Best & Worse Cities in the Metro Detroit area (Warren: best towns, sales)
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I typed this up for a lady on Yahoo! Answers. My responses were too long since I included a lot of information about each city so I just sent her a list. But since I typed it up and there seems to be people relocating to the area I figured they could just look at my post and get information from this. Enjoy :-)
My whole family is from the area. Grandparents are from Virgina but moved here. Family here lives from Traverse City, to Rochester Hills, to Warren, to St. Clair Shores, to Port Huron, to Muskegon, to Grosse Pointe Farms, to Dearborn, to Bloomfield Township.
I am including the Detroit area and it's suburbs here. Nothing like Flint (god knows who would want to live there anyways.)
Worst places to live:
Detroit (Unless you live in Boston-Eddison Historic District, Palmer Woods with the ghetto members of city council, Indian Village, with their private security patrol to protect you.)
Dearborn is a nice area with The Henry Ford museum and Greenfield village but is full of arabs, not a big problem but for some people it maybe. If you move to Dearborn move to the other side that doesn't border Detroit to avoid crime.
South Warren : along 8 mile or bordering 8 mile is bad for crime. 'The ghetto is creeping up' is what residents say and it is true.
Hazel Park : north of 9 mile is alright but south is bad because it borders Detroit. Hazel Park is mainly a blue color community that is small and close-knit and has a reputation for southern people or rednecks living in it.
Ferndale : Downtown Ferndale along 9 mile is nice but bordering Oak Park or Hazel Park it gets ghetto and scary looking.
Oakpark : Depends on where you are it can be bad or good.
Royal Oak Township (Not Royal Oak the city) : Very small and impoverished. Bordered by Oakpark, Ferndale, Detroit, Southfield, and Pleasant Ridge.
Eastpointe (East Detroit, changed the name to try and be like beautiful Grosse Pointe but will never be) : Close to Detroit, housing values are dropping, well known fights at the high school, also well known for drug houses along Gratiot.
South Roseville : Again close to Detroit and known for small crime, north Roseville is fine.
Mt. Clemons : Starting to go downhill and a lot of crime and drug busts have been happening.
Pontiac (Ponticrack) : Take Detroit, take away the casinos, take away the big businesses, take away the beautiful downtown, make all the parks scary and into drug dealing havens, take away a police department, and you got Pontiac. The city is a mini Detroit (Residents wise, housing wise, property value wise, and crime wise).
Good Places to live:
Warren : Northern Warren and Central Warren is good. Great community services, good senior services, redone city hall, lots of community events, everything for business wise (grocery store, restaurant, bar, fast food, ect. is in the city.) Easy access to i696
St. Clair Shores : The Nautical Mile of shops, restaurants, bars, ect. Beautiful parks and lake access. Marinas, Yacht Club, some neighborhoods are on canals for people with a boat to easily get on the lake. Easy access to i94 and i696
Grosse Pointe (The Park, The City, The Farms, The Shores, and The Woods) : Beautiful upscale communities along Lake St. Clair, known for their old housing, east coast like atmosphere, private residents only parks, The Village of Grosse Pointe, The Hill on Kercheval, excellent schools, and unsurpassed city services (Snow removal, recycling, trash pickup, leaf pickup in the fall, ect.) Easy access to Downtown Detroit and i94
Sterling Heights : Part of Warren Consolidated Schools and the award winning Utica Community Schools, like Warren has everything you can imagine with in a close drive. Home of Lakeside Mall (kind of empty though since building The Mall at Partridge Creek down the road). Easy access to M59 (Hall Road, can be a bad thing though during rush hour). Sterling Fest is a week long city event festival held every year.
Shelby Township : Utica Community Schools district, a lot like Warren and Sterling Heights with older housing as well as new Upper Middle Class McMansion style housing as well as upscale Condo development. Good city services and police and fire response. Downtown is mainly centered along VanDyke Ave. and Hall Rd.
