Originally Posted by
jimmyr
Have to disagree with you there. Downtown Grand Rapids has cultivated a great city vibe; high rises, clean, safe, two great hotels, terrific restaurants, bars, entertainment, concerts, universities. Grand Rapids will probably grow to over 200k soon. It doing a hell of a lot better at drawing in college grads than Detroit proper.
Ann Arbor, Birmingham [[but more so Royal Oak) have the vibe of a Chicago neighborhood, not necessarily the vast major city. When you live in Chicago you're not taking advantage of the entire city, you're in your neighborhood the majority of the time. Walkability, restaurants, thousands of college educated people living within a mile of you, tons of foot traffic all the time, etc. No Detroit neighborhood currently offers that.