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44-444: This Oakland County, Michigan location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This Lapeer County, Michigan location article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . This article related to a protected area in Michigan is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Oakland County, Michigan Oakland County is a county in

88-474: A 22-point margin in the 2010 Michigan gubernatorial election and again by a 12-point margin in the 2014 election ; conversely, the county favored Democratic candidate Gretchen Whitmer by a 17-point margin in the 2018 election and again by a 23-point margin in the 2022 election . Republicans held a majority on the County Commission for most of its history, but following the 2018 elections, Democrats won

132-569: A city of 100,000 residents. Founded in 1819 and organized the following year, Oakland County is composed of 62 cities, villages, and townships. In 2010, Oakland County was among the ten wealthiest counties in the United States to have over one million residents. It is also home to Oakland University , a large public institution that straddles the border between the cities of Auburn Hills and Rochester Hills . Founded by Territorial Governor Lewis Cass in 1819, sparsely populated Oakland County

176-466: A compression ratio of 5.2:1. Horsepower was rated at 85 @3200 RPM using three main bearings, solid valve lifters and a Marvel one barrel carburetor. Unusually, Pontiac switched to the straight-eight for 1933 until it was replaced in 1954. As General Motors entered the 1920s, the product ladder started with the price-leading Chevrolet marque, and then progressed upward in price, power, and luxury to Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and ultimately Cadillac. By

220-577: A concentration of Arab Americans , who also live in nearby areas, and numerous Asian Americans , particularly Indians , have also settled in these areas. As of the 2020 Census there were 1,274,402 people and 524,762 households in the county with an average of 2.4 persons per household. 70.0% were Non-Hispanic White alone, 13.9% Black or African American alone, 8.8% Asian , 0.3% American Indian or Alaskan Native, and 2.5% of two or more races . 5% were Hispanic or Latino (of any race). Roughly 13.1% of county residents were foreign-born. Of households in

264-665: A flathead design shared with the Oldsmobile Light Eight and the Cadillac Type 51 . The Model 50 was only available from 1915 to 1917 as a seven-passenger touring sedan on a 127" wheelbase and was listed at US$ 1,600 ($ 44,800 in 2023 dollars ). In 1930, Oakland reintroduced the Model 101 V8, again using a flathead architecture, on a 117" wheelbase and offered it as a roadster, phaeton, coupe, closed body sedan and sport coupe. Prices were listed at US$ 895 ($ 16,324 in 2023 dollars ) for

308-625: A narrow 11-10 majority on the commission. In the 118th Congress , Oakland County is represented by four Democrats: Debbie Dingell ( 6th ), Elissa Slotkin ( 7th ), Haley Stevens ( 11th ), and Rashida Tlaib ( 12th ) and two Republicans: John James ( 10th ) and Lisa McClain ( 9th ). The following airports are located in neighboring counties: Amtrak 's thrice-daily Wolverine serves Oakland County, with stations in Pontiac , Troy , and Royal Oak , before continuing on to Detroit and west to Chicago . Surface-street navigation in metro Detroit

352-646: A result, there are no designated Bicycle Friendly Communities within Oakland County. Only the city of Ferndale has a built comprehensive bicycle network of bike lanes and signed shared roadways. The County of Oakland counterpart in public education (K–12) is the Oakland Schools , an Intermediate school district . The county is also home to multiple renowned private elementary and high schools, including The Roeper School and Cranbrook . School districts: The NFL's Detroit Lions played their home games at

396-556: Is commonly anchored by "mile roads", major east–west surface streets that are spaced at one-mile (1.6 km) intervals and increment as one travels north and away from the city center. Mile roads sometimes have two names, the numeric name (e.g., 15 Mile Road), used in Macomb County, and a local name (e.g., Maple Road), used in Oakland County (for the most part). The conditions on most non-residential roads in Oakland County are not favorable to bicycling. Exceptions to this are primarily in

440-463: Is concentrated in suburbs such as Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, West Bloomfield, and Southfield. Some suburbs, such as Novi, Troy, Birmingham, and Rochester, were historically strongly Republican but are now relatively split between the two parties, with younger adults tending to support Democrats and older residents tending to support Republicans. In 1996, Bill Clinton became the first Democrat to carry Oakland County since Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and only

484-405: Is the boundary between these counties. The baseline was used during the original surveying for Michigan, and it serves as the northern/southern boundaries for counties from Lake St. Clair to Lake Michigan . As more working and middle-class populations moved to the suburbs from the 1950s on, this divide (8 Mile Road) became historically known as an unofficial racial dividing line between what became

