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njtosd
Participant[quote=briansd1]
My cousin’s son lives in Bloomington, IN and works for the university there. He says that one of the best places in USA to live — a cultural oasis in midwestern desert. It’s on my list of places to check out, one of these days.[/quote]Good heavens. You really do need to spend some time in the midwest. I spent the first 35 years of my life in Detroit/Ann Arbor/Chicago. I currently live 40 miles from NYC and culturally I’ve never lived in such a desert. The grocery store in Ripon, WI (birthplace of the Republican party) is a palace compared to the grocery store down the street. And I love Indiana, especially Indianapolis. (This is a beautiful picture of Monument Circle there: http://www.city-data.com/picfilesc/picc33569.php). Anyone old enough to have seen the movie “Cutters”? (Refers to the stone cutters in southern Indiana) It was filmed in Bloomington, I believe – gorgeous. Also, U of I Bloomington has a fantastic music school – according to Wikipedia, in 1981 it’s opera program was “the first non-professional company to stage an opera at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.”
You’re kidding yourself if you believe the standard spiel about the midwest – mostly just a result of the people on the coasts patting themselves on the back, IMHO.
ParticipantAccording to the South Carolina tobacco board, tobacco farming still is alive and well in the northeast, but doesn’t seem to be as common in the northwest (Greenville) area. This is an important difference, as nicotine is very volatile – if you stand in a tobacco field and breath it in, you can get a significant dose of nicotine. Not something I’d want next door . . .
ParticipantAccording to the South Carolina tobacco board, tobacco farming still is alive and well in the northeast, but doesn’t seem to be as common in the northwest (Greenville) area. This is an important difference, as nicotine is very volatile – if you stand in a tobacco field and breath it in, you can get a significant dose of nicotine. Not something I’d want next door . . .
ParticipantAccording to the South Carolina tobacco board, tobacco farming still is alive and well in the northeast, but doesn’t seem to be as common in the northwest (Greenville) area. This is an important difference, as nicotine is very volatile – if you stand in a tobacco field and breath it in, you can get a significant dose of nicotine. Not something I’d want next door . . .
ParticipantAccording to the South Carolina tobacco board, tobacco farming still is alive and well in the northeast, but doesn’t seem to be as common in the northwest (Greenville) area. This is an important difference, as nicotine is very volatile – if you stand in a tobacco field and breath it in, you can get a significant dose of nicotine. Not something I’d want next door . . .
ParticipantAccording to the South Carolina tobacco board, tobacco farming still is alive and well in the northeast, but doesn’t seem to be as common in the northwest (Greenville) area. This is an important difference, as nicotine is very volatile – if you stand in a tobacco field and breath it in, you can get a significant dose of nicotine. Not something I’d want next door . . .
Participant[quote=bob2007]
. . .
Surrounded by fresh water, although the quality varies ;). It seems that at some point the state/cities should realize they need to provide breaks to businesses to attract them.. . . [/quote]
One of the biggest problems with Michigan, from my point of view, is the fact that it is a peninsula. This leads to an almost constant cloud cover (I have been told that Ann Arbor has more overcast days per year than Seattle) and weather that isn’t the most desirable. People used to live there because of the work opportunities and the tendency of families to stay in the same place – but those factors don’t really apply as much any more.
When Michigan first became a state, the city of Calumet (in the upper peninsula) was almost made the capital because the U.P. was the center of industry in the state (mining, etc.). When the mining industry collapsed and the auto industry took off, everyone moved to Detroit (including my relatives). As another poster mentioned, the UP is pretty much dead – business never regrew there, and I think that result is a distinct possibility for Detroit.
Participant[quote=bob2007]
. . .
Surrounded by fresh water, although the quality varies ;). It seems that at some point the state/cities should realize they need to provide breaks to businesses to attract them.. . . [/quote]
One of the biggest problems with Michigan, from my point of view, is the fact that it is a peninsula. This leads to an almost constant cloud cover (I have been told that Ann Arbor has more overcast days per year than Seattle) and weather that isn’t the most desirable. People used to live there because of the work opportunities and the tendency of families to stay in the same place – but those factors don’t really apply as much any more.
When Michigan first became a state, the city of Calumet (in the upper peninsula) was almost made the capital because the U.P. was the center of industry in the state (mining, etc.). When the mining industry collapsed and the auto industry took off, everyone moved to Detroit (including my relatives). As another poster mentioned, the UP is pretty much dead – business never regrew there, and I think that result is a distinct possibility for Detroit.
Participant[quote=bob2007]
. . .
Surrounded by fresh water, although the quality varies ;). It seems that at some point the state/cities should realize they need to provide breaks to businesses to attract them.. . . [/quote]
One of the biggest problems with Michigan, from my point of view, is the fact that it is a peninsula. This leads to an almost constant cloud cover (I have been told that Ann Arbor has more overcast days per year than Seattle) and weather that isn’t the most desirable. People used to live there because of the work opportunities and the tendency of families to stay in the same place – but those factors don’t really apply as much any more.
When Michigan first became a state, the city of Calumet (in the upper peninsula) was almost made the capital because the U.P. was the center of industry in the state (mining, etc.). When the mining industry collapsed and the auto industry took off, everyone moved to Detroit (including my relatives). As another poster mentioned, the UP is pretty much dead – business never regrew there, and I think that result is a distinct possibility for Detroit.
