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I keep seeing questions on here about certain suburbs being better than others. For my info, and for other's with this same question, Can you tell me what suburbs in Metro Detroit are best and which aren't. I guess I would say places that are safe, clean, and friendly. If you could please explain why you think that certain suburb is the best. Also, which suburb communities are upscale and VERY NICE!!! Expensive.
This has been discussed at great length in many other threads. search them for more specific information
Upscale/Nicer suburbs are:
Grosse Pointes Nice community. Beautiful houses, great schools, waterfront, really close to Detroit (Pretty much surrounded by it in fact). Downside is that they are surrounded by Detroit. Long drive for groceries and other shopping.
Royal Oak. This is THE place for 20-30 y.o. people with no kids who want to live in a city. It is lively, not too expensive (comparatively) reasonably close to Detroit, beautiful homes. Schools are not too good and traffic can be a problem. I heard last night that Ionia is simlar or better, but I have never been there. I do not even know where it is. Not really upscale, but a great place to live and visit.
Ferndale. Similar to Royal Oak. Not as nice. More liberal. Preferred choice for openly gay persons.
Birmingham. Upscale, similar to Royal Oak only higher end. Nice downtown. Better schools. Some say extremely snobby.
Troy. Shopping mecca. Has the nicest shopping mall that I have seen anywhere in the country. Lots of newer McMansion subs. Not sure about schools, but many here say that they are good.
Rochester/Rochester Hills. Beautiful downtown. Nice topography. Higher end. Awesome schools. Long commute from Detroit.
Bloomfield/Bloomfield Hills/West Bloomfield. More suburban. Less of a city. generally upscale area (home to a large Ferarri/Maserati dealership). Good Schools. Loads of new McMansion subs.
Lake Orion, Auburn Hills, Utica, etc etc. Much of the North Oakland County area is petty similar. Upper end suburbia. Seems to center on the cities mentioned above. Mostly good schools. There are some small lakes and rivers in this area so limited water access is available. this entire area has all of the better nationally recognized restaurants and malls with the normal chain stores. If you are into the conformists view of what is nice this is the area to look at.
Franklin Villiage. Small, expensive. In a good school district (forgot which). Do not know much about it really.
Northville. Small town feel. Nice older homes in town, new subs and newer McMansion subs outside of town. Excellent schools. A bit overrun with yuppyness. They tore down a lot of the charm of the city and built poor copies of what used to be there in an effort to make it better. In the end, they just destroyed a lot of the charm. Still a very nice place. somewhat rural outside of town. About 1 hr from Detroit. has Maybury state park a former TB sanitarium and now a very nice park.
South Lyon, New Hudson, Milford, Brighton, Salem, Lyon Township, Northville Township, Green Oak township. Comparatively recently "discovered" areas. These formerly small town rural places are flooded with new development and prices were soaring before the recession. The small towns' charm have been partially replaced with strip malls. All have good schools. South Lyon is probably the best of the school districts in this lot. Milford has Kensington Metropark, the king of the Metropark system. Brighton has a ski hill (of sorts, a pile of trash actually, but it works for kids/learners). These areas are recently upscale.
Novi. Shopping malls, strip malls and subdivisions. This is a shoppers paradise. Good schools bad traffic. No Character. Just qualifies as upscale.
Plymouth. Awesome little town with great and frequent community events. Near Ann Arbor. Near DTW.
Grosse Ile. Island community. Close knit very friendly community. Excellent schools. Mix of way upscale and middle class. (E.g. a $30 million + home is less than a mile from homes costing under 200,000). A large percentage of homes have water access. Lots of woods and wildlife. Almost no crime. Quiet. Not much night life, dining, or shopping on the island. Just the basics.
That is all that I can think of in the immediate area that would be called "upscale" (i.e. upper half of the middle class and up).
Parts of Livonia might qualify. Parts of Ann Arbor certainly do.
The question does ask for the worst, I am going to try not to affend anyone, but I am going to take a whack at it.
In my experience of living in Metro Detroit my entire life I would rate these suburbs as some of the worst.
Highland Park - It is considered just another Detroit neighborhood by many, because it is completely surronded by the City of Detroit. But technically it is it's own city. Because of this it has some very bad areas. Many of the houses are empty, falling apart, and rotting. There are also many empty lots that are way overgrown and have turned into wooded areas. As for development this was already tried a few years back, a builder built the same house on many of the empty lot streets, over priced many of the homes, and they never sold. So now you have these new homes that are now sitting there with nothing in side because every thing has been stripped away by the thiefs. Many of it's business has packed up and moved away, so there are many empty store fronts in Highland Park. One of the biggest blows to Highland Park was the Chrysler move out in the late 1980's. Chrysler Corp's headquarters were in Highland Park for many years, up until they moved to the other Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills.
