Should I come to Detroit (Dearborn, Cadillac: house, rent, travel)

[Lola Granola]

Louis, you will find Detroit to be very small compared to Paris. In addition, there is a strong distinction between Detroit proper and the suburbs. The Detroit metro area is made up of the city of Detroit and many neighboring suburbs that are not legally a part of the city. When people debate the safety of Detroit, they mean the city of Detroit. The suburbs, by and large, are safe.

Your job will likely be in the suburbs, and you will likely live and spend most of your leisure time in the suburbs. On occasion, you will likely go into the city for a sporting event, undoubtedly the auto show, or for a dinner or show. You will be cautious, and will do things like make sure your car has a full tank of gas so you don't have to stop at a gas station in the city, and parking in a garage not on the street, etc.

You will be FINE.

I'm sure Paris has its bad areas. All cities do. The same cautions you would take there would be in order here.

Relax and enjoy yourself, and welcome to the States. :-)

[LOUIS XIV]

Originally Posted by Lola Granola

Louis, you will find Detroit to be very small compared to Paris. In addition, there is a strong distinction between Detroit proper and the suburbs. The Detroit metro area is made up of the city of Detroit and many neighboring suburbs that are not legally a part of the city. When people debate the safety of Detroit, they mean the city of Detroit. The suburbs, by and large, are safe.

Your job will likely be in the suburbs, and you will likely live and spend most of your leisure time in the suburbs. On occasion, you will likely go into the city for a sporting event, undoubtedly the auto show, or for a dinner or show. You will be cautious, and will do things like make sure your car has a full tank of gas so you don't have to stop at a gas station in the city, and parking in a garage not on the street, etc.

You will be FINE.

I'm sure Paris has its bad areas. All cities do. The same cautions you would take there would be in order here. You're right, PARIS has also her unsafe areas, but here it's the inverse : the suburbs are more dangerous than the city.

Relax and enjoy yourself, and welcome to the States. :-)

Oh thanks a lot for all these informations and advices. I feel more comfortable now .

I come to Detroit because I have always wanted to live in the US. You know the American way of life is universal but I want to live near American people and discover their way of thinking, working, hobbies...

What do you use to do during your free time, in particular in the winter?

[AQUEMINI331]

I am 17 years old, and have always had a fascination with Detroit. My mom doesn't want me to move there. I know there are nasty areas all over, but for some reason, I keep wanting to come to Detroit. I look at all the pictures of the decay and stuff, but I still want to come. Can anyone help me out? What are some good things about Detroit, and obviously the bad. Thanks.

Daniel True
TrueDaniel_G@hotmail.com

If you want to move to a gritty (and yet, slightly more civilized) Midwestern / Rust Belt city, then try Chicago instead. Chicago is bigger than Detroit, but it's also standing on its own two legs. Chicago declined, but it for the most part has bounced back. Detroit is still down and is still being kicked every day. In many ways, it's kicking itself. Large portions of Chicago are decayed, but I honestly don't believe any part of the city is as bad as Detroit. As other posters have said, 90% of Detroit looks like Berlin after World War II. Like bombs had been dropped on it constantly for the past ten years. As bad as a lot of these old Rust Belt towns are, I don't think any of the major cities (Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Buffalo) have fallen quite as far as Detroit.


I've been to the city twice (if you don't count me passing through driving from Chicago to Toronto) and I have to tell you, it's a real cesspool. The first time I went up there was in undergrad while I was helping a professor recruit kids to come down to our school in Alabama, and I have to tell you - I don't think we had to work too hard. My school had a lot of Detroiters and after going up there with him, i could see why. If I had've been born and raised up there I'd been looking for any way out. Even if it meant attending a university in rural Alabama, that's a million times better than being stuck in Detroit.


