Moving to the Detroit area. What's it like?
September 23, 2017 5:07 PM Subscribe
I have the opportunity to move to the Detroit area (from Chicago) in the coming months. What is living in Detroit like in 2017?
I'm starting my research with Ferndale. I like having a variety of stuff to do, trying out and finding new favorite bars and restaurants, a progressive political community, and being around other 30something folks without kids. In Chicago I get by using CTA, Lyft and the occasional Zipcar; can I expect the same level of convenience and walkability? Reasons I want to move include cheaper cost of living, the change of pace, the scenery and rave reviews from a close friend. Reasons I'm okay with Detroit include its proximity to an international airport, comparable level of culture and music and familiar weather patterns. I work from a home office, so it'd be nice to get more bang for my buck on square footage vs. rental cost. Lastly, what, really, is the crime situation like? In Bucktown, carjackings happen on the regular and I'm constantly dodging sketchy people on the street. I've had two friends get mugged and a few more become victims to home invasion. If I'm going to move my life, I'd like to move to a place where I experience this stuff a little less often.
I'm starting my research with Ferndale. I like having a variety of stuff to do, trying out and finding new favorite bars and restaurants, a progressive political community, and being around other 30something folks without kids. In Chicago I get by using CTA, Lyft and the occasional Zipcar; can I expect the same level of convenience and walkability? Reasons I want to move include cheaper cost of living, the change of pace, the scenery and rave reviews from a close friend. Reasons I'm okay with Detroit include its proximity to an international airport, comparable level of culture and music and familiar weather patterns. I work from a home office, so it'd be nice to get more bang for my buck on square footage vs. rental cost. Lastly, what, really, is the crime situation like? In Bucktown, carjackings happen on the regular and I'm constantly dodging sketchy people on the street. I've had two friends get mugged and a few more become victims to home invasion. If I'm going to move my life, I'd like to move to a place where I experience this stuff a little less often.
In Chicago I get by using CTA, Lyft and the occasional Zipcar; can I expect the same level of convenience and walkability?
Oh, my friend, no. Transit barely exists in the Detroit area. You should expect to make frequent use of a car, whether your own or someone else's.
posted by praemunire at 9:21 PM on September 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Oh, my friend, no. Transit barely exists in the Detroit area. You should expect to make frequent use of a car, whether your own or someone else's.
posted by praemunire at 9:21 PM on September 23, 2017 [1 favorite]
Best answer: I live in Ann Arbor now and I'm seriously considering moving to Detroit next year; I have several close friends who've lived there for various lengths of time. I think Detroit is a wonderful place in so many ways but I don't think you have a very realistic conception of what it's like to live there, and I think you should visit before you make any decisions one way or the other.
Detroit is different from any other place I've ever spent time in - the impact of years of devastating neglect is still very palpable, even in neighborhoods that are doing well. A friend who moved there a few years ago (and loves it now) talked a lot about how she hadn't realized how much it would grind her down to be surrounded by so much visible evidence of systemic poverty: houses abandoned and decaying in the middle of neighborhoods, busted traffic lights, abandoned cars. It's different than poor neighborhoods in New York or LA (I've lived in both places) in a way that I'm struggling to explain. There's an emptiness to it, still, and huge gaps in the kind of ordinary things you expect from a city, and you can't spend much time there without recognizing that it's a place recovering from very serious trauma. It's possible you could find a little hipster pocket of a neighborhood where you wouldn't come face-to-face with the intensity of the poverty and upheaval the city's experiencing, but I don't think you'd find that very satisfying...the people I know who talk a lot about "loving" Detroit are deeply invested in the city, even if their perspective is complicated by a lot of messy gentrifying baggage (and they'd be the first to admit that). It's a complicated place, I guess is what I'm saying, and if you aren't interested in facing that head-on, I think you'll end up struggling.
