Ferndale, Michigan

City of Ferndale
—  City  —
View down 9 Mile in Downtown Ferndale
Location in the state of Michigan
Coordinates: 42°27′38″N 83°8′5″W
Country	United States
State	Michigan
County	Oakland
Incorporated	1918 (village)
	1927 (city)
Government
• Type	Council-Manager
• Mayor	David Coulter
• City Manager	Mark Wallenweber
Area
• City	3.9 sq mi (10.0 km2)
• Land	3.9 sq mi (10.0 km2)
• Water	0.0 sq mi (0 km2)
Elevation	646 ft (197 m)
Population (2010)
• City	19,900
• Density	5,100/sq mi (1,990/km2)
• Metro	4,296,250
Time zone	EST (UTC-5)
• Summer (DST)	EDT (UTC-4)
ZIP code	48220
Area code(s)	248
FIPS code	26-27880
GNIS feature ID	0625911
Website	http://www.ferndale-mi.com/

Ferndale is a city in Oakland County of the U.S. state of Michigan. It forms part of the Detroit metropolitan area. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 19,900.

Ferndale is primarily residential, with a small industrial sector in the southeast part of the city. Ferndale's business district is anchored by the intersection of Woodward Avenue and 9 Mile Road, where privately owned shops, storefronts, dance clubs, bars and numerous restaurants are featured. Ferndale is well known in the Detroit area for its LGBT population and liberal politics, having elected the first openly gay mayor in the state of Michigan in 2007.

History

Native Americans were the first known inhabitants of the area now known as the City of Ferndale. In the 1800s farmers began cultivating the land. After the invention of the automobile and the development of the automotive assembly line, the population of Ferndale increased rapidly.

Ferndale was incorporated into a village in 1918. It was then incorporated into a city on March 7, 1927, by vote of the citizens of the village. It became a bedroom community for Detroit workers, with most of its growth in housing from 1920-1951. Through the early 1950s there were trolley (interurban railroad) lines in the median strip of Woodward Avenue from downtown Detroit to Pontiac. These helped the northern suburbs of Detroit grow as bedroom communities as people could take the trolley to shop or work in Detroit.

In the 1970s, Ferndale was a typical American suburban community and a place for families to raise children during the "Baby Boom" era, with many elementary schools, a thriving downtown, city parks, active churches and civic groups. Ferndale even had its own community hospital (Ardmore Hospital) on 9 Mile Road at Livernois that closed in the 1970s. St. James Church had their own school for grades 1 through 12. The high school later closed, in 1971.

Lincoln Junior High on 9 Mile and Livernois was demolished in 1978, and in its stead is a supermarket named Ferndale Foods. It was formerly Lincoln High, the city high school, until the new and current Ferndale High was completed in 1958. Lincoln Junior High had been built in 1920 and was falling apart by the 1960s. By this time the population of school-aged children also was declining and more and more elementary schools closed or were consolidated. Two of the elementary schools, Paul Best School on the west side of Woodward, and Coolidge on the east side, took over as the city junior high schools after Lincoln was closed. Recently the school district was again made over with impressive results in test scores.^{[citation needed]} The gap between the disadvantaged and privileged children has closed in recent years.^{[citation needed]}

Ferndale's downtown shopping area, 9 Mile Road, featured many busy, popular stores in the 1940s to 1960s, including A & P Supermarket, State Supermarket (which later became Food Fair, and eventually Farmer Jack), Federal Department Store, Cunningham's Drugs, Hagelstein's Bakery, F & M Drugs (the first store in the chain), Sanders Bakery, Western Auto, several clothing and shoe stores, Ferndale Lanes (a 20-lane second-story bowling alley over a group of stores on 9 Mile west of Woodward), Kresge's, Woolworth's and Neisner "dime stores." A movie theater, Radio City, was located on Woodward, one block north of 9 Mile. More information can be found by visiting the Ferndale Historical Museum at 1651 Livernois.

The city has experienced a dramatic revival of its downtown due to the policies implemented during the last ten years. Ferndale's downtown is formed by two major thoroughfares, Nine Mile Road and Woodward Avenue. Circa 1997 the city made the downtown more pedestrian-friendly by narrowing West Nine Mile Road, the heart of the downtown, to one lane in each direction and adding on-street parking. The result has been a return of pedestrian traffic and an influx of new stores and restaurants. The city has continued to make itself more accessible to people by reducing traffic lanes on Hilton Road and Pinecrest Road, two major local north/south streets, and adding bicycle lanes.

Geography

Ferndale is located at 42°27′40″N 83°7′44″W.

