fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2718 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2718 ⌋

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[Mayim Bialik]

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[Pacific Rim]

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Might be another 12 am day. Response time will be slow, sorry.

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This is for a novel, so I'm just working things out right now.

Let's say one character works in downtown Detroit and the other in Ann Arbor.

Is commuting to Detroit from Ann Arbor (or that distance, anyway) a thing people do? I know an hour isn't considered a long drive in some places.

Are there any pretty, small towns between the two cities? Places that aren't wastelands of malls and big box plazas? Google Maps is not helpful, here.

Does UMich Ann Arbor have a nickname locals use?

I used to commute an hour to work, so my two cents on that point:

It's certainly doable (and the upper Midwest is definitely a place where an hour drive isn't too long), but they are going to need to defend that decision to themselves pretty much as soon as the roads get bad. I was living in Large City because it was much, much nicer than where I was working, and also because my friends all lived there, but sometimes I would wake up, see the accumulated foot of snow and it's still puking down out, and call in sick, because fuck that. However, there are plenty of reasons to live in Ann Arbor instead of Detroit, so you can definitely justify it.

As far as non-shithole small towns, maybe Ypsilanti? It's still kind of poor, but it's got a cool historical district apparently?

Thanks! You're confirming my instincts about the drive, and I'll check out Ypsilanti.

Currently living between Detroit and Ann Arbor (not a native Michigander, though). Answers based on a very informal poll between me and my roommate...

Don't personally know anyone that makes that specific commute. Probably a bit of a pain if you're hitting rush hour either way, but not unreasonable on paper.

That said, winter (weather, accidents, and the ensuing potholes that worsen and can't get fixed) and construction (seemingly ongoing) can exacerbate commuting plenty.

(Incidentally, right now, there's a big overhaul going on I-96, which is a major highway and one of the routes that someone might take from Detroit-Ann Arbor, depending where they live. So a decent chunk of traffic is being re-routed to the other major highway, I-94.)

Plymouth and Northville came up as small towns to look at: older compared to other suburbs, downtown areas with thriving local businesses, lots of families, walkable, different festivals. I think both have farmers' markets late spring-fall, too. Don't know Ypsilanti.

No idea on UMich nicknames. God help you if you confuse it with MSU, though.

sa

Adding a bit on to anon below: Royal Oak and Birmingham definitely have strong downtown areas (not familiar w/Ferndale). If someone lives there, I'd assume they're well-off (at least upper-middle class, six-figure income).

I'm the anon below. I'd say Birmingham is the most expensive of the 3, followed by Royal Oak and then Ferndale (but I'm less familiar with Ferndale than the other two as well, more based on hearsay than personal experience there). I've actually been idly house-shopping in Royal Oak lately because I'm thinking of moving back to Metro Detroit from out of state, and there are definitely affordable places in that area. Still middle class but you wouldn't need to be making six figures.

ayrt

I stand (or sit, slumped over my laptop) corrected. Though my assumption may be a small indicator of how Birmingham/Royal Oak is thought of outside of that area. (Especially Birmingham, where if I'm around there, I usually note a decent uptick in nicer, pricier cars, usually understated rather than flashy, generally middle-aged to older drivers. RO seems to skew slightly younger (20s-30s). Shop types/food in both areas seem to reinforce those notions, though usually upscale in some form.)

Backup up what was said before. It's easily theoretically possible to commute from Metro Detroit to Ann Arbor, but people don't do it if they can avoid it. But there are definitely towns in between that are liveable. As to "pretty, small towns"? Uh, not really. Well, go ahead and look it up on a map. Belleville has some nice lakes; my parents were recently considering retiring to a cottage there. It's about halfway between both cities, so you could have both people commute in either direction. Frankly nothing between Detroit and Ann Arbor gets too rural. "Wastelands of malls" describes basically all of Metro Detroit. Look at a map between the two. Once you get out past say, Canton and the Metro Airport (just past Taylor) you're passing out of the Detroit Metro area, and things get a bit more rural-ish until you hit Ypsi (nickname for Ypsilanti) and A2 (nickname for Ann Arbor), but still not really rural-rural. Further north of Ann Arbor, say like, the Brighton area, might have more that type of "small town" feel, but that's not really an ideal location to live if you're commuting all the way to Detroit.

From my experience (living in Ann Arbor for 6 years as a student) people just call UofM "UofM". Said like that ("u of m"). If non-student locals have a different nickname for it I've never heard it. The nickname for Ann Arbor is A2, as I said, and Ypsilanti is called Ypsi.

If what you're after is a town with some "character" there are plenty of spots in Metro Detroit that have that going on too. Royal Oak, Birmingham, and Ferndale all have interesting downtown areas. Some other cities probably do too but those are the areas I'm most familiar with. Lots of those areas have farmers markets etc. and that kind of thing too.

(And sometimes it's called "umich" too but uofm is more frequent ime.)

I know a few people who commute from Ann Arbor to Detroit daily, they get lots of pity though. It isn't uncommon but it's really undesirable.
When my parents were looking for a house to settle down in, my dad worked in Ann Arbor and my mom worked in downtown Detroit and they settled down in Livonia. Livonia, Plymouth, Northville and Canton are all good in-between places between Detroit and Ann Arbor. They're all Detroit suburbs though, so they're a little bit farther away from Ann Arbor, but still, not bad.

I wouldn't recommend using Livonia or Canton as a location though, they're both the kind of big box mall/plaza wastelands you're talking about.

Plymouth and Northville are both adorable small towns with a lot of character. Beautiful houses and downtown area.

Are your characters younger or older? Royal Oak and Ferndale are much younger and "hipper."

University of Michigan goes exclusively by U of M or Michigan. If you need to specify, U of M Ann Arbor vs. U of M Dearborn, etc etc. No one says Umich ever.

Feel free to ask me any more questions! I've lived in Metro Detroit my whole life, I go to school in Detroit and I have a friend that goes to U of M that I visit regularly so I'm pretty familiar with a lot of what you're working with.

That's very helpful, thank you!

[ SECRET POST #2718 ]

Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?

Re: Anyone here know the Detroit area?