Utica : Small city surrounded by Shelby Township. Part of the Utica Community Schools district. Small redone downtown area, Historic Cass Ave. housing, not a lot in the city and it is very small, but well known for its downtown. Easy access to M59
Royal Oak : Royal Oak is a fairly older developed (50s, 60s) city. The Downtown is always busy with clubs, bars, restaurants, shops, people walking in the spring and summer, no matter what time or weekday. Very safe and well developed community with a lot of parks. Upscale Lofts available in Downtown. Trendy among the 20 - 30 something age group. Easy access to i696 & i75
Pleasant Ridge - Pleasant Ridge is known for its historic homes, tree-lined streets and active citizens who dedicate their time for the betterment of the community. Located along Woodward Ave. and bordered by Northern Ferndale Pleasant Ridge is a very LGBT friendly community along with Ferndale and Royal Oak. Easy access to i696
Huntington Woods - The city of homes. Two Historic Districts and part of the Detroit Zoo is located in Huntington Woods along with the other half in Royal Oak. School districts include Berkley School District, Ferndale School District, and Oak Park School District. The Detroit Rackham Golf Course is located in the city. Easy access to i696 and i75
Berkley - Bordered by Lathrup Village, Huntington Woods, Beverly Hills, and Royal Oak. A lot of churches in the community for every imaginable religion. Serviced by the Berkley School District and Royal Oak School District. Downtown section feels like that 'classic downtown city in movies' and gives off that feel too.
Farmington Hills - Bordered by Farmington, Novi, West Bloomfield, Redford Township, and Southfield. Constantly ranks as one of the safest cities in America and in Michigan. Served by Farmington Public Schools. Close to Twelve Oaks shopping center, a recently renovated downtown, boutiques, a vintage cinema, numerous restaurants, exotic car dealerships, art galleries, and public parks including Heritage Park. Easy access to i696
Beverly Hills - A village in Southfield Township. Bordered by Royal Oak, Bingham Farms, Birmingham, and Lathrup Village. Small community known for the private Detroit County Prep School, Beverly Park, and distinct housing, very clean tree lined Boulevard like streets. Easy access to i696
Birmingham - Nice well kept downtown. Not as nice as Royal Oaks but includes a lot of upscale lofts and apartments, expensive older homes,Birmingham City School District, installing new Radio Read water meters for residents, young uppity kind of people like the city.
Bloomfield Hills / Bloomfield Township - Eastside of Bloomfield Hills you will find average Ranch style homes and everyday looking houses. Westside you will find very large homes, McMansions, and Mansions. Bloomfield Hills consistently ranks as one of the top five wealthiest cities in the United States, and has the highest income of any city outside of California, Florida or Virginia. Cranbrook Schools and Art Center and Science center are located here as well as the famous Kirk in The Hills church. Bloomfield Hills School District operates the area and runs the International Academy school system also. Several private schools are located also in Bloomfield Hills and Bloomfield Township. Lots of homes are hidden from view by trees, large yards, gated entry, and private neighborhoods. Bloomfield Township offers more city services for residents such as parks, ect. Easy access to M59
West Bloomfield Township - Known for it's large homes and rolling hills, lakes, and private clubs and neighborhoods. The school districts that serve the town include the West Bloomfield School District, Farmington Hills School District, and Walled Lake School District. Cass Lake, the largest lake in the county, is in part of West Bloomfield, and Pine Lake, which has a private country club on its shore, is only a few miles away from Cass and lies completely within West Bloomfield. In addition, directly west of Pine Lake is Orchard Lake, which also has a private country club on its shore. Orchard Lake is surrounded by the city of Orchard Lake Village. Several smaller lakes are scattered around these larger ones. West Bloomfield has a large Jewish population. Small downtown area, very clean parks, responsive police, boating is a big activity, private walking trials line the city, and it is close to Novi's Twelve Oaks mall.
