Would you say that metro Detroit is "uglier" than other metro areas? (Royal Oak: university, subdivision)

[canudigit]

To see the "ugly" in some of the areas of the country that are considered cool or desirable, try watching one of the home buying shows on HGTV such as "House Hunters", "Property Virgins", or "My First Place". I am consistently blown away by what a piece of crap little shack $300,000 will buy you in places like Seattle, Denver, or Toronto. When they feature a couple with that kind of budget, the neighborhoods that they show are generally always gloomy, depressing, and anything but attractive. Watching those shows always makes me appreciate my beautiful house here in Michigan that I couldn't live in if I were to live somewhere trendy or somewhere that is generally assumed to be better than Michigan, such as the above mentioned cities or somewhere like southern California, Chicago, or Washington, D.C. I can't imagine having to pay $2,600/month to live in a tiny, two bedroom cottage with no updates and structural problems. Again, I feel very, very blessed to live in what to me is a gorgeous state with a very reasonable cost of living.

[detshen]

Originally Posted by canudigit

To see the "ugly" in some of the areas of the country that are considered cool or desirable, try watching one of the home buying shows on HGTV such as "House Hunters", "Property Virgins", or "My First Place". I am consistently blown away by what a piece of crap little shack $300,000 will buy you in places like Seattle, Denver, or Toronto. When they feature a couple with that kind of budget, the neighborhoods that they show are generally always gloomy, depressing, and anything but attractive. Watching those shows always makes me appreciate my beautiful house here in Michigan that I couldn't live in if I were to live somewhere trendy or somewhere that is generally assumed to be better than Michigan, such as the above mentioned cities or somewhere like southern California, Chicago, or Washington, D.C. I can't imagine having to pay $2,600/month to live in a tiny, two bedroom cottage with no updates and structural problems. Again, I feel very, very blessed to live in what to me is a gorgeous state with a very reasonable cost of living.

That's very true, I moved here from San Diego where I couldn't afford even the smallest, ugliest house in any of the desirable neighborhoods so I paid a fortune in rent. I moved here and bought a nicely sized, absolutely beautiful older house that is full of character, but also has all the modern upgrades, and it's in a great area. In San Diego for the amount I paid for my house, I would only be able to afford a tiny run down house in one of the way out, boring, ugly suburbs, nowhere near the pretty parts of the city.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by natterer

This is a comment I have heard from various out-of-towners who visit. It's not so much about the pockets of decay as it is about the general layout, sprawl, and appearance of the metro area, combined with its general lack of natural landmarks. Los Angeles, for example, may sprawl terribly, but you can see the mountains from various angles.

A lot of metro Detroit is nothing but low-density housing tracts with little commerce strung together by commercial boulevards that are wide and ugly. There is a general sense of bleakness to a lot of the environment.

What can be done to fix this, and how did things get this way?

At this point the best bet would be to start downtown, or whatever truly urban pockets still exist in the city, and build outwards. The city cannot afford a grandiose plan at the tune of, several billion.

[goofy328]

Originally Posted by natterer

It's just that the way land is used in a lot of the metro area is not very appealing. For example, I recently pulled off the freeway at a random exit around Inkster, to fuel up and get something to eat. Even by the standards of freeway exit commercial clumps, it was quite ugly. The gas station was "next" to a restaurant, but the lots were odd, and there was an irregular area of grass and asphalt between them. Then an apparently vacant tire store. Then an empty lot, followed by another gas station.
The whole arrangement was just plain ugly. But this is how a lot of the metro area looks. You have the divided quasi-highway abutted by standalone stores or complexes, usually with quite a bit of physical space between them. Density is rare. Trying to walk or bike from store to store is suicidal.

If it's all you see, it probably seems normal, but if you travel around to other places, you start to understand just how ugly it really is. I would say that land has been MIS-used in the metro area more than it has been used in any sort of cohesive, intelligent fashion. And now with rising gas prices, many people will simply be screwed.

Detroit is perhaps the most suburban, urban, city in America. For a Northern city, it truly emulates what is wrong with a lot of Southern "Sun Belt" cities. Even Cleveland has a better developed urban core.

Downtown is still impressive though.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by goofy328

Detroit is perhaps the most suburban, urban, city in America. For a Northern city, it truly emulates what is wrong with a lot of Southern "Sun Belt" cities. Even Cleveland has a better developed urban core.

Downtown is still impressive though.

Yeah, the vast majority of the city of Detroit is not even really a city anymore, in the way most people think of one.

It is in bad shape. Such a large geographic area with an ever-plummetting population.

One can only imagine what the neighborhoods will look like in 50 years.

And the inner ring suburbs aren't far terribly far behind.

[Bimmerfanboy]

Detroit proper and the inner-ring suburbs are ugly that's for sure. But if you head further north on I-75 there are some beautiful areas.

But as a whole, metro Detroit is not as wealthy as some other metros. All they know in Detroit is cars and frankly they aren't very good with them either. Other metros are home to big IT/tech firms, financial firms, start-ups, etc. But I've been to many cities and generally, suburbs are suburbs. There are nice ones and there are ugly ones.

[aoletsgo]

I have traveled to many cities and metro Detroit is not that bad compared to most. I would even say it is better than many, Houston and Cleveland come to mind. As others have said the cost of housing is relatively cheap and we have both a lot of suburbs with cute little downtowns and many, many communities that offer waterfront living.

[jonnynonos]

The metro area as a whole certainly isn't ugly; there are a lot of wonderful towns and cities.

There are also quite a few ugly ones. But, from what I can see, that is true of most large urban areas.

[scorpio516]

I skipped all the posts 3+ years old...

Metro Detroit IS ugly. And it looks like just about every other midwest metro area.

It'll never look like a west coast metro area, because it wasn't built in the same time, with the same materials, and the same owners. HOWEVER, if you plopped someone from the west coast or the south, blindfolded, into metro Detroit, then metro Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Columbus, Indy, St. Louis, etc. they couldn't tell which is which (except for geography, Lake Michigan for Chicago/Milwaukee, lake Erie, more hills in St Louis, etc). Its due to the regional vernacular architecture.

[jonnynonos]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

I skipped all the posts 3+ years old...

Metro Detroit IS ugly. And it looks like just about every other midwest metro area.

It'll never look like a west coast metro area, because it wasn't built in the same time, with the same materials, and the same owners. HOWEVER, if you plopped someone from the west coast or the south, blindfolded, into metro Detroit, then metro Chicago, Milwaukee, Cleveland, Columbus, Indy, St. Louis, etc. they couldn't tell which is which (except for geography, Lake Michigan for Chicago/Milwaukee, lake Erie, more hills in St Louis, etc). Its due to the regional vernacular architecture.

I am only extremely familiar with Detroit and Chicago and, while they are similar in some senses, you can't really just lump them together as indistinguishable.