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Old 10-21-2013, 05:46 PM
 
123 posts, read 224,408 times
Reputation: 102

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Detroit is the best large city, Grand Rapids is the best mid-sized city, they also have no equals in size.

Best UP Cities
1 Marquette
2 Houghton
3 Sault Ste. Marie
4 Grand Marais
5 Calumet
6 Munising
7 Copper Harbor
8 Hessel
9 Manistique
10 St Ignace

Best northern lower
1 Traverse City
2 Petoskey
3 Harbor Springs
4 Charlevoix
5 Boyne City
6 Suttons Bay
7 Frankfort
8 Manistee
9 Gaylord
10 Mackinaw City

Best college towns
1 Ann Arbor
2 Marquette
3 Houghton
4 Holland
5 Kalamazoo
6 East Lansing
7 Mt. Pleasant
8 Hillsdale
9 Sault Ste. Marie
10 Adrian

Best Detroit suburbs
1 Birmingham
2 Royal Oak
3 Grosse Pointe(s)
4 Northville
5 Plymouth
6 Rochester
7 Ferndale
8 Grosse Isle
9 Trenton
10 Dearborn

Best western small towns - somebody already did that see above
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Old 10-21-2013, 06:50 PM
 
123 posts, read 224,408 times
Reputation: 102
Might as well keep going and try and make everyone feel "special"

Best Ann Arbor suburbs
1 Chelsea
2 Dexter
3 Saline
4 Pinckney
5 Hamburg

Best Grand Rapids suburbs
1 Rockford
2 East Grand Rapids
3 Forest Hills
4 Zeeland/Holland
5 Hudsonville

Best farm towns
1 Bad Axe
2 Cold Water
3 Paw Paw
4 Alma
5 Three Rivers
6 Allegan
7 Lapeer
8 Charlotte
9 Blissfield
10 St Johns
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Old 10-23-2013, 01:22 PM
 
Location: Detroit
3,671 posts, read 5,885,526 times
Reputation: 2692
Quote:
Originally Posted by aoletsgo View Post
Detroit is the best large city, Grand Rapids is the best mid-sized city, they also have no equals in size.

Best UP Cities
1 Marquette
2 Houghton
3 Sault Ste. Marie
4 Grand Marais
5 Calumet
6 Munising
7 Copper Harbor
8 Hessel
9 Manistique
10 St Ignace

Best northern lower
1 Traverse City
2 Petoskey
3 Harbor Springs
4 Charlevoix
5 Boyne City
6 Suttons Bay
7 Frankfort
8 Manistee
9 Gaylord
10 Mackinaw City

Best college towns
1 Ann Arbor
2 Marquette
3 Houghton
4 Holland
5 Kalamazoo
6 East Lansing
7 Mt. Pleasant
8 Hillsdale
9 Sault Ste. Marie
10 Adrian

Best Detroit suburbs
1 Birmingham
2 Royal Oak
3 Grosse Pointe(s)
4 Northville
5 Plymouth
6 Rochester
7 Ferndale
8 Grosse Isle
9 Trenton
10 Dearborn

Best western small towns - somebody already did that see above
Nice list. However, I would put the Bloomfields over Trenton (to be fair I don't know much about Trenton either).

As for the college towns the first 3 would be
1. Ann Arbor
2. Lansing
3. Kalamazoo (I lived there so I just know more about it), it's larger and more diverse with more to do. When talking about universities in MI, WMU definitely comes to peoples mind.
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Old 10-23-2013, 01:24 PM
 
1,858 posts, read 3,549,999 times
Reputation: 1184
Quote:
Originally Posted by JoulesMSU View Post
6. Grand Blanc = your list is invalid. Nothing in the Flint area is "best [anything]" in Michigan.
So not true. I love Grand Blanc!
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Old 10-23-2013, 05:19 PM
 
Location: SE Michigan
6,191 posts, read 18,156,856 times
Reputation: 10355
Quote:
Originally Posted by plannine View Post
Saw this blog post, and thought it would be of use here.


Looking to make a move to the Wolverine State? These are the Michigan cities and townships that rank highest in several important factors.

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed


Have you seen any other recent 'Michigan City Top 10" lists or what (if you live in the state) would be your Top 10............
I saw this on the news this morning and my first thought was...why is so much credence being given to the opinion of a California-based real estate company? I'm guessing lists like these tend to be generated by a company nerd fooling around online and checking statistics from sites such as city-data.