Rochester Hills - Historic, Distinctive, Progressive. Fairly new city formed in 1984 when voters changed the name from Avon Township to Rochester Hills with the city bordering nearby Rochester. Famous Yates Cider Mill is in Rochester Hills. Includes Oakland University, Meadowbrook Hall and Mansion (It was built between 1926 and 1929 by Matilda Dodge Wilson (the widow of auto pioneer John Francis Dodge) and her second husband, lumber broker Alfred G. Wilson.) Bordered by Oakland Township, Auburn Hills, Troy, Rochester, and Shelby Township. A lot of everything you ever need is in the city including hospitals, doctors, fast food, restaurants, bars, The Village of Rochester Hills (outdoor mall), ect. Avondale Community Schools and Rochester Community Schools service the area as well as Oakland Community College and Rochester College. Easy access to i75 and M59.
Rochester - Surrounded by Rochester Hills and bordered by Shelby Township. Busy small downtown with shops, bars, restaurants, ect. Very walkable city. Cloe to Yates Cider Mill, has several festivals downtown as well as 'The Festival of Lights' where all the buildings in downtown are covered in Christmas lights.
I didn't include cities that are more north or west because I am assuming you are looking for well developed suburbs or cities close to Detroit if you need or want to go downtown and have freeway access. All these cities I have visited, been to, driven through, or done things in. Since neither is more than 30 miles from my house. Do research on the cities websites and read about them, look at the school districts websites, contact the cities and see if they have a 'Residents Welcome Packet' to tell you about the city, view their park information on their websites, and do not forget to research community services.
(The people of the nicer downriver communities jumping around and waving their arms wildly for attention).
Dearborn is not full of "arabs" Get your prejudice straight. Some parts of Dearborn are populated by middle eatern people, only a portion of whom are arabs. I would not say the city is "Full" of middle eastern people, but there are a lot of them there. The Henry Ford is just the start of what Dearborn has to offer. There are two colleges, an orchastra, one of the few remaining community theater groups (and a very good one at that), a nice golf course, some decent parks, loads of awesome middle eastern resturuants and at least one fabulous bakery (no, not "arab" resturuants, middle eastern), the Henry ford Estate, fairlane mall, oh and the home of that little company that makes cars with a blue oval on the front.
Where is Rochester Hills historic? I have seen nothing but endless McMansion clusters and strip malls. It is a pretty area nothwithstanding the McMansion blight, but historic? Where? What historic properties have not been ploughed under for subdivisions and strip malls. I am missing something. PLease let me know where the historic area is. I do not douby you, I just have never seen it or heard mention of a historic distric in RH. I want to go see it.
Rochester is historic and a very quaint old fasioned downtown.
Got me on another one. Farmington Hills has a downtown? Where is it? I do not think I have ever seen it. Maybe I went there and failed to realize that it was a downtown, or that it was farmington hills.
Farminton has a downtown. Is that what you meant? You did nto mention Farmington, only Hills. They are two seperate Cities.
Funny distinction. West Bloomfield has "a large Jewish population" but Dearborn is "full of arabs" Why doesn't Dearborn have a "large middle eastern population" or West bloomfield "full of Jews"?
You forgot to mention the really cool magic store in downtown sterling heights. In fact forgot to mention that Sterling Heights has a downtown.
Umm- what about the nicest towns in Detroit Metro? Where did they go? (Grosse Ile, Northville, Plymouth). What happened to Walled Lake, Milford, Brighton, South Lyon, Canton, Salem, Dixborough, Novi, Livonia . . . ). Most of those places would top a list of nicer towns in Detroit Metro above many of the towns listed.
Troy? Where did Troy go?
As for Detroit, you are missing a great deal. Downtown and Midtown are now really cool places for hip young creative types to live. Corktown is up and coming. Eastern Market area is also getting popular. Additional nice residential areas in Detroit include: Universtiy, Woodbridge, North Rosedale Park, the marina whatever it is called. Probably some others.
It is neat what you are trying to do, but maybe better not to exclude all areas not known to you as bad places. Also some of the slanted representations or compelte misreprentations are going to annoy a lot of people and not be helpful to a potential newcomer. Please do not say there are only two or three nice areas of Detroit when you really have no idea. Maybe do some research or at least visit some of the areas before you tell potentially thousands of people incorrect or incomplete information. At a minimum let them know that your knowlege of many of the areas is very limited and this is as much as you know and there may be other areas or other information about an area that you really do not know anything about.
