New style subdivisions or hisoric style charm? (Detroit, Livonia: hardwood floor, condo)

[Coldjensens]

When people ask for advice on where to live in Detroit area, they get very different suggestions.

I do not understand the appeal of places like Livonia, Taylor, Novi, Canton, Southfeld, and similar places when compared to places like Plymouth, Northville, Royal Oak, Wyandotte, Grosse Ile and, to a lessor extent, South Lyon, Milford and Brighton.

Newer styles feature privacy (few windows, no usable porches, back yard orientation), but then they put the houses so close together that you can hear your neighbor's telephone conversations.

Do people really like these new style (new since the 1960s or 1970s) subdivisions where all the houses are essentially the same and are placed side to side with no trees? or do people just buy these places because they want "new" or major square footage? I simply do not understand the appeal.

Am I the only person who wants all the houses in a community to be different from each other? Who prefer neighborhoods to subdivisions? Or who believes that an old fashioned downtown with small independent shops is far superior to big box stores, malls, and strip malls?

If you prefer one type of living to another, what benefits do you find in your preferred style?

[Dexterguy]

I usually go for the older updated homes because in my opinion they are build much better than these new subs.

Comercial wise I like the small little quaint downtowns better than the huge box stores, I think it old fashioned downtowns give the city more charater. I usually can not shop in those areas much of the time because those places are always so expensive. But I try to support the downtowns with eating at the local restaurants once in a while.

[OhEdo]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

When people ask for advice on where to live in Detroit area, they get very different suggestions.

I do not understand the appeal of places like Livonia, Taylor, Novi, Canton, Southfeld, and similar places when compared to places like Plymouth, Northville, Royal Oak, Wyandotte, Grosse Ile and, to a lessor extent, South Lyon, Milford and Brighton.

Newer styles feature privacy (few windows, no usable porches, back yard orientation), but then they put the houses so close together that you can hear your neighbor's telephone conversations.

Do people really like these new style (new since the 1960s or 1970s) subdivisions where all the houses are essentially the same and are placed side to side with no trees? or do people just buy these places because they want "new" or major square footage? I simply do not understand the appeal.

Am I the only person who wants all the houses in a community to be different from each other? Who prefer neighborhoods to subdivisions? Or who believes that an old fashioned downtown with small independent shops is far superior to big box stores, malls, and strip malls?

If you prefer one type of living to another, what benefits do you find in your preferred style?

I couldn't agree more. The differences between most of the various suburbs are too subtle for a non-lifer to discern and the subdivisions, strip malls and industrial parks have all the character of Wonder Bread. I've mentioned this on other posts, but I love the city and country (grew up in the latter and have spent my adult life in the former) but have what I call an "allergy" to the in-between.

Having said that, as you yourself have pointed out, Coldjensens, generalizations always have exceptions. One of the communities you mention, Royal Oak, I believe does have a bit of unique character at least in the Main St./Washington Ave. area.

For what it's worth

[Coldjensens]

That is true. You can generalize about the general character of a place, but not about every inch of that place. Novi for example has some exemplary turn of the century homes scattered in amongst the look alike subs and malls.

Actually Livonia has some nice housing stock small houses and very little variety, but there are a lot of small brick houses with hardwood floors, some interesting features and pretty good construction. Livonia is clean and pretty nice with fairly decent schools. I just find it bland because the neighborhoods all seem the same and there is no town.

Plymouth is not perfect. Look at what they did to the masonic temple building there. (tore it down and put up a hideous condo building that no one wants - but the demolition did supply some nice recycled maple flooring for my kitchen!). They also have some really awful subdivisions (what town doesn't).

Royal Oak is pretty decent. A lot of neighborhoods are similar, but at least it has neighborhoods. It also has a town. I expect that Wyandotte will be a popular location for young adults in the next few years as well. They need to improve their schools if they are going to attract families though.

[stock66]

I don't know that I am really clear on which type of neighborhoods you mean. Are you grouping housing built in the 60's-70's with new neighborhoods? To me the styles are quite different and certainly the 40 year old trees have gotten quite large. In fact some of those neighborhoods have much better trees than the older neighborhoods that suffered from Dutch Elm. Or are you putting them together since after about the 50's neighborhoods were not built with anything but the car in mind?
I think many of the people that are moving into the completely new subs really don't think that their houses look all the same. There are a few models and I suppose they feel there is enough character in that? I think the biggest draw is "new," there seem to be A LOT of people that find new extremely attractive.
As to shopping districts, metro Detroit is extremely carcentric. The old shopping districts fell out of favor in a large part because of limited parking. No one wants to walk or god forbid take a bus!
That said I am very grateful for all those folks, it leaves the old neighborhoods for those of us that can appreciate them
Does anyone really recommend Taylor?!

[Coldjensens]

Taylor has Heritage park which is pretty neat.

Some people might like it because there is a lot of shopping there. Southland mall is really as much in Taylor as it is in Southgate.

Surely, there are some nice places in Taylor aren't there?