Quote Originally Posted by iheartthed View Post
I don't have the time to research it in detail right now but I'm very skeptical that Metro Detroit's pattern of development has been residential development before retail. I know for sure that this wasn't originally the case since Northland and the other -land malls were all built on farm land.
The Rochester and Utica areas had massive numbers of farms plowed under and turned into subdivisions in the 50s and 60s when Auburn Road/Hall Road/Wm P Rosso Hwy was just a two lane blacktop.