River Rouge - The city is dirty, with a lot of industry or at least there was. The last time I was down there there was a lot of trash on the sides of the roads, clutter every where, the city was just not kept up the way that it was supposed to.There are also many empty lots bewteen other houses which puts an off-set to the city. River Rouge flourished when industry was good but after it fell apart, so did the city.
Ecorse - This city really applies to what happened to River Rouge. When you drive through the city it is not very appealing at all.
Many of the southern suburbs that attach to Detroit are pretty poor also. (Northern Lincoln Park, and the City of Melvindale)
The question does ask for the worst, I am going to try not to affend anyone, but I am going to take a whack at it.
In my experience of living in Metro Detroit my entire life I would rate these suburbs as some of the worst.
Highland Park - It is considered just another Detroit neighborhood by many, because it is completely surronded by the City of Detroit. But technically it is it's own city. Because of this it has some very bad areas. Many of the houses are empty, falling apart, and rotting. There are also many empty lots that are way overgrown and have turned into wooded areas. As for development this was already tried a few years back, a builder built the same house on many of the empty lot streets, over priced many of the homes, and they never sold. So now you have these new homes that are now sitting there with nothing in side because every thing has been stripped away by the thiefs. Many of it's business has packed up and moved away, so there are many empty store fronts in Highland Park. One of the biggest blows to Highland Park was the Chrysler move out in the late 1980's. Chrysler Corp's headquarters were in Highland Park for many years, up until they moved to the other Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills.
River Rouge - The city is dirty, with a lot of industry or at least there was. The last time I was down there there was a lot of trash on the sides of the roads, clutter every where, the city was just not kept up the way that it was supposed to.There are also many empty lots bewteen other houses which puts an off-set to the city. River Rouge flourished when industry was good but after it fell apart, so did the city.
Ecorse - This city really applies to what happened to River Rouge. When you drive through the city it is not very appealing at all.
Many of the southern suburbs that attach to Detroit are pretty poor also. (Northern Lincoln Park, and the City of Melvindale)
Inkster seems pretty bad too. Melvindale looked ok to me. maybe it is just the part I was in.
Melvindale is OK in places. I'd put it more middle of the road, at least some parts of it.
Inkster is a pit and always has been. I live about a mile from it.
Redford has good and bad. It used to be that north (old) Redford was sort of the area people avoided, and south Redford was nice, but now south Redford is sort of the ghetto (but not all of it, I wouldn't feel threatened living there) and north Redford has a lot of older houses, some sort of rural subdivisions, and a mix of older people, and some other middle class people. My dad grew up in old Redford and I know a lot of people that live there. It's not a bad place, contrary to what you might here. Township supervisor is corrupt though, R. Miles Handy.
I'd have to agree with Highland Park, River Rouge and Ecorse. North Lincoln Park is sort of bad, but a lot of its residents really take pride in their homes and area.
And no Auburn Hills is NOT upscale. I'd also add that southern Westland and Wayne really have their bad areas, and also there are some neat areas in Wayne, and it's looking better (new developments, etc).
I'd add that Pontiac is pretty bad too.
I'd say in the middle you have places like Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Garden City, Livonia, Westland, Lincoln Park, Allen Park, Riverview, Trenton, Taylor, Oak Park, Hazel Park, Center Line...and many more.
Wyandotte is sort of the gem of downriver. Nice downtown. Not quite what Ferndale is, but pretty neat all the same.
Inkster IS bad. Redford has bad parts but I go there all the time to visit my buddy and I've never seen any problems. Its motto is "Gateway to the Suburbs", lol.
What do you mean by "BEST" the cost of living there? the school system? the homes, people, shopping access? There are alot of ways to define the Best or Worst of anything.
Someone NOT living in Ferndale would call it "hippie town" Hillbilly Park is what they call Hazel Park, Sterling Heights or Warren Police are Corrupt, caught in all sorts of scandals, as is the Mayor of OXford stealing money, just as the Mayor of Detroit got caught doing some seamy slimy stuff.
So, the cost of homes in Fendale is WAY TOO HIGH for a little cottage, matchbox house that looks like a ranch-cottage summer home; $120,000 to $180,000 that you could get a nice Brick Colonial in Indian VIllage with private security patrols in Eastside Detroit, MI. Or in Grosse Pointe, which has LONG been old-money, better than Birmingham, or Bloomfield Hills, which is racist until that last 10 yrs. Now, the pre-fab homes being built in West Bloomfield, or Rochester hills makes the buyers THINK they are really on the golden mile; they're not. The BEST IS STILL GROSSE POINTE, Cranbrook and Quarton Rd. by Chraing Cross; all the bankers and anonymous rich live there on estates with gatehouses (THAT's MONEY)... Franklin Rd.
