Detroit, MI

A better characterizatino of Detroit is that it is the Philadelphia of the area.  Philadelphia is the second largest city in the Northeast, as Detroit is the second largest city in the Midwest.  L.A. is the largest city in the Southwest, and Detroit will never catch up to Chicago anytime soon, I mean Chicago would have to seriously drop the ball and really screw up for that to ever happen.  Chicago, like New York, has some really unfair advantages afforded to it that would prevent any other city from ever catching up to it, and you could almost say the same about L.A.

Detroit can be dubbed the "Los Angeles" of the Great Lake area. I drove up to Detroit to visit some friends. They took me around town, and boy was I disgusted at all the old worn down building, grafittis, nasty! I would never want to live in Detroit.  Ann Arbor is much better.

Two stars only because of the beautiful architecture.

Detroit is one of the saddest cities i have ever visited. The people seemed very friendly, however this was at a tigers game which was dominated with people from out of town. I truly wish someone with a vision can come here and restore some of the old skyscrapers that still dominate the downtown. How does a city in the USA get like this? I thought new orleans had it bad. It honestly made me sad! Im from montana and live in seattle and you talk about 2 cities that have nothing in common! Seattle is bustling with people and business, i hope the federal goverment will step in and make it extremly viably to start business's downtown for outsiders, i dont know what else to say!

Detroit is inaccessible, dirty, and crime-ridden. The highlight of the city is Ford Field, and the duty free shops near the Ambassador Bridge are the main shopping attraction. There are a lot of places to see a concert in Detroit, but most of them are in especially bad districts.

2.5 stars:  Detroit used to be a city with bad areas, today...It's a city with good areas. I've been pretty hard on my home town. Actually, downtown isn't bad at all, there are bars, restaurants casinos and other attractions. Greek Town has good places to eat, as well as Mexican Town. One problem with Detroit is that the city has a very large land mass, bigger than most cities in the U.S. so you have areas that don't get services, like police protection. 8 mile rd is the dividing line to the suburbs in the north. Detroit was black and the suburbs were white, although now many blacks are moving into adjacent cities like East Pointe, Roseville Southfield and Warren. Who can blame them. Detroit's population reached nearly 2 million in the late 50's, now it stands at about 850,000.

I agree with caphillsea77,  I had the opportunity to visit Detroit for a conference.  I see great potential in this city.  However its going to take reinvestment back into the neighborhoods of Detroit to reestablish infrastructure and some political ingenuity.  But there is no reason Detroit should not be on the same level of Chicago given its history.

Ranked dubious honor of most dangerous city in the US for 2007. Very sad as it has a history of  people flocking here for jobs and at one time probably had some wonderful neighborhoods. This is a city that needs attention on so many levels, on a national spectrum as the problems are too big for any state or local government to tackle.

Ew... At least they have a pretty good airport.

Ive visited detroit two years ago and im happy to say ill never go back.  The highways and streets are ghetto and the city doenst seem to maintain them very well.  the citry is extremly segragated and the crime rate is horrible

You can go ahead and counter attack me, but my rating is fair to me. I will say OK, but a bit better than OK; however, less than four stars. I was a tourist during spring break, and I did tour the city by foot and yes, the residencial areas were saddening as there were open areas to where houses were and the cemeteries are so big in the metro area there- I can correleate the crime and size. It was better staying in Wayne County than Oakland Co. as it was worse than its neighbor.Reversing to positives, if you are careful and pick the right attractions there, you will say that there is plenty to do in Detroit. No doubt that I had fun seeing movies and cars at the Rennesance Center/GM Headquarters (it's like a city itself), I saw how great Joe Louis Arena Ford Field and Comerica Park were, and saw though average, Campus Maritus and Grand Circus Park. Great clubs, casinos, people mover, buses and zoo.  If you are touring the area, you would like to stay within downtown, be located close to... Read more

if this is not the armpit of America it is pretty damn close to it.

Mix Gary IN and Flint MI...sprinkle a little Buffalo gray sky and stir well. This is Americas first Ghost City. Never seen anything like it...like Cairo in America.

This place is pretty depressing. I was just here for an interview, in the suburbs, not the city, and god, it's segregated like hell and just looks like a corporate wasteland, full of scary robots. I don't think I'd want to live here, honestly.

A miserable city but I'll give it 3 stars because the White Stripes and Iggy Pop are from here.

Well first the good. Next to Chicago in the midwest, I was impressed by all the theatre there. Comerica park is a cavernous yet fine ballfield for the embattled Tigers. Rencen looked nice but nothing that would make me call magnificent architecture. Now the bad, man I have never seen more abandon buildings, shuttered restaurants and graffiti laden stretches of city in my life. wide boulevards strewn with trash and broken glass and punks walking around. No transit since the city was designed for cars and only cars. The monorail is a joke, no one is on it...lol and it really goes nowhere i would want to go to. The saving grace for Detroit is Windsor, it is safer, cleaner and a hell of a lot cleaner than Detroit. It's no wonder many call Detroit "up south" due to it's enourmous negro population, thus all the damn decay.

