Originally Posted by
nain rouge
I've finally left the Detroit area. What made me move? Visiting other cities. For reasons I don't completely understand [[though I have hunches), the Midwest generally has terrible urban environments. Obviously, we have a huge exception in Chicago, and it really embodies the meaning of the word "exception". The rest, is like Des Moines or Oklahoma City on steroids. Head to either coast and the urban neighborhoods improve dramatically. Hell, even make it out to Cincinnati or Pittsburgh and you're going to find districts that put to shame anything in Detroit or Indianapolis.
The Detroit area does have some sophistication. The cuisine and arts are superior to most metropolitan areas with under 3 million people, at least. It's just that quality of the public areas and public life in general is so poor. That's why everyone drives out to the lakes. What are you gonna do in Detroit, eat at another restaurant, drink at another bar, hang out at another bowling alley? And it's always suburbs, suburbs, suburbs. Even Midtown is basically a bizarro world suburb after all the demolitions.
No wonder people are ready to flee up north by the time they retire.
I'm against wearing positivity blinders when discussing Metro Detroit because I think the area really needs a wake-up call. Not that we need pointless negativity, either. We just need realism, and unfortunately the reality is negative. The way I look at it, it's a shame that a region with as much success and wealth as Detroit has failed to build much that'll last. One day, all the cars will be in junk yards, the suburbs decayed out to 20 Mile, and the world will just shake its heads at Metro Detroit from an airplane.
At least I can guarantee that even then, someone will be buzzing about a new development in Midtown. And isn't that great?