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Erie, Pennsylvania has some nice surprises too, including Presque Isle State Park. It also has a pretty impressive downtown for being on the smaller side.
I was surprised by how pleasant some parts of the Detroit metro area are. You hear Detroit and you don't necessarily have positive associations, but being there I realized that it's really not that different from a lot of American cities in that there's 'bad parts' but also a lot of nice stuff around it. Walking down a leafy street in Grosse Pointe and then taking your boat out onto the lake..it's nice, nicer than many places in far more hyped metro areas.
While it may not be remarkable that a rich area is nice, I mean it's the same everywhere isn't it? It's not like the poorest parts of L.A., Oakland or Palm Beach county are all that hot to be around either.
I was surprised by how pleasant some parts of the Detroit metro area are. You hear Detroit and you don't necessarily have positive associations, but being there I realized that it's really not that different from a lot of American cities in that there's 'bad parts' but also a lot of nice stuff around it. Walking down a leafy street in Grosse Pointe and then taking your boat out onto the lake..it's nice, nicer than many places in far more hyped metro areas.
While it may not be remarkable that a rich area is nice, I mean it's the same everywhere isn't it? It's not like the poorest parts of L.A., Oakland or Palm Beach county are all that hot to be around either.
Every major city has some posh suburbs. Detroit has plenty of them and that's not a surprise. I'd be more surprised if Detroit didn't have some nice areas. Ever go to Birmingham, MI?
Bottom line is there are rich people in every city of decent size. All of them need lawyers, doctors, business owners, etc. And those people live in nice communities.
Decatur IL is a dump, I used to have a client there and sure enough, the CFO invited us for dinner at his posh country club, right on a beautiful lake on the edge of town. That was when I realized that no matter what, there are always islands of nice/posh spots, even in crappy cities.
Every major city has some posh suburbs. Detroit has plenty of them and that's not a surprise. I'd be more surprised if Detroit didn't have some nice areas. Ever go to Birmingham, MI?
Bottom line is there are rich people in every city of decent size. All of them need lawyers, doctors, business owners, etc. And those people live in nice communities.
Decatur IL is a dump, I used to have a client there and sure enough, the CFO invited us for dinner at his posh country club, right on a beautiful lake on the edge of town. That was when I realized that no matter what, there are always islands of nice/posh spots, even in crappy cities.
Yep exactly. Every majorish metro (over 500k people) has an enclave of more affluent neighborhoods. As you pointed out, even tiny micropolitian areas can have nice areas as well. The rust belt cities especially have affluent suburbs because the wealth fled the cities long ago (with some obvious exceptions).
The difference is some metro areas such as San Francisco and Bridegport, CT have a much higher proportion of upper income areas than metros such as Las Vegas or Memphis-although those two metros certainly have their upper crust areas such as Summerlin and Germantown.
Duluth, Minnesota is plopped in the midst of a massive pine forest on the shores of Lake Superior. It is (un)surprisingly active and outdoorsy for a rust belt city.
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