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528-620: The Detroit and Pontiac Railroad helped draw settlers in the 1840s. By 1840, Oakland had more than fifty lumber mills, processing wood harvested from the region and the Upper Peninsula. Pontiac, located on the Clinton River , was Oakland's first town and became the county seat. After the Civil War, Oakland was still primarily a rural, agricultural county with numerous isolated villages. By the end of

572-604: The Ford Model T introduced in October 1908. Once GM assumed operations of Oakland, production was moved to the factory that manufactured Cartercar in Pontiac, Michigan , another Durant acquisition that was cancelled while the resources were newly utilized, and the Oakland Model 40 was introduced. Starting with 1910 Oakland was exclusively offering 4-cylinder flathead engines with five different wheelbases and their advertising slogan

616-815: The Pontiac Silverdome in Pontiac from 1975 through 2001, when they moved to Ford Field in Downtown Detroit. The Detroit Pistons played at the Silverdome from 1978 to 1988. The Silverdome was also the site of Super Bowl XVI , where the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Cincinnati Bengals , the first of 5 Super Bowl titles for the 49ers. The Pontiac Silverdome also hosted various other sporting events, prior to being demolished in 2017. From 1988 to 2017, prior to

660-421: The U.S. state of Michigan . It is a principal county of the Detroit metropolitan area , containing the bulk of Detroit's northern suburbs. Its seat of government is Pontiac , and its largest city is Troy . As of the 2020 Census , its population was 1,274,395, making it the second-most populous county in Michigan (behind neighboring Wayne County ), and the most populous county in the United States without

704-506: The county jail , a civil division, marine division, alcohol and traffic enforcement units, and an aviation division. The marine patrol and rescue unit patrols 450 lakes across the county. Roads that are not maintained by a local community (city/village) are maintained by the independent Road Commission for Oakland County, which is governed by three board members appointed by the Oakland County Board of Commissioners. Oakland County

748-429: The 19th century, three rail lines served Pontiac, and the city attracted carriage and wagon factories. In the late 1890s streetcars were constructed here and operated between Detroit. At that time, developers made southern Oakland County a suburb of Detroit; a Cincinnati firm platted a section of Royal Oak called "Urbanrest". Migration worked both ways. Several thousand people moved from Oakland County farms to Detroit as

792-503: The 36th largest Asian population of any county in the country. In 2002, of the Oakland- Wayne - Macomb tricounty area, Oakland County had 49% of the tri-county area's Asian population. The median income for a household in the county in 2020 was $ 92,620, making Oakland County the 71st wealthiest county in the United States and the wealthiest county in Michigan. Of housing units in the county, 71.9% were owner occupied. About 8.72% of

836-517: The Cadillac Motor Company. Oakland Motor Company was named for Oakland County, Michigan , in which it was based. As originally conceived and introduced, the first Oakland used a design created by Brush and presented to Murphy who liked the idea and decided to go into business. The vertical two-cylinder engine that rotated counterclockwise was originally presented to Cadillac but was rejected. This design by Alanson Partridge Brush , inventor of

880-691: The Oakland County Sheriff since 1999. Ten townships, 3 cities, and 2 villages in the county do not have municipal police forces, but rather contract with the sheriff for police services specific to the municipalities. Those municipalities are Addison Township (including the village of Leonard ), Brandon Township (including the village of Ortonville ), Clarkston , Commerce Township , Highland Township , Independence Township , Lyon Township , Oakland Township , Orion Township , Oxford Township , Springfield Township , Pontiac , and Rochester Hills . The Oakland County Sheriff's Office also operates

924-477: The city attracted factories. By 1910, a number of rich Detroiters had summer homes and some year-round residences in what became Bloomfield Hills. The auto age enveloped Pontiac in the early 1900s. The Oakland Motor Car Company was founded in 1907 and became a part of General Motors Corp., which was soon Pontiac's dominant firm. In the 1950s, Oakland County's population boomed as the Detroiters began migrating to

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968-568: The county in 2012, though by a smaller margin. Hillary Clinton won a narrow majority in 2016. In 2020, Joe Biden won 56 percent of the vote. He received over 400,000 votes, and became the first Democrat to carry the county by a margin of over 100,000 votes. While the Democratic Party has found increasing success in presidential elections in Oakland County, the state Republican Party has remained strong in some recent gubernatorial and state elections. The county favored Republican Rick Snyder by

1012-667: The county, 20.0% had children under the age of 18 living in them, and 19.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. About 50.6% of county residents were female. Roughly half (49.5%) of county residents ages 25+ had at least a bachelor's degree. Among Asian Americans, eight ethnic groups had more than 1,000 members in the county in 2000. The most numerous were those of Asian Indian descent, with 20,705. Next were those of Chinese heritage, numbering 10,018. Next were those of Japanese (5,589), Filipino (5,450) Korean (5,351), Vietnamese (1,687), Pakistani (1,458) and Hmong (1,210) ancestry. In 2001, Oakland County had

