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Old 09-07-2010, 10:09 AM
 
750 posts, read 1,430,451 times
Reputation: 1837

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Quote:
Originally Posted by RememberMee View Post
Don't say about Downriver, but if a 6 page town newspaper has 3 pages dedicated to school sports, 2 pages to ads, 1 page to everything else under the Sun, there is something deeply unsettling and stifling about that.
Maybe it's just a crappy paper.

I agree, the main downriver paper is a bit of a fishwrap, so my response was to just not subscribe. (Not hard to do, since, even when I DID subscribe, I hardly ever saw a paper)

The fact that it's a crappy newspaper says nothing about the citizens living in the area, their intelligence or their values.

A few years ago, the area was ripe for an entrepreneur to start a good local newspaper, but since newspaper readership has declined substantially nationwide, probably not realistic now.

I do hope we have convinced the unhappy OP to move on to a place where he/she will be appreciated and loved.

 
Old 09-07-2010, 12:20 PM
 
7 posts, read 32,510 times
Reputation: 17
Ann Arbor is the best if ya want progressive. Its my fave. However it would be fair to say that AA is a liberal, leftist kind of place. There are more hippies, enviromentalists, activists and other "ists" there than any other place in Michigan. Oakland county is definitely more progressive than most places in Michigan yet it retains that conservative republican feel.

Downriver is truly the pits of Michigan. Its the armpit of Michigan. You got more smelly industrial sites there and a busy airport. Bluecollar is allright but there is a certain something different and worse with downriver. Its former bluecollar becoming no-collar. Sign of this people degeneration include obesity, delinquent kids, worship of ghetto culture ideals, no appreciation for the subtler things in life like art and nature. Life is spent between the TV set, fast food, cases of beer, cigarrettes, and movie rentals. Certainly not the only place in Michigan like that but it seems worse in downriver. The only other area that reminds me of downriver is Flint.

Wyandotte is often referred to as the "up and coming part" part of downriver but theyve been saying that for years and its very overrated. Grosse Ile is beautiful, but alas, it suffers from downriver-itis too. Nice homes there but they would be worth so much more if they were in birmingham or royal oak. Grosse Ile is affected for sure. I suppose the first few blocks next to the detroit river could be pretty nice areas too. Its waterfront afterall. Sort of true except for the many industrial sites right along the river. You got toxic wastesites allover and breezes have frequent nasty smells, sometimes that burn your sinuses.
 
Old 09-07-2010, 09:54 PM
 
17 posts, read 69,326 times
Reputation: 23
Once again, I am far from a snob. In fact, I know what it feels like to live with snobs. I was raised in West Dearborn, and, for whatever reason, the people there had their noses far in the air - it was ridiculous. Even worse, was the fact that they had transferred their attitudes to their repulsive gentrified children. The ironic thing is, Dearborn was far from ritzy, yet these moronic people seemed to think it was gods grace on earth.
 
Old 09-07-2010, 10:43 PM
 
Location: Motown
323 posts, read 1,126,701 times
Reputation: 200
Quote:
Originally Posted by ehondo670 View Post
Once again, I am far from a snob. In fact, I know what it feels like to live with snobs. I was raised in West Dearborn, and, for whatever reason, the people there had their noses far in the air - it was ridiculous. Even worse, was the fact that they had transferred their attitudes to their repulsive gentrified children. The ironic thing is, Dearborn was far from ritzy, yet these moronic people seemed to think it was gods grace on earth.
I've heard that about Dearborn's past. Wonder if that attitude permeates today.
 
Old 09-09-2010, 12:24 AM
 
5,697 posts, read 19,070,484 times
Reputation: 8693
I grew up in the Downriver area and have lived in several places since then. I can say Downriver is not the worst place nationwide, however I do understand some of the things you are uncomfortable with. I left a couple of years ago and hope to never set roots there again. Its not that I think its a horrible place, its just not for me. I had always wanted to leave since I was a kid. I got married and started a family and felt stuck. Finally I convinced my husband to leave the area and we think it was the best decision for us.

It is a true meat and potatoes type of area. Mostly blue collar, hard working people but I found growing up there, education was always put on the back burner. Why go to college when you can get a perfectly good job working at Ford's or become a welder, etc.? That mind set has really hurt the area, IMO. I grew up in the Lincoln Park school system and even back then the district offered a pretty crappy education. I hear its even worse now. I lived in several cities in the Downriver area and found the mentality to be a lot of the same. Wyandotte is over rated and I spent 5 yrs there. It was hell. Corrupt city government and the schools are over rated. I saw one mother get bullied into putting her child at the special ed school when her son was struggling. Wyandotte likes to keep their numbers up. If they slap a kid that is struggling into the "special ed" school it helps. I saw a lot of corruption within scouting, little league and so forth. Lots of do gooder parents that seem to profit financially from being a leader or volunteer.

Grosse Ile although located in the area is not considered part of downriver by most people I know. It is a misconception that everyone on the island is rich but it is set apart from the rest of the cities in mentality. The education system on the island has always been top notch. The islanders can say they are regular folk but the rest of area does not view them as such. One of the favorite pass times when I was a teen, was heading to the island to go mailbox bashing (for the record, not I.) Not one of these kids felt they were going to smash up a regular Joe's mailbox. People on the island are viewed as having money. My father in law actually lived on the island for years. His house was one of the original cottages and was a complete dump. He loved telling people he lived on the island because most assumed he had a grand place.

