Dearborn

Dearborn is a city in Wayne County in the U.S. state of Michigan. At the 2020 census, it had a population of 109,976. It is the seventh most-populated city in Michigan and is home to the largest Muslim population in the United States per capita. Henry Ford was born on a farm here and later established an estate in Dearborn, as well as his River Rouge Complex, the largest factory of his Ford empire. He developed mass production of automobiles, and based the world headquarters of the Ford Motor Company here. Dearborn residents are Americans primarily of European or Middle Eastern ancestry, many descendants of 19th and 20th-century immigrants. The primary European ethnicities, as identified by respondents to the census, are German, Polish, Irish, and Italian. The largest ethnic grouping is now composed of descendants of various nationalities of that area: Muslims and Christians from Lebanon and Palestine, and immigrants from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen. The city has a campus of the University of Michigan and Henry Ford College. The Henry Ford, the United. States' largest indoor-outdoor historic museum complex and Metro Detroit's leading tourist attraction, is located here. Before European encounter, the area had been inhabited for thousands of years by successive indigenous peoples. French colonists had a trading post at Fort Detroit in the colonial period. Another developed on the south side of the Detroit River in what is now southwestern Ontario, near a Huron mission village. French and French-Canadian colonists also established farms at Dearborn in this period.

History

Dearborn is a suburb of Detroit, Michigan. It was established as a city in 1927. It is home to the Arab American National Museum, the first museum in the world devoted to Arab-American history and culture. In January 2019, Dearborn Mayor John "Jack" O'Reilly, Jr., terminated the contract of Bill McGraw, new editor of the Dearborn Historian, a city publication. He refused to allow distribution of the Autumn 2018 issue to subscribers. The mayor's suppression of the issue received national publicity. The Dearborn Historical Commission held an emergency meeting and passed a resolution calling for the mayor to reverse these actions. The resolution was published in DeadlineDetroit and may be read here. In the early 20th century, both whites and African Americans migrated to Detroit for industrial jobs. Over time, some city residents relocated in the suburbs. The area between Dearborn and Fordson was undeveloped, and still remains so in part. Once farm land, much of this property was bought by Henry Ford for his estate, Fair Lane, and for the Ford Motor Company World Headquarters. Later developments in this corridor were the Ford airport, and other Ford administrative and development facilities. The Henry Ford (a reconstructed historic village and museum), the Henry Ford Centennial Library, the super-regional shopping mall Fairlane Town Center, and the Ford Performing Arts Center. The open land is planted with sunflowers and often with Ford's favorite crop of soybeans. The crops are never harvested.

Geography

Fordson Island (42°1738N 83°0852W) is an 8.4 acres (3.4 hectares) island about three miles (5 km) upriver on the River Rouge from its confluence with the Detroit River. The island is privately owned, and public access is prohibited. Dearborn is among a small number of municipalities that own property in other cities. It owns the 626-acre (2.53 km²) Camp Dearborn in Milford, Michigan, which is located 35 miles (56 km) from Dearborn. For a time the city owned the "Dearborn Towers" apartment complex in Clearwater, Florida, but this has been sold. The city developed on both sides of the Rouge River. An artificial waterfall/low head dam was constructed by Henry Ford on his estate to power its powerhouse. The Upper, Middle, and Lower Branches of the river come together in Dearborn, and the river is widened and channeled near the Rouge Plant to allow lake freighter access. The U.S. Census Bureau says the city has a total area of 24.5 square miles (63 km²), of which 24.4 square miles of land and 0.1 sq mi of water (0.37% of the city's total area) is water. The only major island is Fordson Island, which was created in 1922 when engineers dug a secondary trench to reroute the river to increase navigability for shipping purposes.

