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Old 11-04-2015, 02:18 AM
 
Location: Detroit
3,671 posts, read 5,848,362 times
Reputation: 2691

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Quote:
Originally Posted by erablink View Post
Thanks MS313, I was afraid of that. It seems like there isn't really a central cultural and business district in Detroit Metro. Am I wrong about that? I'd probably have no problem living downtown, or in Midtown commuting to downtown or maybe the Ferndale area. However, I'm not sure this area alone really qualifies as "rife with employment opportunity" by any means? (Though I do hear good things about entrepreneurial opportunity in the area.) I'd also feel a bit restricted in my ability to meet "friends and romantic partners" in the area. I really don't know how the area fares in terms of art or an art scene, though I've heard talk about it. I appreciate all the things that are happening, but I just don't yet feel the energy of being in a cultural and commerce center when I'm in the area. So perhaps that's biasing my opinions?

I really like your thought about "killing two birds with one stone" by living in Ann Arbor. However, if there aren't a generous amount of opportunities in Ann Arbor alone, then I'm afraid that I'll wind up constantly driving an hour outside of AA to get to the opportunities in Metro Detroit. I have a very similar concern with Kalamazoo, and I really don't know how to go about judging the matter. That is, do these economies themselves really offer an exceptional amount of opportunity? I fear that I already know the answer, but I would be happily humbled.

Thanks again, westernwilly, this is definitely helpful!

Haha, well hopefully it won't get too personal. Might you have any input for me on the topic? Other than a couple brief visits, I'm largely unfamiliar with Grand Rapids (though I liked it a lot those couple times!), so anything you can offer as to whether it might be a good fit would definitely be a huge help!
Yea you would be wrong about that. As spread out as Metro Detroit is, downtown (and greater downtown area) is the central business district and central cultural district in the metro area. It's not the only employment hub but it's the largest one. With downtown and midtown combined (which are right next to each other) they have over 100k employees and will be increasing as more companies continue to move to the CBD. A study from 2007 found that 2/3rds of suburban residents visit downtown Detroit on the regular basis for entertainment, dining, ect. Let me remind you that was in 2007, downtown today is far more vibrant with more activity. So that number I assume has increased. Also, Detroit is full of culture in many areas so that won't be a problem. But that's going into a whole nother discussion.

As far as your commute, of course you can live close to work. I was more referring to outside of work.

As far as meeting people, it depends on who you are as a person and how well you can get along with people, some people I know have a problem with it but I personally don't.

The Ann Arbor/Ypsi area overlaps with the western Detroit burbs so a commute to a job shouldn't be anymore than a half hour (without traffic, weather, or construction) unless your looking further than the west burbs.

I wouldn't worry about commute times in Kalamazoo at all. It's a small city. 90% of the time you get on the freeway in Kalamazoo is to go out of town. Kalamazoo is the center of SW Michigan, so most of the opportunity is in the Kalamazoo area. Similar thing with Grand Rapids and it's west MI region though Grand Rapids is a bit bigger.

The cities you mentioned offer different things for different kinds of people.

As for opportunity, it depends on what field your looking to get into. I would look at some job searches in these areas. A word of advice, smaller cities with smaller economies will obviously offer a far smaller number of places to go but that doesn't mean you can't be successful in a smaller city. It all depends on what that specific place offers.
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Old 11-04-2015, 07:52 AM
 
Location: Grand Rapids Metro
8,882 posts, read 19,779,462 times
Reputation: 3920
Quote:
Originally Posted by erablink View Post
Haha, well hopefully it won't get too personal. Might you have any input for me on the topic? Other than a couple brief visits, I'm largely unfamiliar with Grand Rapids (though I liked it a lot those couple times!), so anything you can offer as to whether it might be a good fit would definitely be a huge help!
Sure, there are quite a few nice parts of Grand Rapids where you can live without driving on the highways very often. You might have to occasionally to go see a movie or grocery shop, but other than that it's mostly surface streets. Try everything from Heritage Hill all the way East to Eastown, the near West Side, Creston, Riverside Park, Cheshire Village, any would do.

