[Elyse33]

Good Morning and thank you in advance for your help.

I am 55 and will be relocating to Michigan to be closer to cousins I have in Midland! I like Midland, but I am also hoping the property I buy will be an investment for my children and a place they will enjoy visiting me. I prefer to be within an hour of Midland or Saginaw.

Honestly, I would probably enjoy Traverse City or Saugatuck more, but I would rather stay closer to family. Restaurants, wine and shopping are not as appealing as they used to be

I've looked at a lot of areas online, my favorite being Grand Haven. I thought of purchasing a bed and breakfast in Cadillac. I've looked into East Tawas etc. I've studied and studied.

The problem is almost everything seems to be 2-3 hours from Midland. So now I am wondering about Bay City? I've heard crime is bad however.

What about Linwood or Au Gres?

Thank You!

I have lived in Dallas the last 20 years but spent time in Ann Arbor and have always missed it So I know Michigan weather.

[michmoldman]

There is a decent beach in the Bay City recreational area, but by far the best one in that area would be Caseville. Not sure about Linwood or Au-Gres, but for some reason I am picturing more wetland area instead of beach...I may be wrong though.

[Elyse33]

Yes, I've looked into Caseville a little bit. Thanks for your input here. Where are you in TC?

[michmoldman]

Originally Posted by Elyse33

Yes, I've looked into Caseville a little bit. Thanks for your input here. Where are you in TC?

Lol...I wish! I'm between Flint and Lansing. We camp all over the state and were at Caseville a few years ago. It was a great beach!
Bay City is not that bad actually, I really dont hear Bay City named much whenever I hear of shootings and all that...mostly Saginaw, Flint and Detroit. My wife is from BC, so I go quite often, and I lived there for a bit when I was younger...and really liked it. You said you looked into the Tawas area...did you like it? I love that area! Its actually one of my most favorite areas in the whole state. Tawas Point State Park has a GREAT beach.

[Coldjensens]

We just stayed in a nice B & B in Bay City last weekend. It is one of hte best B & Bs we have ever visited. (Webster House).

Bay City seemed decent enough. A few good resturaunts and some nice shops. However the City was pretty much empty. Very few people around and many shops were closed for the weekend.

We ate at Old City Hall returaunt where the food was fantastic. I parked and left the tops out of my car in part because there was a convertable Jag parked in front of me and I figured if it was safe for them, it was safe for me. At the resturaunt I asked the waitress if my car would be ok left open on the street like that and she said there is a risk of it getting rained on, but otherwise, there was no need to worry about it.

We walked around Bay City at various times of day and night and saw nothing scary, no graffitti, no gang types or nasty looking people, mostly it was empty. The people we did see appeared to be upper middle class professional types.

None of the places we ate were cheap and the B & B was $200/night, so there must be suficient busniness and professional people around to support pricy places. Further the giant antique mall was mostly overpriced, so again, there must be people around who are sufficiently wealthy to pay inflated prices for antiques (since they are still open).

We liked Bay City. The housing stock is beautiful. The town is clean and seemed safe. We found it worth a return visit (especially if we can find a time when everyhting is open).

[Elyse33]

Thank you ColdJensens I also ate at that restaurant recently. I just wonder if it is going to recover. I've been trying to get a handle on what indurstry will be there next, or what businesses are moving into the area. Housing has really been decimated there.

[Elyse33]

Originally Posted by michmoldman

Lol...I wish! I'm between Flint and Lansing. We camp all over the state and were at Caseville a few years ago. It was a great beach!
Bay City is not that bad actually, I really dont hear Bay City named much whenever I hear of shootings and all that...mostly Saginaw, Flint and Detroit. My wife is from BC, so I go quite often, and I lived there for a bit when I was younger...and really liked it. You said you looked into the Tawas area...did you like it? I love that area! Its actually one of my most favorite areas in the whole state. Tawas Point State Park has a GREAT beach.

Thanks well I'm going to drive up there this summer and see it!

It may be too isolated for me. Thanks for the Bay City info.

[Giesela]

I'm not sure why your thread is titled Nicest Bay City beach....it sounds like you are still pretty wide open in terms of places to live.
Exactly what are you looking for? A place to open a B&B? Is that what you do in Dallas?
Is that what is driving your search? Info like that might be more helpful.

[ROfan]

I grew up in Bay City and honestly I know of no nice beaches there. Once upon a time the state park had a nice beach but it has been plagued by muck problems for years and been allowed to revert back to nature in terms of not grooming the sand and letting the cattails grow.

Nice beaches can be found further north: Tawas as already mentioned, Oscoda, and the Traverse City area.

If you can do without a beach, downtown Bay City on the riverfront is very nice, as are some of the older historic neighborhoods around Center Avenue. Midland also is a very nice community and has lovely neighborhoods and housing stock. There is a man made lake in a town called Sanford that is not too far from Midland.

As for downtown Bay City being deserted, sadly that's common barring any special weekend events. The two antique stores (it has the appearance of one giant one) are one of my favorite places to roam, especially the basements where there are some sellers with huge collections of vintage magazines. I once found a print of a Dutch floral painting among them that I framed and still get compliments on. Is their stuff overpriced? Some of it. You do see the same items not budge year after year. But I think their prices are a hell of a lot better than Knightsbridge in Northville or the Traverse City antique shops.

As far as upper class people walking around downtown during your visit Coldjensens, they likely were tourists, too. Bay City was a solidly middle-middle class town when I was a kid in the 80s and early 90s but most of the more well to do folks have died, moved away, or their kids moved away, leaving behind a decidedly lower class of people. It's sad to see the degradation that's occurred over the past decade.