Best Place to Live in Metro Detroit (Sterling Heights, Ann Arbor: neighborhood, schools)

[Vicman]

Do you know the acceptance rates of Detroit School of Arts, Cass Tech, and/or Renaissance? Are admissions purely based on test scores and/or conduct, or are lotteries and/or free/reduced lunch statuses also criteria?

[Coldjensens]

Renaissance is testing and performance (grades); DSA is audition/proven talent, but they may have academic criteria too. Not sure about Cass Tech, but I think it is testing as well. Sorry no idea whether they relax adacemic criteria to adjust for socio-economic hurdles

If I remember correctly, DSA you can seek admittance for a specific area of study (vocal music, acting, painting, instrumental music etc). You do not have to stay in that area if you prove you have the talent for something else. However I could be mixing it up with anther school. It was a while ago we looked at their admission standards.

[MS313]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

I drive through these neighborhoods every day on my commute. Yes, the neighborhoods and homes are nice, but it's still an extremely sketchy area. Every single business and restaurant has bulletproof glass shielding their counters.

No they don't. And I doubt you been to every single business in that entire area he's talking about which is probably a good 10 square miles at least. North Rosedale Park to Martin Park is a good 6 or 7 miles. And even then, that does not make an area sketchy, it's a freaking city. I've been to (not rich) but decent neighborhood in LA, ATL, Miami, Chicago, STL where businesses still have bulletproof glass. There are alot of thieves that will target businesses in a decent neighborhood mostly because they let they're guard down. They just target places of opportunity, and lucky for the burbs, commercial strips in Detroit are alot closer than Novi or Birmingham.

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by MS313

No they don't. And I doubt you been to every single business in that entire area he's talking about which is probably a good 10 square miles at least. North Rosedale Park to Martin Park is a good 6 or 7 miles. And even then, that does not make an area sketchy, it's a freaking city. I've been to (not rich) but decent neighborhood in LA, ATL, Miami, Chicago, STL where businesses still have bulletproof glass. There are alot of thieves that will target businesses in a decent neighborhood mostly because they let they're guard down. They just target places of opportunity, and lucky for the burbs, commercial strips in Detroit are alot closer than Novi or Birmingham.

Thanks for proving my point for me. If criminals are targeting a certain area, it's sketchy.

[Vicman]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

Thanks for proving my point for me. If criminals are targeting a certain area, it's sketchy.

I recall that neighborhoods with a certain level of affluence but are on the knife's edge may get targeted by crooks. Here's a Houston example: South Park was developed in the 1950s as suburban housing. Around the 1970s white flight happened and it became black but it had some affluence left. Crack cocaine hit the 80s and crime started rising. Still Standing | Houston Press

South Park became the stuff of legend as it almost cannibalized itself in the '80s and '90s with violent robberies and drive-by shootings.

By 2011 it was totally destitute and the police said criminals don't really care anymore about South Park.

"The criminal element destroyed itself," he states, plainly. "You can only steal so much before it's all gone. You gonna break into a house already has the door hangin' off it, ain't nothing inside but dirt? The bad guys moved on to Alief, Hiram Clark."

And South Park now? "Pickins is slim over there," he sighs.

Depending on how the economy goes and/or how well private security or DPD protect the communities, the neighborhood may stay the same or it may go south as South Park did.

[usroute10]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

Thanks for proving my point for me. If criminals are targeting a certain area, it's sketchy.

If the Grandmont-Rosedale Park area is sketchy, then the entire city of Detroit is sketchy, because basically, it doesn't get any better in Detroit than the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhoods.

Just because businesses have bulletproof glass doesn't mean it is a dangerous neighborhood. It's just the reality of doing business in a city that has the highest rate of violent crime in America.

Now that I think about, there are businesses along Grand River that don't have bulletproof glass, like the CVS, McDonald's, the Coffee Shop/Bookstore.

[MS313]

Thanks for proving my point for me. If criminals are targeting a certain area, it's sketchy.

Criminals are known for targeting tourist areas as well, does that make the Vegas Strip, French Quarter, Times Square, South Beach ect sketchy?

Originally Posted by usroute10

If the Grandmont-Rosedale Park area is sketchy, then the entire city of Detroit is sketchy, because basically, it doesn't get any better in Detroit than the Grandmont-Rosedale neighborhoods.

Just because businesses have bulletproof glass doesn't mean it is a dangerous neighborhood. It's just the reality of doing business in a city that has the highest rate of violent crime in America.

Now that I think about, there are businesses along Grand River that don't have bulletproof glass, like the CVS, McDonald's, the Coffee Shop/Bookstore.

That's basically what he's getting at, everything in the city is sketchy. And there are quite a few business over there that don't have bulletproof glass. And it's not even that, there's a gas station in downtown Kalamazoo that has bulletproof glass and downtown Kalamazoo is not dangerous or sketchy. I have yet to visit one major city where some stores don't have bulletproof glass. I've seen bulletproof glass in places like the northside of Chicago, near French Quarter New Orleans, in Long Beach, LA, and Miami where the neighborhood didn't seem sketchy at all. Come to think of it, aren't there businesses in downtown and midtown that have bulletproof glass as well?

[Vicman]

Criminals do target mass tourism areas and major shopping malls - However my impression is that it's usually petty theft.

Originally Posted by MS313

Criminals are known for targeting tourist areas as well, does that make the Vegas Strip, French Quarter, Times Square, South Beach ect sketchy?

In Houston places in sketchy areas have bulletproof glass but in better areas AFAIK only the banks have bulletproof glass.

In previous eras Downtown and Midtown Detroit had more issues with crime, so I imagine some of the businesses still have holdovers.

That's basically what he's getting at, everything in the city is sketchy. And there are quite a few business over there that don't have bulletproof glass. And it's not even that, there's a gas station in downtown Kalamazoo that has bulletproof glass and downtown Kalamazoo is not dangerous or sketchy. I have yet to visit one major city where some stores don't have bulletproof glass. I've seen bulletproof glass in places like the northside of Chicago, near French Quarter New Orleans, in Long Beach, LA, and Miami where the neighborhood didn't seem sketchy at all. Come to think of it, aren't there businesses in downtown and midtown that have bulletproof glass as well?

[Arthur Digby Sellers]

Originally Posted by MS313

Criminals are known for targeting tourist areas as well, does that make the Vegas Strip, French Quarter, Times Square, South Beach ect sketchy?

I've been to all of those places. Can't remember a single business where I had to transact business through a bulletproof window.

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Arthur Digby Sellers

I've been to all of those places. Can't remember a single business where I had to transact business through a bulletproof window.

Times square used to be loaded with bulet proof glass windows. But it has changed since 1988.

Last place I remember encountering one was Oklahoma City. Maybe one in St. Louis too I think. memory is dim, it does not really stand out beyond "Oh that is interesting, I have no seen that in a while" so it is nto something you really remember.

Seems like I saw a gas station around here with the double window and turnstile. I think they figure out it really did not offer much protection (second shot goes through with many guns - fine against a .22 but it it not going to stop today powerful guns for more than a shot or if lucky two.). They should have been called bullet resistant, not proof, and Lexan - not glass. (a few were glass, not many).