[tiffanyw55]

My husband and I are moving to MI in two months so he can start law school at Detroit Mercy Law school. I believe this school is in downtown and I have heard its an unsafe place to live. I told him we can move if we find a nice, clean, and SAFE community/city.

I have heard that Livonia, Royal Oak, Farmington, Fendale, and Grosse Pointes are all good places. Do you agree?

Do you have any other suggestions?

Please help!

[belleislerunner]

How nice of you to approve his move.

There are nice, clean safe communities all over. Downtown Detroit is relatively safe. Also check out Ferndale or Royal Oak. I presume you're in you're 20's so Livonia, Farmington and Grosse Pointe would be a little too boring for you - those are where married folks with kids go to settle down. Anywhere along the Woodward corridor (skipping Midtown to 8 Mile) would be your best bet - lots of good restaurants, bars, stores - which includes Ferndale, Royal Oak, Huntington Woods, Birmingham...

[MI-Roger]

You didn't say where you are moving from, but be aware that Michigan has effectively ZERO public transportation. In the home state of the "motor city" it is just assumed that everyone will own one or more automobiles.

Depending on your sense of adventure, the Mid Town area of Detroit is suddenly becoming popular with young adults. Located between the University/Medical Center area (another option) and the Theatre/Stadium district.

Two of my yongest son's high school classmates recently graduated from UD-Mercy School of Law. They commuted daily from the Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti area. Ann Arbor is very popular with young adults and is about 30 miles away from UD-Mercy.

[LP10]

I Suggest

Larger Cities
Dearborn
Dearborn Heights
Taylor (North Of Goddard
Southfield
Farmington Hills
Livonia
Royal Oak
Troy
St Clair shores
Warren
Macomb Twp
Shelby twp
Rochester Hills
Romulus (South Of Eureka)
Westland
Canton
Madison Heights
Clinton Twp
Harrison Twp
West Bloomfield
-------------------------
Smaller Cities
Wayne
Allen Park
Melvindale (West Of Dix)
Inkster (East Of Inkster, North Of Avondale)
Garden City
Harper Woods
Grosse Pointes
Lincoln Park
Wyandotte
Riverview
trenton
Southgate
Plymouth
Farmington
Berkley
Huntington woods
ferndale
Lathrup Village
Fraser
Center Line
Hazel Park
Madison Heights
Birmingham
Beverly Hills

[tiffanyw55]

Thanks for the responses so far. We are moving from Arizona, so this will be a big adjustment!

[danielj72]

Originally Posted by tiffanyw55

My husband and I are moving to MI in two months so he can start law school at Detroit Mercy Law school. I believe this school is in downtown and I have heard its an unsafe place to live. I told him we can move if we find a nice, clean, and SAFE community/city.

I have heard that Livonia, Royal Oak, Farmington, Fendale, and Grosse Pointes are all good places. Do you agree?

Do you have any other suggestions?

Please help!

I live in rural Michigan not in metro Detroit, but from visiting the area I can say that those towns you listed are good ones. Add to it Novi, Northville, Troy as those are all nice suburban towns. You were told right about downtown Detroit, it is NOT safe no matter what the Detroit defenders come on here and say. One visit to Detroit proper should be enough to convince you of how unsafe and unpleasant most of Detroit proper is. There is a small area downtown where the sports stadiums, and casinos are that is relativly safe and nice to visit. It is however an island of sanity surrounded by a sea of urban decay. Google the phrase "ruins of Detroit" and you can watch you tube video of what the city looks like. You will enjoy your time in southeastern Michigan much more if you choose to live in the northern or western suburbs of Detroit. In fact suburban Detroit is the REAL Detroit, no one in Michigan or suburban Detroit really even pays attention to Detroit proper anymore anyway. ITs half abandoned and dangerous. Good luck to ya.

[DaniellaG]

I lived in the suburbs most my life. I can't really give feedback on Detroit cause in 30 years I went there only to the Fox or similar.
A lot of people work or go to school in Detroit and live in the suburbs.
What is your price range,are you looking to rent,what type of lifestyle are you looking for? Will either of you be working? Do you plan on having kids?
A couple cities I think are nice for both families and young people would be Birmingham,West Bloomfield,Bloomfield Hills. All upscale,safe,good schools and a short drive to malls,restaurants,etc. In Royal Oak/Ferndale it has more night life. Gross Pointe I heard is nice but I don't know much about. Livonia and Farmington have a mix of ok and nicer areas it really depends. I think Farmington Hills for the most part is nicer then those 2 cities.

