Job Market In Detroit Area

[The average citizen]

Well the auto industry in terms of manufacturing has gone downhill but this was invetable because of some US investment in the Asian factories and the fact that the Asian cars were generally cheaper. The top US businessman of the 1950's stated that they were generally uninterested in production and wanted to concentrate more on selling products. This started the general decline of auto and other manufacturing or at least reducing employment opportunities in the area.
So moves to areas of higher employment are good things.

[randomguymike]

Originally Posted by Cato the Elder

Keep in mind that you'll drive 30 minutes minimum for most social gatherings, unless all your friends happen to live in the same neighborhood (never holds true for long in my experience). Here in metro Detroit, people tend to have close friends all within the same concentrated areas - along Woodward, along I-275, Ann Arbor, or the Pointes. You'll have some friends in one of the other areas, but most are in the same area.

In Chicago, you'll have friends all over the place b/c jobs are everywhere and you want to live close to work. Chicagoland is a sprawling metro that just blends together for the most part and there are no concentrated areas like Troy or Ann Arbor. My friends and I would usually meet at a central location near Woodfield Mall and I had the shortest drive there at 20-30 minutes. If we met in the city like at Navy Pier or near Grant Park, it would be a 45 minutes drive for most people.

Without having spent tons of time in Chicago, especially outside the immediate downtown area, this is helpful. However, I have a side effect of what you are saying is abenefit to Detroit. I grew up in Birmingham, lived in Birmingham for a few years out of college and now am in Ann Arbor. Any social gathering requires me driving 45 minutes up to Ferndale/Royal Oak or over to Detroit. This means no drinking and early departures to be the drunk hour home.

In Chicago, I'm hoping public transportation can solve some of that. I can go out, take a taxi or the l home if I've had a few drinkis, and life is good.

The more I think about my employment prospects here, over the last few days though, should anything happen, the less confortable I feel staying.

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by randomguymike

I grew up in Birmingham, lived in Birmingham for a few years out of college and now am in Ann Arbor. Any social gathering requires me driving 45 minutes up to Ferndale/Royal Oak or over to Detroit. This means no drinking and early departures to be the drunk hour home.

In Chicago, I'm hoping public transportation can solve some of that. I can go out, take a taxi or the l home if I've had a few drinkis, and life is good.

The more I think about my employment prospects here, over the last few days though, should anything happen, the less confortable I feel staying.

I can relate somewhat because I teach at U of M but live at 14 Mile and Woodward. We looked into Ann Arbor but decided that Oakland County is better for this stage of our lives. I drove 45-60 minutes one-way from SF to Palo Alto, so Oakland County to Ann Arbor is no big deal. For work, I can deal with a commute, but it's different when you're doing it for social reasons, as you know intimately. From Ann Arbor, we couldn't just decide to go to Somerset or the zoo on a whimsy, especially with kids in tow.

My wife grew up in Birmingham and her parents still live in the same house (her mom taught for over 40 years in the district so she might have taught you!). Our daycare is here, friends, walks during the winter at Somerset, Cranbrook, restaurants, zoo, etc. - none easily replaceable in Washtenaw County. If Oakland County was boring, sprawling suburbia like Utica and Sterling Heights, we probably would have moved to Ann Arbor.

The Woodward area is a great place to live and raise a family - and we've lived most of our adult lives on the two coasts (Boston, Philly, DC, LA, SF). Living in the city of Chicago is great in your twenties. Once you hit your thirties, all your friends start fanning out and public transit becomes less viable except for commutes. You can stick with your neighborhood pub, but you start realizing that everyone else there is 10 years younger than you.

Good luck where ever you land. You might end up like my wife and come back after swearing to never return, which seems to be a goal possessed by all the Birmingham kids I meet.

[Anthera]

Originally Posted by Cato the Elder

Living in the city of Chicago is great in your twenties. Once you hit your thirties, all your friends start fanning out and public transit becomes less viable except for commutes. You can stick with your neighborhood pub, but you start realizing that everyone else there is 10 years younger than you.

Well, I disagree. It depends on your lifestyle. Some people NEVER leave the city, they raise their families in Chicago, join clubs downtown, dock a boat in Belmont Harbor, or CYC. Their kids know the Field Museum and the Art Institute like the back of their hand. Its a very different lifestyle than Detroit.

I chose to move to the north shore. I can be downtown in 20 min by train.
The train in 3 blocks away, the beach is 2 blocks away from my house. My friends from my twenties are all either in the city or the northern suburbs and it takes me 30 minutes by car to reach Lake Forest, 30 minutes by car to hit Lincoln Park. I belong to a country club as well as a city club and use both. Tonight I am going to a benefit on Oak Street. How many Birmingham women would drive to downtown Detroit alone at night? (and I did live in Oakland County once, so i know the answer- none).

Chicago has so many more things to do, and transportation is completely different from Detroit.