 
Patrick
Member
Username: Patrick
Post Number: 3296
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 65.222.10.3
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1:21 pm: |    |
I have made a rather odd observation. It seems to me that the east side suburbs have more of a connection with Detroit and vice versa, than the west side suburbs. Everyone I know in the west burbs (Livonia, Farmington etc) never ever venture into Detroit. It seems as if not many Detroiters venture that way either. On the contrary, east siders seem to have much more interaction with one another (Detroiters with burbs) than the other half of town.
What do you think? |
Spitty
Member
Username: Spitty
Post Number: 440
Registered: 07-2004
Posted From: 136.1.1.154
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1:31 pm: | |
A little off tangent, but i think it's weird how Downriver suburbs never really get mentioned at all as being part of the suburbs. Dearborn, Lincoln Park, Melvindale, River Rouge and Ecorse are all south of 8 mile and all touch Detroit, but are seldom heard about. It just strikes me as odd sometimes that these suburbs are thought of differently. |
Bvos
Member
Username: Bvos
Post Number: 1292
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 66.238.170.39
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1:41 pm: | |
As someone who grew up in the eastside suburbs, I can assure you that they are equally as detached as the westside suburbs. No more love for Detroit on the eastside than the west. |
Eastsidedog
Member
Username: Eastsidedog
Post Number: 31
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 12.47.224.7
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1:43 pm: | |
It's because the east side burbs have no satellite downtowns (with offices). I think that historically lots of folks with office jobs in the east side burbs work downtown. Folks in the west side burbs work in the office sprawl of Southfield, Troy, Farmington Hills, etc... I think that is the key connection. But don't forget about the middle burbs (woodward corridor), folks there go all over including the city. |
Detroit1969
Member
Username: Detroit1969
Post Number: 27
Registered: 10-2005
Posted From: 70.236.181.139
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 1:51 pm: | |
I agree the downriver burbs aren't as connected to Detroit. Truthfully, they're not all that physically connected. Sure, the boundaries touch, but all the industrial corridors, railroads and freeways seal Detroit off from them. It's pretty east to cross Wyoming, Eight Mile, Alter and Telegraph, but try getting from Mexicantown to Brownstown: It ain't pretty. And it doesn't smell very good either. |
Eastsidedog
Member
Username: Eastsidedog
Post Number: 33
Registered: 03-2006
Posted From: 12.47.224.7
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:00 pm: | |
But the northwest suburbs are the furthest from downtown, geographically making them more disconnected. I mean look at the pointes, st. clair shores, etc, they are very close to downtown, an easy ride down Jefferson. |
Mikeg
Member
Username: Mikeg
Post Number: 29
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 69.136.155.244
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:17 pm: | |
"Exhilarating - a walk out on the Gratiot road in the morning and meeting a hundred loads of wood and 50 tons of hay coming to market, giving a grand idea of the great city and its powers of consumption."
- from the Detroit Free Press, Tuesday, Nov. 16, 1869
Those wagons weren't coming down Woodward because the land out in Oakland County wasn't nearly as fertile.
Many of the descendants of those pioneer farmers still live in the "east side" suburbs and they remain "connected" with Detroit, both in thought and action. |
Zulu_warrior
Member
Username: Zulu_warrior
Post Number: 2653
Registered: 10-2003
Posted From: 68.251.27.41
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:27 pm: | |
Detroit's most connected suburb: Windsor |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3403
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:35 pm: | |
Mikeg, fantastic post #29. You explained alot in very little space.
Zulu is right about distance but Windsor isn't really anymore intergrated into Detroit than many suburbs.
AIW reports that the real passport at the Border is "Oakland Mall." You say that and bingo, the gate goes up faster than the Twilight Limited out of Niles.
jjaba |
Pam
Member
Username: Pam
Post Number: 134
Registered: 11-2005
Posted From: 67.107.47.65
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:41 pm: | |
quote:Everyone I know in the west burbs (Livonia, Farmington etc) never ever venture into Detroit
Not true among the people I know in the west burbs. |
Upinottawa
Member
Username: Upinottawa
Post Number: 242
Registered: 09-2005
Posted From: 198.103.184.76
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:49 pm: | |
Jjaba: the passport to get into Canada: "Casino Windsor". |
Jjaba
Member
Username: Jjaba
Post Number: 3406
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 67.160.138.107
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 2:56 pm: | |
Thanks Upinottawa. jjaba gets in pretty quickly by saying, "Just coming down for poutine."
On exit, jjaba likes to tell the US Border guards,
"Just in Canada to buy some bone china I'm sitting on for a wedding present." That gets a laugh. Border guards don't hassle old Jewish Detroiters. We make their day.
jjaba, paying his Tunnel toll. |
Cmubryan
Member
Username: Cmubryan
Post Number: 229
Registered: 11-2003
Posted From: 68.249.244.107
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 4:01 pm: | |
I think it depends on the actual suburb or maybe more specifically what neighborhood of a suburb. I can guarantee you Southfield has more of an emotional connection to Detroit than Warren. The northwest burbs maybe furthest from downtown but still close to the hoods. Also, the northwest burbs aren't really that much further because they have direct expressway routes going at an angle (Jeffries, Lodge) to connect them with the city unlike suburbs that are closer to the city without direct expressway routes. |
Mikeg
Member
Username: Mikeg
Post Number: 30
Registered: 12-2005
Posted From: 69.136.155.244
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 21, 2006 - 4:33 pm: | |
Thanks, Jjaba.
As you might have guessed, I am one of those descendants. While my opinions on the "connection" could be dismissed by some as anecdotal evidence or a minority viewpoint, I maintain that a lot of Detroit's history has been shaped by the area's unique location, geography and radial road network (that roughly followed the original Indian trails).
Detroit's location on "the narrows" at the intersection of those trails was perfect for establishing a French fur trading outpost back in the days when water routes provided the fastest means of transportation. However, it later proved to be 60 miles too far north to allow Detroit to become a major US railroad hub. Sitting on an International border had some trade advantages, but it also prevented Detroit's outward growth from happening in a more orderly 360 degree pattern. Those radial transportation routes worked great for buggies, wagons and streetcars but when Detroit became the Motor City, those same roads funneled so much auto traffic into one small area that the CBD choked on the traffic and parking needs, beginning a seventy year decline that has hopefully, finally reversed itself. |