Detroit Vs Other Cities (Royal Oak, Ferndale: hotel, vs., bill)

[Coldjensens]

Some of those houses have back tax obligations in the tnes of thousands. Some have the plumbing, wiring and windows ripped or smashed out of them. Some are in areas that you really do need to wear Kevlar. Others are just great deals. Make sure you find the right one.


Detroit taxes are very high and services are almost non-existient in some areas. Your heating bill in the winter will be pretty high. Car insurance will be very high as well. Be certain to factor in medical insurance in figuring your costs, you woudl nto want to end up bankrupted by a big medical bill. Maybe you can ifnd a part time job with benefits, but it is unlikley. It is important that you keep up your property. If you allow it to decay, it will decay faster and faster. A decaying house is also more of a security risk. A house obviously owned by people who care can be something of a deterrent. An alarm system and a big dog woudl probably be a good idea. If you want services, you may need to contract for them (i.e. Brinks for security, the right to use a dumpster for your trash, ambulance service, snow removal etc). If you are going to do this, I suggest that you get an older crummy looking 4x4 pick up truck. That way the lack of snow removal will nto bother you and your car will not make you a target. Besides witha pick up, you could always scour wealtheir areas on trash day and find things to sell or recycle. It is called scrapping and a common occupation amongst enterpurnurial drug addicts. However there is no reason anyone unemployed or underemployed could not do this. If you find a good area, and sell some of the things on cragislist or E-bay, you can probably make a bit of extra money and keep your savings longer.

If you do nto invest too much in the house, you can always try it out and just run away if it is intoleable, but be very very careful about what area you choose. Better to buy the crummiest house int eh nicest area than the nicest house in a crummy area.

Choose the right area and you could potentially make a killing if that area become a "come back" area and gets regentrified. Pick the worng area and you could lose everything or even be hurt or killed. Lots of options will land oyu somewhere inthe middle as well.

[Northsider 248]

There's very good points in this post but it's also not accurate in some ways.

The majority of Detroit neighborhoods are mostly-occupied ghettos with 3-6 houses on a 30 house block vacant. In between are (like you said) the small 'comeback' neighborhoods, but also the infamous highly-abandoned neighborhoods that are only somewhat larger.

[ram2]

If Chicago is so great, why do so many Chicago people head out of town on the weekend for the west side of Michigan and Wisconsin?

[prairiestate]

Originally Posted by ram2

If Chicago is so great, why do so many Chicago people head out of town on the weekend for the west side of Michigan and Wisconsin?

[us66]

Originally Posted by ram2

If Chicago is so great, why do so many Chicago people head out of town on the weekend for the west side of Michigan and Wisconsin?

Because they want to show off their wealth, price the local hayseeds out of the housing market, and get out of the city. They're called "FIBs." I like Chicago, but I imagine it would be tiring to live there, it's so fast and crowded.

[detroitlove]

Originally Posted by [JS]

There's very good points in this post but it's also not accurate in some ways.

The majority of Detroit neighborhoods are mostly-occupied ghettos with 3-6 houses on a 30 house block vacant. In between are (like you said) the small 'comeback' neighborhoods, but also the infamous highly-abandoned neighborhoods that are only somewhat larger.

so they are all ghettos?

[SadieMirsade]

"Most obviously, the City will continue to lose families in the absence of quality, affordable school choices. Charter schools, while controversial, are certain to be instrumental in reversing the flow of families out of the City. (Jeff Rainford, Chief of Staff to Mayor Slay, recently noted on Twitter that "[i]f not for charters, the City would have lost at least another 15,000 people.")."


What Does "New Thinking" for the Future of St. Louis Mean? | nextSTL (http://nextstl.com/urban-living/what-does-new-thinking-for-the-future-of-st-louis-mean - broken link)

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by ram2

If Chicago is so great, why do so many Chicago people head out of town on the weekend for the west side of Michigan and Wisconsin?

Because the physical rural landscape of Illinois is much more like Iowa. Overwhelmingly farmland in most of the state. Its naturally fertile soil that is more conducive to agriculture than the majority of land area in Wisconsin and Michigan. There are few areas of Illinois where there are natural lakes, hilly forested areas, but they are actually further from Chicago than areas that are just over the border in Wisconsin or Michigan.

IE: Beautiful berrien county is closer to Chicago than the beautiful Galena of Illinois.

Ohio is also a little more similar to Illinois in terms of physical geography/landscape, except Ohio has a much larger % of the state covered by Appalachian foothills, whereas the Illinois Ozarks/Shawnee Hills counterpart covers a much smaller % of Illinois.

Conversely, metro Detroiters do not have to leave their state to go "up north" to the lake, even though the distance they drive is about the same as what Chicagolanders would have to drive.

[Tex?Il?]

Originally Posted by us66

Because they want to show off their wealth, price the local hayseeds out of the housing market, and get out of the city. They're called "FIBs." I like Chicago, but I imagine it would be tiring to live there, it's so fast and crowded.

Keep in mind that this description is limited to downtown Chicago and surrounding areas and the north side of the city.

The suburbs of Chicago and the most of the south side of the city is more like Metro Detroit than it is like downtown Chicago and the north side.

Again, the reason why most Chicagolanders go to Wisconsin or Michigan is the exact same reason why metro Detroiters go up north. But because the license plates are the same, it is more difficult to create an us against them scenario.

A rich family from Oakland County is from the same state as the locals they are pricing out when they build a cabin near Traverse City.

If you want an area of the country that feels fast paced and crowded nearly everywhere you go, try greater Los Angeles (although its downtown is less busy than Chicagos downtown.

[mapwizard]

What about atlanta, not by size but neatness and style
Detroits GM tower is a design they stole from atlanta
The westin Peatree plaza