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Hey guys!
I'm curious about Redford. Is it a good and safe place to live? Is it better than Taylor. My parents are moving to Michigan and they are considering Redford. Not Redford township but redford. It would be great if someone would be detailed about it!
Also what are your thoughts on Allen park and inkster? Is inkster really that bad?
But please let me know all you know about Redford
It would be great
TIA!
Old Redford got swallowed up by Detroit. It is no longer a separate place. If they are moving to Redford not Redford township then they are moving to a fairly rough part of Detroit. This is an area that used to be a pretty bad area, but lately more and more people are taking an interest in it. It has pretty decent housing stock with houses for next to nothing. I saw one house there that I considered awesome. It was $125,000. The other houses on the street were int eh $14,000 range and many were boarded up, but they were neat houses and the street looked orderly and clean, kind of beautiful really if you ignored the boarded up or collapsed houses here and there. Many of the streets are park-like, lined with giant tress. However many of the houses are boarded up or gone or just a pile of burned out rubble. Schools are horrible to appalling. If you want to experiment with urban pioneering and take the related risks, this is a good area to look at if you do not have kids. There are streets in Old Redford that I would live on if I were alone. Not with my family.
One thing I learned recently. If you own and live in a house in Detroit and the City owns vacant lots next door, you are entitled to buy those lots form the City for $100 (unless they have some other use planned for them already). Find the right property and you could be well situated. You would want to know how to handle security well and, if I were going to live there, I would keep handgun and a shotgun close at hand.
Taylor is a poor suburb. It probably has lower crime than Redford, but I like it less. It is bland and boring. Lots of hicks of all races (compared to lots of empty in Redford). Bad schools. It does have a few redeeming features. Heritage Park, and you have the local area mall (technically in Southgate, but really pretty much surrounded by Taylor). There is also a community College branch (WCCC) and a golf course. Personally I would choose Redford over Taylor, but that might depend on where in Taylor. We looked at one house there. It is on Northline Road. It is a bizzarre house with an indoor swimming pool, 3 acres of land that back up to Heritage park. The second floor had lots of area where I cannot stand up (including a bathroom) and the back bedrooms require walking across a balcony over the pool to get tot he main part of the house. Still if it weren't for the traffic on Northline and the horrible schools, it would have interested me. Very affordable, heritage park is cool. Neat quirky house. However if there are three like that, I woudl be surprised.
Inkster - I know a few people who live there. Even they lock their doors when the go into their hometown. They hate Inkster.
I have heard nothing good about it at all. I have only been through it once or twice. It is not a good place for a wealthy White guy to be driving around. From what i know of it, Inkster would be dead last on my list of places I would consider living.
Allen park is ok. There is some decent housing stock, and the remains of a dying downtown. They have a $1.50 second run movie theater we like to go to sometimes (because our family of 7 a regular theater can break the bank). They also have a great music store. For what I call the "upper downriver" communities, it is probably the best of the bunch (Melvindale, River Rouge, Ecorse, Lincoln Park (and you can toss in Taylor too even though it is further downriver).
If they are interested in moderately dangerous run down but inexpensive communities, they might look at Ecorse. Parts of Ecorse are awful and scary, but other parts are kind of neat in a run down take a risk kind of way. They have a neat park with a tank and a helicopter. A slew of "get in a fight" type of taverns that would be fun to hang out in once you were accepted, and even some decent shops along Jefferson. Schools are horrible. Crime is pretty high. There is a nice balance of racial mix and it seems to be a true mixing which is unusual around here. While I would not live there with kids, and I would want my wife to have some training in street smarts, self defense and use of a handgun or at least mace or a tazer, if we were going to live there, I have recently thought it might be a kind of neat place to explore more. Ecorse also has a public library - my wife worked there for a couple of days. It was pretty terrifying.
So to ran the places you mentioned and add in Ecorse.
With a family:
Allen Park
Taylor
Ecorse
Redford (Detroit)
Inkster
Without a family:
Redford
Ecorse
Allen Park
Taylor
Inkster.
However those are my preferences. Ten different people would put these in a different order.
If not, then the only other Redford in Metro Detroit is Redford Township, which borders Detroit to the West. Redford Township is a run-down suburb that has two awful school districts and is losing population every year. It is one of the few suburbs where home values are still in decline. There are a lot of rental homes and Section 8 properties. The southern portion of Redford is generally considered nicer than the northern portion, which is crime ridden. But all of Redford has issues with crime. I would not recommend living there to anyone.
Inkster is an extremely run down suburb that has serious issues with crime and poverty. It is best known for its strip clubs and a seriously understaffed police force. Their school system was such a mess that the state shut it down entirely and sent the kids to surrounding school district. You don't want to drive through Inkster neighborhoods after dark much less live there.
Allen Park is a FAR better choice than either Inkster or Redford. It has seen better days, but is still a fairly solid suburb.
The only thing wrong with Allen Park really is the perception of downriver generally being bad within the region... but I'd rather live in a solid blue collar neighborhood with a reputation for being a bit white trashy than somewhere with any kind of crime issue.
Redford is pretty safe. I have an auntie and uncle who live in Redford. They never have any problems, their neighborhood is actually pretty diverse, most people keep their property up, ect.
I don't live in Redford, but I live close and frequent many places in Redford. I don't feel unsafe and I haven't ever seen a reason to be.
I also occasionally go to Meijer on Grand River in Detroit, which I believe is Old Redford, which is perfectly fine as well. It's actually a very nice store and is only a few years old.
Hey guys!
I'm curious about Redford. Is it a good and safe place to live? Is it better than Taylor. My parents are moving to Michigan and they are considering Redford. Not Redford township but redford. It would be great if someone would be detailed about it!
Also what are your thoughts on Allen park and inkster? Is inkster really that bad?
But please let me know all you know about Redford
It would be great
TIA!
What is the difference? NONE, they are the same.
There are TWO school districts--REDFORD SOUTH and REDFORD UNION.
I 96 divides the two school districts. I am thinking you are meaning Redford South, the area that is brick ranch homes?
We lived at 5 mile and Garfield for 6 years and really liked it there. In fact two of out three daughters also moved within 4 blocks of us.
That was 2003-2009, so what changes have happened I am not sure.
There are TWO school districts--REDFORD SOUTH and REDFORD UNION.
I 96 divides the two school districts. I am thinking you are meaning Redford South, the area that is brick ranch homes?
We lived at 5 mile and Garfield for 6 years and really liked it there. In fact two of out three daughters also moved within 4 blocks of us.
That was 2003-2009, so what changes have happened I am not sure.
There is a world of difference.
Old Redford is part of Detroit. It is actually not "redford" but people stil call it that. As such they were denied services of any kind for a while. The area decayed badly. It was an area to avoid for a while. Now it is still iffy, but mostly quiet and pretty empty. A few streets are being repopulated/restored. Some of course remained populated. Sometimes there are huge bad crime areas in parts of old Redford. Other parts a few blocks away are fine. The old Redford theater is there, and draws quite a few suburban visitors, but they all park in a secured lot, go to the theater, across the street to the ice cream/sandwich shop and then back to their car rather hurriedly.
Redford Township remained independent of Detroit. It was as mentioned a solidly middle class area. Between Livonia and Detroit both physically and social/economically. It was a pretty decent area until the recession during which is suffered worse decay than many areas. Lots of schools closed, houses were abandoned. The caliber of residents took a turn for the worse. It is recovering somewhat. Getting back to where it was in 2002, but I doubt it will reach the same level it was.
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