Should we move to Lafayette Park?

[BShea]

My wife and I are moving to Detroit this summer. We currently live in Chicago [[Lakeview/Lincoln Park). We have looked at a few different neighborhoods and surrounding cities, but nothing is jumping off the page. My new office will be in Grosse Pointe, but would still like to live in an area that has some hustle and bustle, night life and social scene.

We are in our early 30's and I don't think kids are too far off, so we would also like to consider some where safe for kids, i.e, parks, playgrounds, etc.

Our concerns:

How safe is downtown? Can I walk home alone after a night game at Comerica? Could my wife walk back to Lafayette Park after a night out with some friends downtown?

Any feedback would be appreciated! Thanks!

I lived four years at the Pavilion apartment building in Lafayette Park, and loved it. I moved to a house just north of 8 Mile only recently for convenience reasons and the need for more space. Otherwise, I would have stayed downtown.

We easily and safely walked to Greektown [[the casino, Plaka's, Five Guys, and now it'll have a BW3s), to Tigers games, and to plenty of other places downtown.

Of course, you have to have common sense -- watch your back, stay out of dark areas, etc. I've seen street-parked cars broken into during busy events, and had my radar detector taken from my car [[I failed to lock it) and my bike stolen. Those are facts of life. But I never felt particularly unsafe -- but I'm also a big guy trained to deal with unsafe situations.

Just use your head and always be aware of your surroundings. Any downtown has troublemakers and thieves.

LP itself is very nice. The townhomes are beautiful and the greenery is one of the true gems in downtown Detroit. The park itself is massive and wide open. I would take my son [[he's now 5 1/2) to the new-ish playground equipment at Chrysler Elementary, which is at one end of the park. He lives with me part-time, so I'm not sure how I would feel about having him downtown all the time at that age. Part of the reason I moved was to have a backyard I could turn him loose in. I wouldn't let him go to the LP on his own.

If you've look at apartments, the Pavilion is light years ahead of the Lafayette Towers. U.S. Sen. Carl Levin lives in the Pavilion, as do other "notable" figures from the Detroit scene. It's a lot of WSU medical students and UD Mercy law students -- not a party building. The rent is one of the best deals in town -- I had a 2-bedroom [[1,000K square feet) for about $1K a month. And it's a historic Mies building.

[Danny]

YES, move to Lafayette Park. Nice homes, more security, not an instant ghettohood, but its beautiful with lots of trees and greenspace. I wish all of Detroit ghettohoods are like that.

[Chinman]

posted elsewhere,
i own a town square co-op with a back yard on st. aubin.
i love it. garage, 3 bedroom & basement. real cheap to buy.
as others said everything is in walking distance. i even walk to old miami, jumbo's and the like. 50 min walk.
eastern market 10 min.
greektown 15 min.
all nice walks and oh yeah...riverwalk via the dequindre cut out my back door 15 min.
very quiet and safe.
i have been considering selling though. bad economic times. need to lower monthly nut.
let me know if you would like to view my co-op.