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West MI is very conservative. We love it here! People are very nice, (friendly). I'm from Chicago and find Chicagoan's friendly also. After being here for 18 years would find it hard to move back. here we can afford to have 10 acres on a beautiful lake. What I find in a conservative community is neighbors are there for you, they seem to really care. And, it's a fact that Christians are your biggest givers to the poor, over all demographics (look it up). I also think that west MI is very family oriented and safe. And FREE college (funded privately by conservative citizens). I find that they are very excepting of everyone. Proportionately, there is a large gay community here as well and you don't hear of any trouble. What I don't understand is why you are so unaccepting of others that don't think like you??? You would be much happier, if you just agree to disagree and realize that conservative thinkers are basically looking for the same things we all are!
You asked "why are you so unaccepting of others that don't think like you??? You'd be much happier if you just agree to disagree".
It runs much deeper that that, Catherine D. Life is not so simple or black and white. Living in a very conservative region is not easy for a liberal, as I am assuming likewise if the tables were turned. Would you be just as accepting of liberals and those who don't think like you if you lived in San Francisco or Berkeley, CA? Or would you rather live in an area where your beliefs are valued and taken seriously. It is not solely the military, the evangelical base or conservatives in Hampton Roads that make it difficult for a liberal to thrive here. It's the culture all of these three groups combined that make it such a heavily right-wing area. The resources for liberals like myself are extremely limited. The NOW chapter in Norfolk is defunct. There is only one Unitarian Church in this region of 1.5 million people. There is not one AM radio station that has a progressive or liberal talk show host in this region (thank god for NPR and XM radio). The local newspaper The Virginian-Pilot is heavily conservative, and it goes on and on.
The culture of aggression is alive and well in area neighborhoods. We live in a nice middle-class neighborhood of 87 houses where we are very friendly with our neighbors and often get together for dinners at each others houses, go out to eat, our kids play together outside, etc. Most are republican, Christian, and conservative, with a few liberals mixed in. It is a very tight knit group and we all really enjoy one another. Neighbors take care of our dogs when we go on vacation and vice versa, we babysit for each other, go to the store for each other, etc. I do not believe that conservatives have the upper hand or 'own' friendliness or 'neighborliness' as you have implied in your post. With that said, this neighborhood is very heavily military based and there is a culture of aggression, especially with the little boys in the neighborhood. They often play with 'toy' guns that their parents have built for them out of wood and go around the neighborhood pretending to shoot the little girls. It's disgusting. And I don't want my two little boys thinking that this is normal and acceptable behavior for little boys to do. I do not want them thinking that masculinity is defined by guns, shooting, and having power and fear over other people. I often have to ask parents if their real guns are locked up and out of reach before I let my 5 year old go over to their house to play. And these are great people, great neighbors. They have a different view and values regarding guns and violence that I don't agree with.
And let's talk about evangelicals preaching to kids at the bus stop. In my post I did not slam Christians. I do not have a problem with Christians who live and let live. I DO have a problem with children evangelizing to my 3 and 5 year old boys at school. Half the time the children do not even know what they are talking about...they are just regurgitating what they think their parents are talking about. The culture of 'rapture' and 'dominionism' are not acceptable values to me or my family.
So yes, after living here for 5 years, I think I have been very accepting of others who think differently from me. In an area as extreme as this I have felt like a fish out of water. I would like to live in a city that has resources that I support and to participate in. Of my six very good girlfriends in this area, five are conservative republicans. And I adore them. I have another girlfriend who I grew up with in Kalamazoo and she is moving to Grand Rapids, thus the reason for my original post in the first place. She is a fiscally conservative republican who attended Calvin College.
Last edited by Jammie; 02-21-2007 at 10:42 AM..
Reason: disrepectful sentences edited
Wow, a lot of anger! We all live in a world of people who think differently and in extremes. There are liberals and conservatives everywhere. And I have lived and worked in communities that have a large population of liberals. There are also kind people and rude people. I don't believe I tried to insult you, so I'm not sure why you are lashing out and sending an awfully long responce to such a simple minded person? Hope you find a liberal community so you don't have to spend soooo much time explaining things to simple minds
Location: Virginia Beach moving possible to Michigan
77 posts, read 414,134 times
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Well Summers19 you may not want to move to Michigan. In Detroit, they actually shoot you and they are not 3-5 years old. You don't want your kids to grow up there the, violence is for real. Crime in Hampton Roads is pretty low considering the the bastion of military families making wooden guns for there kids. You can try other areas of Michigan, but if they are within 100 miles of Detroit/Flint crime is high. Those areas are mostly Democratic politically. Go to the areas of relative low crime and cities that are trying to bring in real business and they seem to be Republican areas, conservative. So Michigan may not be the place. Unless you want to live in the Southeast corridor, no wooden guns, real ones and will get worse. High unemployment equates to high crime. I live here in Va. Beach, and yes I do agree with the demographics you have stated, but there is tons of progressive people here. Edgar Cayce Foundation, Heritage Store, Norfolk Ghent area, Art shows galore here etc. you get my drift. If you want a safe place and progressive try Seattle, Portland, Minneapolis etc. I will be moving to Michigan sometime soon and this forum has really helped in my search (fiance lives in Flint). Looks like I will be going to Grand Rapids for many reasons, but I just thought of one other place that may suit your preference, Ann Arbor.