[Coldjensens]

I will join the voices suggesting downtown or mid town detroit or Royal Oak or Ferndale. Other nice places will probably be boring to you and will cost too much. Ann Arbor would be fun for you but costly and a long commute.

WHen considering downtwon and midtown Detroit try to avoid listenting to the nay sayers who reeally know nothing about the city and do not know the difference between Downtwon, Mid town cork town (another decent possibility) and some of the nasty outlying areas where the decay and crime problems are prevailing. Parts of Detroit are very nice, parts are decent, parts are awful. If you want to know whcih is which, you need to find someone who lives in the area, not someone who heard rumours or drove through some part of the city once (and did not know where in the city they were), or looked at a shock effect video on the internet. Some of the ruptedly nice suburbs are as close or closer ot some of the awful areas of Detroit than Downtown or midtown are.


That is not to say that either downtown or mid town are perfect. There are some plusses and minuses of each, and you need to learn to stay in your area. I am just suggesting that you do nto listen to people who cannot even identify those areas or compare them to the west side as if it is all the same place.

[Bhaalspawn]

Out of curiosity, why does your husband want to go to law school and why would he want to relocate to attend a "fourth tier toilet" (no name law school devoid of any prestige value) like that? Does he think that he will earn a large amount of money as a lawyer and have abundant job opportunities? Does he have a guaranteed job lined up for after he graduates?

Before you and your husband invest perhaps as much as $150,000 (tuition + living expenses) and three years of time, you might want to seriously investigate those issues. In reality, the legal profession is a very, very heavily glutted field and a huge number of law school graduates, perhaps more than 60%, are never able to find law jobs. Even if you can find a job in the profession, because of the glut it is a cutthroat, miserable profession. (Many laypeople are aware that graduates from top ten law schools (which Mercy is certainly not) can sometimes get plum jobs at large firms that pay over $125,000/year, but what they don't know is that they are also working 70+ intense hours per week under great stress, they are very miserable, and they often get laid-off within a few years after they start.)

As a public service message and as an eye opener, you and your husband should read the JD Underground discussion forum and some of the law school "scambuster" blogs.

JD Underground
THIRD TIER REALITY
Law School Scambusting resources
But I Did Everything Right!
Fluster Cucked
The Law School Tuition Bubble

Here's the review of the Mercy School of Law at the Third Tier Reality blog. Be sure to read the comments that people have posted.

http://thirdtierreality.blogspot.com...tier-dung.html

I'm not saying all of this to trash you and your husband's dreams or to be mean. I'm trying to spare you guys from what may be a lifetime of heavy student loan debt (that cannot be discharged in bankruptcy) and frustration. The general populace, including a great many prospective law students, have absolutely no idea what's going on in this profession (nor in higher education in general).

Here's a comment that was posted in that post (Nov 10, 2010 at 1:08 pm)

My ex-husband went to this god awful school graduating in 2005. My life has been hell ever since. I'm sure his has been hell too, but I don't care. He has not paid a ^%@*%#)&@**!@ dime of child support in over 12 months. I wish he would walk into this bathroom, slip on the floor and break hjis neck. If anyone cares, he took out more than $100,000 to finance his legal education.

Here's another comment from Nov 11, 2010 at 4:01 pm). Note that this guy claims to have graduated from a Top 50 law school (Tier 1) as opposed to Tier 4 (bottom 151-200).

I am a recent graduate from a Tier 1 law school and every time I read your blog and other anti law school blogs my eyes swell up with tears. I can't stop crying. I was unemployed and forced to move back home with my parents and they said what a loser I was for not making it on my own. I actually smashed my law school diploma with a stapler the other day. All the glass shattered in the frame. My mother went psycho yelling at me because she thought I had lost my mind. I really regret going to law school. I should have done something in health care or business instead. My parents keep putting me down because I can't find a job, but they don't know how hard I've been trying. Sometimes I get so sad and I feel like killing myself. I don't know what to do.

[chancy319]

The places LP10 are pretty much the best places. I will like to put emphasis on places like Troy, Southfield, Birmingham, Beverly Hills, Saline, Ann Arbor. All nice suburbs with varying degrees of commercialism. You definitely don't want to live in DD (Downtown Detroit).