New Latino Wave Helps Revitalize Detroit

“A new wave of Latino immigrants is following others who established communities in northern cities in the 1950s after getting jobs in the auto and other manufacturing industries. The attraction now is employment in restaurants, shops and other service-oriented businesses that cater primarily to residents in those communities but also draw non-Latinos.

“A number of folks who are coming up — documented or undocumented — are finding jobs,” said Enrique Figueroa, director of the Roberto Hernandez Center at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“The now-vibrant neighborhood wasn’t always so. Its fate had mirrored most other areas of Detroit that began to lose businesses and people following the city’s 1967 riot. Boarded-up buildings and an unappealing mix of fast-food stops, dank bars and seedy strip clubs lined the streets.

“Gang violence was rampant and the housing stock crumbled.

“It wasn’t a neighborhood where you could walk down the street,” Southwest Detroit Business Association deputy director Edith J. Castillo said. “Now, you can actually walk down West Vernor. You can take your family out for ice cream after church.”

TheStateOf . . . Detroit. Oh, I (J) can’t wait to hear the hanky-head lazy negroes complain about how the “Mexicans are taking all the jobs” like brothas do out here in L.A. Latinos have taken over most of black Los Angeles because they open small businesses, which, in turn, establishes roots in the community. Drive around black L.A. and there is nothing but big corporate stores, franchises and liquor stores (owned by Koreans).