Also - and maybe I should have led with this - while the real estate prices for buying property in Detroit are mind-blowingly low, the rental market is actually pretty tight, especially in the hip neighborhoods. It's not Chicago pricing, but it's not nothing - my friend with a refurbished one-bedroom in a very cool part of Corktown pays a little over $1000, and she's still not anywhere you'd want to live without a car.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 9:55 PM on September 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
Detroit is different from any other place I've ever spent time in - the impact of years of devastating neglect is still very palpable, even in neighborhoods that are doing well. A friend who moved there a few years ago (and loves it now) talked a lot about how she hadn't realized how much it would grind her down to be surrounded by so much visible evidence of systemic poverty: houses abandoned and decaying in the middle of neighborhoods, busted traffic lights, abandoned cars. It's different than poor neighborhoods in New York or LA (I've lived in both places) in a way that I'm struggling to explain. There's an emptiness to it, still, and huge gaps in the kind of ordinary things you expect from a city, and you can't spend much time there without recognizing that it's a place recovering from very serious trauma. It's possible you could find a little hipster pocket of a neighborhood where you wouldn't come face-to-face with the intensity of the poverty and upheaval the city's experiencing, but I don't think you'd find that very satisfying...the people I know who talk a lot about "loving" Detroit are deeply invested in the city, even if their perspective is complicated by a lot of messy gentrifying baggage (and they'd be the first to admit that). It's a complicated place, I guess is what I'm saying, and if you aren't interested in facing that head-on, I think you'll end up struggling.
Also - and maybe I should have led with this - while the real estate prices for buying property in Detroit are mind-blowingly low, the rental market is actually pretty tight, especially in the hip neighborhoods. It's not Chicago pricing, but it's not nothing - my friend with a refurbished one-bedroom in a very cool part of Corktown pays a little over $1000, and she's still not anywhere you'd want to live without a car.
posted by pretentious illiterate at 9:55 PM on September 23, 2017 [13 favorites]
Response by poster: Thanks, pals. I'm going to bring up these points with my friend and see how it goes.
posted by Donald Trump Sex Nightmare at 10:43 PM on September 23, 2017
posted by Donald Trump Sex Nightmare at 10:43 PM on September 23, 2017
Like pretentious illiterate, I'm in the AA/Ypsilanti area but my firm has an office in Detroit and I spend a lot of time in the city. My projects have literally taken me to every corner of the city. My take is not very different, although I think those "hipster pockets" are getting bigger and bigger all the time. If you spent most of your time in Midtown and downtown, you could pretty much insulate yourself from the struggling neighborhoods. Both of those places are likely as safe as in any other city - Midtown in particular relies on the Wayne State University police to supplement the DPD. But it's true that the rental market is pretty tight...you need to start moving out of the midtown/downtown bubble to get something affordable (relative to Detroit/SE MI prices).
Transport is a huge problem. If you chose to live in downtown/Midtown, people are definitely getting by there with public transit and we now have a bike share program and the Qline (street rail) running between downtown and the New Center. If you're in Ferndale or anywhere off the beaten path, you're pretty much going to have to have a car or use Uber/Lyft etc. to get anywhere else. Car insurance is insanely expensive if you live in the city. There's a Whole Foods in Midtown, but basic shopping is not yet all it should be.
I love Detroit, and Detroiters are fiercely loyal to their city (in the usual way that they can criticize it, but heaven help you if you do!). It is indeed complicated, and can be at turns exhilarating and depressing. You can find some of the best food and entertainment in the world here, but also the worst grinding poverty. But I seriously second PI's recommendation that you spend a little more time here before making a decision. Only you can tell if you will find it to be a marvelous new adventure or...something else.
posted by Preserver at 7:56 AM on September 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
Transport is a huge problem. If you chose to live in downtown/Midtown, people are definitely getting by there with public transit and we now have a bike share program and the Qline (street rail) running between downtown and the New Center. If you're in Ferndale or anywhere off the beaten path, you're pretty much going to have to have a car or use Uber/Lyft etc. to get anywhere else. Car insurance is insanely expensive if you live in the city. There's a Whole Foods in Midtown, but basic shopping is not yet all it should be.
