Greg S wrote:Linkin5 wrote:I'd rather live in a garbage dumpster than Detroit.
I'm happy here, but I would be pretty happy in Grosse Pointe overlooking Lake St Clair. Minutes from downtown with 4 pro sports and not too far from 2 major Big 10 schools. Detroit gets a bum wrap. My college roommate started interning at GM in the late 80's then went to work for them in the 90's. Been fascinating watching Detroit evolve. It's pretty cool how much investment has been brought to their downtown. GM, the Illitches and Dan Gilbert have been fantastic corporate citizens.
Greg
My first reaction to the dumpster comment is "Ok, more for me".
Truthfully there are things I miss about Omaha but having lived in the Detroit area for over 8 years now I do like it here. The people are very friendly and living in a metro with well over 4 million there are things here that Omaha just doesn't have. For example, from here there over 100 domestic non stops and a couple of dozen international non stops. My wife just went to visit her father in Fort Lauderdale and we got her a ticket on Spirit for less than $100 round trip non stop. There are all four pro sports teams with amazing venues. The food is amazing with thousands of choices, including a ton of locally owned places. My wife would tell you that the shopping is head & shoulders better than Omaha. Downtown is not only coming back but is actually back. The transportation system is great and we can get from our house to pretty much anywhere in a half hour or less, including downtown. We've been downtown with our kids at night and have no qualms about it. Living near the Great Lakes is another big plus.
Is there a lot of crime? Yep, in some areas. However, and this is a big however, we have friends who live in the city and we've never had any problems when we visit them. Yes, Detroit has a lot of problems with blight and crime but the city is actually taking steps to address them. I'd say that Detroit is doing more for blight than Omaha is on the north side, from what I've read.
As I said there are things I miss about Omaha, having grown up there & spent my first 50 years there. But I've come to appreciate the advantages of living in a much larger city. You don't want to live here? That's fine. Everyone should live where they want and are comfortable. We moved here for some very specific reasons. Personally I'd never want to live in Chicago or New York. Too big and too much traffic. That's just me. Detroit has a bad rep and some of that is earned, some is not. I would say this. Linkin5? Come visit. I'll show you around. That goes for any of you. When you go home you'll have a different opinion of Detroit than you came with.
Here's Lake St Claire that Greg talked about:
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