The majority of the arts organizations are downtown so that makes for an easy commute. I would try Circle Theater, Civic Theater, and River City Improv for some acting gigs.
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Old 11-04-2015, 03:36 PM
 
1,996 posts, read 3,133,848 times
Reputation: 2302
Quote:
Originally Posted by erablink View Post
Thanks MS313, I was afraid of that. It seems like there isn't really a central cultural and business district in Detroit Metro. Am I wrong about that? I'd probably have no problem living downtown, or in Midtown commuting to downtown or maybe the Ferndale area. However, I'm not sure this area alone really qualifies as "rife with employment opportunity" by any means? (Though I do hear good things about entrepreneurial opportunity in the area.) I'd also feel a bit restricted in my ability to meet "friends and romantic partners" in the area. I really don't know how the area fares in terms of art or an art scene, though I've heard talk about it. I appreciate all the things that are happening, but I just don't yet feel the energy of being in a cultural and commerce center when I'm in the area. So perhaps that's biasing my opinions!
Wrong! Wrong!

The core of Detroit is the center for arts although there are substantial art scenes/resources in "hip" suburbs like Ferndale and Royal Oak and Birmingham, and there is the Cranbook Institute of Art in Bloomfield.

If you make downtown and midtown Detroit your base, you can live freeway-free for the most part as there are artsy neighborhoods in the surrounding area including
-Woodbridge
-Corktown
-Eastern Market
-Milwaukee-Junction
-Mexicantown
-Hamtramck
-the Villages area of the near eastside.


Art Resources in Detroit:

Midtown -

College for Creative Studies

Detroit Institute of Arts

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

The N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art

Wayne State University (Hilberry and Bonstelle Theatres)

Museum of African-American History

The Garden Theater

Detroit Artists Market - promoting, exhibiting and selling the work of emerging and established artists, through educational programming and art exhibitions, and by serving as a resource to all who seek to expand their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art

Detroit Dance Studio

The Scarab Club


Downtown -

Puppet Art Theater and Museum

Detroit Institute of Music

Elizabeth Theater at the Park Bar

City Theater (formerly known as Second City Detroit)

The Detroit Opera Theater

The Gem Theater

Capitol Park
Lear Corp. setting up design studio in Capitol Park


Corktown

Corktown Studios - Corktown Studios is an artist collective located in Detroit's re-emerging North Corktown Neighborhood

Ditto Ditto - small bookshop and publishing house in Detroit, MI that focuses on literary and visual arts


Eastern Market

Street art fest

There are 6 art galleries in Eastern Market that I know of. This is one of them

Mosaic Youth Theater

Woodbridge/North Corktown -
The Grand River Creative Corridor:
4731 Grand River


Milwaukee-Junction -

Russell Industrial Center

Still Standing, the Russell Industrial Center is thriving

Website claims more than 100 artist studios within the neighborhood boundaries - The District | FMJ


New Center

Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy

Forward Arts Detroit - 21st century arts organization that creates arts programming of many kinds in Detroit

Mexicantown/Southwest Detroit

Matrix Theater Company

Living Arts - provides Youth and Community Arts and Dance education and after school programs

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...exican-artists

555 Gallery and Studios


The Villages
The Collective Detroit - Housed in a beautiful and historic 1901 English Tudor mansion house on East Jefferson The Collective offer a variety of businesses led by artists and entreprenurs: Artrageous Art Gallery, Resident Artists Brenda Stroud, Invictus Custom Woodwork, LLC, Resident Artists Naidra Walls, Great Estates Resale, Inc., House of Morrison Shoe and Leather Repair, The Gathering Gallery & Bistro.