Not for pussies.

I currently stay in a Detroit suburb, and must admit that my visits to Detroit are sporadic since there's usually not too much going on in the area. During my last time, I actually ahd a good time. This may be hard for many of you to believe (and it was for me), but the city of Detroit is actually improving. Anyway, I visited the relatively new Compuware center, which is a very very nice place. The first couple of levels is somewhat of a mall. I ate at the hardrock cafe, which is located on the ground floor or the Compuware building. The new Grand Martius Park is an utterly gorgious located right infront of the Compuware building. The park has absolutely splendid waterfalls. Then, I went to Comerica Park for a Tigers game, and had a wonderful time. If you sit in the right place in the stadium, you will actually get an awesome veiw of the Detroit skyline. The streets were pretty clean. We were able to walk around the downtown area at night without any worries. There was a pretty strong ... Read more

I'm from here,but it's not a place I'd choose to move. But if you're here on vacation,Baker's Keyboard Lounge (at Eight Mile and Livernois) is the oldest ongoing jazz club in the world and I'd also recommend the Greektown(which isn't that Greek anymore-but which is where one of the city's three casino's is located) and Mexicantown-which may be the only part of town within city limits to have improved;also-you can take the tunnel bus across the Detroit River to Windsor,Ontario Canada.

Opinion585,as accurate as your comment was,it still only scratched the surface.I could go into more(Especially about Coleman Young,may he burn in hell),but it would be waaaaaaaay too politically incorrect,hence the truth.

All of the automobile tycoons of the late 19th and early 20th centuries who called Detroit home, would likely crap themselves, fall to the ground, begin babbling, have a stroke, and die in a miniute if they were to see Detroit today. Yes, Rockin Robin hood is correct, this place should deffinetly be used as learning material for other cities, so they know exactly what NOT to do. The saddest thing is the fact that it really did used to be a wonderfull city with great architecture, that you can barely see today behind the grafiti and police tape. Other older industrial like Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, maybe even Cleveland have a chance of returning to their former glory or better, but i believe Detroit has gone way to far, it can't be saved, and that's a shame. A damn shame. As for the suburbs, yes, they are nice, and have fairly friendly people.. But the they are responsible in part for the decline of the city. There are some friendly people in the suburban areas, which remind me a lot of wh... Read more

This has got to be the most segregated place on earth. More rundown areas than any city I've ever set foot in. The locals that are giving this place 5 stars is fine, but to an outsider coming in for a visit, it is a total shock. I see there are some very nice areas, but don't you see there are just too many rundowns to count? I wish Detroit the best.

The saddest city in America.

They put horses down to put them out of thier misery, don't they? Well, too bad they can't put some cities down. Detroit is the pits and is only good as a bad example of what happens when you let cities go down the drain.

If you look around enough, you will see lots of good stuff. Downtown is compact and fun to walk around. Riverfront is reviving, but is no Baltimore yet. ...Cy

I'm from the midwest so if anything I'm predisposed to give this town the benefit of the doubt. And I have. If I were just thinking about the city then it would have to be about minus one. What happened to the city of Detroit is beyond sad, it's catastrophic. Think of all the worst things that have happened to the great northern cities in the Post WWII era, multiply it and then you have Detroit. After the riots of 1967 the town was dead in the water within a decade. Because there are a number of clean, prosperous suburbs surrounding the central core, and the fact that I think metro I give Detroit 2 stars. Sorry to do it because most Detroiters are straight at you mid westerners and I've had a number of good times attending sporting events in Detroit even while rooting against the locals.

Detroit sucks so much. There's no taxis. There's a monorail. But it's a little boring. I give Detroit an extra star is that my relatives live around here.

I think Detroit is a beautiful city also. I'm not going to lie, there's a few bad areas but the good overrule the bad. Don't listen to those stupid national news reports. I can't wait to move there in March 2005.

I live in Detroit and damn it's a nice city! Some of you people on this website are just idiots!! Not all areas of the city are nice but what large urban city doesn't have high crime areas. I live in a nice quiet beautiful area of the city. I can't wait to raise my future children in the city. Also opinion585 comment seem a bit racist!!

Sad, sad, sad. You can tell by driving through the city how grand it once was. Before the 1960's and now, the people who take pride in what it is now deserve what they live in. The people who made that city must be turning in their grave over what the city is now.

somebody has to say it, and eventhough i have black friends (although they are suburban so i dont know if it is the same) i guess it will be me. It started to decline when it became the blackest city in america, or maybe the other way around, when a city is half white half black, it is usually perfect. but when it gets too white,racail tensions flare up with any black family moving into a neighborhood, and when it gets to black, crime rates skyrocket. its too bad though, because much of detroits black populations really isnt ghetto they are just normal families, but the hoodlums give the whole city a bad name. Whats really sad is, this could be one of the greatest cities in america, it has tons of historic homes and buildings, if only the loser auto companies didn't leave, i bet detroit would still be today what it was in the 20's and 30's, a very nice, very safe, very freindly city.

