Time for all of us Michiganders (or Michiganians, whichever you prefer) to come up with good arguments to explain why YOUR city or town is a desirable place to live.
Of course, when one makes an evaluative decision, one should specify the criteria one uses. What one person might find important (like a low cost of living) might be irrelevant, or at least less important, than another criterion, such as mild winters, or a thriving arts community, or decent mass transit.
For the most part, we all can toss out some of these measurements from the get-go. Michigan winters are not going to be mild no matter what. But there are others, such as good employment prospects, or low-cost housing, or solid public schools, through which Michigan cities and towns can be usefully compared.
This isn't and can't hope to be comprehensive. But it can possibly offer some ideas regarding prospects in MI for those hardy souls who decide to give it a try here. At the very least, it can give each of us a chance to say what we appreciate about the places we know, and what we wish were better about our current home towns.
I'll start with some anecdotal reflections about my current residence in Washtenaw County. (By the way, it's fine with me if you choose not to be terribly specific about your place of residence. However, it will help us to know if you're basing your statements on direct personal experience or some other source of information--which should be cited if you possibly can.) Please join me for them after the orange curlicue.
I moved to this part of the state in 1998, after having lived in Detroit for nearly 20 years prior to that. (How did I get to be so old? That's a topic for another diary....) At the time, I was a graduate student at U-M with one child who needed to finish high school, another child who was about to start high school, and a toddler. My then-husband and I weighed our options and decided that Ann Arbor would be the place we could get the best bang for our buck.
The marriage didn't last that long, and the oldest child didn't wind up finishing high school in Ann Arbor or anywhere; another diversion for another time. But my oldest daughter did finish high school in Ann Arbor, and my youngest daughter had K-12 in the Ann Arbor public school system. I finished my degree, my older daughter went to college out of state, then returned for U-M professional training.
All this time I was renting, most of it as a single parent. There was no way I could afford to buy anything back then, and for a time anyway I thought perhaps I would be leaving to pursue professional opportunities out of state, post-degree. My rent for several years in a small, 4-room flat of about 600 sq. ft was $800/month, not counting utilities. That was considered a good price, because it was right downtown and within walking distance to many important locations, including my daughter's schools.
There is a lot to be said for living in Ann Arbor. It has lots of amenities, since it is a college town and thus provides enormous cultural riches, some of them even free (or close to it). It's a town with many parks and green spaces; the Huron River runs right through it, and there are several public access points to the river. During the years I was downtown as a single parent, it helped a fair amount to have so much that we could walk to, though I always did have a car. Within the city, and now even in several parts of the county, it's possible to get by without a car. The AATA service (the city buses) provides decent coverage centered in Ann Arbor and looping in Ypsilanti and some other out-county areas.
Because it's a college town, the service economy is strong: there are hundreds of coffee shops, restaurants, and small businesses in several different business districts. So for someone with hustle, it's possible to get work and earn an adequate living, though here is where I add the major caveat: it's not a cheap place to live, unless you are strategic about it.
Not being strategic enough about it, especially once I remarried and my younger daughter finished high school, we chose to leave Ann Arbor for the next largest town east. ;) It, too, is a college town, but it's much, much less prosperous than Ann Arbor itself. There are many historical reasons for it, stemming in part from the economic and social histories of both places, but at this point our new city is at a striking disadvantage in many ways compared to prosperous and bustling Ann Arbor. Housing is decidedly cheaper, and some of the amenities of living in close proximity to a college town still apply. There is a really vibrant arts community, and a strong DIY vibe. But the downtown is struggling, the schools are not as successful and stable as people would like them to be, and there are chronic pockets of poverty and crime in certain areas of the city.
At this juncture, the Ann Arbor metro area is considered to be among the top-10 most income-segregated cities in the U.S. (per this recent report by Richard Florida). Other reports are confirming that problem, and local agencies are debating ways to address it.
As for racial dynamics, always an important factor to keep in mind when assessing a place to live: Ann Arbor is definitely a white city still, though there's long been an African-American population in town, so that some city residents have family history going back generations. This website provides some data about demographics based on the 2010 census; one cool aspect is that it gives the figures for the state as a whole as well as for each city listed. The black population of the state of Michigan is over 14%, but in Ann Arbor it's about 7%. The Latino population for both state and city is about 4%, but the Asian population in Ann Arbor is about 14%, compared to the statewide representation of about 2%. In Ypsilanti, for comparison, the black population is about 29% of the city, while the Asian and Latino populations are both quite close to the state rates.
Sadly, Ann Arbor is not exempt from racism, as much as many of its residents would like to believe otherwise. There are still no good answers for the recent police killing of Aura Rosser, an African-American mother of three who was shot only minutes after police responded to a 911 call from her house. The county prosecutor would not bring charges; local activists are still pursuing justice even though that route has been blocked. I would like to say that the dialogue in the wake of Ms. Rosser's killing has been productive, but there's no real evidence yet of positive change underway from what I can tell.
I wanted to stay in the county when my husband and I were thinking about where to buy a house. I value the connections I've created here, and I very much appreciate having so much access to water and parks in the area. To my surprise and delight, just the other day I saw a bald eagle fly by my house~! Not something I could expect to see in many other parts of SE MI, unless I lived close to the Detroit River near its mouth at Lake Erie. I'm happy to be in the town I'm in now, with people who are committed to sustainable civic growth. It's more gritty and more accessible than Ann Arbor, less self-satisfied.
In the comments, I'll provide some other links to housing options that are on the affordable end of the scale for Ann Arbor. But now it's time for me to post this and let you-all say your piece. So: if you were trying to persuade someone to come live in your town, what would you want them to know?
Otherwise, the floor is open as well to any other Michigan or Motor City-related topic.