No, SE Michigan is not on our list of places to live. One reason among many is that we want to be closer to Lake Michigan, preferably within 1-2 hours drive. Yes, Ann Arbor could be an option, it's just a little further away from the Lake than we wanted (specifically Saugatuck). We were just hoping that there would be more abundance of progressive resources, thoughts, and vibe in Grand Rapids so we could be closer to family, friends, and Lake Michigan. So I started a thread to ask about it. Too much to ask for in one package, I guess.
We spend a lot of our time in Ghent. We wish we would have found out more about the area before we purchased a house five years ago in Chesapeake. If we knew then what we know now, we would have purchased a home in Ghent. We also meet progressive people through the Unitarian Church, which is also in Ghent.
In addition to Grand Rapids, we are also thinking about the Chicago area. Portland or Seattle would be great but would be too expensive for us and too far from family. And there is just something about Lake Michigan that beckons me! I love it there!
No, SE Michigan is not on our list of places to live. One reason among many is that we want to be closer to Lake Michigan, preferably within 1-2 hours drive. Yes, Ann Arbor could be an option, it's just a little further away from the Lake than we wanted (specifically Saugatuck). We were just hoping that there would be more abundance of progressive resources, thoughts, and vibe in Grand Rapids so we could be closer to family, friends, and Lake Michigan. So I started a thread to ask about it. Too much to ask for in one package, I guess.
We spend a lot of our time in Ghent. We wish we would have found out more about the area before we purchased a house five years ago in Chesapeake. If we knew then what we know now, we would have purchased a home in Ghent. We also meet progressive people through the Unitarian Church, which is also in Ghent.
In addition to Grand Rapids, we are also thinking about the Chicago area. Portland or Seattle would be great but would be too expensive for us and too far from family. And there is just something about Lake Michigan that beckons me! I love it there!
Don't give up hope. Seriously check out the Uptown neighborhoods of Grand Rapids. The neighborhoods are safe, beautiful, walkable, progressive, and inexpensive, and within walking distance of downtown (which is also safe, clean and full of renovated historical buildings). You can find a ton of information here at rapidgrowthmedia.com under the neighborhoods section (about 1/2 way down the page), or just browse the whole site. Most of the writers and contributors live in the area.
Also, the flickr photo group in Grand Rapids is huge with over 230 members, if you want to see some great photography of GR:
Location: Virginia Beach moving possible to Michigan
77 posts, read 414,134 times
Reputation: 46
Yes Summers19 Ghent would have been a better option then Chesapeake. I really don't want to move, at times my fiance does not either, she likes to visit me because I live right down at the oceanfront and she can just ride the bike to the beach and suntan. We have been doing this thing for about 6 years now and for me it is getting old, she can't move down due to various reasons so I will have to move up. Someone on this forum has recently moved to GR from this area also and they really like GR a lot. The housing market compared to us is sweet. But if you buy plan on staying in it for a while to at least hopefully see the market go back up. I have to go, but Magellan is a ton of info the good and the bad of Michigan. To be honest I even like winters on the West side, but for some reason in Flint winter does not look nice. So....good luck in your search. I do hope you find a comfortable place for you and your family to live in every aspect.
Yes Summers19 Ghent would have been a better option then Chesapeake. I really don't want to move, at times my fiance does not either, she likes to visit me because I live right down at the oceanfront and she can just ride the bike to the beach and suntan. We have been doing this thing for about 6 years now and for me it is getting old, she can't move down due to various reasons so I will have to move up. Someone on this forum has recently moved to GR from this area also and they really like GR a lot. The housing market compared to us is sweet. But if you buy plan on staying in it for a while to at least hopefully see the market go back up. I have to go, but Magellan is a ton of info the good and the bad of Michigan. To be honest I even like winters on the West side, but for some reason in Flint winter does not look nice. So....good luck in your search. I do hope you find a comfortable place for you and your family to live in every aspect.
Thanks virginia! (blush). I actually earned the nickname Magellan from my wife, for probably obvious reasons.
Location: Virginia Beach moving possible to Michigan
77 posts, read 414,134 times
Reputation: 46
Not only is Magellan a source of information........he has a sense of humor
Well you have provided information for us out of State folks and you don't paint a total picture of doom in Michigan so that is much appreciated. There will be a few of us Virginians coming up to Michigan due to the Ford plant closing down this year in Norfolk and some people have been offered transfers to Detroit and presently I work with a lady whose husband is already up there and she will follow in the summer. I have visited Detroit on several occasions to do fun things and have enjoyed it, but I have also taken that ride down Warren Ave. and was blown away by the economic status of the neighborhoods I saw. Every city has it, but to me the scale was much larger then what I have seen in other cities, I hope the area bounces back. So again thanks.
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