Eventually moving out of Central California... looking at Ann Arbor/SE Michigan (Detroit: sales)

[IhateCA]

Hi everyone! I am going to be graduating high school this school year, and was looking at a few metro areas to live after high school, and am looking at Ann Arbor/SE Michigan. Now, granted, I am going to stay where I am for a little while(I know I want to go into the auto industry, but I'm still looking at where exactly). I am currently located in Central California(Stockton area currently), which, just to let you know, is a HORRIBLE place!

Reasons why I want to leave:
Extremely high cost of living(future concern, but how am I going to be able to afford to raise a family and have a decent life when, in the bigger cities, a ghetto two-room apartment costs hundreds of thousands of dollars!)
Taxes, taxes, taxes(not willing to pay 9% sales tax)
High crime(granted, I live in a 'safe' area, but MOST of the urbanized part of CA has very high crime rates)
Boring(where I live, you have to drive outside the area for EVERYTHING, which there usually is too much traffic to actually get out)
Illegal immigration(in this area it is almost a requirement to know fluent Spanish for many careers. I tried to learn it, however, it is very difficult, so I have no desire to learn any more)
And my pet peeve: NO SEASONS!!!(Seriously, almost every DAY has been 95+ degrees, with zero rain/clouds and cool downs)

I, like I said, am going into the auto industry in a few years(hopefully), and I would like some opinions on Ann Arbor/SE Michigan. I know people who HAVE been in the area, and they have only had good things to say! This is a a couple years away, but I'd like some info now, just because I would like to know sooner, rather than later, Thanks!

[Coldjensens]

We moved form CA to SE Mi ten years ago. A few highlights:

Good:
Clean air
Rivers streams and lakes with water in them.
Green green green (except in winter)
Seasons.
You will own a tree and it will not require property worth $2 million.
You can live on water, even if your last name is not Gates.

Slightly better moral/social atmosphere. People are more likely to measure you by whether you are a hard worker than by the brands you wear, drive, buy.

Outdoor activities.

Up North.

Comparatively low house prices.

Water sports and flat land snow sports.

You can pretty much completely avoid traffic and lines if you choose wisely.

Deer in your yard (and foxes, bunnies, bald eagles, hawks, swans, geese, ducks, racoons, minkm, toads. . . ). Actually Geese are a PIA. The rest of them are cool. Oh and deer, they get to be a PIA too, they eat all your plants.

Michigan sweet corn (and blueberries, cherries, apples, watermelons. . . ) There is a lot of water, so if you find good soil, things grow like you would not believe (but not citrus or pecans - and no loquats- sorry).

Fall. It is hard to describe why fall is so cool. Everyone agrees though. Go with the themes - cider mills, u-pick apples, canoeing, high school football games, hay rides, corn mazes, back yard bonfires, and go up north in early fall to see the colors, it is breathtaking.

Wind - except for winter.

Wait till you see painted rocks, and Tahquamenon falls (not even close on the spelling), and Traverse City, and Machinac island, and the mighty Mac, and. . . .

Canoeing, everywhere.

seasons.

Canadians - some of the most amusing, most apologetic people you will ever meet.

No rush rush rush. You can find it, but you kind of have to go looking.

Thunder storms.

Craft beer. Everywhere and most of it is excellent.

Sunshowers are the best!.

Trendy is not usually trendy, but that depends somewhat on where you are.

No real natural disasters/threats as long as you have a "stuck kit" in your car and prepare for power outages at home. tornadoes once in a great while. No hurricanes, earthquakes, wildfires, mudslides, etc.

You will see all kinds of weird weather effects, Thundersnow, freezing fog, tons of rainbows and gorgeous sunsets, ice storms, wild cloud formations, 80 degree temperature swings in 48 hours. Sometimes 20 degrees in ten or fifteen minutes. Amazing heavy rain at times, but flooding is rare.

Spring flowers.

I have never seen a cockroach here.

Negatives:

Quality restaurants are few and far between and the service is often indifferent at best.

Daylight lasts only about 7 hours in the winter (at the worst time, gradually gets darker, then gradually lighter). When it is light it is often overcast. You will miss the sun.

windchills can get to -20 or even occasionally -40, but that is actually kind of cool the first day or two.

You should see what we call downhill skiing. (snort giggle).

Mosquitos. hard to overstate how awful they can be.

Ticks. Ticks are not very common, but a certain kind can give you Lymes disease. It is still very rare, but it will ruin your life as you know it if you do not catch it right away. Once it takes hold of you, you have it for life and it is BAD. You just need to be vigilant. I lived in Michigan for 25 years, then California for 18, then back in Michigan for 10. I think I may have been bitten by a tick once as a kid and it was not the bad kind (deer ticks are the problem).

Rust. This is not so bad now, but cars still get some rust on them after ten years or so.

Learning to drive in the snow. (this can be fun, but mostly it is tedious). You get to learn all over again every year it seems.

A lot more people smoke.

If you are stupid, you can die here. People actually go out driving around in -20 degree weather in spike heels and short dresses with no coat and no emergency stuff. Yes, cold can kill you, but only if you are stupid.

Car dealerships are rarely open and they do not give a shirt whether they sell you a car or not.

Wind (in the winter).

November.

Canadian cell towers. If you do not cut off international service, you can get a surprise $600 cell bill.

Neutral things:

Very different social atmosphere this can be good and bad. People here stay put more. Thus, people have been friends and/or neighbors for decades. They are not looking for new friends all the time because their prior friends just left or moved up the social ladder and changed. They are happy with how things are. It can be hard, very hard to break into social circles. Yes, your neighbors will likely give you the shirts off their backs if you are in need, if you go to Home Depot you will not know who works there, becasue everyone is trying to help you. However do not expect anyone to show up at your barbecue unless you have known them for ate least three years.

Detroit. Could write a book about the good/bad sides of Detroit. I find it fascinating and cool. I love exploring Detroit (but you must use common sense). To me Detroit is awesome and eclipses LA or any other So. Cal City I can think of. San Diego is nicer I think, but not as exciting (to me anyway).

Humidity. I like it. Skin is better, sinuses better. However winter is dry dry dry.

Amazing beaches, especially on Lake Michigan. The water is cold though - go in August or July. Some beaches have singing sand. Some have lighthouses. Some are huge sand dunes.

Fishing and hunting. If you are into it, it is a wonderland for you. If not, you may get tired of hearing about it, seeing dead animals, hearing gunfire. First day of deer season is pretty much a holiday. Do not expect anyone to show up for work.

Racial/Cultural segregation. It is bad here but I do not think it was any better in CA. Here the Mexican people mostly live in the "Mexican Village" in Detroit, Blacks seem to concentrate mostly in Detroit outside of Downtown/midtown, Inkster, Southfield, and a few other cities. Indians in Canton, Koreans in West Bloomfiled (I think). Polish/slavic people - Downriver. Middle Eastern - Dearborn and Hamtrammac, Gays - Ferndale. It seems like there is a "Place" for every kind of people and for each social/economic level. Some places are decently mixed, but most are segregated and stratified.

[MI-Roger]

If you want to work in the auto Industry, you should learn both Spanish and Chinese. Like it or not, most of the vehicles being built by the former US Big Three are now being assembled (or planned to be) in Mexico and China. Naturally, a knowledge of Japanese or Korean will help if you land a job at one of the former Asian Import companies, or German for the German Import companies. All of which seem to financially succeed at building vehicles in the US, except for the US companies.

Weird how that has worked out.