Sterling Heights, Michigan

Overview Of Sterling Heights, Michigan

Photo of the entrance to sterling heights michigan

Sterling Heights is a town in the U.S. state of Michigan in Macomb County, and one of the central suburbs of Detroit. The city had a total population of 129,699 as of the 2010 census. It is Metro Detroit’s second largest suburb, and Michigan’s fourth largest area. With a population of over 100,000, Sterling Heights regularly ranks as the safest city in Michigan.

In 1968, Sterling Heights was incorporated as a city. It was an agricultural field until the 1950s that was mainly dedicated to growing rhubarb and other crops sold in Detroit. Sterling Heights was known as Sterling Township prior to 1968. It was known as Jefferson Township from 1836 until 1838.

On the northern border of the city, Dobry Road is named after the last city supervisor, Anthony Dobry, who was also the second mayor. Gerald Donovan became the city’s first mayor. F. James Dunlop is the first pro-tem mayor. In Arenac County, there was already a small village called Sterling, so the term “Heights” was applied to the name of the township to comply with a state statute that prohibits incorporated communities from using the same name. “Moravian” was another name for the proposed city under consideration.

By 1991, the city had received many inhabitants, including ethnic Albanians, Bosnians, Croatians, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Poles, Serbs, and Slovenians, of ethnic eastern European origins. From Detroit and Hamtramck, they passed. As of 1991, several residents worked in Chrysler and Ford-operated automotive plants, and Sterling Heights was identified as a blue collar by Murray Dublin of The Baltimore Sun that year.

Millions of Iraqi people were displaced, especially Iraqi Christians, after the 2003 U.S.-Iraqi War. Of those 30,000-50,000 resettled in Sterling Heights, the nickname “Little Baghdad,” particularly around 15 Mile Road and Ryan, is given to parts of the city.

Two public school districts serve Sterling Heights: Utica Community Schools, covering the northern half of the city, and Warren Consolidated Schools, covering the southern half of the city. In the city, Utica operates two high schools, Stevenson High School and Henry Ford II High School, while in Sterling Heights High School, Warren Con only operates one.

There are three local newspapers in the city of Sterling Heights, the Macomb Daily. The latter two are distributed to city residences free of charge daily and Sunday delivery, the Sterling Heights Sentry, and the Sterling Heights Source. There are also two local channels in the city. SHTV is run by the department of community affairs of the city and typically shows programming and community updates created locally.