Demographics

As of the 2010 census, the population of Dearborn was 98,153. As of the 2012 estimate, Dearborn's population was thought to have fallen to 96,474, a decrease of 1.7% since 2010. Over the same period, though, SEMCOG, the local statistics agency of Metro Detroit Council of Governments, has estimated the city to have grown to 99,001. The city has a large community of descendants of ethnic Europeans who arrived as immigrants from the mid-19th into the 20th centuries. The first Arab immigrants came in the early-to-mid-20th century to work in the automotive industry and were chiefly Lebanese Christians (Maronites) As of 2006 Dearborn has the largest Lebanese American population in the United States. The Arab American National Museum was opened in January 2005 to celebrate the Arab community's history, culture and contributions to U.S. culture. In 2010, four Christian missionaries were arrested at the Dearborn International Arab Festival for handing out Christian literature aimed at Muslim believers. More Iraqi refugees have come to Dearborn since 2003, fleeing the continued war in their country since 2003. More than 40,000 Arab Americans live in the city, making up 29.85% of the city's population. Dearborn also has a small African American population, many of whose ancestors came to the area from the rural South during the Great Migration of the early twentieth century. It is also a center of Maltese American settlement, from the Mediterranean island of Malta, also attracted to jobs in the auto industry.

Economy

Ford Motor Company has its world headquarters in Dearborn. Oakwood Healthcare System is the largest employer in the city. Other major employers include auto suppliers like Visteon, education facilities such as Henry Ford College, and museums such as The Henry Ford. Carhartt (clothing), Eppinger (fishing lures), AAA Michigan (insurance), and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers are headquartered in the town. The city's 2015 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report lists the largest employers as Ford Motor Company, Ford Land, AAA Michigan, and Oakwood healthcare system. The largest employer is Ford Land with Ford and Ford Land making up the majority of the city's population. The biggest employer is DFCU Financial, the largest credit union in Michigan, which was created for Ford and related companies' employees. It is also home to Ford Land's Fairlane Town Center shopping mall, which is owned by Ford and used for sales and leasing to unrelated businesses. It also houses the Henry Ford Museum, a museum dedicated to the founder of the auto industry. It was founded in 1872 and is one of the oldest museums in the U.S., along with the University of Michigan and Michigan State University. The museum is located in the historic Dearborn neighborhood of the same name. It opened in 1876 and was later moved to its current location in 1883. It has a museum that is open to the public every year, and also houses a museum for the history of the Ford Motor Co. and other automotive companies.

Education

Dearborn Public Schools serve more than 18,000 students in the fourth-largest district in the state. Dearborn Public Library includes the Henry Ford Centennial Library, which is the main library; and the Bryant and Esper branches. The Islamic Center of America operates the Muslim American Youth Academy (MAYA), an Islamic elementary and middle school. The U.S. Postal Service provides service to Dearborn, via Detroit, via Chicago, via Pontiac and Pontiac, Illinois, and Chicago. The city's post office is located in the Eyck Tavern on Chicago Road. The Dearborn Civic Center and the Dearborn Ice Skating Center are in the city's Civic Center Park. There are two stops on the national passenger rail system, operating its Wolverine three times daily in each direction between Chicago, Detroit, and Illinois. The City of Dearborn is home to the University of Michigan Dearborn and Henry Ford College, which are adjacent to each other on Evergreen Road. It is also the home of the Michigan State Police, the Michigan Department of Public Safety, and the Michigan Institute of Arts and Crafts, which was founded in 1894. It also has the Detroit Institute of Art, which opened in 1891. It was named after Henry Ford, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and is located on the corner of Michigan Avenue and Dearborn Street. In 1938, artist Rainey Bennett painted an oil-on-canvas mural for the federal post office titled, Ten Ten Ten.

Arts and Culture

Dearborn has several buildings designed by architect Albert Kahn for Henry Ford. Dearborn is home to the Arab American National Museum, The Henry Ford Museum, and the Dearborn Mardigan Library. The Ford Motor Company Research and Engineering Center (under construction) is in Dearborn. The Dearborn Inn was designed by Albert Kahn and was built in the 1930s. The city is also home to Ford World Headquarters and the Islamic Center of America. It is also the birthplace of the University of Michigan's football team, the Michigan Wolverines and the Michigan State University football team. It was also the home of Ford's auto manufacturing plant, the Ford Assembly Plant, and Ford's plant in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, which opened in 1939. The town is also known for its golf course, golf courses, parks, and theaters. It has a population of 1.2 million. The population of Dearborn was 1.3 million in the year 2000, up from 1.4 million in 2000 and 1.5 million in 2001. It had the highest percentage of African-American population in the U.S. in the 1990s. It also had the lowest percentage of Hispanic population in 2000, down from 2.7 percent in 2000. It recorded the highest rate of growth in the late 1990s and early 2000s than any other city in the United States. In 2010, the city had a record-breaking year for the first time in its history, with 1.7 million people living in the city.

