  Lifeinmontage Member Username: Lifeinmontage Post Number: 21 Registered: 10-2007 |
I'm just curious as to what everyone considers part of metro detroit. the federal government defines our "metropolitan statistical area" as the detroit-warren-livonia triangle and our "combined statistical area" as detroit-warren-flint (including a2 and monroe). IMO the metro boundaries go further than livonia and warren to the west and north-east sides respectively, but i don't know where i'd draw the line. would you include windsor as metro detroit, or does an international boundary exclude it in your definition? another interesting question would be that with further suburban sprawl, at what point do you consider areas like ann arbor, monroe, flint, and port huron to be "metro detroit". | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 919 Registered: 09-2007 |
I consider Flint, Port Huron, Ann Arbor and Monroe Metro Detroit. Many of our sprawling cities spread out to those cities. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 920 Registered: 09-2007 |
Or, I just call it SE Michigan (which would include Saginaw). Windsor itself interacts and works with Metro Detroit, but I wouldn't call it apart of Metro Detroit. | ||
Ray1936 Member Username: Ray1936 Post Number: 2331 Registered: 01-2005 |
Four counties. Wayne, Macomb, Oakland, and Essex. | ||
Crawford Member Username: Crawford Post Number: 182 Registered: 10-2006 |
To me it's Wayne, Oakland, Macomb and Livingston. Ann Arbor is a different beast entirely. Same goes for Toledo, Port Huron, Flint, Monroe, etc. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 298 Registered: 06-2007 |
Wayne, oakland, macomb. The outer fringe is still kind of a grey area though.Up around Romeo it's still pretty rural, as well as Highland/Milford. But the way things are going, give it a few years and those areas will be built up too. | ||
Johnlodge Member Username: Johnlodge Post Number: 3935 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm with Crawford. | ||
Scooter2k7 Member Username: Scooter2k7 Post Number: 28 Registered: 10-2007 |
Detroitrise, Saginaw is not Metro Detroit. They do not get any Detroit radio or tv stations up there (I know, I used to live in Saginaw). They consider themselves the Tri-cities area with Saginaw, Flint, and Bay City. And Midland would make up the quad cities. | ||
Detroitrise Member Username: Detroitrise Post Number: 923 Registered: 09-2007 |
It was just my opinion. They are all apart of Detroit's Forecasting Area though. | ||
Yeti Member Username: Yeti Post Number: 9 Registered: 09-2007 |
Quick Correction Scooter... Tri-Cities = Midland, Bay City, and Saginaw. Flint is not part of the Tri-cities, its its own beast. | ||
Lifeinmontage Member Username: Lifeinmontage Post Number: 23 Registered: 10-2007 |
So Crawford and Johnlodge, you would consider all of Livingston County part of Metro Detroit? Some cities like Fowlerville and others that far west are about 30 mins from Lansing, yet it takes more than twice that to get to Detroit. Yeti, with Flint not part of the Tri-Cities Bay Area, would you consider it an outward boundary of Metro Detroit? | ||
Yeti Member Username: Yeti Post Number: 10 Registered: 09-2007 |
Flint is defiantly its own city and with its own Metro Area. Grand Blanc tries to be Auburn Hills North, but it really is south Flint. The problem with Grand Blanc is that its 25 minutes (give or take) from Auburn Hills, which, has good shopping, good entertainment (A list concerts, Basketball). Its about 10 minutes from downtown Flint, which has a Subway and a tobacco store. I live in Ann Arbor and I hate having to drive to Pink Knob and the Palace, I am way farther away now from them than when I lived in the north Flint suburbs. But the original point - Flint, Flint is a City, its about 20 sq miles, has around 100,000 people, and it has suburbs. The funny thing about Ann Arbor, its about 20 square miles, has about 100,000 people, but it dosnt really have any suburbs. Ann Arbor is defiantly not a suburb of Detroit, but, if you are headed west on Michigan Ave, Canton is considered a suburb, and its 12 miles (as the crow flies) from Ann Arbor (Message edited by yeti on November 30, 2007) | ||
Scooter2k7 Member Username: Scooter2k7 Post Number: 29 Registered: 10-2007 |
No they consider Flint apart of the tri-cities. Like I said, I used to live there. | ||
Yeti Member Username: Yeti Post Number: 11 Registered: 09-2007 |
Really Dont want to start an Internet Forum Pissing match, but I used to live in Flint. It was never considered one of the tri-cities. Midland, Bay City Saginaw. All 3 cities in Saginaw County. 3 Cities, 1 County = Tri-Cities. For Reference see: http://www.doweventcenter.com/ tri_city_info.shtml http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T ri-Cities_%28Michigan%29 Saginaw Bay and Michigan’s Thumb Sugar sand beaches and world-renowned marshes are just a short trip away for people who live in the Tri-Cities area including Saginaw, Midland and Bay City. http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0, 1607,7-153-10365_41665-143975- -,00.html | ||