Hamtramck

Hamtramck Neighborhood Art Festival

Hatch Art - grassroots collective of artists from Hamtramck and the greater Detroit area

Windsor, Ontario (across the river from downtown Detroit)

Art Gallery of Windsor


Also, other art resources include:

The Player's Club - mens theater club whose official purpose is to encourage amateur theater. Located in the Rivertown/East Riverfront area

Artist's Village of the Old Redford neighborhood

In addition, there are many live music venues in those neighborhoods and hip suburbs if your art is music performance
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Old 11-05-2015, 01:26 PM
 
14 posts, read 16,514 times
Reputation: 20
Thanks a lot again MS313!
Quote:
Originally Posted by MS313 View Post
As far as your commute, of course you can live close to work. I was more referring to outside of work.

As far as meeting people, it depends on who you are as a person and how well you can get along with people, some people I know have a problem with it but I personally don't.
What are some of the things that I would need to drive long distances or on the freeways for? Have you been able to successfully meet young professionals and others in the more immediate area, and do you have any recommendations to this end?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MS313 View Post
The cities you mentioned offer different things for different kinds of people.
If you'd be willing to offer some more detail on this, it might help me a lot. What are some of the different types of people that the different cities would pertain to?
Quote:
Originally Posted by MS313 View Post
As for opportunity, it depends on what field your looking to get into. I would look at some job searches in these areas. A word of advice, smaller cities with smaller economies will obviously offer a far smaller number of places to go but that doesn't mean you can't be successful in a smaller city. It all depends on what that specific place offers.
Thanks, duly noted. This is a difficult consideration for me because I tend to have a wide variety of career interests (I don't expect this to change), which is why I was thinking along the lines of "maximizing opportunity overall" as opposed to a specific kind.
Quote:
Originally Posted by magellan
Sure, there are quite a few nice parts of Grand Rapids where you can live without driving on the highways very often. You might have to occasionally to go see a movie or grocery shop, but other than that it's mostly surface streets. Try everything from Heritage Hill all the way East to Eastown, the near West Side, Creston, Riverside Park, Cheshire Village, any would do.

The majority of the arts organizations are downtown so that makes for an easy commute. I would try Circle Theater, Civic Theater, and River City Improv for some acting gigs.
Thanks magellan! Anything you care to mention regarding job opportunities or dating life? I spent quite a lot of time browsing the Grand Rapids forum, and I feel like there were a lot of mixed thoughts on these topics. It'd be especially helpful if there were any kind of data to help make sense of the many highly contrary opinions.

Quote:
Originally Posted by usroute10
Wrong! Wrong!

The core of Detroit is the center for arts although there are substantial art scenes/resources in "hip" suburbs like Ferndale and Royal Oak and Birmingham, and there is the Cranbook Institute of Art in Bloomfield.

If you make downtown and midtown Detroit your base, you can live freeway-free for the most part as there are artsy neighborhoods in the surrounding area including
-Woodbridge
-Corktown
-Eastern Market
-Milwaukee-Junction
-Mexicantown
-Hamtramck
-the Villages area of the near eastside.


Art Resources in Detroit:

Midtown -

College for Creative Studies

Detroit Institute of Arts

Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

The N'Namdi Center for Contemporary Art

Wayne State University (Hilberry and Bonstelle Theatres)

Museum of African-American History

The Garden Theater

Detroit Artists Market - promoting, exhibiting and selling the work of emerging and established artists, through educational programming and art exhibitions, and by serving as a resource to all who seek to expand their knowledge, understanding and enjoyment of art

Detroit Dance Studio

The Scarab Club


Downtown -

Puppet Art Theater and Museum

Detroit Institute of Music

Elizabeth Theater at the Park Bar

City Theater (formerly known as Second City Detroit)

The Detroit Opera Theater

The Gem Theater

Capitol Park
Lear Corp. setting up design studio in Capitol Park


Corktown

Corktown Studios - Corktown Studios is an artist collective located in Detroit's re-emerging North Corktown Neighborhood

Ditto Ditto - small bookshop and publishing house in Detroit, MI that focuses on literary and visual arts


Eastern Market

Street art fest

There are 6 art galleries in Eastern Market that I know of. This is one of them

Mosaic Youth Theater

Woodbridge/North Corktown -
The Grand River Creative Corridor:
4731 Grand River


Milwaukee-Junction -

Russell Industrial Center

Still Standing, the Russell Industrial Center is thriving

Website claims more than 100 artist studios within the neighborhood boundaries - The District | FMJ


