Quote:
Originally Posted by ckhthankgod
All 3 are lesser known Island municipalities within top 50 metros. All 3 are at least relatively upper middle class.
How would you rank them based upon: location, proximity to things to do, built environment/planning, cost of living, recreational options, to raise a family, as a single person and real/perceived "vibe"?
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I can only answer as to Grosse Ile.
Location: Not real sure what is meant here. Weather? Not great, but the natural beauty is unparalelled, and Spring and fall are stunning. Winter is long and dark, but there are many extraordinary beautiful winter days. Lots of unusual weather events (freezing fog, 80 degree temperature swings in a day, thunder snow, ice storms, occaisional winter wonderland mornings beautiful fall colors, awesome powerful thunderstorms, gentle (or raging) sun showers, etc), but natural disater weather is basically never.
Grosse Ile is about 1/3 mile from the Michigan shore and about 2 miles from the Canadian shore. It is in the Detroit river, an international shipping channel. It has been occupied by Americans since 1776 and has some interesitng history. It is roughly 27 miles from downtown Detroit and about 40 miles from Toledo Ohio. 5 hours from Chicago. 4.5 hours from Cincinatti. Maybe 4 hours from the upper peninsula. 97 paddle strokes from Canada's border. 5 hours from Niagra falls, 14 hours from Boston. DTW is 40 minutes away (you can make it in 30 if you want to risk tickets). I guess it is a decent location.
Proximity to things to do. Immdiate proximity - for man things- poor. For nature things (canoing, fishing, water skiing, ice skating, snowmobiling, hiking in the woods, biking, running, etc) - execellent. There is reasonably decent shopping within 15 miles and Wyandotte which has a really fun little downtown is just across the toll bridge. Access is by a toll bridge or the coutny free bridge, or boat or plane, helicopter or blimp.
Distant proximity for man made things to do - surprisingly good. Detroit is 24 or 27 miles away (about 40 minutes), or 14 miles by boat. Detroit has the largest theater district in the US outside of Broadway New York; four highly regarded professional sports teams and another one on the way, one of the best art museums in the world, a high quality professional orchestra, fine dining and a plucky fun and historic downtwon and midtown that keep getting better every month. The Henry Ford and Greenfield villiage, well it takes a while to decribe it fairly, but just say a really cool place in nerby Dearborn. Detroit has Mexican town and Dearborn has a huge middle eastern area (largest in the USA). Then you have the whole Northern Micghian thing, also Michgian's west coast with some of the most beautiful beaches you have ever seen and lots of cute/quaint towns all over the place.
Recreational options - from/on grosse Ile, crew (rowing - boathouse is being developed), Sailing, motorboating, canoing kayaking, fishing (walleye especially), duck and goose hunting, bird watching (cool big birds like bald eagles, turkey vultures, hawks, great blue herons, snowy egrets, swans, as well as a plethora of colorful small birds), horse riding, bicycling, hiking through the woods, walking, running, ice skaing, snowmobiling (on the edges of the river), sledding. There is an indoor tennis center, an equestrian center, a dance school, three golf clubs, three yacht clubs, a hocky rink, outdoor pool, kayak launch, sledding hill, and a small airport (once a navy seaplane base). Crystal Bay (in canadian waters, so less easy to visit than it once was) is a beautiful cove that is a floating party for much of the summer. Almost everyone has a boat or access to a boat of some kind - anything from an 8 foot Kayak or sunfish, to a 110 foot motoryacht or sailboat.
To raise a family - I do not think there is a better place to raise a family. Very community oriented, virtually no crime, 680 acrea of designated greenspace (mostly woods with trails), plus a conservancy area, plus a considerable amount of undeveloped property (woods), loads of deer, bunnies, large birds, some foxes, raccoons, mink, muskrats, reportedly even a beaver. Schools are exemplary and produce a ridiculous number of amazing young people, state champions, etc. Opportunities to learn fun skills like sailing, rowing, horse riding, tennis, flying, boarting, fishing, swimming. Most people grow up here, leave for somewher more exciting, look for a place that can offer their kids what they had and eventually give up looking for an equal place and return to raise their kids here.