1056-414: The fourth to do so since 1892. Al Gore and John Kerry also carried the county, by narrow margins of less than 7,000 and 3,000 votes respectively, against George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, respectively. In 2008, the county swung significantly to Barack Obama , who became the first Democrat to win a majority in the county since LBJ, and only the third to do so since 1884. ( See table at right .) He again carried

1100-586: The headquarters of Oakland Schools, the Road Commission, and a number of other departments. In May 2023, the county government announced a plan to relocate select offices from the Service Center back to downtown Pontiac. The Oakland County Sheriff's Office is the largest sheriff's department in the state of Michigan . In 2017 it had 859 uniformed officers, although in 2022 it had nearly 100 unfilled vacancies. Republican Michael Bouchard has served as

1144-634: The inner-ring suburbs within the southeast corner of the county. This is due to their street grid . A primary reason for these unfavorable cycling conditions is the Road Commission for Oakland County has a policy of not accommodating bicycles on the road. As a result, some communities have designated sidepaths (locally called "safety paths") as bike routes which do not meet the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) guidelines for bicycling facilities and have been found to be less safe than on-road bike facilities. As

1188-548: The introduction of four brands priced and designed to fill the gaps. Cadillac would introduce the LaSalle to fill the gap between Cadillac and Buick. Buick would introduce the Marquette to handle the upper end of the gap between Buick and Oldsmobile. Oldsmobile would introduce the Viking , which took care of the lower end of the same gap. Oakland's part in this plan was the 1926 Pontiac ,

1232-464: The mid-1920s, a sizable price gap existed between Chevrolet and Oakland, as well as a wide gap between Oldsmobile and Buick. Also, a product gap existed between Buick and Cadillac. General Motors pioneered the idea that consumers would aspire to buy up an automotive product ladder if a company met certain price points-called the Companion Make Program . To address this, General Motors authorized

1276-687: The move to Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, the Detroit Pistons played their home games at The Palace of Auburn Hills in Auburn Hills. The Palace of Auburn Hills was demolished in 2020. Oakland County contains 387 lakes, and four major rivers run through the county: The headwaters of each of these rivers lie in Oakland County. 42°40′N 83°23′W  /  42.66°N 83.38°W  / 42.66; -83.38 Oakland (automobile) The Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan ,

1320-415: The national median. Oakland County is home to several super-regional shopping malls such as Oakland Mall , Somerset Collection , Twelve Oaks Mall , and Great Lakes Crossing Outlets . According to the U.S. Census Bureau , the county has a total area of 907 square miles (2,350 km ), of which 868 square miles (2,250 km ) is land and 40 square miles (100 km ) (4.4%) is water. Oakland County

1364-531: The population were below the poverty line . The county government operates the major local courts, keeps files of deeds and mortgages, maintains vital records , administers public health regulations, and participates with the state in the provision of welfare and other social services. The county board of commissioners controls the budget but has limited authority to make laws or ordinances. In Michigan, most local government functions—police and fire, building and zoning, tax assessment, street maintenance, etc.—are

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1408-780: The predominantly black city and almost exclusively white suburbs. Since the late 20th century, the patterns of de facto segregation have faded as the suburbs have become more diverse. Middle-class African Americans have left Detroit, settling in inner-ring suburbs, notably Southfield (where the population is 75% Black), west of Woodward Avenue . Based on the 2010 Census, the following cities also have significant non-white populations: Farmington (25.3%), Farmington Hills (31.7%), Novi (30.12%), Oak Park (62.61%), Lathrup Village (72.97%), Orchard Lake Village (16.08%), Rochester Hills (20.94%), Troy (29.4%), Wixom (26.28%), West Bloomfield (24.0%), Bloomfield (18.28%), Bloomfield Hills (14.2%), Ferndale (17.2%), and Madison Heights (17.7%). Ferndale has

1452-628: The responsibility of individual cities and townships. Most county operations are based at the Oakland County Service Center, which straddles Telegraph Road, split between Pontiac and neighboring Waterford Township. The east campus (in Pontiac) consists mostly of the courthouse, jail, and Sheriff's Office, while the west campus (in Waterford) contains the county executive's office, Children's Village (the county's juvenile detention center ), and