I don't dispute that any of the listed cities are OK, or even very nice places to live but nothing at all in the UP, Grand Rapids gets ignored...Flint makes the list (seriously?) but GR and Saugatuck and Lapeer and Owosso and other nice little cities don't?

Last edited by Yac; 11-08-2013 at 05:41 AM..
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Old 10-23-2013, 07:46 PM
 
Location: Michigan
2,198 posts, read 2,733,818 times
Reputation: 2110
Quote:
Originally Posted by skyl4rk View Post
Just picking the best cities in Michigan. They all happen to be west.
I'm new to Michigan, but from what I've seen, I agree with this.

I was surprised to see Canton number 3 on the list. I live in Canton and I'm not sure what's so great about it...crowded as all hell, traffic is a nightmare, expensive housing, no nature except for the trees lining the side of the road. Ford road is a complete and total mess. Tons of ugly subdivisions with nearly identical looking houses practically piled on top of one another.

The Summit on the Park is a very nice facility and fairly inexpensive, though the weight room could definitely use some improvement. Other than that Canton is a complete black hole for quality gyms. I'm sure it has low crime and probably good schools (not much of a concern for me right now since my daughter is only 2 months), but other than that... No offense meant to any Cantonites, it's a clean, modern, fairly affluent city, but I guess it just doesn't have much of what I would look for personally.

I was in Grand Rapids for a certification for work last week and that area is a lot more to my liking.
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Old 10-25-2013, 12:27 AM
 
3,082 posts, read 5,437,722 times
Reputation: 3524
Quote:
Originally Posted by EugeneOnegin View Post
I'm new to Michigan, but from what I've seen, I agree with this.

I was surprised to see Canton number 3 on the list. I live in Canton and I'm not sure what's so great about it...crowded as all hell, traffic is a nightmare, expensive housing, no nature except for the trees lining the side of the road. Ford road is a complete and total mess. Tons of ugly subdivisions with nearly identical looking houses practically piled on top of one another.

The Summit on the Park is a very nice facility and fairly inexpensive, though the weight room could definitely use some improvement. Other than that Canton is a complete black hole for quality gyms. I'm sure it has low crime and probably good schools (not much of a concern for me right now since my daughter is only 2 months), but other than that... No offense meant to any Cantonites, it's a clean, modern, fairly affluent city, but I guess it just doesn't have much of what I would look for personally.

I was in Grand Rapids for a certification for work last week and that area is a lot more to my liking.
Canton is a city technically, but it's really just a bland suburb of Detroit. There are like three suburbs of Detroit that have character enough to be designated a top city in MI: Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Ferndale. Ann Arbor if you count it as a suburb of Detroit. The rest of them are just part of the bland suburban sprawl filled with houses, strip malls, and large shopping centers.

Grand Rapids is an actual major (mid-size) city in the region. It has way more history and character than a place like Canton.
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Old 10-25-2013, 07:55 AM
 
95 posts, read 240,843 times
Reputation: 96
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tekkie View Post
Canton is a city technically, but it's really just a bland suburb of Detroit.
Actually, Canton isn't a city even technically. It is a charter township. With a population of 90,000+, it perhaps should incorporate to become a city (it is the seconds largest township after Clinton Charter Township).
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Old 10-25-2013, 02:48 PM
 
Location: Michigan
2,198 posts, read 2,733,818 times
Reputation: 2110
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tekkie View Post
Canton is a city technically, but it's really just a bland suburb of Detroit. There are like three suburbs of Detroit that have character enough to be designated a top city in MI: Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Ferndale. Ann Arbor if you count it as a suburb of Detroit. The rest of them are just part of the bland suburban sprawl filled with houses, strip malls, and large shopping centers.
That definitely sums up Canton.
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Old 10-25-2013, 05:45 PM
 
Location: Michigan
5,376 posts, read 5,345,246 times
Reputation: 1633
I would consider a city, any place, that you could survive in ( i.e. live/shop work & play), without leaving it's borders. Some suburban spots make it, some would not. While I live in a small "city", we have one store and two restaurants. It would not make my list (even though I would not want to be any place else)

That being said, my list for today is below, but it would change depending on the weather and season.

1. Birmingham
2. Chelsea
3. Midland
4. East Lansing
5. Ann Arbor
6. Frankenmuth
7. Brighton
8. Gladwin
9. Grosse Poine (all of them)
10. Interlochen
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