mt. Elliott and Warren is largely residential. The boundaries of historical Poletown included the Hamtramck city line, Gratiot Avenue, and a line from Mt. Elliott to the intersection of Canfield and St. Antoine, the location of the

Detroit Medical Center The Detroit Medical Center (DMC) is a for-profit alliance of hospitals that encompasses over 2,000 licensed beds, 3,000 affiliated physicians and over 12,000 employees. Located in Midtown Detroit, the DMC is affiliated with medical schools fr ...

.Buckowczyk, "The Decline and Fall of a Detroit Neighborhood: Poletown vs. G.M. and the City of Detroit", p. 51.

History

Poletown was settled in the 1870s when the first waves of Polish and Kashubian immigrants came to Detroit, and served as the heart of Detroit's Polish community for many years. The nucleus of the community was the

St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church St. Albertus Roman Catholic Church is in the Forest Park neighborhood of Detroit, Michigan. It was designated a Michigan State Historic Site in 1974 and listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. History The rise of Detroit br ...

, which opened in 1871 and closed in 1990. Poletown experienced its greatest period of growth during the 1920s and 1930s as thousands of Polish immigrants came to Detroit in search of jobs in auto plants, like the nearby Packard Plant, and the Chrysler Plant to the east on Jefferson Ave, and the slaughterhouses that were in the area. Poletown was not only home to Poles, but also to

Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...

and

African Americans African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from any of the Black racial groups of Africa ...

. During the 1950s and 1960s, freeway construction and urban renewal projects altered the neighborhood. In 1981, a portion of the neighborhood was demolished to make way for the construction of the

plant. General Motors and the cities of Detroit and Hamtramck relied on

eminent domain Eminent domain, also known as land acquisition, compulsory purchase, resumption, resumption/compulsory acquisition, or expropriation, is the compulsory acquisition of private property for public use. It does not include the power to take and t ...

to relocate the 4,200 people who lived in the area, along with their 1,300 homes, 140 businesses, six churches and one hospital. The plant was built at the boundary of Hamtramck and Detroit as a BOC factory (

Buick Buick () is a division (business), division of the Automotive industry in the United States, American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American automobil ...

Oldsmobile Oldsmobile (formally the Oldsmobile Division of General Motors) was a brand of American automobiles, produced for most of its existence by General Motors. Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897, it produc ...

Cadillac Cadillac Motor Car Division, or simply Cadillac (), is the luxury vehicle division (business), division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Its major markets are the United States, Canada and China; Cadillac models are ...

) and became known as the "Poletown Plant".

Coleman Young Coleman Alexander Young (May 24, 1918 – November 29, 1997) was an American politician who served as mayor of Detroit, Michigan from 1974 to 1994. Young was the first African-American mayor of Detroit and has been described as the "single mo ...

Mayor of Detroit This is a list of mayors of Detroit, in the U.S. state of Michigan. The current mayor is Mike Duggan, who was sworn into office on January 1, 2014. History of Detroit's executive authority During the earliest part of its history, Detroit was a ...

, used

to seize the portion of Poletown. Critics stated that Young could have chosen other areas for the plant and yet he chose one of the final remaining working class White areas of Detroit. Young had criticized the destruction of the Black Bottom through eminent domain. Some of the displaced residents sued the cities and General Motors, but the

Michigan Supreme Court The Michigan Supreme Court is the highest court in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is Michigan's court of last resort and consists of seven justices. The Court is located in the Michigan Hall of Justice at 925 Ottawa Street in Lansing, the s ...

ruled that economic development was a legitimate use of eminent domain. Another Poletown group, the Citizens District Council, supported the efforts to build the new plant. Gary Campbell, a Poletown resident and bar owner, accused those opposing the new plant of presenting opinions of a small minority as if they represented the entire neighborhood. The controversy led to national news attention and the involvement of

Ralph Nader Ralph Nader (; born February 27, 1934) is an American lawyer and political activist involved in consumer protection, environmentalism, and government reform causes. He is a Perennial candidate, perennial presidential candidate. His 1965 book '' ...

and the

Gray Panthers The Gray Panthers are a series of multi-generational local advocacy networks in the United States which confront ageism and many other social justice issues. The organization was formed by Maggie Kuhn in response to her forced retirement from the ...