1496-736: The roadster or phaeton to US$ 1,045 ($ 19,060 in 2023 dollars ) for the Custom Sedan. The Oakland V8 was shared with the Viking V8 which was a companion of Oldsmobile and was the only product sold. 1931 was the last year for the Oakland Model 301 V8 and the only vehicle available was the V8 with very few changes, and was renamed the 1932 Pontiac Series 302 V8. The 1932 V8 had an oversquare bore and stroke of 3.4375 in (87.3 mm) x 3.375 in (85.7 mm) displacing 251 cu in (4.1 L) with

1540-468: The single-cylinder Cadillac and Brush Runabout , also featured a planetary transmission . The 1908 Oakland came in five body styles, designated Model A–E, varing from a runabout to a landaulet. The first year of Oakland production, 1908, had 278 vehicles roll off the line. After one year of production, Oakland's principal founder, Edward Murphy, sold half of the company to William C. Durant 's General Motors Corporation in early 1909. When Murphy died in

1584-681: The slogan "True Blue Oakland Six". The Oakland was built only in Pontiac, Michigan, which is the county seat of Oakland County . The name antedates any GM association with an automobile manufacturing facility in Oakland, California , that built Chevrolet vehicles before Chevrolet joined GM called Oakland Assembly . In 1913 the Oakland Six was introduced followed in 1916 by the Model 50 365 cu in (6.0 L) flathead V8 engine sourced from Northway Motor and Manufacturing company , and production soared to 35,000 in 1917. The Series 50 V8 used

1628-522: The suburbs. While the neighboring Macomb County was more inhabited by auto workers and other blue-collar workers, Oakland County's residents tended to be more affluent and generally white-collar (e.g. doctors, lawyers). Oakland County was for a time the fourth-wealthiest county in the United States, though its position has declined somewhat since the Great Recession. The median price of a home in Oakland County increased to $ 164,697, more than $ 30,000 above

1672-505: The summer of 1909, GM acquired the remaining rights to Oakland. Within General Motors, Oakland was later slotted as their entry-level brand below the more expensive Oldsmobile , Buick , and Cadillac cars. Conventional four-cylinder engined models were introduced shortly after the GM takeover, and GM didn't acquire the volume-priced Chevrolet until 1917, and Oakland found itself competing with

1716-510: Was "The Car with a Conscience". By early 1920, however, production and quality control problems began to plague the division. In 1921, under new general manager Fred Hannum, a consistent production schedule was underway and the quality of the cars improved, and Oakland vehicles shared the GM A platform used by Chevrolet. One marketing tactic was the employment of a quick-drying bright blue automotive lacquer by Duco (a DuPont brand product), leading to

1760-471: Was an American automobile manufacturer and division of General Motors . Purchased by General Motors in 1909, the company continued to produce modestly priced automobiles until 1931 when the brand was dropped in favor of the division's Pontiac make. The company was created by Edward Murphy who owned the Pontiac Buggy Company and Alanson Brush who was working as a consultant in Detroit after leaving

1804-431: Was established, as all townships are equal in size (save for slight variations due to waterways). Section 16 in each township was reserved for financing and maintaining public education, and even today many schools in Oakland County townships are located within that section. Wayne County , where the city of Detroit is located, borders Oakland County to the south. 8 Mile Road , also known as "Baseline Road" in some areas,

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1848-666: Was formed from Macomb County on 28 March 1820. As was customary at the time, as populations increased, other counties were organized from its land area. Over the next 16 years, Oakland lost territory to the creation of the counties of Lapeer (10 Sep 1822), Saginaw (10 Sep 1822), Sanilac (10 Sep 1822), Shiawassee (10 Sep 1822), Washtenaw (10 Sep 1822), Barry (29 Oct 1829), Calhoun (29 Oct 1829), Eaton (29 Oct 1829), Ingham (29 Oct 1829), Jackson (29 Oct 1829), Kalamazoo (29 Oct 1829), Arenac (2 Mar 1831), Gladwin (2 Mar 1831), Midland (2 Mar 1831), Livingston (21 Mar 1833), and Genesee (28 Mar 1835). Woodward Avenue and

1892-525: Was historically a bastion of suburban conservatism, and was hence a longstanding stronghold of the Republican Party . In the 1990s it became highly competitive, and since 2008 it has increasingly shifted Democratic, giving over 50% of its votes to the Democratic candidate for president in each election. Republican strength is concentrated in the many exurban townships of the county, while Democratic strength

1936-458: Was originally divided into 25 separate townships , which are listed below. Each township is roughly equal in size at six miles (9.7 km) by six miles, for a total township area of 36 square miles (93 km ). The roots of this design were born out of the Land Ordinance of 1785 and the subsequent Northwest Ordinance of 1787. Oakland County itself is a prime example of the land policy that

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