Nice Detroit areas? (Warren, Sterling Heights, Farmington Hills: fit in, city hall, crime rates)

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by 313Weather

"Nice" suburbs are in every major city.

With a few exceptions, they're all one in the same.

Once you've experienced suburbs in one locale, you've experienced them all.

Not necessarily. Many suburbs are simply extensions of city neighborhoods both good and bad, while others are/were towns and cities with their own identities that got surrounded and connected to the city by suburban sprawl.

The divide between city and suburb is largely one that exists in the mind of people who live in them rather than on the ground. Look at any city limits area of any major city on Google Earth, and you almost NEVER see some magic division between densely populated, walkable, urban neighborhoods, and suburban subdivisions with houses on half acre lots and four lane divided highways with medians. Its not that simple.

[Retroit]

Not being one to pass up on a 5 year old debate...

I concur with the opinion that the suburbs are more or less homogeneous. I don't think anyone but a local history buff could tell you what suburbs existed independently of the central city and which were built simply as an extension of it.

And while there may be some similarities infrastructurally between residential areas within the city versus residential areas in the suburbs, I don't think anyone familiar with Detroit would have a difficult time discerning when they have crossed the city boundary. Has more to do with how the respective areas are maintained.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Retroit

Not being one to pass up on a 5 year old debate...

I concur with the opinion that the suburbs are more or less homogeneous. I don't think anyone but a local history buff could tell you what suburbs existed independently of the central city and which were built simply as an extension of it.

And while there may be some similarities infrastructurally between residential areas within the city versus residential areas in the suburbs, I don't think anyone familiar with Detroit would have a difficult time discerning when they have crossed the city boundary. Has more to do with how the respective areas are maintained.

What?

Many of the suburbs are completely independant towns with their own charcter and no real realtionship to the City except proximity. Have you visited the surburbs? Half or so of the subrubs were farming towns or built around various industries local to that suburb. Further the suburbs are very very dfferent from each other. That is one of the best things about the Detroit Metro, the variety, distinction and completely different subrubs it offers.

You really should visit the subrubs sometime. They are an amazing collection of communities and towns, not matched anywhere that I know of.

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Many of the suburbs are completely independant towns with their own charcter and no real realtionship to the City except proximity.

But would an outsider know whether or not most suburbs were once independent or were built as an extension of Detroit? Unless there is a substantial collection of preserved historic buildings, I suspect not.

And I have been to many suburbs of metro Detroit and many other American cities, and can honestly say that they are all very similar. Even the McDonalds look the same (sarcasm).

[artriotnow]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

What?

Many of the suburbs are completely independant towns with their own charcter and no real realtionship to the City except proximity. Have you visited the surburbs? Half or so of the subrubs were farming towns or built around various industries local to that suburb. Further the suburbs are very very dfferent from each other. That is one of the best things about the Detroit Metro, the variety, distinction and completely different subrubs it offers.

You really should visit the subrubs sometime. They are an amazing collection of communities and towns, not matched anywhere that I know of.

I have to disagree. There really isn't a whole lot of difference in the burbs around Detroit, except the further you go out the greener and more rural things become. Cities or burbs that close to Detroit like Hamtramck, Dearborn, Oak Park, Ferndale, Redford and Southfield have an aesthetic similar to motown. I lived in Detroit most of my life. As far as the city it self, the best areas are probably around the New Center area, WSU, Downtown and the far northwest side.

[Coldjensens]

Northville, South Lyon, Milford, Plymouth, Trenton, Wyandotte, Birmingham, Rochester, and Probably Farmington for examples are clearly stand alone towns that developed on their own. There is a clear end of these towns and a build up as you enter the town proper.

There are some suburbs where you cannot really tell that you are crossing into a differnet community unless there is a sign (Hamtramack or Redford Township for example).

There are some with Natural divisions that celarly delineate the limits (Grosse Ile for Example).

There are some the are celarly delineated and distinct from Detroit for non-natural reasons. (The Pointes). You certainly cannot mistake the fact that you have left detroit and entered a seperate town when you cross the line into the Grosse Pointes. Parts of dearborn are the same way. Derilect buildings on the Detroit side of the street, healthy businesses in decent buildings onthe other side of the street. When you cross from Ecorse into Wyandotte on Jefferson, you certinaly cannot fail to realize that you have entered a different (nicer) City.