. Protests centered on Immaculate Conception Roman Catholic Church. The regional Catholic Archdiocese supported the relocations and had already agreed to sell the two Catholic churches that were in the area. However, Joseph Karasiewicz, the priest at one of the parishes, defied his archbishop and fought to keep his building from being sold. The Archdiocese stood firm in its support of the sale. A 29-day

sit-in A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...

at the Immaculate Conception Church came to an end on July 14, 1981, when police forcibly evicted 20 people from the church. Twelve people were arrested, only three of the twelve arrested were from Poletown. ''Poletown Neighborhood Council v. Detroit'' became a

landmark case Landmark court decisions, in present-day common law legal systems, establish precedents that determine a significant new legal principle or concept, or otherwise substantially affect the interpretation of existing law. "Leading case" is commonly u ...

for "public use" eminent domain matters. Twenty-three years later, the

reversed the precedent that it had set in the earlier case. In their 2004 decision, ''County of Wayne v. Hathcock'' a property owner near Detroit's Metropolitan Airport successfully fought against the development of a new suburban office/industrial park. The case was argued by Michigan eminent domain attorney Alan T. Ackerman. In a later 2005

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that turn on question ...

decision, the case of ''

Kelo v. City of New London ''Kelo v. City of New London'', 545 U.S. 469 (2005), was a landmark decision by the Supreme Court of the United States in which the Court held, 5–4, that the use of eminent domain to transfer land from one private owner to another private owne ...

'' ruled that the use of eminent domain to promote economic development is constitutional, but the opinion in ''Kelo'' cites the ''Hathcock'' decision as an example of how states may choose to impose their own restrictions on the taking of property.

Other uses

Poletown is sometimes used inclusively as slang for

Hamtramck, Michigan Hamtramck ( ; ; ; ) is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. An enclave of Detroit, Hamtramck is located roughly north of downtown Detroit, and is surrounded by Detroit on most sides. As of the 2020 census, the city had a po ...

, probably due to Hamtramck's strong identification with Polish-Americans. "Poletown" proper is the section immediately south of Hamtramck within the city of Detroit, but at one time had a strong and vibrant Polish neighborhood. Hamtramck itself has become highly diverse and there is still a small Polish-speaking minority. Polish bakeries and restaurants there are particularly popular, especially around

Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras (, ; also known as Shrove Tuesday) is the final day of Carnival (also known as Shrovetide or Fastelavn); it thus falls on the day before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday. is French for "Fat Tuesday", referring to it being t ...

. Many people around the city celebrate Fat Tuesday by eating

Pączki (; : , ; ; Old Polish and ) are filled doughnuts found in Polish cuisine. Description A ''pączek'' is a deep-fried piece of dough shaped into a flattened ball and filled with confiture or other sweet filling. ''Pączki'' are usually cover ...

(singular form: pączek), even if they are not Polish.

References

* Binelli, Mark. ''Detroit City is the Place to Be''. Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company (New York). First Edition, 2012. (hardback version). * Buckowczyk, John J.
The Decline and Fall of a Detroit Neighborhood: Poletown vs. G.M. and the City of Detroit
"
Archive
''

Washington and Lee Law Review The ''Washington and Lee Law Review'' is a law review published four times each year by the Washington and Lee University School of Law and founded in 1939. It presents lead articles contributed by leading scholars, judges, and lawyers, as well ...

'', January 1, 1984. Volume 41, Issue 1, Article 5. p. 49-76.

Notes

External links

How Eminent Domain Ran Amok
{{Detroit Neighborhoods Neighborhoods in Detroit Ethnic enclaves in Michigan History of Detroit Polish-American culture in Detroit Kashubian-American history Polish communities in the United States