Why is Macomb County, Michigan so terrible?

[Zynx]

I just got back from visiting family in southeastern Michigan and I was astonished at how soul-crushingly awful Macomb County is. It's not necessarily run down, but it's just tacky and terrible. Any natives from there? Are there redeeming features? I saw a lot of it and it's dreadful.

[trixie]

1. Life long resident of Macomb County

I think we have a beautiful county. Farm lands, cities, marine communities. Communities from very small to very large. Our county libraries work together so that the entire county has the same access to materials......

Link

Our special education programs for children are known around the country and people move here for that reason. Our commitment to the elderly also known.

What's your problem? Where were you?

[snooper2]

42. Looking at Google maps seems kind of, blah- Almost looks like part of Alabama

What is up with not having real road names?

29 Mile Rd

33 Mile Rd

Coon Creek Rd and the properties made me think Alabama

[sinkingfeeling]

2. As compared to where? What was so "dreadful"?

[Zynx]

18. It was fairly comprehensive, really. Just very sprawly, tacky, didn't seem terribly well-maintained.

I live in Madison, Wisconsin, which is one of the nicest cities in the whole country, so maybe my perspective is warped.

[LanternWaste]

32. Biased, not warped.

"so maybe my perspective is warped..."

Biased, not warped.

[a kennedy]

41. Miss my birth city, Madison, terribly, am coming to visit this weekend. Love, love, love Mad Town.

[Cal Carpenter]

46. You'd be better off comparing Madison to Ann Arbor

Another college town bubble zone that collectively tends to think very highly of itself.

Macomb County is a mostly working-class suburban county connected to Detroit. While many major thoroughfares are nondescript strip malls and small service businesses, there is actually a lot of variety there. Perhaps it is not terribly well-maintained because this entire region was basically abandoned by the capitalists after the heyday of the auto industry, our tax base has shrunk, our state is going for the drown-in-a-bathtub plan. There are whole books written about that if you actually care to find out the history of the area.

[ArcticFox]

4. I'm from around there

What was so bad about it?

What kind of a discussion are you trying to start anyway, with such sentiment?

[trixie]

6. could it be the orchards

the farm land, the boats, the lakes, the rivers, the cities of varying sizes, the villages, the fact that it is a Dem stronghold? Is it the diversity of people and religions? The fact that many cities took in Iraqis that helped our soldiers?

My favorite part: The varying markets from Italian to Polish to Mid Eastern. For goodness sake we are on Lake St. Clair and very conveniently located to Downtown Detroit and access to Canada.

[Zynx]

27. Admittedly, I was only in Warren, Sterling Heights, Fraser, and Roseville.

My family diaspora didn't extend much beyond the near-in suburbs. I was fairly horrified by all of that. To be clear, I only like about 5% of the land mass of the country, so don't take it too personally.

[trixie]

29. Let me guess, you never got off of Van Dyke

Warren, Sterling Heights both very diversified in cultures and religion. I love Warren where residents walk the neighborhood every day and say hi to everyone they meet.

All the areas you mention are working class areas. Perhaps the houses aren't as big as your used to? All the areas you mention take pride in cultural shops and markets. Randazzos, Kawalski, Biondos, my new favorite the Little Shepherd bakery.

This is the working class of America. Sorry we don't appeal to you.

[Skittles]

5. perhaps

you need to provide examples regarding exactly how you define "tacky and terrible"

[1939]

7. Macomb County is the Detroit "diaspora"

Much of the population base are the third and fourth generation eastern European (Polish, Czheck, Ukranian, and Slovak) ethnics who fled Detroit as it became less and less desiriable as a place to live. Macomb County was very, very red until this mass of blue leaning union workers began settling in the new subdivisions from 1946 to 1970. Economically, they are very blue, but socially, they are bright red. Macomb delivered the Michigan Democratic primary win to George Wallace in 1972.

[trixie]

8. You are forgetting one of the largest groups - Italians

History here.

[Zynx]

26. My one cousin who lives there has become an unrelenting white supremacist.

He's a crippled drunk.

[roamer65]

9. If you don't like it there, don't go back.

Why complain about it here?

[Zynx]

20. I was simply baffled as to why people live there. I won't go back, I assure you.

[1939]

34. They live there

because they worked in the area and Detroit became unbearable for them. Macomb is flat and featureless, yet it is a decent metro area suburbia for most of the residents.

[GreenEyedLefty]

10. I live next door in Oakland County and this post mystifies me.

I don't get it. I guess I need specifics on what makes it so tacky and terrible.

Otherwise it's pretty offensive to paint a whole county that's home to close to a million people with such a broad brush.

[Zynx]

21. LA and Phoenix are even bigger and are kind of shitty.

I was in Warren and Sterling Heights.

[closeupready]

35. LA and Phoenix are nice if you have money.

I could live in either city, but LA just seems super-drugged out and WEIRD. Like every day of the year is Burning Man Festival in LA

I've lived in Madison, WI, and I love it there, but if you need to work, I recall there are so few real jobs. It's not a business center - that's Milwaukee; Madison is the political and educational capitol.

