Is Ann Arbor part of Detroit? (Canton, Novi: commute to, metro area, areas)

[Ypsi the Clown]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

What tri-county area is South Lyon not in? South Lyon is in Oakland County. (Unless they moved it and never told anyone).

see what im talking about? lol

[Ypsi the Clown]

[quote=Coldjensens;24231468]

Brighton, Howell and Pinkney (and Fowlerville) I would not consider part of Detroit Metro. quote]


a lot of people consider Brighton to be Detroit Metro, but i wouldnt know, i guess you'd have to ask someone who lives there.

[Reese30]

Originally Posted by johnr83

Ypsilanti (city and township) rests completely in Washtenaw County. Ypsilanti is more connected culturally with Belleville and Romulus than with Detroit. If Ann Arbor isn't a suburb of Detroit and stands alone, the same can be said of Ypsilanti.

You're right. Ypsilanti is located in Washtenaw County alone. But, I guess the other poster was in the ball park as well since Willow Run Airport does straddle the Washtenaw/Wayne county border, and is associated with Ypsilanti. But that does not change the fact that the city of Ypsilanti (along with Ypsilanti township) is located in Washtenaw County. Ofcourse, you could say that the Ypsilanti "area" extends into Wayne County due to Willow Run.

[Nivalis]

Article related to this on AnnArbor.com

Conan Smith: Why Ann Arbor doesn't see itself as part of Metro Detroit - and why it should

Many of comments are the opposite of the sentiment here. It might be an interesting read.

[Dogbiker]

Growing up in West Willow (when it was a newish sub), then moving to A2 over 40 years ago when West Willow started going down, I can say that neither my friends nor family ever considered Ypsi or Ann Arbor part of Metro Detroit. When we say we're going "downtown" that means Ann Arbor. When growing up, our city and county was never mentioned on tv news nor newspaper, and there was a bit of country driving before you got to the Metro area. Living on the west side of town I can't get many of the weaker radio stations because the A2 stations drown them out. Maybe nowadays is different but for us old timers we are not the Metro area, and the AnnArbor.com paper shows us most of us old folks feel.
Wiki on SE Michigan agrees: With 4,488,335 people, Metro Detroit is the tenth largest metropolitan area in the United States, while Ann Arbor's MSA ranks 141st with 341,847. Metropolitan areas of Southeast Michigan, and parts of the Thumb and Flint/Tri-Cities, are grouped together by the U.S. Census Bureau with Detroit-Warren-Livonia MSA in a wider nine county region designated the Detroit–Ann Arbor–Flint Combined Statistical Area (CSA) with a population of 5,428,000.
[edit]

[atadyitc]

I'm a Michigan grad from another major city. I consider Washtenaw to be an "exurb" of Detroit. So yes, I would consider Ann Arbor to be a part of (albeit one of the more far-flung parts of) Metro Detroit.

[branDcalf]

Culturally, I consider Ann Arbor to be a suburb of Boulder. Or visa versa.

[crimony]

this is a tricky question, isn't it? i'd say ann arbor is not part of detroit. it's strange to think that people in the detroit area would consider ann arbor to be part of detroit when even the leaders of wayne, oakland and macomb counties don't allow washtenaw county to participate in the conversation of regional policy making unless washtenaw (i.e. ann arbor/ypsi, etc) breaks out the checkbook.

i grew up in westland, but lived for seven years in ann arbor and ann arbor has always been its own city. growing up, media coverage didn't really include ann arbor. for obvious stories involving sports, crime, or large events like the ann arbor art fairs, yes it was mentioned. but a better barometer of what's considered a part of the community is the living/arts sections of the major dailies. growiing up, the news and freep reviews for restaurants, bars, music, and cultural events broke down into the three counties of wayne, oakland, and macomb. not washtenaw and by extension, not ann arbor or ypsi or chelsea or dexter and so on and so forth.

somebody made mention of driving in virtually unbroken suburbia all the way to ann arbor... i don't know about that. as a teen, i was so bored in westland that i drove all around the detroit metro area and yes, it's one huge sprawl. but not to ann arbor. while living in westland, i worked in ann arbor and commuted, taking michigan ave to geddes and sometimes, to change things up, i'd take cherry hill to ridge or prospect to geddes, or ford to plymouth, and i have to say that the vast openness of superior township acts as a buffer between ann arbor and the detroit area. seriously, try it out sometime. one poster mentioned the growth of canton blurring any perceived boundary. but really, i think it has less to do with canton and more to do with superior township. if superior explodes into a construction frenzy of cookie-cutter homes, then that ann arbor/detroit division becomes really murky.

another way of looking at it is identity. it's not a clean and easy determining factor, but it does help figure out how people think. people from or transplanted to ann arbor will say they're from ann arbor. you're traveling around and in response to the expected question, you'd say, "i'm from ann arbor." whereas, someone from livonia might say, "i'm from detroit." why? an obvious reason is that people unfamiliar with the detroit metro area would not know where livonia, mi is whereas ann arbor has a greater chance of being recognized. the stranger asking where you're from might not know exactly where ann arbor is, but they've probably heard of it (in all likelihood, because of um). another point is that a lot of college towns and cities have strong identites. i'm from ann arbor. i'm from boulder. i'm from berkley. personally speaking, i lived in san francisco for a couple of years and somebody from berkley wouldn't say they're from san francisco no matter it's proximity or the fact that sf is the main hub for news in the area (although oakland and sj would beg to differ, especially sj) or that sf pulls in more business and money.

i also agree with a couple of posters that a regional transportation link would solidify an image of ann arbor and detroit being inextricably entwined. although i suspect that even if such regional connectivity took place, ann arbor would still consider themselves not to be a detroit suburb. until then, it seems like ann arbor is its own little people's republc...