Personally I despise everything about the city, especially that idiot Eminem. Detroit is just not a good place to be, and I can't imagine anyone actually relocating from anywhere else in the U.S. to Detroit. The only way that Detroit's population manages to stay afloat is through immigration. Most of the city's immigrants are Middle Easterners, and I have to admit - as bad as Detroit is, I'm sure it doesn't compare to Baghdad or Riyadh. But that's just the point - you'd have to come from a real hellhole of a place to look at Detroit and say, "hey, this looks like a pretty good place to live. I will spend thosuands of dollars on a plane ticket so I can move here along with my entire family and start a new, happy life." If Detroit looks good to you, I shudder to think what your native land is like.


Don't take offense to this, but I strongly suspect the only reason Detroit appeals to you at all is because you're young and naive, and don't know anything about the city and how some cities in America are prospering, while others are declining. I mean, REALLY declining. But you have your whole life ahead of you to learn. And you don't have to take this info from me or anyone else here - hop on a plane and visit Detroit yourself. See for yourself how far down the toilet that city has gone, and then go back and tell your mother you want to live there.

[and the]

He was joking...

It's true.

[pirate_lafitte]

I personally wouldn't move to Detroit. Everything is leaving.

[LOUIS XIV]

Originally Posted by and the

It's true.

No problem and the. I have not understood.

I have one more question : how long and how much does it snow during winter?

Thanks.

[HeleenieWeenie]

Originally Posted by pirate_lafitte

I personally wouldn't move to Detroit. Everything is leaving.

Amen to that! Including ME. I fought and tried to make it there; fighting the neighborhood parks decay, crime, crackhouse setting up right behind our home; cops doing nothing about it.....NICE PLACE TO VISIT...dont come to live, seriuosly. Only the suburbs surrounding it are decent. You will see most people that live IN the city limits...Shopping, enjoying, eating, socialzing OUTSIDE OF THE LIMITS. I now live in Ferndale, ITS MARVELOUS: FUNKY, FUN, FASHIONABLE, and bohemian. I hated the extreme suburb of Rochester Hills, IT WAS HOOTERVILLE, PIXLEY all rolled into one. With scads of Trailer home Estates, subdivisions of pre-fab overpriced mansions; a couple of ball players moved there; now they added "HILLS" to the name Rochester, Auburn Hts...too...ALL S*it Kicking Redneck haven; Like I said; PREJUDICED BIGOTS, I got the hell outta there; moved to wonderful Ferndale where a variety of ethnicities, cultures live and have fun, in a nice tax-base, little bungalow homes. Cute like dollhouses w/picket fence cliches.

[gencinjay]

Originally Posted by Lola Granola

Why will it work this time, when it didn't work before?

The reason I beleive it will work this time is because the people want it to work. There has been such a great divide between the city and suburbs for a long time, but now the new generations are realizing that Detroit matters to them. It's a slow process. It may not be done in our lifetimes, but you can see the progress starting with the downtown area and some other neighborhood areas that are coming back. As it continues, more people will realize what a strong city can do for them and join in the revitalization.

There is a lot of private money coming in now. The government money helps to lay the foundation, the private money is what will make it really happen.

[and the]

I have one more question : how long and how much does it snow during winter?

Thanks.

It CAN snow anywhere from October through April. It usually snows more like November though March. We haven't gotten a lot of snow for quite a while. Nothing like when I was a kid. Lately, it seems we get one or two big snows a year where you actually have a few days in a row of having to clear your driveway. I don't know if it's global warming or what, but it hasn't been too bad in southeast Michigan.

More of a concern to me than the snow is the drab, gray skies we have for a large part of the winter. It's depressing. This is fairly comprehensive for weather:
Average High/Low Temperatures for KDET : Weather Underground

[LOUIS XIV]

Originally Posted by and the

It CAN snow anywhere from October through April. It usually snows more like November though March. We haven't gotten a lot of snow for quite a while. Nothing like when I was a kid. Lately, it seems we get one or two big snows a year where you actually have a few days in a row of having to clear your driveway. I don't know if it's global warming or what, but it hasn't been too bad in southeast Michigan.

More of a concern to me than the snow is the drab, gray skies we have for a large part of the winter. It's depressing. This is fairly comprehensive for weather:
Average High/Low Temperatures for KDET : Weather Underground

thanks And The.

which kind of activities can we do after work and the weekends? Skiing? I don't know.