Participant[quote=bob2007]
. . .
Surrounded by fresh water, although the quality varies ;). It seems that at some point the state/cities should realize they need to provide breaks to businesses to attract them.. . . [/quote]
One of the biggest problems with Michigan, from my point of view, is the fact that it is a peninsula. This leads to an almost constant cloud cover (I have been told that Ann Arbor has more overcast days per year than Seattle) and weather that isn’t the most desirable. People used to live there because of the work opportunities and the tendency of families to stay in the same place – but those factors don’t really apply as much any more.
When Michigan first became a state, the city of Calumet (in the upper peninsula) was almost made the capital because the U.P. was the center of industry in the state (mining, etc.). When the mining industry collapsed and the auto industry took off, everyone moved to Detroit (including my relatives). As another poster mentioned, the UP is pretty much dead – business never regrew there, and I think that result is a distinct possibility for Detroit.
Participant[quote=bob2007]
. . .
Surrounded by fresh water, although the quality varies ;). It seems that at some point the state/cities should realize they need to provide breaks to businesses to attract them.. . . [/quote]
One of the biggest problems with Michigan, from my point of view, is the fact that it is a peninsula. This leads to an almost constant cloud cover (I have been told that Ann Arbor has more overcast days per year than Seattle) and weather that isn’t the most desirable. People used to live there because of the work opportunities and the tendency of families to stay in the same place – but those factors don’t really apply as much any more.
When Michigan first became a state, the city of Calumet (in the upper peninsula) was almost made the capital because the U.P. was the center of industry in the state (mining, etc.). When the mining industry collapsed and the auto industry took off, everyone moved to Detroit (including my relatives). As another poster mentioned, the UP is pretty much dead – business never regrew there, and I think that result is a distinct possibility for Detroit.
ParticipantI am very familiar with Michigan and all it’s ups and downs – I lived there until I was in my late 20s and my family just sold a some property in the Northern part of the state. Are you talking about buying real estate in Detroit? Did you know that the mayor, Dave Bing, has suggested (very seriously) that he would like to bulldoze up to a third of the city and have it revert to whatever it would revert to? (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/us/21detroit.html). The schools in Detroit are so underfunded that there is also serious talk of having class sizes of up to 60 students – so very few stay in the city if they have the the ability to leave. The NYT just ran a very interesting story about the decline in the population of Detroit and some attempts to maintain neighborhoods (including training citizens to patrol their own neighborhoods ). (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/us/26detroit.html) On the other hand, there are a lot of small high tech businesses that have sprung up around Ann Arbor (home to the Univ. of Mich.) and so commercial real estate there might be interesting – although I know almost nothing about that. Also, artists seem to be migrating to the city to take advantage of large studio spaces that are dirt cheap: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102053853
See also this Op/Ed piece where someone bought a Mies van der Rohe there for $100,000 and someone else bought a house for $100. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08barlow.htmlThere might be bargains, but I’d be careful if I were you.
ParticipantI am very familiar with Michigan and all it’s ups and downs – I lived there until I was in my late 20s and my family just sold a some property in the Northern part of the state. Are you talking about buying real estate in Detroit? Did you know that the mayor, Dave Bing, has suggested (very seriously) that he would like to bulldoze up to a third of the city and have it revert to whatever it would revert to? (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/us/21detroit.html). The schools in Detroit are so underfunded that there is also serious talk of having class sizes of up to 60 students – so very few stay in the city if they have the the ability to leave. The NYT just ran a very interesting story about the decline in the population of Detroit and some attempts to maintain neighborhoods (including training citizens to patrol their own neighborhoods ). (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/us/26detroit.html) On the other hand, there are a lot of small high tech businesses that have sprung up around Ann Arbor (home to the Univ. of Mich.) and so commercial real estate there might be interesting – although I know almost nothing about that. Also, artists seem to be migrating to the city to take advantage of large studio spaces that are dirt cheap: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102053853
See also this Op/Ed piece where someone bought a Mies van der Rohe there for $100,000 and someone else bought a house for $100. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08barlow.htmlThere might be bargains, but I’d be careful if I were you.
ParticipantI am very familiar with Michigan and all it’s ups and downs – I lived there until I was in my late 20s and my family just sold a some property in the Northern part of the state. Are you talking about buying real estate in Detroit? Did you know that the mayor, Dave Bing, has suggested (very seriously) that he would like to bulldoze up to a third of the city and have it revert to whatever it would revert to? (see http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/21/us/21detroit.html). The schools in Detroit are so underfunded that there is also serious talk of having class sizes of up to 60 students – so very few stay in the city if they have the the ability to leave. The NYT just ran a very interesting story about the decline in the population of Detroit and some attempts to maintain neighborhoods (including training citizens to patrol their own neighborhoods ). (see http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/26/us/26detroit.html) On the other hand, there are a lot of small high tech businesses that have sprung up around Ann Arbor (home to the Univ. of Mich.) and so commercial real estate there might be interesting – although I know almost nothing about that. Also, artists seem to be migrating to the city to take advantage of large studio spaces that are dirt cheap: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=102053853
See also this Op/Ed piece where someone bought a Mies van der Rohe there for $100,000 and someone else bought a house for $100. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/08/opinion/08barlow.htmlThere might be bargains, but I’d be careful if I were you.
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