If you are intersted, it is really fun to visit different areas and learn about each place extensively. Spend a couple of weekends in any given city. Find random pleople who live there and ask them what it is like and what neat things are there. Talk with shop owners and resturuant owners, They often have the real lowdown on a community and will gladly tell you all about it combined with amusing local gossip. Once you learn about the cool stuff, go see it. Take everyones comments with a grain of salt. There are alwys lots of negative nellies, people who are unhappy with their lives and want to blame their city, county, state or nation for their unhappiness. You may also encounter postivie patties - people who see everything and everywhere are wonderful. "See that nice man cleaning my car for me? He had to break the window to get in, I guess he really wanted to help me with my messy car. " You have to balance everything, but eventually you learn how to discern jaded opinions vs. real information.
Your list is an intersting perspective and gave me some information that I did not know (for example I know absolutely nothing about Warren even though it is one of the largest cities in Michigan. I thought it was a bad place. Now I will go check it out.) I love the description of the Pointes as being East Coast like. That is a good observation. I think I will steal that.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 03-08-2012 at 09:27 AM..
Why yes CJ, Farmington indeed has a "downton" near the intersection of Farmington and Grand River..I believe the Governor's Mansion is just west of Farmington Road?
Also for those of the Downriver persuasion, how can we leave out metropolises like Taylor, Romulus, Inkster, Dearborn Heights, etc...
Why yes CJ, Farmington indeed has a "downton" near the intersection of Farmington and Grand River..I believe the Governor's Mansion is just west of Farmington Road?
Also for those of the Downriver persuasion, how can we leave out metropolises like Taylor, Romulus, Inkster, Dearborn Heights, etc...
Reading comprehension classes are available at your local community center.
Try reading this again, I added some boldface to help you out. Then read your post. Does your post make sense to you as a response to what I wrote? If so, sign up for those classes pronto:
"Got me on another one. Farmington Hills has a downtown? Where is it? I do not think I have ever seen it. Maybe I went there and failed to realize that it was a downtown, or that it was farmington hills. "
"Farminton has a downtown. Is that what you meant? You did nto mention Farmington, only Hills. They are two seperate Cities."
Ah Ha! A negative nellie! You choose to look at bad or mediocrhre Downriver Communities and comepltely ignore the nice ones perhaps you shuld try another re-reading test. I will help you out:
"(The people of the nicer downriver communities jumping around and waving their arms wildly for attention)."
Do you think the places you listed are the "nicer" downriver commuinities? Or do you simply not know about Grosse Ile (possibly the nicest family community in the metro area), Trenton, Wyandotte, Woodhaven, Southgate, Riverview, Flat Rock.
Inkster and Dearborn Heights are not part of downriver. Rememebr what i wrote about actually knowing something about a place before trying to write about it?
The 18 downriver communities are:
Allen Park (Partly decent, part bad. Ok Downtwon but lots of closed stores. A neat $1.50 second run movie theater. Some great music stores. Sears.) Brownstown Township (Not sure really where it is, it is kind of all over the place. It is like they took all the leftover areas and stuck them into one township.) Ecorse (Mostly bad. Has some neat fuatures, but it is a bit rough.) Flat Rock (pretty nice. Small town. Schools not bad. Nice community center. A few neat businesses) Gibraltar (decent but questionable schools. No real downtwon. Lots of water access. Erie Metropark (neat wave pool there)) Grosse Ile (awesome for families and outdoorsy types, boring for urban types. More expensive than other communities. Execellent + schools. Small town atmosphere.) Huron Charter Township (Rural, but very nice. Pretty good schools a big graveyard. Willow Metropark) Lincoln Park (Mostly not so nice. some parts OK. Schools not great) Melvindale (Awful) River Rouge (Awful) Riverview (reasonably nice, somewhat bland. Decent schools) Rockwood (Small town/ruralish. Schools are not bad.) Romulus (An airport and some stripper clubs. Some nice rural areas on the outskirts.) Southgate (Decent suburbia. Lots of shopping) Taylor (Very very blue collar. A really nice sportsplex. A really neat historic park. Masco H.Q.) Trenton (nice small town with a great county park and good schools. Cute downtown, but not much in it. Hockey, Hockey, Hockey) Woodhaven (basic clean suburbia. contains the primary shopping area for the lower downriver communities near the river (west and Allen road) Wyandotte (really neat little city. A bit of life downtown. Nice shopping downtown, especially for girls/women. Nice homes especially on the riverfront. A huge hospital and chemical mfg company. Pretty bad schools. The area bordering Ecorse is not so nice, except on Jefferson/Biddle. Probably the best place downriver for 20-30 y.o. with no kids.).
