business that supports those workers. it s interesting ali listening to the clip that just played, yes, this is an economic story but it s very much a social story as well. we re standing in the polish village cafe, which has been a fixture here since about the 1920s welcoming new immigrants into this area to come and work in these factories. i happened to be joined with the mayor of hamtramck right now, karen myoski. let s talk a little bit about that, mayor. we re essentially talking about the fact none of this would have been here without the auto industry. how did the auto industry end up in hamtramck? absolutely, hamtramck was born in the auto industry. in 1910 the dodge brothers came here. they built an enormous plant, and before that hamtramck had been a sleepy farm community. and it turned into one of e tthe fastest growing the fastest-growing place in
the nation. so overnight we just burgeoned with new immigrants coming here from eastern europe, primarily from poland at the time, to create a new life for themselves and to build the american economy and build the manufacturing industry. and call home here. american economy, american manufacturing, hamtramck, american dream. what do we see now with the closing of this plant, are we seeing the closing of the american dream here? i don t think the american dream is that fragile. i think that people continue to come here, they continue to come to hamtramck, even though the auto jobs here pretty much dried up. the american dream survived. the desire for a better place for your family. what s interesting is people now middle eastern countries are coming to this part of the country. from all over the world. we call ourselves the world in two square miles here and still