ABSTRACT
If the great corporate welfare programs of the nineteenth century were directed at transportation, in particular the nurturing the railroad industry and canals, the corporate welfare complex of our era has seen the automobile industry park itself in a prominent position. A spokesman for the developer that received the cabinetmaker's land said, "his project brings a sense of faith and a sense of improvement to an area that has sorely lacked self-confidence". The story of Poletown, in the words of Ralph Nader, one of the very few American political figures who had the guts to stand up for the place, "is the story of the spirited, integrated, lower-middle-class urban community in Detroit that refused to die until the bulldozers of corporate socialism destroyed its physical being". The neighborhood known since the late nineteenth century as Pole-town is, or was, found in the northeastern part of Detroit up to and including parts of the City of Hamtramck.
