Eastside Suburbs

[30th Street]

Harper Woods vs. Saint Clair Shores vs. Eastpointe any thoughts?

[SCS_Scooter]

I love the Shores. The people parks, the dog park, the waterfront parks. The parades, both Memorial Day and the Harper Cruise. The police come when you dial 911. The waterfront restaurants and the evening concerts are fun especially on a warm summer night. The taxes aren't crazy. Convenient access to all the freeways. I love the Shores!!!!

[Detroitej72]

Harper Woods has most of the benefits of living in Grosse Pointe without the taxes. I have alot of family living there, and its a nice clean, quite city.

[irish_mafia]

Not really. Harper Woods has deteriorated significantly. Detroiters trying to get their kids away from a bad situation move into HWand the bad situations follow them.

Note the boarded up buildings, the deterioration of the schools. Its all part of the urban creep.

Those that can escape will. Those that escape and cause blight in the previously pleasant burb, cause those people to escape.

My sister left HW about three years ago as the house down the street got condemned and the grandma next door brought her extended family into her house to try to help educate them.. and get away from the problems in the old neighborhood...their problems followed. My sister left.

She likes her new house.

[grumpyoldlady]

Harper Woods and Eastpointe are going the way of Detroit. There are still decent areas in them, but that won't last long.

[Gistok]

I love the Shores. The people parks, the dog park, the waterfront parks. The parades, both Memorial Day and the Harper Cruise. The police come when you dial 911. The waterfront restaurants and the evening concerts are fun especially on a warm summer night. The taxes aren't crazy. Convenient access to all the freeways. I love the Shores!!!!

An example of the SCS 911 response time...

Went to 11 Mile/Little Mack 7/Eleven at 1:30AM where an obviously drunk young punk was standing in front of the store looking to pick a fight with 2 much larger guys who weren't interested in a fight.... I laughed, and walked inside the store just as the store clerk hung up with 911 dispatch... made it to the dairy case [[to buy milk) just as first SCS police car pulled up.... made it to the cash register just as 2 backup squad cars pulled up. No fight, just a drunk kid who had "some explaining to do"...

Response time... 3 minutes for 3 squad cars...
Priceless...

[Maxine1958]

I think Harper Woods is two very differnt cities - divided by I-94. The east side of the freeway resembles GP in many ways. The west side seems to be an extention of Detroit. But like Detroit, there are pockets there of beautiful neghborhoods and streets. Then you turn the corner . . .

[Detroitej72]

I agree about the two cities part. My folks live five houses down from GP Woods, and the area is still very pleasent. Also the police reponse is very good.

All the older suburbs will decline if the people living there keep the suburban sprawl mentality. Decay will always be a few steps behind if you don't fight it.

[Dave70]

I think Harper Woods is two very differnt cities - divided by I-94. The east side of the freeway resembles GP in many ways. The west side seems to be an extention of Detroit. But like Detroit, there are pockets there of beautiful neghborhoods and streets. Then you turn the corner . . .

Yes, the west side has to deal with the Detroit border that unfortunately has become ghetto. It was a really nice area until about the mid 90's!

[mauser]

Not really. Harper Woods has deteriorated significantly.
.

True dat.

Ill take the Shores out of the three hands down, any day. Mayor Hison is a good guy. Gotta watch those coppers tho, they adore their speed traps, specially on the tiny part of I-94 in Macomb County that retains the Wayne County 55 mile per hour speed limit. They swarm that stretch like flies on shit.

What will Harper Woods look like if/when Eastland Center files for bankruptcy ? Think about that. Lakeside Mall just declared yesterday, and thats an actual functioning mall. Eastland is dysfunctional, at best.

[pgn421]

Mauser- most of the crime in HW, is from Eastland. Retail fraud!

[Gistok]

Mauser, ironically the place I see the most police pullovers of speeders [[on westbound I-94) is around 10 Mile. So the police are getting some really high speeders before the speed drops from 70 down to 55 at 9 1/2 Mile.

But on the eastbound direction... I see a lot of police parked under the 9 Mile I-94 bridge... catching them before the speed hits 70 MPH.