OP-life is too short to be in a place you are unhappy. Ya downriver is not paradise but I do miss how down to earth the people are. Other than that, I was ready to move on and glad I did. Good luck to you.
 
Old 09-09-2010, 12:58 PM
 
Location: Grosse Ile Michigan
30,701 posts, read 79,330,237 times
Reputation: 39408
It depends on where you are downriver. Lincoln Park is very blue collar and not education oriented. Schools are nto good there, Allen Park and Wyandotte also have pretty bad schools. However Trenton, Woodhaven, and Riverview all have pretty decent schools. I think Southgate has reasonably good schools as well. I really like Wyandotte except for the schools. They have a very nice lively downtown, some fantastic housing options, a pleasant riverfront park and other ameneties, plus the City has its own power plant. It is too bad that it is or was corrupt. IF that is true, the solution is to get active and oppose the corruption. It is a lot of work, but you cna make a difference. We had to do that in a city that we lived in some time ago. Agter a couple of hard faught grass roots recalls, the counsil and school board quickly cleaned up their act.

What I do not understand is why Gibraltar is not a nicer area than it is. It is in a really nice location. It has some nice houses and tries to have a neat little downtown area, but Gibraltar is not considered a "nice" area and their schools are not so great. Why is that?
 
Old 09-11-2010, 11:48 PM
 
97 posts, read 431,177 times
Reputation: 65
Just not the area for you. Sounds like it is more for families with children. Athletic and extracurricular oriented community. I went to High School in Shepherd. Your description reminds me a lot of Shepherd. Nothing wrong with, just not for you. Move.
 
Old 09-12-2010, 12:47 AM
 
Location: Macao
16,284 posts, read 42,954,513 times
Reputation: 10231
Quote:
Originally Posted by prairietraveler View Post
Life is spent between the TV set, fast food, cases of beer, cigarrettes, and movie rentals. Certainly not the only place in Michigan like that but it seems worse in downriver.
Sounds like most of MI!
 
Old 09-12-2010, 01:01 AM
 
57 posts, read 205,777 times
Reputation: 33
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiger Beer View Post
Sounds like most of MI!
Port Huron is actually the worst of the worst in Michigan what you describe of downriver describes PH perfectly just add at least 10 points less IQ, preachy religious people, crackheads everywhere and a dysfunctional city government that is so bad the judge who is the prosecutor of people for drunk driving is on a teather and rides the bus to work cause she was caught drinking and driving, also add fighting and drama almost everyday on top of everybody trying to be "ghetto" to be cool and there is strong judgment if you don't try to fit in. It got so bad living there that I felt using the word Port Huron was like swear word. Most of us just called it Porch Urine or Port Urine once I even heard someone call it The Port of Dopes and I liked that the best.

I moved there about a and if you look at the city without knowing anything about it, it looks beautiful and inviting. I never made the worst decision in my entire life. First off I am Autistic and tried to get into Community Mental Health (they denied me 4 times), no jobs were available. Through out the course of me being in this town I was carjacked at gunpoint once taken down to detroit and forced to give my car to this crackhead cause I would not buy/give him drugs or cooperate with his messed up plan. I had two cameras stolen from me out of the back of my car (that was before this incident) I had my 800 dollar computer stolen from my house cause I left the window unlocked, I had this crackhead he/she that I met while taking somone over to CMH steal my cell phone, playstation, about 200 dollars all because my supposed best friend trusted him, and then as a matter of respect (the way port huron works he later said) he said I could not grab my playstation and cell phone or snoop around her house to find it once I had a feeling she was going to take off with it. Finding good and honest people in this town is hard even if you go to legetimate places to meet friends. Literally almost everyone I met (about 30+ people from all around the city) was either on drugs, alchohol, or both. I had about 5 incidents where crackheads kind of moved themselves in and took over my apartment and would not leave. Even the poliece told me that there wasnt much they could do. I heard of about five suicides the last two weeks I was there alone. The last day I lived there someone got into an arguement on my front lawn with a knife and cut themselves. Then later that night my supposed friends taunted her and tryed to hurt her while she was crying on the street corner. My friend told her she was too young and too beautiful to live in port huron. The list goes on this is only about 20% of the bad things that happened to me in port huron. A lot of stuff was stolen from me at different times through out the course of a year that I lived there (including 8 Mp3 Players 3 Digital Cameras, 3 Tv's, 3 Bikes, 2 boom boxes, A comcast cable box, lots of clothes, About 3 pieces of furnature, over a thousand dollars, several refrigerators worth of food, an electronic razor, My wallet with just about everything in it, about 60 pills that I was prescribed to, a couple board games, and several headphones) I had two formal break ins one in broad daylight at 2:00 in the afternoon with me inside the house (ski maskes baseball bat crowbar they just took off the door and did not even care that my neighbors were watching and stole the tv comcast box and my "friends" x box) I just pretended to be asleep when this happened and the cops took 10 minutes to get there after a neighbor called 911 and then just pretended to investigate and never caught the guy or called me back or anything. People here are for the most part arragant, judgemental, non progressive, and basically all this town is is a bunch of predators trying to "hustle" eachother and prey on the few good people that have the misfortune of moving here. At least thats my experience by no means have I told anywhere near it all but I think you get the picture.

Ann Arbor, Ferndale, and Sagatuck is the best of Michigan at least in my opinion. Traverse City and Marquette is great also as well as Tecumseh.
 
Old 09-14-2010, 01:37 AM
 
98 posts, read 180,108 times
Reputation: 50
The entire state is formally a ghetto now because of outsourcing and because of Detroit being a burden for so long.
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