Anyway, Michigan seems hard-edged, like Madonna's voice - raspy, almost screech-damaged. If refinement in taste is what you want, Michigan is a place where artists FLEE from, not TO.

[Zynx]

37. Yeah, I have a government job in Madison. The good jobs are almost all gov, UW, or IT.

IT is the biggest private employer in terms of really good jobs, that and healthcare. Otherwise there's a lot of difficulty breaking into good employment, so you're right about that.

LA is unlivable for me because you can't walk anywhere. It's far too spread out and, on top of that, the traffic is just horrendous.

[snooper2]

43. Phoenix doesn't believe in colors, I think they grind beige sand into white paint and say- DONE!

Not even the trim work gets any color. just one flat desert tone LOL


I wonder if the kids get to have Crayola at school?

[MrScorpio]

11. What the hell are you talking about?

Macomb is my home now and it's very nice here.

Since there are quite a few DUers here, we should have a local meet up.

[JI7]

12. it can't be worse than los angeles california

[Zynx]

25. Yeah. California has two great cities. LA isn't one of them.

LA is an unrelenting hell hole. I would much rather live in Macomb County than LA.

[kwassa]

31. LA is a wonderful city. I would move back, if I had the money.

I just spent a week of vacation there, visiting with old friends. I had lived there 17 years.

Best restaurants for the lowest price, great beaches, a million things to do, and an unbeatable climate.

Unlike Wisconsin.

[JI7]

33. my problem is more the people and how to many are kardashian wannabes

And yuppies and glutenfree anti vax idiots.

But yes. Beaches food are great.

[Zynx]

38. I feel that way about San Diego. LA's air quality negates the weather for me.

I spent a week in LA in February with some friends and then a week in San Diego with some other friends. San Diego is lovely and LA isn't. The constant smog-induced headache I had in LA went away as soon as I left the city. San Diego is my favorite city on the whole West Coast.

As for Madison, we actually have a surprisingly good food scene and the prices are very low, unlike LA. Also, unlike LA, I can actually walk to places here. Yeah, the winters blow, but I also can't hack 85+ degree heat.

[kwassa]

39. LA has many beautiful neighborhoods

Very little smog on the west side, where I always lived, and vastly reduced smog overall. And a million more things to do than the military complex known as San Diego.

And great food is very cheap in LA. The overall climate in the LA basin is quite mild.

[Zynx]

40. I've been to San Diego many times and I've almost never felt the military presence.

Similarly, I've been to LA a few times and never really felt the Hollywood thing going on.

[snooper2]

44. Just did a property search in Los Angeles :)

Here is the cheapest house at realtor.com

700 Square feet built almost 100 years ago


9313 Zamora Ave $110,000

Key Facts

Style: Bungalow
Single family home
Year built: 1927
Price/Sq Ft: $154
21 days on realtor.com ®
Status: Pending



http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/9313-Zamora-Ave_Los-Angeles_CA_90002_M19766-36204

[kwassa]

45. Real estate prices are very high there

True of most major city markets.

That house on the beach would cost over a million, easily.

[RichGirl]

13. I grew up in Romeo Michigan...in Macomb County.

Moved away 20 years ago. Have been back many times visiting family. Both Macomb and Oakland county have an unusual amount of traffic. Both are very polluted from exhaust. I think it's in the planning. Lots of subdivisions so traffic during rush hour is stand still...with cars trying to leave there subdivision...releasing exhaust. I live in a capital city now and it's unbelievable how much easier it is to get around. Rarely ever is traffic at a stand still because the streets are a grid pattern....so you're not stuck with just one way out of your housing development.

Michigan is a pretty state...but honestly can't remember a single spot in Macomb County that I would call pretty.

[1939]

14. Macomb and Oakland Counties

The southern part of both counties are reclaimed swampland as was the northern part of Wayne County. Hard to get beautiful topography in such an area. Northern Oakland was the end (toe) of the glaciers in the last ice age, so there are a lot of hills and lot of gravel.

[romanic]

15. Yeah Macomb and parts of Oakland Co

is nothing but sprawlsville. Hall Rd especially is soulless and just congested.

But that said I know plenty of nice people in the area and there's always northern Oakland and even parts of Macomb that's open and free of sprawl, beautiful pastures and parks and nature trails. Plus the COL is lower than my former place of residence (Suburban Chicago); SE MI will always be home.

[Zynx]

28. Yeah, I'm generally terribly anti-sprawl.

Macomb is sprawly as hell.

[Brickbat]

16. And in what paradise do you live?

[Zynx]

22. Madison, Wisconsin.

[Brickbat]

24. .

[Zynx]

36. Madison is always listed as one of the best places to live in the country.

Laugh if you want.

[jack_krass]

17. Where exactly in Macomb county did you go? (City /township)

[Zynx]

23. Warren and Sterling Heights.

Also Roseville.

[OnDoutside]

19. I'm looking at it on Google Maps, and it looks quite nice.

[ellie]

30. I used to live in

Sterling Heights. I didn't think it was that bad.

[Cal Carpenter]

47. Yeah, I think the OP might need to revisit the concepts

of 'tacky and terrible' while reflecting upon their urge to post this thread.

LOL