[green_leaf]

Originally Posted by crimony

this is a tricky question, isn't it? i'd say ann arbor is not part of detroit. it's strange to think that people in the detroit area would consider ann arbor to be part of detroit when even the leaders of wayne, oakland and macomb counties don't allow washtenaw county to participate in the conversation of regional policy making unless washtenaw (i.e. ann arbor/ypsi, etc) breaks out the checkbook.

i grew up in westland, but lived for seven years in ann arbor and ann arbor has always been its own city. growing up, media coverage didn't really include ann arbor. for obvious stories involving sports, crime, or large events like the ann arbor art fairs, yes it was mentioned. but a better barometer of what's considered a part of the community is the living/arts sections of the major dailies. growiing up, the news and freep reviews for restaurants, bars, music, and cultural events broke down into the three counties of wayne, oakland, and macomb. not washtenaw and by extension, not ann arbor or ypsi or chelsea or dexter and so on and so forth.

somebody made mention of driving in virtually unbroken suburbia all the way to ann arbor... i don't know about that. as a teen, i was so bored in westland that i drove all around the detroit metro area and yes, it's one huge sprawl. but not to ann arbor. while living in westland, i worked in ann arbor and commuted, taking michigan ave to geddes and sometimes, to change things up, i'd take cherry hill to ridge or prospect to geddes, or ford to plymouth, and i have to say that the vast openness of superior township acts as a buffer between ann arbor and the detroit area. seriously, try it out sometime. one poster mentioned the growth of canton blurring any perceived boundary. but really, i think it has less to do with canton and more to do with superior township. if superior explodes into a construction frenzy of cookie-cutter homes, then that ann arbor/detroit division becomes really murky.

another way of looking at it is identity. it's not a clean and easy determining factor, but it does help figure out how people think. people from or transplanted to ann arbor will say they're from ann arbor. you're traveling around and in response to the expected question, you'd say, "i'm from ann arbor." whereas, someone from livonia might say, "i'm from detroit." why? an obvious reason is that people unfamiliar with the detroit metro area would not know where livonia, mi is whereas ann arbor has a greater chance of being recognized. the stranger asking where you're from might not know exactly where ann arbor is, but they've probably heard of it (in all likelihood, because of um). another point is that a lot of college towns and cities have strong identites. i'm from ann arbor. i'm from boulder. i'm from berkley. personally speaking, i lived in san francisco for a couple of years and somebody from berkley wouldn't say they're from san francisco no matter it's proximity or the fact that sf is the main hub for news in the area (although oakland and sj would beg to differ, especially sj) or that sf pulls in more business and money.

i also agree with a couple of posters that a regional transportation link would solidify an image of ann arbor and detroit being inextricably entwined. although i suspect that even if such regional connectivity took place, ann arbor would still consider themselves not to be a detroit suburb. until then, it seems like ann arbor is its own little people's republc...

i would have to disagrree with you when it comes to talking about Ypsilanti....if it wasnt for the city of Detroit- Ypsilanti wouldnt even exist...and like someone said earlier on this thread, the willow run airport was Detroit's main airport until metro and city airports came along.

i find it very interesting that people slump Ypsi into Ann Arbor just because they are next to each other. whenever Ypsi screws something up, they blame it on Detroit;however, when something good happens, Ann Arbor will quickly take responsibility for it. You cant have it both ways. either you're with us or against us is the way i look at it.

my whole family is from Detroit, and growing up, Ypsilanti was ALWAYS the cut off point of the detroit metro area on that side. county lines mean nothing. its about the culture- the history of the city, etc. I have family which stretches from Detroit to Redford to Dearborn Heights to Canton to Belleville, and to Ypsi. If you ask ANYONE from Detroit about Ypsi- they will tell you that Ypsi is one of those trashy detroit outskirt cities that nobody likes.

whenever an entertainer, or an event, is hosted in Ypsi, its always called "a Detroit event" .... think about it.

when it comes to Ann Arbor, i could care less,,,nobody cares what Ann Arbor thinks

[JoulesMSU]

Growing up in mid-Michigan (and thus having no connection to either Ann Arbor or Detroit), I would NOT consider them to be in the same "metro" area.

From what I can tell based on my occasional trips out into the Detroit area; Canton and Plymouth are the "outer edges" of Detroit. Ypsilanti is not Detroit.

Also lol at anyone trying to say Brighton or Howell are part of Detroit. If you think that, might as well not even draw a line and just say the whole state is part of Detroit if you are going to reach that far.