Despair in Oakland County

[Gistok]

Right, it's the same shift that's been just around the corner for 50 years now. Any minute now, Rochester Hills is moving en masse to Highland Park.

Oakland County obviously has lots of despair, like any major county has lots of despair. Certainly a huge county has plenty of poverty, crap areas and crime.

But it doesn't change the fact that Oakland has become the economic and wealth engine of the state. For better or worse, it's sucked up most of the prosperity, both business and residential.

Funny how the 2010 Census statistics seem to suggest otherwise in some areas. Oakland County gained only 8 thousand residents, while Macomb County gained 52 thousand residents, over 6 times as many.

I'm not sure about other statistics, but anyone driving down M-59 in Macomb County, certainly sees a lot "sucking up of that prosperity" that you speak of.....

[Bham1982]

Funny how the 2010 Census statistics seem to suggest otherwise in some areas. Oakland County gained only 8 thousand residents, while Macomb County gained 52 thousand residents, over 6 times as many.

Obviously net population growth alone isn't a proxy for commercial or residential prosperity. If it were, than the most prosperous counties are exurban St. Clair, Livingston, and the like, since they have the highest growth rates.

Looking just at Macomb vs. Oakland, I would assume that Macomb has faster residential growth because it's much cheaper, has few development controls, and is much less built out.

But I was referring to wealth, not growth. Over the last few decades, Oakland sucked up the wealth from the Pointes and Detroit and sucked up the jobs from downtown. Macomb was never a player in terms of corporate centers or high-net-worth households.