New Center

Detroit-Windsor Dance Academy

Forward Arts Detroit - 21st century arts organization that creates arts programming of many kinds in Detroit

Mexicantown/Southwest Detroit

Matrix Theater Company

Living Arts - provides Youth and Community Arts and Dance education and after school programs

http://www.metrotimes.com/Blogs/arch...exican-artists

555 Gallery and Studios


The Villages
The Collective Detroit - Housed in a beautiful and historic 1901 English Tudor mansion house on East Jefferson The Collective offer a variety of businesses led by artists and entreprenurs: Artrageous Art Gallery, Resident Artists Brenda Stroud, Invictus Custom Woodwork, LLC, Resident Artists Naidra Walls, Great Estates Resale, Inc., House of Morrison Shoe and Leather Repair, The Gathering Gallery & Bistro.

Hamtramck

Hamtramck Neighborhood Art Festival

Hatch Art - grassroots collective of artists from Hamtramck and the greater Detroit area

Windsor, Ontario (across the river from downtown Detroit)

Art Gallery of Windsor


Also, other art resources include:

The Player's Club - mens theater club whose official purpose is to encourage amateur theater. Located in the Rivertown/East Riverfront area

Artist's Village of the Old Redford neighborhood

In addition, there are many live music venues in those neighborhoods and hip suburbs if your art is music performance.
Thank you so much! A truly spectacular post. I will be referencing this quite a lot, I expect.
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Old 11-05-2015, 03:37 PM
 
Location: Grand Rapids Metro
8,882 posts, read 19,779,462 times
Reputation: 3920
Quote:
Originally Posted by erablink View Post

Thanks magellan! Anything you care to mention regarding job opportunities or dating life? I spent quite a lot of time browsing the Grand Rapids forum, and I feel like there were a lot of mixed thoughts on these topics. It'd be especially helpful if there were any kind of data to help make sense of the many highly contrary opinions.

I don't know anything about the dating scene, because I'm old and married with 3 kids.

There are about 50,000 college students in Grand Rapids, at 10 or 12 different colleges. A lot of those grads stick around after college, especially GVSU grads which has 25,000 students, which is leading to a boom in downtown residential projects.

The jobs market is the hottest in the Great Lakes area, and up there in the tops nationwide.

There are a lot of articles out in the last year about it:

Grand Rapids ranks No. 2 in US for 'finding employment' | 2015-05-22 | Grand Rapids Business Journal

Leading Locations for 2015: Creating a Track Record of Economic Success, Denver-Aurora-Broomfield Ranks First - Area Development

Grand Rapids ranks as No. 3 manufacturing 'boomtown' in US | 2015-07-27 | Grand Rapids Business Journal

And West Michigan currently has the lowest unemployment and highest growth rate of employment in Michigan so far in 2015.
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Old 11-07-2015, 09:40 PM
 
14 posts, read 16,514 times
Reputation: 20
Quote:
Originally Posted by magellan View Post
I don't know anything about the dating scene, because I'm old and married with 3 kids.

There are about 50,000 college students in Grand Rapids, at 10 or 12 different colleges. A lot of those grads stick around after college, especially GVSU grads which has 25,000 students, which is leading to a boom in downtown residential projects.

The jobs market is the hottest in the Great Lakes area, and up there in the tops nationwide.

There are a lot of articles out in the last year about it:

Grand Rapids ranks No. 2 in US for 'finding employment' | 2015-05-22 | Grand Rapids Business Journal

Leading Locations for 2015: Creating a Track Record of Economic Success, Denver-Aurora-Broomfield Ranks First - Area Development

Grand Rapids ranks as No. 3 manufacturing 'boomtown' in US | 2015-07-27 | Grand Rapids Business Journal

And West Michigan currently has the lowest unemployment and highest growth rate of employment in Michigan so far in 2015.
Thanks a lot, magellan, this sounds great!
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