Lowell Board Administrator Username: Lowell Post Number: 4332 Registered: 10-2003 |
The family of contiguous communities, plus the some soon to be added new sprawl edge sites, comprise our metropolis. In other words, if you start from the core at the straits, Detroit and Windsor, and add any community that borders them, and any community that subsequently borders those border communities, and on and on until there are no bordering cities and the cows and hayfields intervene before the borders of the next communities, you have the picture. Consequently this includes Wayne, Essex, Macomb, Oakland, Washtenaw, and Livingstone. Ann Arbor, as much as some wish to deny it, is very much a part of that family and well inside the body. Parts of St. Clair, Genesee, Lenawee, Monroe are being added as we write. | ||
Scooter2k7 Member Username: Scooter2k7 Post Number: 30 Registered: 10-2007 |
One persons perception is their own thing. I do not want to get into a pissing match either. But in the future I would not use Wikipedia as a source. They are not credible. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 924 Registered: 12-2006 |
Wikipedia is precisely as credible as this blog, and for exactly the same reasons  Scooter's other point is precisely correct: the metro area is whatever you think it is. The United States Bureau of the Census defines it three different ways (for any big-city area, not just Detroit), and you can use one of those or any other you like. I think if you surveyed the public, probably the most common belief would be the tri-county area as the metro area, but as we all see there are many variations. | ||
Iheartthed Member Username: Iheartthed Post Number: 2279 Registered: 04-2006 |
You may not consider Ann Arbor a suburb but it's definitely metro Detroit. Newark isn't a suburb but it's undeniably metro NYC. | ||
6nois Member Username: 6nois Post Number: 598 Registered: 11-2006 |
The Tri-Cities, are Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland. Flint is its own thing. Correction Bay City= Bay County, Saginaw = Saginaw County, Midland = Midland County. Just to clear that up, they are in their own counties but the communities are roughly the same size and the same quality of life. Coming from a Bay City native. | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 541 Registered: 02-2007 |
There are higher authorities than the imagined oracles that are wiki and even this board (Scott suggested it, but I'm blurting it): Nielsen and Arbitron. BILLIONS of media dollars nationally are allocated per the carefully measured media consumption of real people (not pundits). As such, Windsor is as closely linked to Detroit as is Yellow Knife (OK, not that extreme, but the legal and cultural distance may as well place it 1000 miles away). Port Huron can be considered Detroit but everything north of Holly IS NOT Detroit. FYI - From Grand Blanc to a hell of a long way north of Oscoda is effectively a single media market. True, many of those residents of "mid-Michigan" ride south for work & play, but no one in the world of marketing and demography places them in Detroit (USCB dosn't buy/sell TV ad space). The thread on Detroit ad agencies was full of comments. You who posted there should feel free to weigh in now. Tell these "one big community" types about the DMAs, DAAs, & LMGs. One big family is a nice thought, but the pros certainly don't see it that way. | ||
Wolverine Member Username: Wolverine Post Number: 381 Registered: 04-2004 |
"No they consider Flint apart of the tri-cities. Like I said, I used to live there." I'm sorry, I grew up in Saginaw as well, and you are entirely wrong. I have no clue where you got the idea that Flint is part of the tri-cities which is Saginaw, Bay City, and Midland. Think about it, MBS International Airport. I hope you know what MBS stands for. Delta College (funded and located on the intersection of three counties) There's a reason why this metro area is referred to as such, Flint has nothing to do with it. End of debate. | ||
Fareastsider Member Username: Fareastsider Post Number: 700 Registered: 08-2006 |
I would say it is Wayne, Oakland, Macomb, and now Livingston as it has no sizeable city and its increasing development since the seventies is from metro Detroiters looking for a more country location to live. The satellite cities of Port Huron, Flint, Ann Arbor, and Monroe are sizeable enough cities to have their own smaller identity and community but large enough to have their own identity. If those cities were placed further in isolation from a large metro like Detroit they would be more their own metro. They are a small metro in their own rights but still owe influence and credit to metro Detroits influence. Flint and Ann Arbor more especially. ALso I say that Ann Arbor DOES have its own suburbs. Though there are no identifiable cities around Ann Arbor a number of townships around it have considerable developed areas spreading out as far a Saline, down to York and even Augusta Twp as well as far north a number of miles west along North Territorial. | ||
