[ukride01]

Hello Everyone,

We are moving to Detroit, Michigan due to job transfer and we are looking for good/affordable/safe area nearby to live in. We have a kid of 2.5yrs old and we are looking for decent apartments. Office will be at Downtown Detroit and would like to live in the nearby city (not in downtown). Please share your thoughts.

1.Please suggest some good/safe/affordable cities that are near by Detroit, where we can stay and travel to work daily.

2. Is there any public transportation we can use to travel to downtown detroit. Or is it ok to take our car to work. How about the parking facilities in downtown.

3. Our kid is not going to school yet but looking for safe/good areas with good daycare facilities and Montessori's.

4. How is the job market out there for Mechanical engineers. My spouse is a mechanical engineer.

Please share your valuable thoughts and thanks everyone for your contribution.

Thanks
Dave

[Coldjensens]

If you have a job, almost anywhere here is affordable.

We chose Grosse Ile. It is a wonderful place to live, especially with children. It is an island with a very active community. It is a quiet, pleasant place to live (not a lot of night life). Schools are outstanding and small. Crime is negligible. There are not a lot of apartments, but there are some. Grosse Ile is somewhat rural/small town. Lots of wildlife. Lots of boats. Not a lot of shopping on the island, but plenty about ten miles away. 32 minutes from downtown Detroit. There are a couple of decent pre-schools and my daughters will babysit for you on weekends when you want to go out. (pretty cheap $5/hour for both of them)

If you want more of an urban/suburban environment with nightlife and a generally younger crowd, look at Royal Oak. Ferndale is supposed to be [pretty nice and trendy as well. It is the most common choice for openly gay residents, and thus tends to be pretty liberal. The Grosse Pointe Cities are also really nice and very close to downtown if you have the money. Not sure that you will find any apartments there. Hamtrammack is really lively, fun and affordable, but you need to keep your doors locked. Parking there can be difficult.

If you do not mind traffic and pretentiousness, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, or Rochester/Rochester Hills are good options. These are the "in" locations for yuppie types. Lots of great shopping and restaurants there.

A longer drive - Plymouth is awesome especially if you live in town. My brother commutes downtown from there. It takes him 47 minutes in good weather.

Northville, South Lyon, Milford, all are pretty nice places with decent schools about an hour from downtown. Novi is popular with some people but I do not understand why. It is almost all newish subs with no charm and endless malls and strip malls. Almost everything historic/quaint was torn town. Livonia is clean and pleasant, but kind of bland. Farmington/Farmington Hills might be a nice choice for you. Lots of apartment living there without being yucky.

You could also live right downtown. They have built some nice apartments and condos. Be careful where you choose though. The immediate downtown area has few residents (about 5000 in a three mile radius) and is reasonably nice. Good luck finding groceries, gasoline, etc. though. Some areas of Detroit are pretty scary.

Forget public transportation. There is a monorail downtown (people mover) but it is a joke. You can walk to most destinations faster and it only covers about a 1 mile radius. There is a lot of parking downtown, but it is generally not free. I pay $100/month for parking in a garage at the Ren Cen. That is probably the most expensive location. Uncovered lots are a lot cheaper. You can find free street parking early in the morning. There is some free parking near Wayne State University (again arrive very early in the morning).

The job market is very tight. People will tell you that there are no jobs, but that is untrue. There are some jobs for experienced highly qualified engineers. Young engineers will have trouble finding work unless their credentials are stellar.
Obviously there are a lot of car companies, but they are not doing well and are cutting back however there is still some hiring. Not much job security these days.


Good Luck.

[TurboState]

Royal Oak is the best place to live that is near Detroit. Only a few miles away.

Job market for mechanical engineers is zero, she won't find much work in that field, and will likely be doing something else, probably service related.

[Cato the Elder]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

If you do not mind traffic and pretentiousness, Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, or Rochester/Rochester Hills are good options. These are the "in" locations for yuppie types. Lots of great shopping and restaurants there.

Could we stop with the yuppy comments each time you mention Birmingham and Bloomfield? Do you know what the term means? YOUNG urban professionals. Many if not most of the adults in these areas are neither young nor are they very urban. I think most would agree that Plymouth, yes Plymouth, A2 and RO are much more yuppy. Regardless, why paint entire towns in such a derogatory manner? Someone could just as easily say, "Yeah, move to Belle Isle if you want to move in with white trash. It's an "in" location for redneck types. Lots of great hunting and fishing there." Get my point?!

[M TYPE X]

It's so true though. The Detroit burbs are full of old geezers. You'll find kids walking around Birmingham, and maybe they took pops' car out, but they're not in the upscale restaurants. Cleveland is an older crowd. Chicago burbs are slightly younger per capita, but you would have to go downtown (of course) to find the hip 20-somethings.

[MiamiU08]

Originally Posted by TurboState

Royal Oak is the best place to live that is near Detroit. Only a few miles away.

Job market for mechanical engineers is zero, she won't find much work in that field, and will likely be doing something else, probably service related.

MechE's usually have good luck with the Big 3 when they are hiring. I would check with GM and Ford (Chrysler is my favorite, but they're going through a cutback right now).

Also, I'll second the notion of Royal Oak.

[kimmy67]

Garden City, Wayne and Westland are all close to the city, but still safee