in 1940 to support the WW II effort, and the General Motors Technical Center between 1949 and 1956. The Red Run and Bear Creek, just small creeks back in the 1800s, has blossomed into an open major inter-county stormdrain flowing through Warren, into the Clinton River, and onwards to Lake St. Clair. The Village of Warren and most of the surrounding Township of Warren, together with Van Dyke, incorporated as a city in 1957, less the city of Center Line, which had incorporated as a village from Warren Township in 1925 and as a city in 1936. Between 1950 and 1960, Warren's population soared from 42,653 to 89,426. This population explosion was largely fueled by the post-WWII Baby Boom and later, by white flight from its southern neighbor of Detroit in that decade. This change in population continued into the next decade when the city's population doubled again, ultimately reaching a high of 179,000 in 1970. The subsequent decades have seen Warren's population decline, while violent crime has increased. Combined with collapsing housing prices, down -53% between 2011 and 2016, this has led Warren to a number 7 ranking in Forbes' Most Miserable Cities to Live in the US; joining two other Michigan cities, Detroit and Flint, in the Top 10. Mayors The following is a list of the previous mayors of the city. The current mayor is James Fouts. Mayoral elections are currently non-partisan. Geography Warren is a core city of Metro Detroit. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and is water. The city covers a six-mile-by-six mile, 8mile through 14 mile (10 km x 10 km) square in the southwest corner of Macomb County in Metro Detroit (minus Center Line, which is a small city totally enclosed within Warren). Warren shares its entire southern border with the northern border of the Detroit city limits. Other cities bordering on Warren are Hazel Park, Madison Heights, Sterling Heights, Fraser, Roseville, and Eastpointe. Climate Warren features a humid continental climate (Köppen: Dfa). Summers are somewhat hot with temperatures exceeding 90 °F (32 °C) on average 8.6 days. Winters are cold, with temperatures not rising above freezing on 39.1 days annually, while dropping to or below 0 °F (−18 °C) on average 1.2 days a year. Main highways cuts east and west through the middle of Warren. , which