Reviews & Comments
Marquette, MI
The Best Town In The Upper Peninsula -
7/5/2021A nice small affordable college town with a fairly accepting, laid back & liberal vibe, and a town with absolutely gorgeous natural surroundings. A town for Americans who love winter, and prefer summers that aren't a miserable 90+ F every day. While the UP has some of the worst poverty in the State of Michigan and a real problem with retaining people, Marquette is a beacon of hope - if real growth is to ever occur in the UP, this is the place where it will happen.
Grand Rapids, MI
The Actual City Is OK...The Rest Stinks -
7/5/2021Grand Rapids proper - the small city - is fairly OK. Nothing special stands out about it when judged against the nicer areas of the US, but it has some decent dining and shopping, some nightlife, a variety of jobs, and is generally well-kept, with well-thought out long-term city planning.
That said, the surrounding "Greater Grand Rapids" areas are backward, dull as dirt and way too full of comically uptight right-wing Christian conservative types, who behave like out-of-touch, embarrassing bigots against anyone who is not of Dutch descent. If you are not a MAGA type, skip these places. 3 stars for the city, 1 star for the rest.
Traverse City, MI
A Small City That Punches Way Above Its Weight -
7/5/2021Beautiful, clean, surrounded by some of the most beautiful and unpolluted nature in the nation, interesting residents from all over the world, an open-minded liberal population, one of the nation's best food scenes, vineyards and wineries galore (and rising star of multiple International competitions at it, beating many of the very best California and French winemakers in recent years), big on the arts, and an amazing & active outdoors culture. Everything Michigan should be, but so often fails at.
Yes, it's crowded, because like all desirable places in the US, people know a great place when they see it and want to be there. It's a bit above average for prices - for Michigan - but very affordable compared to anything decent in 90% of the rest of the USA.
Canton charter, MI
The Long-Dead Model For A Middle-Class Suburb -
7/5/2021A dull, middle-class bedroom community suburb with very little to do but shop (at typical big box stores) or eat (at typical chain restaurants). Lacks walkability, lacks charm, lacks decent parks, lacks excitement and nightlife, and is homogenous and quite bland. A textbook example of everything wrong with the old model of the "ideal" American suburb.
Positive marks: decent schools, low crime.
Northville township, MI
Overrated -
7/5/2021Overpriced, highly pretentious, lacking in diversity (race, class or ethnicity), and perfectly boring.
Positives: low crime, good schools, very little trash lying about (for metro-Detroit).
Garden City, MI
Avoid This Town Like The Plague -
7/5/2021A dull, dirty, decaying low-end suburb that has never improved itself in 50 years. There is near-constant flooding of many yards whenever it rains, trash thrown all over, the vast majority of people are small-minded, lack curiosity or creativity, are poorly educated, and have a conservative rural mentality. Basically, it's MAGA central. The schools are horrible, the roads are crumbling, city services are weak, and at one point the town actually allowed their public library to shut-down to lower their taxes. It's no wonder this town has long held the nickname of "Garbage City".
Plymouth, MI
OK, But Kind of Mediocre -
7/5/2021Used to live here. It's OK, but nothing special. Pretty much a bedroom community that is very safe, quaint, overpriced, middle-class, and...boring. Restaurants are overpriced for what they are, everything in town is almost always a drive, there is pretty much zero diversity (race, class, ethnicity), and virtually no decent nightlife. Basically, what too many Americans imagined as "good" 50 years ago.
Positive points: there are a good number of trees, schools are good, it's halfway between Detroit and Ann Arbor, it offers Hines Park access, and the town is pretty clean/has very little trash (well, for metro-Detroit) on the ground.
Dearborn, MI
Very underrated town - love it! -
7/5/2021Dearborn is a really underrated town! I moved to west Dearborn from Plymouth three and a half years ago, and I like it more in almost every way. Ridiculously better food, much lower prices, vastly superior city services, actual nearby nightlife, literally everything is close/within walking distance, lots of construction and city improvements going on, a younger population (just over 30 y.o. median), far more integrated in class & ethnicity than 95% of metro-Detroit, and non-pretentious neighbors who are actually friendly, outgoing, and who help each other. While I'm sure prejudiced & aging boomers would disagree, in my view, the west side feels literally dead and mothballed compared to being here.