[Bobl]

My elderly father recently passed away in the home he bought new in East Detroit [[now Eastpointe) after WWII. I escaped the homogenized town in my late teens. Too quiet. Too dull.
As he aged, I was glad he lived in a quiet, dull place. He was safe, and he was comfortable in his quiet home.
Neighborhood changed recently, with more car thefts, burglaries, and vandalism in a few months than he observed over decades in the past. His block of seventeen homes has three for sale. The block behind him had seven for sale last month. Asking price for one home is less than I paid for my last new car.
The location served him well, but I worry about the future.

[12468_laing]

I would prefer St. Clair Shores as I remember it. Parents bought their house on Laing in 1956, dad died 1999, and mom 2004. I left for TN in '82, so the area has changed drastically. Never really liked East Detroit or Eastpointe - Harper Woods seemed like an extension of my part of Detroit. I remember when I was in scouts, trips to the police and fire departments of Harper Woods always made me think they were nicer than anyone else. Still preferred St. Clair Shores - had a friend who moved to a house north of 9 mile on Elaine.

[grumpyoldlady]

East of I-94 still OK for the most part. West of 94...just an extension of Detroit...going downhill fast.

[iheartthed]

Harper Woods and Eastpointe are going the way of Detroit.

Remember when Eastpointe changed its name from East Detroit? Just goes to show that putting lipstick on a pig only leaves you with a pig wearing lipstick!

[erichp77]

Though the taxes are high, Center Line is also a great community.

[Gistok]

I would prefer St. Clair Shores as I remember it.

Been living in SCS since 1990. The retail part of SCS has improved dramatically since I moved here. There used to be a lot of very old dumpy looking businesses around the city. Most have been torn down [[such as the party store at 10 Mile/Little Mack), and replaced by nicer retail.

Little Mack has improved dramatically, becoming a magnet for very attractive medical office buildings [[replacing deep lot residential properties along the west side of the street).

Unfortunately the residential FOR SALE signs [[that are found in all of SE Michigan cities) show up in abundance, as elsewhere.

[East Detroit]

True dat.

Ill take the Shores out of the three hands down, any day. Mayor Hison is a good guy.

If by "good guy" you mean ineffectual middle manager from Detroit Diesel whose best contribution as a councilman was reporting uncovered dumpsters during council meetings and whose best contribution as a Mayor has been... ummm, can't think of anything. He is relatively honest, but not really an innovative or creative type leader.

[mauser]

Response time... 3 minutes for 3 squad cars...
Priceless...

But isnt the cop shop 2 MINUTES up 11 Mile from the 7-11 ?

hahahaha !

[Fury13]

Eastpointe doesn't seem like a bad little community to me [[putting the whole name-change issue aside), although they managed to destroy the once-walkable little town center they had at 9 and Gratiot. Eastpointe has a traditional street-grid and certainly seems preferable to Roseville, where the signage along Gratiot is noticably more garish. Roseville's housing stock is much shabbier, too.

What can be done to stem the downward slide of the inner-ring suburbs?

[jerrytimes]

I don't find anything wrong with these communities either, including Roseville, where I live. Sue crime is here, but the cops take care of it quickly.

[SJ.Jet]

I grew up in Harper Woods, lived between Kelly and Landsdowne. It was a great city to grow up in. Always felt like an extension of Detroit. I don't think I ventured past 8 Mile until high school days. Most of our shopping and recreation was done in Detroit. Heilmann or Balduck, Vogue, Civic or Ramona for movies. Shopping at 7 & Gratiot or 7 & Mack. Those of us that lived on that side of HW always thought of the people who lived east of Beaconsfield as "the rich" because their houses were brick, their lots were bigger, and the streets were wider...
I see that the house I grew up in is now for sale for a mere $22,000!!! My parents sold it in 1989 for somewhere in the $50,000 range. In fact, my parents bought the house in the 60's for $16,000 and then it was not sided, no garage, small front porch, no central air....The ad also listed the square footage, 989, and now I wonder how 6 of us lived in such a small house with only 1 bathroom!!

[bigjimhp]

House is priced about where it should have been all along.

[30th Street]

Interested in Eastpointe? is there any divide lines like in Harper Woods this and that side of 94? Who has a better chance of making it Harper Woods or Eastpointe