I was in Detroit a few years ago, and it was really sad to see how bad some areas were then. Once you got a few blocks out of downtown, it was stunning how different the world appeared. We went to the Motown studios, and it was shocking how different things were five minutes away.
Les, no offense, but if I had to pay a visit to Detroit these days I would have made it a very short visit. It's very sad and disheartening to see and hear what's going on there.
Guys, Detroit isn't about the inner city much, and hasn't been since the riots of 1967, although that's starting to change. The action is in the suburbs. And it has been about the suburbs since at least 1968, except for Downtown. Sorry to say, because I grew up in Detroit when it was known as one of the nicest cities in the US.
One problem of course is that you didn't know where to go in the city itself. The area around Wayne State University is quite nice, and it includes the Detroit Institute of Arts, the Historical Museum, etc. The area includes the highly regarded Center For Creative Studies, the Fisher and other midtown buildings, and so on.
Detroit's suburbs are absolutely as nice as those near any other city. Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills, Troy, the Grosse Pointes, Royal Oak, Novi, etc. are certainly comparable to tony suburbs anywhere in the country, and have a LOT to do. The area around GC's Southfield store is very upscale.
On a summer day, if you didn't know better, you'd think downtown Birmingham was Rodeo Drive in LA. It's very similar. And the shopping areas in Troy, Rochester Hills, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe, etc., are certainly as nice:
If you've been to Highland Park near Chicago, or Westchester County near NYC, you can get an idea of what life in the Detroit area is really like. It's very good, it's not overcrowded, there are places of great beauty. Darn few suburbs have anything to compete with Cranbrook Academy and its hundreds of acres of Saarinen designed schools and museums, smack dab in the middle of Bloomfield Hills, where I live:
Palmer Woods, Sherwood Forest, Palmer Park are gorgeous areas in the city itself, and the area around University of Detroit is still beautiful. I grew up around the block from this house in Detroit, and the neighborhood is still terrific. Bottom line, people who visit the city don't know where to go, or what to see, and the City does nothing to truly promote its image, but if you think the neighborhoods near downtown are all that's representative of the city, well you're mistaken:
This Frank Lloyd Wright house was 12 doors down from my house. The picture is current:
Here's another great house from my old neighborhood, and the whole neighborhood I have to say is one of the nicest still; house after house looks like this one:
Bottom line: Don't feel sorry for Detroit, it's going to be OK, and the suburbs are terrific. There's a lot happening in my town. I wish I could go through all of it, but I'm not the freakin' convention bureau. I'm proud of my town, and honestly woudn't live anywhere else. Except in winter. LOL
The city was robbed and mismanaged by corrupt administrations for 40 years, but that is changing, too. Right now the Downtown area is being bought up like crazy by investors from all over the world, and I have two close friends whose law firms are relocating downtown to be near some of the bigger businesses that are relocating to the area.
One of the hottest things is downtown loft space. You will see, things are happening.
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