I used to live in Toledo as a kid and we went up to Grand Rapids one time for a trip. I remember the forests surrounding the city were really nice, and of course there was a lake nearby with waves big enough to body surf on. I can't really say anything about the city, but that part of the Michigan has a lot to offer.
Currently living in Ann Arbor. As a software engineer it's vibrant and full of startups to join. Our javascript meetup usually has somewhere around 50-100 people every event.
Not to mention it's a small town with a lot of bigger city amenities, close proximity to Detroit, and with it being a college town the average IQ is pretty high.
The only thing I remember about Ann Arbor is my mom visiting a hospital there for some reason. It seemed like a small quaint town, definitely not as bad as Monroe.
calling Ann Arbor a small quaint town comparing it favorably to Monroe is just a misunderstanding.
Monroe has like a sixth the population in the city limits and still less than half the size comparing the two metro regions. Ann Arbor is in a different class than Monroe. Monroe is a small town. Ann Arbor is a medium-small city (over 100,000 in city, over 300,000 in metro area).
Ann Arbor is centered around the University of Michigan, consistently ranked the #2 public school in the country, just behind UC Berkley. It has around 45,000 students. And yet Ann Arbor is big enough that students are still a minority of the population.
The UofM hospital is generally ranked one of the top 10 in the country, so it's not surprising for someone to go their for some special visit.
But sure, it's small and quaint compared to any real big city.
Ann Arbor has a real tech scene for sure, and Google's office there is significant. But whatever presence they have, Nokia and Expedia are not based in Ann Arbor (as someone might infer from your post)
University of Michigan has a lot of medical research and top medical facilities. It is a good place to go for medical care, especially for newer procedures and testing.
Absolutely. I lived the first 25 years of my life anywhere from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo, and it's a lovely, quiet, and still somehow cheap place(West Michigan that is). I will always be fond of my time there, but the longer I am away the less I feel attached to it.
I was visiting friends just west of Grand Rapids, seems like the industry , major foundries Aluminum etc. are polluting the waters. The fishing sucked. The locals were blaming pollutants in the water as well. The party popular in those parts isn't big on regulations. -- Pure Mich. my as#!
Not surprising at all...the paper mills from the last century in Kalamazoo (South of GR for those who want context) has rendered the Kalamazoo river pretty much unusable for the foreseeable future.
