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If I could live in Royal Oak or Gross Pointe then I'll go with Detroit. Though if it was an ultimatum to live within city limits then I guess Indy. Indeed living in Michigan sounds more appealing than Indiana. If given the option to visit either city then I'd definitely choose Detroit as it just seems to have more soul. I root for Detroit and hope that someday it gets its act together and has a rebirth and taps into its unlimited potential. Maybe they need an army of gay people to gentrify the place.
I voted for Detroit, but I agree about some of the Detroit suburbs. It's one of a few cities where I would likely choose a suburb over one of the in-town neighborhoods. Royal Oak was my favorite, but Ferndale is nice as well. Both are urban enough for my taste and offer a good quality of life.
BTW, I never felt unsafe in Downtown Detroit either. I also never had any problems hanging out in Corktown or working in Midtown. I agree. It would be great to see Detroit bounce back.
No offense meant, but I was not overly taken by Detroit's suburbs based on the videos you posted.
The only two appealing ones were Dearborn and Birmingham. The other ones look like some po-dunk country towns you find scattered across the midwest. They seemed alive and thriving, but very small and country like...not what you'd expect in a 4 million metro area suburb, didn't seem like that wealthy of a suburb either.
The last two looked nice, but I still don't think they compare with Carmel. Just my opinion.
Most such videos seem to be inadequate imo. They always seem to skip over some good stuff. For instance nothing mentioned about the Detroit Zoo or Greenfield Village and the Henry Ford Museum, pleasant places like the Edward Hines Drive, etc. They seem to focus on how "laid back" and safe these towns are - maybe echoing the desires of the residents and the videomakers. Don't know...
Yea, there's a lot going on in Detroit's suburbs that the videos sadly didn't cover. Then again anything else I found was pretty much a 10-minute long boring drawn out infomercial.
Though the point I was trying to make was that Detroit suburbs are more characteristic than the typical sprawl suburbs which might be the main draw for people without kids. I feel like the "walkable downtowns" and such would be something much of Metro Indy lacks.
I feel as people on this thread are comparing Detroit and Indianapolis by Downtown only, not the entire city. Downtowns are only make up 1-2% of cities, the other 98% of the city is neighborhoods. Indianapolis has infinitely better outer neighborhoods, while Detroit's are mostly abandoned.
I feel as people on this thread are comparing Detroit and Indianapolis by Downtown only, not the entire city. Downtowns are only make up 1-2% of cities, the other 98% of the city is neighborhoods. Indianapolis has infinitely better outer neighborhoods, while Detroit's are mostly abandoned.
Excellent point. I would compare it this way.
1. Downtowns: Detroit > Indianapolis (however, Indianapolis is catching up and is not far behind)
2. City proper, including inner city neighborhoods: Detroit < Indianapolis
3. Suburbs: Indianapolis > Detroit (Just my opinion, I think Carmel and Fishers are great towns)
^^ That's pretty neat, and something most people don't know about with the heavily cliched images people get from the media. It's reminiscent of Europe.
^^ That's pretty neat, and something most people don't know about with the heavily cliched images people get from the media. It's reminiscent of Europe.
Exactly, it's not quite in downtown Indy, and it's not a real river, just a canal, so it doesn't get the same attention as the rest of the city does, which is low enough as is.
Kind of makes me think of a more modern Venice with the buildings so close to the water, of course it's just one canal, and not an entire city worth.
1. Downtowns: Detroit > Indianapolis (however, Indianapolis is catching up and is not far behind)
2. City proper, including inner city neighborhoods: Detroit < Indianapolis
3. Suburbs: Indianapolis > Detroit (Just my opinion, I think Carmel and Fishers are great towns)
Indianapolis along the canal ^ Not quite in downtown, but not far off either.
Is that Canal at high water? it seems awfully close to the sidewalk.
Is that Canal at high water? it seems awfully close to the sidewalk.
That's what I was thinking. I would not want to live on the first floor if that's the normal water level. It looks really cool...what's it look like when you're getting inch/hr rain?
That's what I was thinking. I would not want to live on the first floor if that's the normal water level. It looks really cool...what's it look like when you're getting inch/hr rain?
I don't live in Indianapolis, so I can't say for sure. But I'm pretty sure an area as highly as populated as that has some means of draining excess water should there be a lot of rain.
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