I added a basic decription of each city so you and others can learn something about Downriver. Nest time you want to write about downriver, you will have at least a little knowlege of the area. Lots of people like to comment on Downriver, few of them know much about it. It is not the same as 20 years ago.
Last edited by Coldjensens; 03-08-2012 at 10:16 AM..
There's definitely a "northern bias" growing for metro Detroit. Having never ever been down there, I drove down to Grosse Ile along Jefferson a few weeks ago and I really thought I was in another major city altogether. It seemed awfully pretty along the waterfront and more relaxed than the northern suburbs.
Dunno why it is that Downriver has gotten such neglect. Probably because there's really nothing as flashy or as hectic as OC but I really like it that way and would hope that Downriver stays quiet and relaxed.
There's definitely a "northern bias" growing for metro Detroit. Having never ever been down there, I drove down to Grosse Ile along Jefferson a few weeks ago and I really thought I was in another major city altogether. It seemed awfully pretty along the waterfront and more relaxed than the northern suburbs.
Dunno why it is that Downriver has gotten such neglect. Probably because there's really nothing as flashy or as hectic as OC but I really like it that way and would hope that Downriver stays quiet and relaxed.
Did you come accross the bridge, or just peer at us from Trenton?
THe GI waterfront facing Canca is really pretty. On the michigan side (where us low dollar folks live) there are a lot of factories etc. Still it is pretty. Elizabeth Park in trenton makes a nice view for those who live across from it.
Downriver used to be very industrial. Very blue collar (except Grosse Ile) and very polluted. Now there are far fewer industries and a lot more nice homes. The factories still in operation are not big polluters. The most smokey and noisey place is the edison plant and that is not really bad (exhaust is mostly water vapor). However like many other places, people still follow rumors and water cooler talk and assume that it is still as it was in the 1960s-1980s rather than finding out.
I was amazed when I discvovered Grosse Ile about six years ago. I had no idea that there was anything like that in Michigan. I thought downriver was allen park and lincoln park multiplied. I knew a bit of taylor from its taylortucky days and I knew about romulus. That is about it
Did you come accross the bridge, or just peer at us from Trenton?
THe GI waterfront facing Canca is really pretty. On the michigan side (where us low dollar folks live) there are a lot of factories etc. Still it is pretty. Elizabeth Park in trenton makes a nice view for those who live across from it.
Downriver used to be very industrial. Very blue collar (except Grosse Ile) and very polluted. Now there are far fewer industries and a lot more nice homes. The factories still in operation are not big polluters. The most smokey and noisey place is the edison plant and that is not really bad (exhaust is mostly water vapor). However like many other places, people still follow rumors and water cooler talk and assume that it is still as it was in the 1960s-1980s rather than finding out.
I was amazed when I discvovered Grosse Ile about six years ago. I had no idea that there was anything like that in Michigan. I thought downriver was allen park and lincoln park multiplied. I knew a bit of taylor from its taylortucky days and I knew about romulus. That is about it
Yea, I went across the non-toll bridge. And geezus was that thing narrow.
I actually like the factories and the power plant because they actually look like factories. All the auto-plants and industrial areas in Macomb county look like a bunch of modern boxes that don't seem the least bit interesting from the outside. I like me some grittiness.
I drove all the way to the yatch club on the southern tip and really wanted to pull over and watch the sunset (though the sun was just below the horizon at this point). And then the view of downtown Detroit is super awesome going up 75 over the Rouge River.
