[NY2LV2?]

Does anyone know how the economy is? What is the area like? How is the crime? We are thinking of moving to this area from Las Vegas.

[mrpickle]

There are two economies in Michigan. There is the old economy of the Auto Industry and the new High Tech economy. If you are unskilled and just provide an able body to employers, times are tight. If you are educated and have skills the world is your oyster. There are tons of jobs for people with skills. I Interview employers as part of my job and they cannot find skilled workers. If they do find them, they are out of state and are scared to take a job in Michigan because of all the bad press we have received regarding the domestic auto industry. Most of the employers I have spoke with over the past year are growing rapidly. The Auto industry is hiring but, not people to drive in screws, they are looking for skilled workers that can program an assembly line or design in Cad or Catia. I have read through this board and the people on here only believe what they read in the papers. The real world here in Michigan is much different than what is portrayed in the media. The fact of the matter is the Auto industry is offering early out retirements and a lot are taking it . Our work force is very old in this state and there are a lot of opportunities for younger people. The media portrays the early retirements as downsizing and layoffs.

As to Crime. It is very low in the area you are looking at. The issue with West Bloomfield is the traffic levels. It is quite high for our state but relatively low for the rest of the country. West Bloomfield is a very wealthy area. It is in Oakland county one of the wealthiest areas in the country it has one of the highest average household incomes in the country.

If you want to send me a PM with your skill-sets I might be able to list a few employers that might like to talk to you.

[khfar]

We just moved to West Bloomfield from Texas a couple of months ago.

It is a very nice, pretty area. Lots of trees and lakes. However, if you are used to a big city with lots of things to do nearby, consider that WB has none of that. Yes, you are close to Troy, Royal Oak, Novi, but it will take at least 20 or 30 minutes to get there, depending on where you live. I live in the area around all of the lakes. It takes me 15 minutes just to get to the grocery store. This is something I'm really struggling to get used to right now, as I've always lived in a big, bustling city. WB is definitely very slow paced. Most of the roads are 2-lanes, so like the above poster mentioned, during rush hour there is a lot of traffic backup on the main roads.

As far as crime goes, I think it is VERY minimal. The local crime reports in the paper are sometimes laughable. Example: "In West Bloomfield, at 10:00 p.m., a lady's plastic chair was taken out of her yard". I'm sure there are things that happen here, but obviously that will happen anywhere. To put things into perspective, in my neighborhood, the kids run around and play with no parental supervision. I just can't go there, lol, since that is SO far from what I was used to in Dallas. But I think the crime is so low, that parents feel the kids are safe.

Also, restaurants are few and far between in WB. Not even fast food is close by. We have to drive, again, 15 minutes at least to go out to eat. If we want a really good restaurant, we have to drive into Birmingham or Royal Oak.

I love my neighborhood and my house, but honestly, as a born and raised city girl, if I had to do it all over again I probably would have looked harder into Royal Oak.

Again, if you are used to a slower paced lifestyle, and don't mind driving a lot to get places, then definitely keep looking into WB. You can PM me anytime if you need any additional information.

Good luck!

[Cato the Elder]

Khfar is spot on. As I said months ago when she asked about WB, different strokes for different folks. I grew up in a place like WB - moved to Center City Philadelphia after college and have never looked back at these more bucolic locales.