Neighborhood Overview
Banglatown/East Davison Village and Chadsey Condon (Figure 1) were selected because of their large immigrant populations and their rapid growth in foreign-born residents over the last 30 years. While the two neighborhoods have similarities, they have as many or more differences.
Location of study areas in City of Detroit
BANGLATOWN/EAST DAVISON VILLAGE
The Banglatown section of Banglatown/East Davison Village is in many respects a classic immigrant enclave, where a generation of immigrants has created a distinct community with a largely self-contained network of religious institutions, community services and retail stores. Partly in the city of Detroit, and partly in Hamtramck, a small city completely surrounded by Detroit, the study area contained a 2018 population of approximately 17,500.
Bangladeshi, and to a lesser extent Yemeni, immigrants began to move into the neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s, with their numbers increasing more rapidly after 2000. Some Bangladeshi immigrants appear to have come directly from Bangladesh and some as secondary migrants, primarily from New York. Banglatown’s commercial hub is Conant Avenue, which has become a thriving shopping and service center for both Bangladeshi and Yemeni communities.
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Residential street in Banglatown/East Davison Village
Bangladeshi, and to a lesser extent Yemeni, immigrants began to move into the neighborhood in the 1980s and 1990s, with their numbers increasing more rapidly after 2000. Some Bangladeshi immigrants appear to have come directly from Bangladesh and some as secondary migrants, primarily from New York. Banglatown’s commercial hub is Conant Avenue, which has become a thriving shopping and service center for both Bangladeshi and Yemeni communities.
Residential street in Banglatown/East Davison Village
Banglatown/East Davison Village Study Area
East Davison Village, a traditionally African American community in the northwestern corner of the neighborhood, has suffered severely from population loss and housing abandonment during the past two decades. The neighborhood today contains many vacant houses as well as a great deal of vacant land where abandoned buildings have been demolished by the City of Detroit. There are few commercial establishments along the part of Joseph Campau that forms the eastern edge of East Davison Village.
CHADSEY CONDON
Chadsey Condon Study Area
Residential street in Chadsey Condon
Chadsey Condon is located in Southwest Detroit, bordering the city of Dearborn to the west, and the Springwells Village and Mexicantown neighborhoods to the south. It too is a modest working-class neighborhood, but with a more varied housing stock and streetscape than in Banglatown/Davison, with some larger houses but some even more modest, as well as scattered vacant houses and lots (Figure 3). In 2018, the neighborhood’s population was roughly 22,000.
Chadsey Condon is more an extension of adjacent or nearby immigrant communities than a self-contained enclave. In recent decades, immigration from Mexico and Central American has led to expansion of predominately Mexican areas to the south, while the neighborhood’s Yemeni immigrants live primarily in the western part of the neighborhood nearest to Dearborn with its established Arab American population. While some immigrant businesses have opened in the area, Chadsey Condon lacks a strong commercial corridor like Conant Street. Chadsey Condon stands out, however, in the strength and diversity of community development organizations serving the neighborhood.
Chadsey Condon is more an extension of adjacent or nearby immigrant communities than a self-contained enclave. In recent decades, immigration from Mexico and Central American has led to expansion of predominately Mexican areas to the south, while the neighborhood’s Yemeni immigrants live primarily in the western part of the neighborhood nearest to Dearborn with its established Arab American population. While some immigrant businesses have opened in the area, Chadsey Condon lacks a strong commercial corridor like Conant Street. Chadsey Condon stands out, however, in the strength and diversity of community development organizations serving the neighborhood.
Global Detroit 2021
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