The only other places I've been Downriver are the airport and the Gibraltar Trade Center. But I do like how the area isn't over saturated with sprawl like the northern part of town.
Yea, I went across the non-toll bridge. And geezus was that thing narrow.
I actually like the factories and the power plant because they actually look like factories. All the auto-plants and industrial areas in Macomb county look like a bunch of modern boxes that don't seem the least bit interesting from the outside. I like me some grittiness.
I drove all the way to the yatch club on the southern tip and really wanted to pull over and watch the sunset (though the sun was just below the horizon at this point). And then the view of downtown Detroit is super awesome going up 75 over the Rouge River.
The only other places I've been Downriver are the airport and the Gibraltar Trade Center. But I do like how the area isn't over saturated with sprawl like the northern part of town.
Yes one thing about Downriver is it is somewhat big, which is expected since it's near such a large city, but it is nothing to serious. But the Northern suburbs are ridiculously huge. Going up I-75 from downtown Detroit or down 696 it just seems like an endless suburbia. And the thing about that is it's growing even FUTHER. I seen some new places north of auburn hills that look like it's going to be the next Bloomfield Hills.
Quote:
Your good places to live are pretty much the worst places I've ever seen in my entire life. From your standards, any city that is %80 white or more is a good city. Seriously! Novi!
Yea I got the same impression too. My favorite part: "It's probably bad because it borders Detroit" lol.
The only other places I've been Downriver are the airport and the Gibraltar Trade Center. But I do like how the area isn't over saturated with sprawl like the northern part of town.
No wonder you did not have a good opinion of downriver. The Gibraltar trade center is a pit. You could take a lot of those "People of Wallmart" type pictures going there. One time we went there they had a pet sales booth. Two of the pets were dead. When we told them about it, they tried to argue with us. It was like a monty python skit. "Not it isn't, just prop it up a bit"
Another booth was selling 15 year old computers that they had cobbled together by scavanging people's trash. They wanted $100 for a 386 with windows 3. It was amusing. Not a good representation of downriver.
Although it is not universally true is is generally true that areas that touch Detroit aresnot very nice. There are some exceptions (Grosse Pointes are nice, Redford Township is pretty decent - except for the school problem). In fact the parts of nicer cities (like Dearborn) that touch Detroit are often the bad parts of that town. In general, the nearer a city is to Detroit the worse it seems to be. The downriver cities that touch Detroit (Melvindale, River Rouge) are awful. As you move away from Detroit (Ecorse, Lincoln Park) it gets a little better, but still not nice. When you get a couple of cities away (Allen Park Wyandotte) it improves quite a lot. At the next ring of cities (Southgate, Riverview, Trenton, Woodhaven) There really does not seem to be any influence. It is not because of racial make up, but because of the decades of poverty and government corruption and the results seem to ooze out of the city.
I do not care what skin color the residents of a town have. What makes a nice town is that it is clean, safe, well maintained, little grafitti, has decent or good schools, access to something intersting to do (shopping, biking, boating, anything can add appeal to a city). While I agree that Novi is soulless suburbia, it is very nice souless suburbia if you happen to like soulless suburbia. It is unparalleled for shopping opportunities and chain resturaunts i strip malls. If that is what you lke, it is a fantastic place to live. Skin color is irrelevant. I have met AA persons who live i Novi and absolutely think it is the best place anwhere.
IMO the best towns are Northville, Plymouth, Grosse Ile. Grosse Points (which touch Detroit), Ann Arbor and most of the little towns around it (Chelsea, Dexter, Saline, Tecumseh). That has nothing to do with skin color, but is simply becuase these places are nice, clean, have something intersting about them, have a good sense of community and community pride, well maintained, are very safe and have execellent schools. There are some area in Detroit that I would add if it were not for the schools and crime issues. North Rosedale Park, Palmer Park, Boston Edison, Corktown, Indian Villiage, Downtown, Mid-Town, Universtiy, Woodbridge. If you could wall these areas off, provide some decent schools and provide services, I would add them to my list of the better places to live.
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