Looking for a Detroit Suburb (Grand Rapids, Ann Arbor: cul-de-sac, condo, crime rate)

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by bexy11

By walkable, I meant that from my abode, I can walk to a coffee place or a restaurant or a bar, etc. Apologies for not being more specific.

Are there no other (less expensive) neighborhoods within the city of Detroit that might have a local coffee place a person can walk to from home?

There are plenty of places that meet that and plenty that don't. Its not a regional thing so much as a city size and density thing.

From my house in SE Ann Arbor , with 2 bad hips and 1 bad knee I can walk to a Rite aid, Subway, 2 bars, 4 ethnic grocery stores, bike shop, tattoo parlor, medical Marijuana shop, laundromat and more.
Within a mile and a half, which may stretch the definition of walk-able I couldn't list how many retail places there are. Now for coffee, from my house a Starbucks is 1.5 miles. But there are dozens of houses within 1000 feet of that Starbucks and 50 other stores.

Again walk-ability can be found in many places but not every neighborhood within a given location meets the definition. The bigger the city, the denser the population the more coffee shops per square mile.

There is a house across the street from me for sale....a quite cul-d-sac , a 5-6 minute walk from from 2 major bus lines.......its a small 3 bedroom (about 950 square feet) 1.5 bath, asking $240,000

[alwayssanantonio]

How could I have forgotten the Woodward Cruise? Every summer millions of people huddle together and make the pilgrimage to Automotive Mecca.
Right downtown becomes inaccessible but at one mile per hour, bumper to bumper traffic, due to every last Hot Rod within 800 miles is driving up Woodward Ave. on this summer day, the first paved street in the U.S. It is a lot of fun though.

Originally Posted by alwayssanantonio

Royal Oak might fit your bill, as the homes are not so expensive as the Rochester Hills area. A really nice community with a quaint , very popular downtown strip. Plenty of walkable bars and Rest.
Canton, Dearborn Heights, do not fit your bill as they are termed "bedroom communities" with no downtown strip.
Dearborn might fit your bill if you do not hold any bitterness toward Middle Easterners. It houses the largest Muslim community outside the middle east.
Farmington is a very nice area, also, to the west end.

[bexy11]

Thanks Craig!

I really want to buy a house (something I could never dream of doing anywhere near San Francisco), but since I’m not familiar with neighborhoods within the city of Detroit, I need to move first and figure out where after I’m on the ground.

Maybe I will look more at Ann Arbor. To me it’s a college town, but sounds like it’s a lot more than that. I still like the idea of a big city better though... I’m also afraid houses in Ann Arbor are too pricy for me. Paying absurd rent and not making a very good salary in relation to the cost of living in SF has not left me with much money - one of the reasons I’m moving.

The other reason I’m moving is to be closer to my aging parents, who are in Grand Rapids, which I would consider except I feel like I would literally be the only 40-something in town who is both single and without children. (No, I am not expecting to find many/any 40-somethings who are both single and without children, but I don’t want to live somewhere where the concept of that is really foreign - and yeah, San Francisco is unusual in that I have a few friends who are also 40-something and childless and sometimes single).

[bexy11]

Thanks sanantonio! Royal Oak is on my radar, and Ferndale. I hadn’t considered Dearborn though, thanks!

[craig11152]

What about Chicago? It's only about 20 minutes further by car than Detroit is to Grand Rapids. Amtrak has a direct train from Chicago to Grand Rapids. That gets you a vibrant BIG city and as close to your parents as SE Michigan.

[bexy11]

Originally Posted by craig11152

What about Chicago? It's only about 20 minutes further by car than Detroit is to Grand Rapids. Amtrak has a direct train from Chicago to Grand Rapids. That gets you a vibrant BIG city and as close to your parents as SE Michigan.

Yeah, I've thought about Chicago. I went to college there a million years ago. One reason I was focused on Detroit was that my company had an office in Bingham Farms, but we sold off the part of the company that was in that location late last year. We do have an office in Ann Arbor though, so I'm hoping to try and keep my job when I move, and having an office where I'm moving would make it more likely I could keep my job.