Craig Member Username: Craig Post Number: 543 Registered: 02-2007 |
Wolverine - look at my post... you're only half right. What you watched on TV, what was available in your stores, and the prices that you paid were identical to that offered to consumers in Genesee. Arthur Hill & Flint Central may have hated one another, but there were (and are) strong connections among those communities. Having said that, I've never heard/read of "quad cities" (in MI, anyway), but "mid-Michigan" is universally understood. | ||
Scottr Member Username: Scottr Post Number: 844 Registered: 07-2006 |
quote: Enough of the 'I used to live there' people, I've lived here in Genesee County my entire life, and we do NOT consider ourselves part of the tri-cities, which consist of Midland, Saginaw, and Bay City. quote: You might want to check a map. Or perhaps the Wikipedia page you sourced. Midland is in Midland County. Bay City is in Bay County. quote: Typical blanket statement used whenever Wikipedia disagrees with someone. Sorry, but you are wrong here, and WP is far more credible than anyone whose source is 'I used to live there'. quote: At least in Wikipedia, knowledgeable people are able to edit out the incorrect information provied by the not-so-knowledgeable. Unfortunately, here that is not possible here, or i would edit your post to use the correct term, 'forum', rather than 'blog', which this is not. But since I can't, your incorrect statement will continue to be read by others, some of whom will take it as fact, and perpetuate the incorrect statement. But to the point, overall, I'd have to agree that Wayne, Oakland, and Macomb counties are Metro Detroit, but no further. Certainly not any part of Genesee County. If it wasn't for UofM giving AA it's own identity though, Washtenaw would probably be thrown in though. It's getting close as it is. | ||
Professorscott Member Username: Professorscott Post Number: 926 Registered: 12-2006 |
All of the posts since my last just go to bolster my main statement: the metro area is whatever you think it is. There is no uniformly accepted definition, nor can there be, and frankly it doesn't matter. | ||
Wsukid Member Username: Wsukid Post Number: 167 Registered: 06-2004 |
Wow I think its funny that were going back and forth about who or what is the tri cities. Look at a freaking map of michigan they are Midland, Saginaw, and Bay City. Now IMO I think different regions are meshing together. The Detroit Metro is made up of Wayne, Oakland( up to Sashabaw Road), Macomb, Washtenaw (up to Dexter), Ann Arbor though not a suburb is becoming apart of the Metro Detroit discussion more and more. I think regionally we should look west to Washtenaw more so than Oakland. Livingston Co. is apart of the region up until howell. West of that is more apart of metro lansing. Genesee Co is in their own world. And Monroe Co is more apart of the Toledo area. | ||
Novine Member Username: Novine Post Number: 309 Registered: 07-2007 |
"Though there are no identifiable cities around Ann Arbor" Really? Never been to Ypsi, Dexter, Saline or Chelsea? A good chunk of Ann Arbor's commuter population comes from those 4. | ||
Detroitplanner Member Username: Detroitplanner Post Number: 1467 Registered: 04-2006 |
Ann Arbor has no suburbs?? Let me add a few: Barton Hills Village, Pittsfield, Superior, Ann Arbor Township, Ypsilanti Twp, Scio, Northfield, Whitmore Lake.. Many of these may not be cities, but they are definitely suburbs in a similar fashion as Redford or Canton townships are to Detroit. | ||
Hpgrmln Member Username: Hpgrmln Post Number: 302 Registered: 06-2007 |
"Livingston Co. is apart of the region up until howell. West of that is more apart of metro lansing" Sorry, can't agree. Eastern Ingham County (Williamston area) is still quite rural. It is primarily the Western part of the county (Lansing/Okemos) where the sprawl has been occurring. I wouldn't consider Fowlerville Metro Lansing because it is removed from the Lansing suburbs. I strongly argue that the Metro Lansing area only goes as far East as Meridian Twp. Anything around Williamston/Webberville are too rural. Livingston county and East Ingham really are their own thing, which seperates the 2 Metro areas. | ||
Gary Member Username: Gary Post Number: 267 Registered: 02-2004 |
For what it's worth, I have known co-workers to commute from places like Jackson, Chelsea, Mt. Morris, Fowlerville, Toledo and Grand Blanc to downtown Detroit and Southfield daily. So, if a city is within commuting proximity to Detroit, even if that means a 90+ minute drive, does that make the place part of Metro Detroit? |
