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“We are using the money to cover pensions,” McFall tells Metro Times. “We kicked the bucket down the road, and now we have to pay for it. If we didn’t have the dispensary money coming in, I honestly don’t know what we would do.”

Since Detroit and many other communities in the metro area don’t yet allow recreational marijuana dispensaries within their borders, thousands of people are visiting Hazel Park every day to frequent the cannabusinesses.

“Marijuana has really helped change the perceptions of our city,” McFall says. “People who come here for marijuana may not have stepped in our community otherwise. People are coming and eating and doing more. They are exploring more, and understanding what’s going on in the city.”

In addition, the cannabusinesses have provided hundreds of good-paying jobs with benefits, and many of those employees live in Hazel Park, where they spend a lot of their money.

“These are good jobs that people can support themselves on,” Klobucher says.

The cannabusinesses also are giving back in charitable ways, providing funding for events and community organizations. The Breeze dispensary on John R, for example, contributes to Hazel Park Promise, an initiative to provide scholarships for high school graduates to attend college.

“They have all been amazingly good corporate citizens, and they are always willing to donate money and time and resources to community events,” Klobucher says.

Hazel Park has a long history with marijuana. For 49 years, B.D.T. Smoke Shops has been selling cannabis paraphernalia and other marijuana-related products, long before the proliferation of head shops.

The indisputable anchor of the city’s South End, B.D.T., has drawn generations of stoners to Hazel Park. For many young people, it’s a rite of passage.

The owner, Curt Goure, is one of the city’s biggest boosters. He recently strung up 28 strands of LED lights outside his shop over John R with a banner that reads, “Welcome to Hazel Park’s South End.”

Despite the acceptance of marijuana today, Goure says attitudes in the city were far more different even a decade ago.

“We were the black sheep of the city,” Goure tells Metro Times. “The consensus in Hazel Park not that long ago was that marijuana was something bad. The city took a chance and embraced it. The war on drugs is a lost cause. People are over it.”

Goure began to notice attitudes were shifting when the city gave his friend, the famous stoner and marijuana advocate Tommy Chong, a key to the city in April 2015 when he stopped by B.D.T. Smoke Shops ahead of Ann Arbor’s Hash Bash.

A year earlier, Hazel Park residents voted to decriminalize marijuana in the city.

In November 2018, when recreational marijuana was legalized statewide at the ballot box, more than 75% of Hazel Park residents voted in favor of the initiative.

For B.D.T. Smoke Shops, marijuana is a three-generation business. In a few months, Goure’s daughter Dana Elgie plans to open a Class A microbusiness dispensary and cultivation establishment, called Hive, next door to B.D.T.’s. The concept is to grow small amounts of high-quality cannabis.

“We’re trying to stay away from the Walmart weed and following parallels to the craft beer industry,” Goure says.

The new businesses will help bolster the South End as a “destination location,” he says.

Goure would like to see a financial institution invest in the area, and for a major franchise and brewery to set up shop in the South End.

“We are just thrilled,” Goure says. “We’ve been the stepchild of Hazel Park, and we have not received that much attention. I think this is the future. We are dressing up this whole South End and making it festive.” GOOD DEALS ON HOUSES

One of the major draws to Hazel Park is the relatively inexpensive houses. Of the 10 cities in southeastern Oakland County, Hazel Park has had the lowest median sales price of a home in years, according to real estate records.

The median sale price for a home in Hazel Park was $160,000 in June 2022. That’s compared to:

• $300,000 in Berkley • $580,000 in Beverly Hills • $460,000 in Birmingham • $250,000 in Clawson • $250,000 in Ferndale • $485,000 in Huntington Woods • $243,000 in Oak Park • $510,000 in Pleasant Ridge • $325,000 in Royal Oak

The value of homes also is rising faster than most of the neighboring cities. The median sale price of a home in Hazel Park rose 39.1% in the past three years, more than all of the other southeastern Oakland County cities, with the exception of Beverly Hills (39.4%) and Oak Park (51.9%).

Resident Carly Peil recently paid $150,000 for her 1,500-square-foot house with four bedrooms and two baths.