I'm not exactly in love with the place, but the preceding comment from opinion585 is a scurrilous a piece of barely veiled, or unveiled racism I've read in some time.

I was there once, albeit in 1992. I went to the Motor City with a friend of mine to see Tiger Stadium. We stayed across from the Renaissance Center, which was by far the nicest part of Detroit. It was Labor Day 1992 - it was like being in Missoula, Montana. It was a GHOST TOWN. Tiger Stadium was akin to Eden compared to this pit. They made a huge mistake tying their fortunes to the automotive industry.

I did like Greenfield Village, Henry Ford Museum, the Detroit Institute of Art and Greektown was okay. But, literally nothing going on at night, jsut three blocks of Greektown and a coupe of casinos. The only city I have been in that looks more depressing at night is Havana. So much potential in Detroit, osme grand skyscrapers from the 20's, wide boulevards and some semblance of planning back then too. Its sad, becuase just by spending some major money by wholesale redevelopment, the place could be so nice.

One of the worst cities in the US. The city proper is a wasteland. Huge, wide boulevards with little traffic and abandoned buildings and empty lots over most of the city. Awful public transit for a major city and not very pedestrian friendly. The outlying areas are in better shape than the city proper but its typical boring suburban strip mall culture. Detroit has loads of potential and may one day become a pretty good place to live and visit like it once was, but in 2004 it is well below average when compared to other US cities.

I am a native of Detroit, though I have moved since, and I always love to visit. Detroit gets a lot of bad press as being dangerous, especially downtown, but there has been a lot of rejuvenation in the last 10 years, and its beginning to come back to its former glory. One of the most important cities for history of invention in our country to be sure. If you're going to visit be sure to stop at Greenfield Village/Henry Ford Museum and hit Greektown as a night spot. Also, downtown is the best Mexican restaurant anywhere in the U.S., bar none, Xochimilco. Great place to hit after the Grand Prix.

I am a fellow detroiter and I love my beautiful city. With its great attractions such as ballparks, museums, parks and so much more. It make our city a great place to live and visit. I know that there are bad areas of the city, but hell, there are bad areas of all our nation's large urban cities. I'm sick and tired of people only judging Detroit as a high crime area as if their cities dont have a police force. Which shows that there is crime. I know for a fact that there are nice areas of the city. I live in one, and plan to raise my family in one. Not to mention all the new commerical and residentual development that has come or has been planned to come to the city. In conclusion, I love my city and wish others would open their eyes and see too.

What can I say, it was a great place once upon a time with Woodward and everything but now, it's just a dirty city.

Having grown up in Detroit, and then moved to NYC, I can say that in terms of providing the amenities of a big city, Detroit is seriously lacking. However, the suburbs are excellent and affordable, the weather isn't as harsh as Chicago, and Detroit has an authenticity and grit I haven't seen anywhere else. Not to mention, Michigan has wonderful natural resources also hard to find elsewhere for the price. Its also a great sports town and has University of Michigan.

To all commenting on how Detroit is so great. I am sure you do not even live in Detroit, seems to me the white population has long fled the city. Racial relations and segregation here makes Mississippi and Alabama look good by comparisom. If you're so proud of Detroit why not try and revitalize it.

Worst roads in America. Nasty, rundown buildings. A downtown that looks bleak. This city needs lots of work. The casinos that are downtown is a good start. There is hope yet.

It gets an unfair bad rap. Sure, business diversity doesnt exist here, mainly because all the white people moved out after there was some legislation passed that forced schools to integrate more, leading in white kids being bussed across town to another school, and vice versa. And the whites moved out. But anyways, My favorite sports teams are here, and they produce very good cars, because its motown

Looks like Tijuana North. A classic example of what happens when you don't diversify your local economy. The one plus: Greenfield Village is nearby, one of the best museums I have ever been to. Detroiters should do like Cleveland and do a little urban renewal, like maybe build a large museum downtown instead of just in suburban Dearborn.

My home town! No place like Detroit! Go Pistons! Go Red Wings! Go Lions!

I don't live there either, but I think it's a great town. Detroit, for one reason or another, has gotten a bad rap through the years (maybe due to the high murder rate in the 80's?), but I think it has a lot to offer. It has a distinct culture and history which gives it a personality of its own (as opposed to many other cities of similar size). The institute of arts is absolutely amazing (I cried at the sheer beauty of it the first time I was there--boy did I feel dumb! :) ), the orchestra and their venue (Orchestra Hall) is second to none, and there are several beautiful old theatres offering high caliber productions of various plays/musicals/operas plus many small production companies that do a good job in a more intimate setting. If you're not into the arts, Detroit is definitely a great sports town regardless of the time of year with a plethora of professional teams as well as quality college and high school teams (the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor is not too far away). ... Read more

I don't live in Detroit, but I go there whenever I can. I think the city is way underrated. No one can deny that Detroit is a colorful, historic city with a raw character that proclaims it the King of the Rust Belt. I don't appreciate people dissing this city just because they can't cut it here. Detroit doesn't want you anyway. Motown, the Motor City, the Big-D. Detroit has style and soul.