Is Ann Arbor really that good? (Detroit, Lansing: house, neighborhoods, buy)

[_MIPropertyQueen_]

I am a Realtor in Ann Arbor...from personal experience, it's very hard to leave AA. Every time I try comparing another city/place to AA it just doesn't measure up.

I am sure just like everything in life, the area you live in - should match your personality/wants/needs professionally, emotionally, physically, & intellectually. With that said, what do you like?

[craig11152]

I've lived in Ann Arbor for about 34 years...all on the SE side.
To answer your title question "Is Ann Arbor really that good?" I'd say maybe but probably not..

If you are a diehard liberal you probably really like the town politically but you could still ***** that you don't think there are enough bike paths or parks, too many tall buildings, the city council votes a deer cull, the cops once killed a black lady (never mind she was weilding a knife and high on pot alcohol and cocaine)
If you are conservative you can obviously ***** the town is too liberal.
Yet property values continue to rise and houses continue to sell within hours or days of going on the market so there is high demand to live here.

[OyCrumbler]

How are the restaurants? Also, is it very inadvisable to live in Ann Arbor without a car or does mass transit, ridershare, being in decent physical shape for walking and biking, and such make it pretty doable?

[craig11152]

Ann Arbor has a pretty robust collection of restaurants for it's size. I know people will say that they are overrated or there isn't enough diversity. Sometimes comparing to Chicago or New York.

The city is making an ongoing effort to be more and more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. It's better than average for SE Michigan but someone will compare it negatively to Portland or Seattle.

The bus system, AAATA, covers the city and Ypsilanti/Ypsilanti Township. The buses are generally pretty new, clean and mostly run on time , weather and traffic jams aside. My minor beef with the AAATA is it focus too much on downtown and too little on traveling the perimeters of town. So if I want to go from the SE side to the SW side I may have to go downtown and transfer.

There are plenty of Uber and Lyft drivers but you can expect heavy surge charges at times like football Saturdays.
All in all I would say one can live here without a car.
Plus we are an Amtrak stop as you well know.

[scorpio516]

Originally Posted by craig11152

The bus system, AAATA, covers the city and Ypsilanti/Ypsilanti Township. The buses are generally pretty new, clean and mostly run on time , weather and traffic jams aside. My minor beef with the AAATA is it focus too much on downtown and too little on traveling the perimeters of town. So if I want to go from the SE side to the SW side I may have to go downtown and transfer.

It used to cover most of Washtenaw county though. You could take a bus to Dexter or Chelsea. Now the furthest west stop is Meijers on Zeeb.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

It used to cover most of Washtenaw county though. You could take a bus to Dexter or Chelsea. Now the furthest west stop is Meijers on Zeeb.

I believe you although I don't remember.
My guess is the stopped because there wasn't demand or the municipalities didn't want to pay for service.
Right now I think only Ann Arbor, Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township pay for the system with a property tax millage. Pittsfield Township pays a user fee of some sort but its not a direct millage line item. It comes out of a general fund or some such thing.

[Coldjensens]

Ann Arbor used to be pretty much the coolest city out there, at least in the USA. It has gone downhill some while other cities have improved, but it is still pretty great.

A lot of the quirky independent businesses have been replaced by chains, but there are still quite a number left. A couple of awesome jazz clubs still remain. The theaters are still going strong, both movies and performances. there is still a lot of awesome architecture. Some was lost and more is being lost, but there is a lot, so still plenty enough to be pretty.

It is a tree city.

It has outstanding public schools (and an OK university too).

My wife who is from Boston said she likes the weather in this area better than the Boston weather, I will ask her why if I remember.

Lots of job in Ann Arbor, especially high tech and teaching jobs. Lost of opportunity for everyone: artists, fake untalented artists, and even people who offer absurdly meaningless services.

Great people watching. Including great people listening. Go downtown and listen to liberal extremists trying to out liberal each other. It is amusing and they have it honed to a science in Ann Arbor. (If they accost you, just agree with whatever they say, but let them win. they are the only true progressive and you are a right wing racists cad (it does nto matter what your actual beliefs are, they must prove everyone but them is insufficiently liberal) - doing anything else might be dangerous).

Great restaurants. Notwithstanding the chain invasion, many or most of the really great places are still around (with a few exceptions including the best jazz clubs).

Awesome football watching (well sometimes anyway).

Extremely walkable city in any weather.

Great location. Near Detroit, Lansing, Kensington Metropark, Toledo. Not too far from grand Rapids, Chicago, Cleveland, Cincinatti, TC and the upper Peninsula.. . . .

Once quaint little city with a river running right through the middle of it. Some of this remains. You can rent a canoe right in town.

A lot of museums for its size.

Very sophisticated line of products restaurants etc., especially for its small size (wine, cheese, cigars, water, organic foods, farmers market, high fashion, fine dining, low (crass but funny) fashion, lots and lots of differeent kinds of music and theater performances. . . - you name it it is here. .

Great medical care available with some of the top Doctors in the world in some fields.

Downsides: traffic, terrible layout for driving; parking; crazy crowded on game days; nutty students doing realyl stupid things on a regular basis; crazy excessive uber aggressive liberalism - fun to watch, but can be a problem if you become a target.

[InnovativeAmerican]

Ann Arbor is the most sane part of the state. Always has been. If it weren't for Ann Arbor or Washtenaw County, Michigan would be Mississippi.

[Shelaa]

Ann Arbor has poisoned water! Seriously, google it. We cannot drink it, and city government is pretending it is not an issue.
I can go on, having lived here moved from Cambridge MA 23 years ago, about how overrated it has always been and about how fake it has become (fake liberal, fake intellectual, fake creative), but clean water is critical to life, and An. Arbor fails!

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by Shelaa

Ann Arbor has poisoned water! Seriously, google it. We cannot drink it, and city government is pretending it is not an issue.
I can go on, having lived here moved from Cambridge MA 23 years ago, about how overrated it has always been and about how fake it has become (fake liberal, fake intellectual, fake creative), but clean water is critical to life, and An. Arbor fails!

I'm drinking the water. I've lived here 12 years longer than you have. The city is actively pursuing solutions and the levels of PFOS and PFOA are well below hazard levels. The city water quality has historically been well above national averages. The current PFOS and PFOA problem is being actively worked on.
This current issue is concerning to some degree but I think we may find the existence of PFOS and PFOA in drinking water could end up a more widespread issue than imagined across the country.

Here is a link to the city page on the issue. One can certainly read it with a raised eyebrow given the "fox guarding the chicken coop" source but it is the official city stance.
It seems clear you do not like Ann Arbor and that is your prerogative but to say you can't drink the water and the city is ignoring it is simply not true
https://www.a2gov.org/departments/wa...formation.aspx