I love Detroit, and Detroiters are fiercely loyal to their city (in the usual way that they can criticize it, but heaven help you if you do!). It is indeed complicated, and can be at turns exhilarating and depressing. You can find some of the best food and entertainment in the world here, but also the worst grinding poverty. But I seriously second PI's recommendation that you spend a little more time here before making a decision. Only you can tell if you will find it to be a marvelous new adventure or...something else.
posted by Preserver at 7:56 AM on September 24, 2017 [1 favorite]
Everything that has been said here about Detroit is correct, and if you are thinking of moving to the city these are things to really consider. However, since you specifically mentioned Ferndale, I wanted to add that Ferndale is very much not Detroit. It is the first suburb north of Detroit in Oakland county, and that makes a big difference. You aren't going to see the kind of poverty mentioned in some of the other comments (Detroit has about 30% of the population living below the poverty line, Ferndale has 8%) As far as crime, I feel very safe in Ferndale all the time (I live just to the north and spend a lot of time there). Being car jacked or mugged is not something I worry about, and I don't think "sketchy people" are an issue Most of the crime I hear about is cars getting broken into and theft from garages or unlocked houses. It is considered the "hip" suburb, and I think there may be a lot you would like about it (bars, restaurants, arts and music scene, etc) However, I still agree that you need to come see what it is really like, but more because the difference between a Chicago neighborhood and a Detroit suburb is huge. And while you might be able to make do without a car here, it will be very difficult, involve lots of planning and probably missing out on things.
posted by Sabby at 6:24 PM on September 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Sabby at 6:24 PM on September 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
It was "transportation week" on Curbed Detroit. Some links you might find helpful:
Car Free in the Motor City
Detroit’s best neighborhoods for walking, biking, and transit
Curbed Detroit also does periodic apartment rental comparisons for different price points; might be helpful to scroll through their recent archives to see what the market is like in your price range.
posted by Preserver at 7:07 PM on September 24, 2017
Car Free in the Motor City
Detroit’s best neighborhoods for walking, biking, and transit
Curbed Detroit also does periodic apartment rental comparisons for different price points; might be helpful to scroll through their recent archives to see what the market is like in your price range.
posted by Preserver at 7:07 PM on September 24, 2017
I live between Detroit and Ann Arbor and constantly see rental listings or homes to purchase in Detroit. Then I look at the crime stats on Trulia. I have yet to find an (affordable to us) home in Detroit proper that hasn't had a violent crime in the last month within 3-4 blocks.
But Detroit has come back in a big way, and it's been fun to watch. I'm still not sure about living within the city limits, but Ferndale is charming and has character. Berkeley is nice too. Have you looked at Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti at all?
posted by getawaysticks at 4:39 PM on September 27, 2017
But Detroit has come back in a big way, and it's been fun to watch. I'm still not sure about living within the city limits, but Ferndale is charming and has character. Berkeley is nice too. Have you looked at Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti at all?
posted by getawaysticks at 4:39 PM on September 27, 2017
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There is no public transit, not like in Chicago. So without a car, you're going to be stuck in your neighborhood unless you Uber/Lyft/zip a lot. My family member in Ferndale could walk to a number of entertainments in her neighborhood (she had a car so she used that for groceries etc, not sure if she could have found a work around). You'd probably want to investigate the area to make sure there was enough for you so you're not getting a car all the time.
When I visited Ferndale I definitely didn't feel like I was dodging sketchy people, but I only visited a few times so ymmv. There are probably suburbs in the Detroit Metro area that have better crime stats, but they would also be more suburban, for the most part, and definitely require a car.
I'm also unsure how Ferndale handles snow and if they shovel sidewalks in a timely manner.
posted by ghost phoneme at 7:29 PM on September 23, 2017