Various suburs are very distinct from each other. Novi and Northville for example are about as dissimilar as you can get. Birmingham and Romulus are certianly not similar. Even Rochester and Rochester hills are completely different from each other. Compare Dearborn and Lyon Township. They care two completely differnet syles of living. Plymouth and Grosse Ile - no simlarity, or Plymouth and Canton for that matter. Chelsea and Melvindale are not even comparable. However Chelsea is also dissimlar to Brimingham (both nice places). Ypsilanti and Dexter. How about Flat Rock and Warren?
Far apart or next door to each other, there is a great variety of extremely distinct and unique suburbs in the Detroit Metro area. It is really only a few places close in that you get the connected indistinguishable sprawl typical of most other large cities.
I do not see how you could get any more variety between suburbs. I am not aware of any type of suburb that is not represented in Michigan except maybe high rise lo income clusters like some of the New York burbs.

If you were out at my fathers 3 acres in Lyon township with a pond int he front yard and woods all around, you would not ever wonder whether you had left Detroit. Nor woudl you wonder when you were in Downtown Northville, or out in Newport, or in the forests in the northern burbs.

If oyou want ot live on a farm with 40 acres in a Detroit Suburb, you can. If ou want to live in a small town, you can. If you want to live on a lake surrounded by nice homes, you can. If you want to live in a dumpy place, you can. Subruban sprawl, McMansions, real mansions, towns, cities, woods, rivers, crowded, empty, historic, modern, active, quiet, - everything except high rise living is available.

[PosterExtraordinaire]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

If oyou want ot live on a farm with 40 acres in a Detroit Suburb, you can. If ou want to live in a small town, you can. If you want to live on a lake surrounded by nice homes, you can. If you want to live in a dumpy place, you can. Subruban sprawl, McMansions, real mansions, towns, cities, woods, rivers, crowded, empty, historic, modern, active, quiet, - everything except high rise living is available.

That's true, you'll be hard to get the suburbs like that (with a lot of space to have farmland or woods) out in LA/OC (though you'll get suburbs built into canyons and hills and the desert) but all you described is fairly common for the suburbs of NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, DC. You did a good job describing how the detroit suburbs differed from each other now can you say how they're so different from other suburbs You know to make them stand out as one of the "best."

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by PosterExtraordinaire

That's true, you'll be hard to get the suburbs like that (with a lot of space to have farmland or woods) out in LA/OC (though you'll get suburbs built into canyons and hills and the desert) but all you described is fairly common for the suburbs of NYC, Boston, Philadelphia, DC. You did a good job describing how the detroit suburbs differed from each other now can you say how they're so different from other suburbs You know to make them stand out as one of the "best."

Yeah,

But I think all Coldjensens was trying to say, is that Metro Detroit/SE Michigan does offer something for everyone. Other place do to.

The point is, is that despite the fact that large swaths of the city proper is an urban wasteland the city AND the suburbs offers whatever type of community one is looking for.

From the more white collared, amenity-filled suburbs of Oakland County to some of the more working class ethnic enclaves of Dearborn or wherever. to the beautiful enclaves of historic mansions and tudor homes of far NW Detroit, to the more truly urban living of Downtown and Midtown, Metro Detroit while still having a lot of issues to work out, is a full service metro area with something for everyone.

[Coldjensens]

Some other places offer the same things, some do not. In many places the surburbs offer nothing but endless suburban sprawl. I still believe that Detroit offers one of the best collections of suburbs anywhere. The best? No. I do nto think there is a "best" Certainly amngst the best. Especially when you factor in Safety, schools, recreational opportunities, history, variety, poolution, traffic, etc. Taking all things into account, we are amongst the best Metros that I have ever visited (but then there are still six states I have not been to).

[Retroit]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

Some other places offer the same things, some do not. In many places the surburbs offer nothing but endless suburban sprawl. I still believe that Detroit offers one of the best collections of suburbs anywhere. The best? No. I do nto think there is a "best" Certainly amngst the best. Especially when you factor in Safety, schools, recreational opportunities, history, variety, poolution, traffic, etc. Taking all things into account, we are amongst the best Metros that I have ever visited (but then there are still six states I have not been to).

To be fair, I will have to agree with you on this to some extent. The fact that Detroit is an older city (compared to many in the south and west), we do have suburbs with a more "lived-in", established feel than some of the newer cities with overwhelmingly extensive cookie-cutter McMansion sprawlvilles. But if you were to compare suburbs from two different cities that were built around the same time, I don't think you would find much difference.