Snyder, Local Officials Open Bangladeshi Committee Office Near Hamtramck

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Gov. Rick Snyder, along with local community leaders, today opened the Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee office in Detroit’s BanglaTown neighborhood on the Hamtramck/Detroit border. The office will serve as a gathering place for the community and will help connect business and residents with resources and opportunities.

“Bangladeshi residents have found a welcoming home in metro Detroit and across Michigan, and we know that our community can play a central role in the region’s rebirth,” says Ehsan Taqbeem, co-founder of the Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee.

Taqbeem says the office, located on Conant Street, will be used to attract more customers and visitors to the businesses and cultural offerings of BanglaTown. The Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee, along with Global Detroit, a nonprofit working to make metro Detroit welcoming to the international community and to help bridge language and cultural barriers.

“BanglaTown is a largely untold story of how immigrants can work with local residents to revitalize urban neighborhoods in Detroit and Hamtramck,” says Steve Tobocman, executive director of Global Detroit.

Tobocman says Hamtramck contains one of the nation’s densest Bangladeshi populations and offers the only U.S. voting ballot in Bengali, the so-called “Bangla ballot.” He says Hamtramck is also is home to large numbers of African-American, Yemeni, Polish, Bosnian, and other diverse residents.

The Bangladeshi American Public Affairs Committee was formed in 2004 to promote the values and principles of the U.S. among the Bangladeshi Americans and provide them with an institution to legally organize as a group to exercise their political rights.