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 3.9 square miles (10 km²), all of it land.

Ferndale is adjacent to the cities of Detroit to the south, Oak Park to the west, Hazel Park to the east, Pleasant Ridge to the north, Royal Oak Township to the southwest, and Royal Oak to the north.

Ferndale is bordered to the south by 8 Mile Road, to the north (west of Woodward Avenue) by Oakridge Street, and (east of Woodward Avenue) by 10 Mile Road. To the west it is bordered by Republic Street (south of Nine Mile Road), and Hyland Street (north of Nine Mile). To the east it is bordered by Stauber Street.

Demographics

Historical populations
Census	Pop.		%±
1920	2,640		—
1930	20,855		690.0%
1940	22,523		8.0%
1950	29,675		31.8%
1960	31,347		5.6%
1970	30,850		−1.6%
1980	26,227		−15.0%
1990	25,084		−4.4%
2000	22,105		−11.9%
2010	19,900		−10.0%

As of the census of 2000, there were 22,105 people, 9,872 households, and 5,103 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,697.9 people per square mile (2,199.7/km²). There were 10,243 housing units at an average density of 2,640.3 per square mile (1,019.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 91.46% White, 3.42% Black or African American, 0.55% Native American, 1.32% Asian, 0.02% Pacific Islander, 0.64% from other races, and 2.58% from two or more races. 1.81% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race.

There were 9,872 households out of which 23.5% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 35.8% were married couples living together, 11.5% had a female householder with no husband present, and 48.3% were non-families. 35.2% of all households were made up of individuals and 7.8% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.23 and the average family size was 2.97.

In the city the population was spread out with 20.4% under the age of 18, 9.1% from 18 to 24, 41.2% from 25 to 44, 19.7% from 45 to 64, and 9.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 34 years. For every 100 females there were 99.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.8 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $45,629, and the median income for a family was $51,687. Males had a median income of $40,392 versus $30,859 for females. The per capita income for the city was $23,133. About 7.2% of families and 8.2% of the population were below the poverty line, including 12.0% of those under age 18 and 9.6% of those age 65 or over.

The city was the host of the "Motor City Pride" Street festival, which over 35,000 attend. Ferndale was the first city in Michigan to elect an openly gay mayor, Craig Covey, on November 6, 2007. Because of the city's population base, popular nicknames include "Fashionable Ferndale," and "Fabulous Ferndale".

In 2010 Ferndale had a population of 19,900. Its ethnic and racial composition was 82.8% non-Hispanic white, 9.6% black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 1.3% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 0.1% non-Hispanics reporting some other race, 3.4% reporting two or more races and 2.8% Hispanic or Latino.

Crime

Ferndale
Crime rates (2003)
Crime type	Rate*
Homicide:	0
Forcible rape:	50.2
Robbery:	118.6
Aggravated assault:	255.4
Violent crime:	424.2
Burglary:	665.8
Larceny-theft:	1,960.8
Motor vehicle theft:	738.7
Arson:	13.7
Property crime:	3,379.0
Notes * Number of reported crimes per 100,000 population.
Source: 2003 FBI Report of Offenses Known to Law Enforcement

The crime rate in Ferndale is relatively neutral. Crime is significantly lower than inner communities such as Detroit, Dearborn and Hamtramck. However, other outer communities have a lower crime rate. Larceny theft was the most common crime in Ferndale, making up 51.7% of the crime rate. Six known homicides have been recorded in Ferndale since 2000; one being in 2001, one in 2005, one in 2007, one in 2008, one in 2009, and one in 2010., and the most recent suicide in October 2011^{[citation needed]}.

Education

Ferndale has its own school district, Ferndale Public Schools, including elementary, middle, and high schools. Ferndale High School and University High School are both part of Ferndale Public Schools.

Notable people

• James Blanchard, Michigan governor, attended Ferndale public schools
• Dana Elcar, actor best known for role as Peter Thornton on MacGyver
• Elena Ford, is the daughter of Charlotte Ford, granddaughter of Henry Ford II, and great-granddaughter of Henry Ford.
• Eminem (Marshall Mathers), rapper/recording artist owns Effigy Studio in Ferndale, has also recorded at Studio 8 and 54 Sound studios in the city.
• Kevin Price, syndicated columnist, host of the Price of Business on CBS Radio in Houston

External links

• City of Ferndale official website
• Ferndale Downtown Development Authority
• Ferndale Historical Society
• Ferndale (Michigan) travel guide from Wikitravel
• Ferndale, Michigan at the Open Directory Project
• Ferndale: Metro Detroit's business incubator