Quote Originally Posted by Shollin View Post
The 80's. When I was younger it was never hip to live in Ferndale, and if memory serves me correctly, downtown Royal Oak was just a bunch of shuttered warehouses and small factories. They both continue to lose population and Ferndale's population loss is outpacing Hamtramck's loss. You're missing the whole point. It's about the potential. Someone realized the potential of the abandoned warehouses in Royal Oak and created a yuppie utopia. Before that it wasn't a desirable suburb. Hamtramck has the potential.
Thats my recollection too. But then Hamtramck was full of businesses as well. What folks seem to not understand is that things cycle, particularly when you're talking about a market as huge as metro Detroit where everyone is always looking for something new. It wasn't until the late 1980's that people even talked about going to Royal Oak as a destination. Ferndale lagged Royal Oak by about 10 years. I am concerned however that many of these communities are losing staples in favor of what is fashionable. As rents rise retailers have to figure out how to change to stay in business and often this makes a grocery store or hardware store disconinue basic stuff in favor of higher profit stuff or risk being put out of business entirely.