Government

Dearborn has a mayor-council form of government. As of 2021, the Mayor of the City of Dearborn is Abdullah Hammoud. The City Council President is Michael T. Sareini. Built in 1922, the Dearborn City Hall Complex was in operation until 2014 when government operations moved to the new Dearborn Administrative Center. The former city hall was redeveloped by Artspace Projects to preserve affordable and sustainable space for artists and arts organizations.

Air Quality, Water Quality, Superfund Sites & UV Index

The Air Quality index is in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan = 25.8. These Air Quality index is based on annual reports from the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The number of ozone alert days is used as an indicator of air quality, as are the amounts of seven pollutants including particulates, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, and volatile organic chemicals. The Water Quality Index is 36. A measure of the quality of an area’s water supply as rated by the EPA. Higher values are better (100=best). The EPA has a complex method of measuring the watershed quality, using 15 indicators such as pollutants, turbidity, sediments, and toxic discharges. The Superfund Sites Index is 10. Higher is better (100=best). Based upon the number and impact of EPA Superfund pollution sites in the county, including spending on the cleanup efforts. The UV Index in Dearborn = 3.3 and is a measure of an area's exposure to the sun's ultraviolet rays. This is most often a combination of sunny weather, altitude, and latitude. The UV Index has been defined by the WHO (www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/radiation-the-ultraviolet-(uv)-index) and is uniform worldwide.

Employed

The most recent city population of 109,976 individuals with a median age of 37.6 age the population dropped by -11.44% in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan population since 2000 and are distributed over a density of 4,535.65 residents per square mile of area (1,751.25/km²). There are average 2.69 people per household in the 32,095 households with an average household income of $45,787 a year. The unemployment rate in Alabama is 11.50% of the available work force and has dropped -8.05% over the most recent 12-month period and the projected change in job supply over the next decade based on migration patterns, economic growth, and other factors will increase by 12.40%. The number of physicians in Dearborn per 100,000 population = 173.5.

Weather

The annual rainfall in Dearborn = 31.7 inches and the annual snowfall = 29.6 inches. The annual number of days with measurable precipitation (over .01 inch) = 112. The average number of days per year that are predominantly sunny = 183. 85 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily high temperature for the month of July and 16.9 degrees Fahrenheit is the average daily low temperature for the month of January. The Comfort Index (higher=better) is 50, where higher values mean a more pleasant climate. The Comfort Index measure recognizes that humidity by itself isn't the problem. (Have you noticed nobody ever complains about the weather being 'cold and humid?) It's in the summertime that we notice the humidity the most, when it's hot and muggy. Our Comfort Index uses a combination of afternoon summer temperature and humidity to closely predict the effect that the humidity will have on people.

Median Home Cost

The percentage of housing units in Dearborn, Wayne County, Michigan which are owned by the occupant = 65.94%. A housing unit is a house, apartment, mobile home, or room occupied as separate living quarters. The average age of homes = 57 years with median home cost = $79,400 and home appreciation of -22.09%. This is the value of the years most recent home sales data. Its important to note that this is not the average (or arithmetic mean). The median home price is the middle value when you arrange all the sales prices of homes from lowest to highest. This is a better indicator than the average, because the median is not changed as much by a few unusually high or low values. The property tax rate of $15.50 shown here is the rate per $1,000 of home value. If for simplification for example the tax rate is $14.00 and the home value is $250,000, the property tax would be $14.00 x ($250,000/1000), or $3500. This is the 'effective' tax rate.

Study

The local school district spends $6,252 per student. There are 18.6 students for each teacher in the school, 769 students for each Librarian and 759 students for each Counselor. 6.73% of the area’s population over the age of 25 with an Associate Degree or other 2-year college degree, 15.60% with a master’s degree, Ph.D. or other advanced college degree and 10.65% with high school diplomas or high school equivalency degrees (GEDs).