The township is a group of 14 islands. 10 miles long and 2 miles wide at the widest point. There are about 10,000 residents. It is mostly white people, a few mixed (B/W) families and a small but noticable number of hispanic, indian, middle eastern, and oriental families or mixed families It is basically upper middle class, loads of business owners, and automotive execs, lawyers, doctors, engineers, quite a lot of BASF employees (mostly chemical engineers and management people). There are aslo a lot of reitred people ranging from extremely weathy (as in owners of major corporations) to people barely able to survive because they retired ain 1970 and surprised themselves byy being still alive. There is a small number of affordable townhomes and a few SFRs with middle middle class factory workers, government employees, etc. Everyone mixes. For the most part, no one cares what you income, or background is - are you nice, do you work hard for your community? Those matter.
The people are mostly very down to earth, wealthy or not. The township is very community oriented, with an amazing outpouring of community service and charity. Tons of volunteerrism. millionaires sitting in the bakery chatting with a retiree living on social security since the 1970s. the five churches coordinate activities including a neat boars head festival every four years and annual joint thnaksgiving service among other things.
Houses range from early 1800s (one from the 1700s) to modern subdivisions (inland), even some mcmansions (yuck); from fairly affordable condos to a $30 million mansion. SFRs start around $200,000 inland, $350,000 on the canals (a few may be less), riverfront homes are zoned one house per acre most locations, and run from around $450,000. Most are in the $500,000 - $600,000 range with a few in the millions or tens of millions.
The township government is very service oriented. The police and fire/rescue services are widley recognized and copied. The township owns all kinds of unusual recretional locations either from tax forclosure, development, or federal or coutny goverment transfers(small airport, large farm/community center, marina, golf club and pool, sledding hills hockey rink, kayak launch beach, soccer park, 21 miles of bike trails. Lots of parades, festivals, sunday concerts on the commons in the summer, etc. A lot of charity runs or bike rides use GI as a locale or starting point. Various streets are closed on and off for events.
The "downtown" is basically a single street with a few modern businesses, and a smattering of small crafty/art places in old houses. There are the basic amenties, a Kroger with starbucks inside, hardware store, bakery/ice cream shop, bank, a B & B, even a bicycle museum. Lots of businesses come and go from year to year, many are hobbies for retired people. There are a handful of decent eateries and taverns, nothing fancy and only a couple of places likely to ever draw people from other communities. Other places are scattered about, an alpaca farm, and Azeala farm and nursury (and wedding garden place), the airport bar ("If you fight in here, you will be asked to leave" - I guess pilots are rowdy). Betwween the three yacht clubs and two (private) country clubs, much of the dining and socializing goes on outside the normal commercial restruant/bar atmosphere.
As a single person - pretty terrible. No nightlife. Little shopping. The island is oriented to families and retirees. Singles and Dinks are honestly better off elsewhere with a few unusual exceptions.
We have forests, and a beautiful view of the river between us and Canada (about 2 miles wide), sometimes giant freighters passing by, loads fo boats of all kinds, and when it is clear, a pretty view of the ambassador bridge and Downtwon Detroit, just barely visible on the horizon. No mountains or ocean, but still amazing sunrises and sunsets both. The air is reasonbly clean, the water is reasonably clean (we swim in it, drink it, eat fish from it), in lpaces it is crystal clear, despite the brisk current.
The atmosphere is best described as summer camp like. Bonfires in every third yard (or fireplace in the winter), people always out on the roads walking, jogging, biking, leaning over a bridge fishing, whatever, Big beautiful trees crown most roads, speed limits are low, streets are mostly narrow, people wave or pull over to chat.
It certainly is not perfect. As somoen pointed out, the plethora of inland subdivisions make it somehwat suburbia - ish. There is no reason really to visit unless you know someone here. It is a place to live, not a place to tour, but it excells as a place to live - at least for families and retirees, and nature lovers.
Did I mention, Canadians are awesome?
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