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.

[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!

[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!

[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.

[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...

[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.

[Detroitnerd]

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

Who cares? Just move a few more miles away and everything will be great for a few more years.

[Gistok]

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

hahahaha !

Don't you think it would be silly for 3 squad cars to leave the HQ at the same time to go to the same location? These were all out on patrol because they all entered the parking lot from Little Mack and not 11 Mile...

[Patrick]

Will SCS and GP fall and start to deteriorate like Eastpointe and South Warren?

[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!

[CLAUDE G]

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 . . .

I agree 100%, the closer you get to Kelly the more it starts to feel like Detroit.

Whats really killing Harper woods, is the apartments around Eastland and all the rental homes along Vernier Rd. The abundance of cheap housing is attracting all the people who can bairly afford to get out of Detroit, and in many cases bring along the problems that where the reason why they moved away in the first place.

Eastland center has really gone to crap also. There is no good stores left and 2 biggest stores are a Lowes and a Home Depot. If you live in the area, you'll notice all the Detroit people go to Home Depot and all the Grosse Pointe people go to Lowes.

[bartock]

I agree 100%, the closer you get to Kelly the more it starts to feel like Detroit.

Whats really killing Harper woods, is the apartments around Eastland and all the rental homes along Vernier Rd. The abundance of cheap housing is attracting all the people who can bairly afford to get out of Detroit, and in many cases bring along the problems that where the reason why they moved away in the first place.

Eastland center has really gone to crap also. There is no good stores left and 2 biggest stores are a Lowes and a Home Depot. If you live in the area, you'll notice all the Detroit people go to Home Depot and all the Grosse Pointe people go to Lowes.

Walkaways and banks selling housing for next to nothing, even on the east side of I-94 in my neighborhood. On our block, a walkaway produced a home that sold for $30K. The police, with help from GPW, are really all over the place over here, probably to the detriment of the west part of town.

Right on about the Home Depot/Lowe's dynamic. It is striking. However, while the mall may be struggling, I think the Macy's is great [[not sure how they are doing), and Target completed re-did and expanded their store just last year.

We only moved out to HW 7 years ago, but that 9/Harper area in SCS has always seemed shady. The 24 hour diner on the NW corner for some reason gives me the creeps.

Speaking of Kelly, one hidden gem of a place on that side of town that most certainly is not going downhill is on Old Homestead. St. Sabbas Monastary, one of the better kept secrets of this area [[it was in Hour once), and certainly one of the best places to eat around, if you can get the once-a-week reservations. It is an incredible place, especially in that location.

www.stsabbas.org.

[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

[Detroitej72]

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

I would say Harper Woods because half the city has Grosse Pointe schools, and anyone with school aged childeren want the area with the better school system.

East Detroit Schools are getting pretty bad, there have been many kids caught bringing weapons into the high school the last few years. Most of the folks I know who have school aged kids don't feel comfortable sending them to E.D. High.

[raptor56]

I grew up in Fraser and always found folks in the city to be rather pleasant. City services were impeccable. Our side street was always plowed of snow by 8am, and according to my dad, still is plowed before noon every time the snow falls. The Police in Fraser were great. Crime in the city was typically very low, so when you'd call them, for whatever reason, all 4 cars on patrol would show up in 5 minutes or less.

Back in 2005, I left the nest and moved to SCS. So far, over the past 3.5 years, I have really grown to appreciate the small town feel of SCS. My neighbors are all friendly. I like being able to walk to the many mom and pop ice cream shops on Harper during the summer [[currently lamenting the loss of Cool Breeze). The one time I had to call the police, they arrived in less than 5 minutes [[and I'm on the north side of the city). All in all, a nice place to live. My only gripe is the current influx of crime from Detroit on the south side of the Shores. I read the crime blotter in the SCS Sentinel newspaper every week, and it seems like there's always a robbery or assault or drunken driver from Detroit committing a crime in SCS.

As far as East Detroit and Harper Woods go, they are starting to see more urban decay. I watched over the years of picking up my sister from school, the area around Regina HS deteriorate, then listened to stories from friends' sisters who complained of cars being stolen out of the lot and some crazy guy running through the school. I was driving home from Ann Arbor one Fall afternoon in 2007 and decided to take a detour off 94, through downtown Detroit, and up Gratiot to get home. It had been some time since I traveled the southern end of Gratiot. Typically when you crossed the border into EastPointe, the scenery got better than what you saw in Detroit. On this occasion, the Scenery was better, but there were a lot of vagrants walking the streets [[and in the street). One scraggily looking guy was carrying on quite the conversation with himself in a parking lot. I think we are beginning to see not only the typical urban sprawl as people move north, but now we are seeing considerably more transient sprawl as well. People who, for whatever reason, are on the lower rung of society, and who typically would stay in certain areas of Detroit, are now starting to sprawl outward as well. You are seeing the degradation of whole areas that were once vibrant not too many years ago. As an example, look at south Warren, the 8 mile and Kelly area of Harper Woods, the 15 Mile and Gratiot\Harper side of Clinton Township and, increasingly areas of Roseville. Unfortunately, as this transient sprawl continues to move through the inner ring suburbs, it is only going to increase the urban sprawl northward as people would rather move away from the issue than figure out a way to solve it.

[SCS_Scooter]

OK, maybe I jinxed myself when I said in an earlier post that the police show up when you dial 911. I wasn't speaking from first hand knowldge, just listening to what my neighbors said. BUT,THEY REALLY DO SHOW UP...only wish I didn't have to call. Yes, I finally have first hand experience. I went to the Tiger game on tuesday and when I got home someone had robbed me blind. I have all the safety features...metal doors, locked storm doors, deadbolt, locked windows, no bushes by the windows that can hide someone...everything I did was with safety in mind. Even tho' stuff like that won't happen to me! How very wrong I was. We left after the dismal display of 10 runs by the Yankees and pulled in the driveway. I knew something wasn't right when I saw the gate open. Dog = gate always closed! I walked up the driveway, saw the glass and ran back to the car. I yelled to my friend to call 911 and we drove several houses down and waited for the men in blue to arrive. 2 minutes later one car, one officer. Another minute, another 2 cars, 2 officers. They surrounded the house, searched outside and then inside and came back out and asked me to do a walk around with them inside. They were very kind, considerate, knowledgeable, and they arrived when I called. The millage is worth every penny. I love the Shores.