By Charles Sercombe One by one, public school teachers in the metro area are agreeing to salary cuts to help defray budget deficits. River Rouge teachers recently agreed to a 15 percent pay cut. Teachers in Oak Park are taking a 5 percent hit, while teachers in Bloomfield Hills, Lake Orion, Oxford, Walled Lake and [...]
By Alan R. Madeleine If you didn’t know any better, you might think that the funeral home business in Hamtramck was, well, dying. Over the past several years, some of the well-known funeral homes in the area have ceased to exist. Miller, Orlowski and Frontczak are among the prominent names no longer operating in Hamtramck, [...]
Ever wonder about the story behind the story in Hamtramck? It’s not often we get a chance to pull the curtain back and let our readers in on some of the behind-the-scenes of events and stories we have covered. By Charles Sercombe Back in the 1980s, covering the police beat was pretty laid back, compared [...]
(Editor-at-Large Walter Wasacz writes a weekly column on life in Hamtramck.) By Walter Wasacz A few weeks ago I had the privilege of attending a design charette at HKS Architects, a worldwide firm with Detroit-area offices in Northville. I was invited to comment on a project that was part of work being done by students [...]
Just when it looked like Hamtramck was going to pull out of a financial crisis, along comes Gov. Rick Snyder. You know Snyder, the guy who got elected to office without telling anyone what he would specifically do once in there. He’s the guy the Detroit News and Detroit Free Press editorial boards endorsed without [...]
By Ian Perrotta They say one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. Just don’t expect that sentiment from Sean Kowalski. For the past 15 years, Kowalski says he has had problems with the inhabitant of a stand-alone garage located at the intersection of Bernard St. and the alley behind Holbrook. According to him, the structure’s [...]
By Charles Sercombe Hamtramck was Party Town,` USA this past week. What, with the Blowout all weekend and Paczki Day on Tuesday … Whew! For the second year in a row, Paczki Day was a two-day affair, with thousands upon thousands of visitors flocking into town for the Polish Lenten tradition. It appears to have [...]
By Charles Sercombe Hamtramck had a little extra something to celebrate this past week. Besides the Blowout and Paczki Day festivities, city officials learned there was a tentative settlement with Detroit over how much in tax revenues will be shared from the GM Poletown plant. The two cities have been disputing a long-held agreement over [...]
By Charles Sercombe Union members from all walks of work haven’t felt this much buzz in years. There is opposition growing against Republican lawmakers attempting to roll back union rights to the days before there were unions. It started several weeks ago in Wisconsin when that state’s governor, Scott Walker, proposed ending collective bargaining rights [...]
By Ian Perrotta Some people called it the “Snowout” on Saturday night, but according to the books the 14th annual Hamtramck Blowout was a rocking success. While the exact attendance figures are still unavailable, in terms of ticket sales this year’s event looks to have been the best ever. And the news only gets better [...]
Reader Comments