Eastern Market (compared to midtown) (Detroit, Grosse Pointe: apartments, crime, safest neighborhood)

[mikehale]

Hi there,

I was wondering if any Detroiters could comment on the relative safety of Eastern Market?
I have been reading a lot of the old threads and people seem to be saying that Midtown and Downtown are the safest neighborhood inside Detroit --- but I haven't found as many mentions of Eastern Market's safety.

I looked on this crime map Detroit, MI Crime Map - Showing Crimes in Detroit - Crime Statistics, Alerts and Reports - Crime Stops Here

and it seems like there have been no (?) crimes in eastern market since June of this year, whereas in Midtown there have been several stabbings, armed robberies, etc.

Can anyone help?

I am one half of a late twenties couple planning a move to Detroit in October of this year. We will have a car.

Thanks so much!

[animatedmartian]

I don't think there's any residential in Eastern Market save for some cheapo apartments just north of it and Lafayette Park directly to the south.

Eastern Market is more of a retail/industrial neighborhood though some developers are looking into seeing if they can add residential into the area at some point in the future. However at this point in time, there's none there.

Midtown and Downtown are the safest of Detroit as well as around Jefferson Avenue from Downtown to Belle Isle and a few subdivisions between Belle Isle and Grosse Pointe. If you want anything any 'safer' (statistically speaking), you'll have to look to the suburbs.

[mikehale]

Thanks for your reply! that explains why no one has been mentioning it as a place to live!

Can I ask what the feeling is on the safety of Corktown? I see this Martha Stewart guide to it, and it looks very cute -- and I see that it's close to Midtown/Downtown -- just as safe? Also no residential?

[animatedmartian]

Just the opposite. It's a residential neighborhood. The oldest one in Detroit, in fact. I would say it's just about the same as Midtown/Downtown. The most notable landmark is the Michigan Central Station that you often see in ruin porn photographs of Detroit. But the neighborhood is slowly growing with locally owned restaurants and a nice bar scene. I'm not sure of the actually avalibility of the housing situation there, but definitely a nice area to check out.

The thing about living in Detroit is knowing your neighbors. Having a good connection with your neighbors will pretty much make (almost) any neighborhood a worthwhile one. Statistics can be somewhat unreliable because the populations of a lot of neighborhoods are really low and can be skewed by a single incident. I think only 1,500 people live in Corktown. Midtown is ~15,000 and Downtown is only 6,000. Definitely not very large or dense neighborhoods by most measures and it's certainly noticeable if you ever have been or when you do come to Detroit.