Poletown was a section of Detroit, Michigan neighboring the enclave city of Hamtramck, Michigan It gets its name from the Polish immigrants that lived in the area. A GM plant was built over the boundary of Hamtramak and Detroit. This was the BOC plant (Buick-Oldsmobile-Cadilac) and was nicknamed the "Poletown Plant." The construction of the plant in 1981 involved the destruction of the neighborhood - 4,200 people were displaced, -- 1,300 homes, 140 businesses, six churches and one hospital were demolished.[1] The city was taken to court by the residents although the state Supreme Court ruled that economic development was a legitimate use of eminent domain. Resistance especially from one Catholic parish led to national news attention and the involvement of Ralph Nader and the Gery Panthers. A 29-day sit-in at the Immaculate Conception Church came to an end on July 14, 1981 when police forcibly evicted 20 people from the church.
Poletown is also used as slang for Hamtramck, Michigan. Although Hamtramck has become highly diverse with 26 native languages spoken by schoolchildren, there are still a Polish-speaking minority. Polish bakeries and restaurants there are particularly popular around Fat Tuesday. Most people around Detroit celebrate Fat Tuesday by eating packzi (pronounced poonch-kee)--even if they are not Catholic. Most packzi are Americanized and fillings like lemon and raspberry are more popular than the more traditional prune.
Many Detroit-area Polish immigrant families now reside in the suburbs, particularly in the downriver area such as Wyandotte and Riverview where Polish-American (and also some Hungarian-American) traditions of eating muskrat (yes, muskrat) for Lent still continue to this day.