Near Detroit is; along Jefferson Ave. out by Grosse Isle. Just take a Spring ride out there and you'll see. I conside that to be money; when driving down a long private road, with a gatekeepers house at the entrance to the grounds. THAT IS OLD MONEY, not these stackable trailer-double wides they built and sell for $2 million in Rochester Hills, or Royal Oak area!
This has been discussed at great length in many other threads. search them for more specific information
Upscale/Nicer suburbs are:
Grosse Pointes Nice community. Beautiful houses, great schools, waterfront, really close to Detroit (Pretty much surrounded by it in fact). Downside is that they are surrounded by Detroit. Long drive for groceries and other shopping.
Royal Oak. This is THE place for 20-30 y.o. people with no kids who want to live in a city. It is lively, not too expensive (comparatively) reasonably close to Detroit, beautiful homes. Schools are not too good and traffic can be a problem. I heard last night that Ionia is simlar or better, but I have never been there. I do not even know where it is. Not really upscale, but a great place to live and visit.
Ferndale. Similar to Royal Oak. Not as nice. More liberal. Preferred choice for openly gay persons.
Birmingham. Upscale, similar to Royal Oak only higher end. Nice downtown. Better schools. Some say extremely snobby.
Troy. Shopping mecca. Has the nicest shopping mall that I have seen anywhere in the country. Lots of newer McMansion subs. Not sure about schools, but many here say that they are good.
Rochester/Rochester Hills. Beautiful downtown. Nice topography. Higher end. Awesome schools. Long commute from Detroit.
Bloomfield/Bloomfield Hills/West Bloomfield. More suburban. Less of a city. generally upscale area (home to a large Ferarri/Maserati dealership). Good Schools. Loads of new McMansion subs.
Lake Orion, Auburn Hills, Utica, etc etc. Much of the North Oakland County area is petty similar. Upper end suburbia. Seems to center on the cities mentioned above. Mostly good schools. There are some small lakes and rivers in this area so limited water access is available. this entire area has all of the better nationally recognized restaurants and malls with the normal chain stores. If you are into the conformists view of what is nice this is the area to look at.
Franklin Villiage. Small, expensive. In a good school district (forgot which). Do not know much about it really.
Northville. Small town feel. Nice older homes in town, new subs and newer McMansion subs outside of town. Excellent schools. A bit overrun with yuppyness. They tore down a lot of the charm of the city and built poor copies of what used to be there in an effort to make it better. In the end, they just destroyed a lot of the charm. Still a very nice place. somewhat rural outside of town. About 1 hr from Detroit. has Maybury state park a former TB sanitarium and now a very nice park.
South Lyon, New Hudson, Milford, Brighton, Salem, Lyon Township, Northville Township, Green Oak township. Comparatively recently "discovered" areas. These formerly small town rural places are flooded with new development and prices were soaring before the recession. The small towns' charm have been partially replaced with strip malls. All have good schools. South Lyon is probably the best of the school districts in this lot. Milford has Kensington Metropark, the king of the Metropark system. Brighton has a ski hill (of sorts, a pile of trash actually, but it works for kids/learners). These areas are recently upscale.
Novi. Shopping malls, strip malls and subdivisions. This is a shoppers paradise. Good schools bad traffic. No Character. Just qualifies as upscale.
Plymouth. Awesome little town with great and frequent community events. Near Ann Arbor. Near DTW.
Grosse Ile. Island community. Close knit very friendly community. Excellent schools. Mix of way upscale and middle class. (E.g. a $30 million + home is less than a mile from homes costing under 200,000). A large percentage of homes have water access. Lots of woods and wildlife. Almost no crime. Quiet. Not much night life, dining, or shopping on the island. Just the basics.
That is all that I can think of in the immediate area that would be called "upscale" (i.e. upper half of the middle class and up).
Parts of Livonia might qualify. Parts of Ann Arbor certainly do.
Rochester Hills, IS NOT higher end, only the shopkeepers try and make it seem like that. Have you seen the quality of those expensive homes along Walton Blvd. and Adams Rd.??They are pre-fab cheaply built, would blow away in a tornado. I know from experience. Living in Indian Village for 25 yrs. Family living in Grosse Pointe for 50yrs. makes me biased of course. The shopping and Malls in Rochester Hills are high end, however the Hillbilly trash that live in Rochester Estates (trailer park near Tienken Rd.) are NOT! JUst a bunch of sh*t-kicking farmers or orchard owners that have matchbox homes sprinkled between the huge development subdivisions being built around them. Have you seen them from the back yards? they look like someone took a double-wide trailer and pasted them together, threw a pre-built redwood deck on there, and VOILA!!! Let us sell this crap for $2 million.
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Subjective question of "Best"???
