OAK PARK, MICHIGAN

'Oak Park' is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a suburb of Detroit. As of the 2000 census, its population is 29,793.

Contents

History

Geography

Demographics

Trivia

References

History

The township around Oak Park began to be settled in 1822, with the area that was to become Oak Park first settled in 1840. The first major housing development came in 1914 and was called the Oak Park subdivision. An election to approve incorporation as a village was held on May 3, 1927. An election to approve incorporation as a city was held on October 29, 1945.
Planned developments in the late 1950s resulted in Oak Park being named "America's Fastest Growing City" at one point. Major civic improvements in this period included the addition of an outdoor swimming pool and an ice rink in Major Park (now known as Shepherd Park, after former mayor David Shepherd, but long known informally as Oak Park Park).
Oak Park is home to six of the steel and ceramic houses built by the Lustron company in the early 1950s, which provided an inexpensive type of shelter for servicemen returning from World War II. They can be found on Oneida St., just north of Nine Mile Road.
Oak Park grew into a quiet city of one-story houses, sidewalks, trees, and backyards. For many years it has had the feeling of a small town, even though it lies in the heart of the Metro Detroit area, bordering the city of Detroit and several of its larger suburbs.
On November 1, 2004, the city annexed the northwestern portion of Royal Oak Charter Township.^[1]

Geography

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 5.0 square miles (13.0 km²). None of it is covered by water.

Demographics

As of the census² of 2000, there were 29,793 people, 11,104 households, and 7,595 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,932.0 persons per square mile (2,291.5/km²). There were 11,370 housing units at an average density of 2,263.9 per square mile (874.5/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 46.95% White, 45.95% African American, 0.17% Native American, 2.18% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.60% from other races, and 4.13% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.28% of the population.
Oak Park has attracted a large number of Orthodox Jewish families since the 1970s. Many are Haredi. The community and its surrounding areas has many synagogues and a number of yeshivas . It also has a small Russian-American population.
There were 11,104 households out of which 34.4% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 44.0% were married couples living together, 19.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 31.6% were non-families. 26.6% of all households were made up of individuals and 10.4% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.68 and the average family size was 3.29.
In the city the population was spread out with 28.2% under the age of 18, 8.0% from 18 to 24, 29.8% from 25 to 44, 21.8% from 45 to 64, and 12.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females there were 88.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 81.9 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $48,697, and the median income for a family was $54,786. Males had a median income of $40,922 versus $35,968 for females. The per capita income for the city was $21,677. About 7.8% of families and 9.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 10.9% of those under age 18 and 13.9% of those age 65 or over.

Trivia

★ David Weiss (a.k.a. David Was) and Don Fagenson (a.k.a. Don Was) from the group Was (Not Was) grew up together in Oak Park.

★ Jeffrey Sachs, famous economist formerly at Harvard University and currently at Columbia University is a graduate of Oak Park High School.

★ Hip-Hop artist Royce Da 5'9" moved from Detroit to Oak Park, Michigan at the age on 9.

★ Rock Group Free Element's guitar player Randy Roberts, and Drummer Jake Bayer both hail from Oak Park.

★ Attorney Geoffrey Fieger who represented Jack Kevorkian grew up in Oak Park and graduated from Oak Park High School in 1969.

★ Geoffrey's younger brother Doug Fieger was the lead singer of the group The Knack whose hit song was "My Sharona".

References

★ City of Oak Park
1. City of Oak Park Michigan Comprehensive Annual Financial Report