“You really can’t find that anywhere,” the 26-yearold tells Metro Times.

And she would know. She’s now a real estate agent and is finding that homebuyers are drawn to Hazel Park for the relatively inexpensive prices.

“It’s a great time to buy, even in the craziness of the housing market,” Peil says. “It’s still affordable, especially with all of the growth over the past four or five years in Hazel Park, and I think we’re going to continue on that trajectory.”

Peil is a relative newcomer to metro Detroit, and happenstance brought her to Hazel Park. When she moved from Bay City to the metro area to be closer to her boyfriend, her friends were moving out of a rental in Hazel Park. She and her boyfriend moved in, and grew to appreciate the city.

“Since being here for three years, I have really grown to like it. It’s the perfect location, and we’re only 12 minutes from downtown,” Peil says. “We have great neighbors. We’ve never felt unsafe. Everyone is really nice. I have been pleasantly surprised by how it feels to live here.”

Peil and her boyfriend frequent FrameBar, Mabel Gray, Doug’s Delight, the dispensaries, and Kozy Lounge, a popular dive bar.

As a Realtor, Peil gets a lot of requests for houses in Ferndale, Royal Oak, and Madison Heights. She always encourages prospective buyers to check out Hazel Park.

“A lot of my clients who aren’t looking at Hazel Park end up loving the feel of the neighborhood, the prices, and the homes,” she says. “Hazel Park is still under the radar. It’s becoming more popular. With the affordability and all these new businesses, people are pleasantly surprised when they give Hazel Park a chance.”

Peil lives a block-and-a-half from Ferndale, where the prices for houses are much higher.

“I have people looking in this neighborhood (Ford Heights), and they look at both places, and the one across the street in Ferndale is nice, but smaller and less of everything, and is like $80,000 to $100,000 more. People were offering $30,000 to $40,000 above asking price to live in Ferndale.”

For Maria Nuccilli, a librarian at Wayne State University and drummer in the band Deadbeat Beat, the appeal of Hazel Park isn’t the new businesses. Originally from Grosse Pointe, she and her husband Neil rented in Ferndale, Hamtramck, Pleasant Ridge, and Hazel Park. After renting in Hazel Park for eight years, they were won over by the friendliness of the city, and bought their home in August 2020.

“I like that the city and the neighbors aren’t pretentious,” she says. “We have great neighbors. They look out for each other. Once we moved to this side of town, we found our people.” FROM HORSES TO GREEN ENERGY

For decades, the blue-collar city was known for the Hazel Park Raceway, a horse-racing track built atop a garbage dump that took up 10% of the city’s geographic area. Thousands of people used to pack into the grandstands to watch thoroughbred racing.

In 2018, the track closed for good, ending a nearly 70-year era.

For a city that relied on tax revenues from the track, it could have been a nightmare to lose the raceway. But Hazel Park officials wasted no time finding a new purpose for the land.

With the help of Ashley Capitol, the site is now used by businesses that help build a cleaner, greener economy. One of the companies is Exlterra, a sustainable technological solutions firm from Switzerland that moved its North American headquarters to Hazel Park. The company has a technology that helps clean up polluted sites without using chemical products or soil removal.

“They are a modern-day Leonardo da Vinci with their ability to solve problems that people think are unsolvable,” Klobucher says. “We’re really proud of the international work they are doing.”

With a population of about 16,500 residents, Hazel Park is still a long way from its peak of 25,631 people in 1960.

But city officials and residents seem both vigilant and patient about a full revival.

To make more headway, Rigato says the city must be tougher on owners of abandoned buildings. He says some landlords are sitting on properties, waiting for more money.

“All of the great things about Hazel Park does not mean it’s a gold rush,” Rigato says. “Affordable prices is why we’re here. If you want Hazel Park to be cool, stop being a slumlord. If you’re sitting on a piece of shit building and asking 30 bucks per square foot, you should reconsider your contributions to Hazel Park.”

With all the new growth, Nuccilli says Hazel Park isn’t just about the newcomers.

“I just hope the homeowners who have been here for a long time get to reap some kind of reward for being interested in this little town,” Nuccilli says. “I want to see the city grow and flourish for everyone.”