I was also thinking maybe it would be cool to live in a city that is on the rise after a long decline, but maybe I've underestimated how much climbing Detroit has to go? I am curious to hear from people who actually live in the city, but this may not be the right place to find them....

[personone]

Originally Posted by craig11152

Ann Arbor fits everything on your list well to extremely well. We have 2 Targets just outside the city limits. One on the east side, one on the west side. I don't think you can be more than 16 minutes from a Target short of rush hour or a snow storm

It’s all relative, but I wouldn’t consider Ann Arbor a “Detroit suburb” unless you are really pushing the limits. Especially for commuting purposes. If you are really working in Detroit proper, with traffic, you are looking at an unsustainable commute.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by personone

It’s all relative, but I wouldn’t consider Ann Arbor a “Detroit suburb” unless you are really pushing the limits. Especially for commuting purposes. If you are really working in Detroit proper, with traffic, you are looking at an unsustainable commute.

The original OP hasn't been back. I won't argue that Ann Arbor isn't really a suburb. But the commute is not "unsustainable" because people do it every day. Its not something I would do but it gets done regularly. A sustainable commute is very subjective. It's less than an hour and plenty of people in this world spend an hour commuting.

As a side bar I lived in Phoenix AZ in about 1972. I had a Triumph 650cc motorcycle I sold. They guy who bought it lived in the Phoenix area and worked in the copper mines in Morenci. Thats a 3.5 hour drive. He wanted the bike for the gas mileage vs his pickup truck

[alwayssanantonio]

I am afraid that you could be right about that question on "How much climbing Detroit has to go."
Further. I do not live in Detroit as you mentioned that you thought the people here on this forum may not live inside Detroit.
Further as the economy slows so will Detroit. Yes. As automobile sales slow, so does Detroit.
New Home sales are showing signs of slowing for the first quarter of 2019, existing home prices are holding or still rising, but at a slower rate, National new jobs creation is falling short of predictions, automobile sales are slowing by a couple of tenths of a percentage point instead of growing or remaining steady - Detroit is very sensitive to the economic foibles of the Country. When people stop buying new cars, Detroit gets an economic cold and when Detroit gets a cold- Michigan gets pneumonia.
These economist's- "economic indicators" , or numbers, are not entirely accurate however, but it is
how economic prognostications are made by these people. Economic trends can affect Detroit harshly.
The City always recovers but for now the economic boom is still on in the Detroit Metropolitan Area.
and the city is in excellent economic health. Sadly.
The inner city which is is outside the downtown area has a long way to go towards complete economic recovery.
The Mayor of Detroit has stated that the City will tear down 4,000 abandoned homes this year.
[/font]

Originally Posted by bexy11

Yeah, I've thought about Chicago. I went to college there a million years ago. One reason I was focused on Detroit was that my company had an office in Bingham Farms, but we sold off the part of the company that was in that location late last year. We do have an office in Ann Arbor though, so I'm hoping to try and keep my job when I move, and having an office where I'm moving would make it more likely I could keep my job.

I was also thinking maybe it would be cool to live in a city that is on the rise after a long decline, but maybe I've underestimated how much climbing Detroit has to go? I am curious to hear from people who actually live in the city, but this may not be the right place to find them....

[Coldjensens]

Sort of a heads up on your issue in general. We also moved closer to my aging parents. We are about an hour drive way. At first it worked out well. We visited each other frequently. Now Dad is older and Mom is gone. An hour is too far for him to drive. I try to visit him once or twice a week, but often I can only stay for an hour or less. That means i am driving two hours round trip for a one hour or less visit. Even when I stay for several hours, it is still a lot of driving for a little visiting.

Yes, you can stay for a weekend or a few days, but what we found is no one ever has time for that. We have our own commitments for most weekends. I tried to set Sunday afternoons aside to go visit Dad, but it is not always practical to do so. We meed him for dinner on Wednesdays at a restaurant in between us, that helps but it is still often more time driving than visiting.

The bottom line is I wish we had moved closer to Mom and Dad. It was great when they were younger and could visit us as often or more often than we visited them. However now that Dad is limited to short driving trips, our visits are limited to when I can visit him. An hour drive is too far for that to be practical more than a few times a month, or if there is a crises.

Ann Arbor is an awfully long way from Grand Rapids.