Is A2 right for our family?

[beachmouse]

I’d put the outdoor recreation as better around GR than A2. While the Metropark system is awesome, GR has easy access to some very large Lake Michigan parks (Saugatuck, Hoffmaster, Musiegon, etc) and you can make good day trips into southern parts of the Manistee National Forest. There’s just a ton of accessible public land between GR and Traverse City, whether you’re talking Great Lake, forest, or inland lake.

[Tardigrade1]

You never explained in your post why you want to leave Chicagoland? If you provide that, folks on here might be able to help you even more.

Honestly, it's mainly that Chicago is such a big, big metro area (with all that that entails). We like Chicago very much and would still like to visit often, but are finding the urban core of the city to be a not-so-great place to raise our little kids, health and safety wise, and the suburbs outside of it feel a little sprawl-y/commuter-y (with lots of horrible traffic). Even the suburbs with more "character" (such as Oak Park) feel a little too large in scale for us and are absurdly expensive for what they offer. Especially post-corona, we've sort of had it with big metros and want to be in a smaller, more manageably-scaled city with low crime and more rural/outdoor recreation options (but also solid cultural amenities). We like Michigan very much because it seems to have a lot of cool small-to-mid-sized cities that punch above their weight amenities-wise, and it seems very family friendly, affordable and welcoming (compared to northern IL) with a lot more outdoor hunting and sporting options.

My husband loves doing farm-centric activities with the kids (berry & apple picking, county fairs), which it seems we could do in either GR or A2 without having to drive as far out of the city, and A2 + metro Detroit have some herbal medicine schools and 2 forest preschools (which is like nothing I've seen in the Chicago metro). So the "connection to nature" seems much more available and encouraged even in A2/Detroit suburbs than it does in Chicagoland, even while the cultural amenities are really solid. It seems like the best of both worlds in a lot of ways -- especially in A2, which is within an hour of metro Detroit and gets the benefit of some really cool big-metro amenities, without feeling like it's too much in Detroit's "orbit."

I’d put the outdoor recreation as better around GR than A2. While the Metropark system is awesome, GR has easy access to some very large Lake Michigan parks (Saugatuck, Hoffmaster, Musiegon, etc) and you can make good day trips into southern parts of the Manistee National Forest. There’s just a ton of accessible public land between GR and Traverse City, whether you’re talking Great Lake, forest, or inland lake.

This is definitely something to consider too. Michigan just seems like such a physically beautiful state (the upper Great Lake states in general are just so gorgeous), and GR may be in a better location for its residents to enjoy that, given its proximity to beaches and the north.

[lbj42]

Originally Posted by scorpio516

As for Dexter, in the last 30 years the population grew from 1400 to 5000. Almost everyone there is a newcomer. Open land and old farms that I ran cross country through is now housing developments. It's still the smallest of the three towns.
However, there is a Catholic church in town, St. Josephs. My grandma's funeral was in Latin. My dad was beat by nuns in the old Catholic elementary school, but that hasn't existed since the 60s.

Chelsea grew from 3700 to 5800 over the same time - it's biggest growth was in the 50s when it his 3700 in 1960 and stayed there till 90. St Mary's catholic church was built in the 60s and it's a weird building - obviously influenced by Saarinen. In the 80s and 90s, they had very good trick-or-treating and the Chelsea Fair had carnival rides and ended with 4th of July fireworks.

Saline has always been the biggest town, and it's barely grown this century, going from 8000 to 8800. It's also the richest (barely, we're splitting hairs) and whitest (again barely, all three are over 93% white). There's another catholic church there too, but I don't know anything about it.

Your more apt to run into a Vietnamese catholic church in Washtenaw county than a Hispanic one though.

Saline area has grown considerably this century (recently moved out of city), but the bulk of the growth has been in the townships around it (particularly Pittsfield township, but also Lodi and York) as the city itself is mostly built-out (lived in the last major sub built 20 years ago). Pulte, in particular, has a number of new housing projects going on or recently completed in the area (Huntington Woods sub is within city limits and didn't have many occupants yet for 2020 census). There's also another major sub in progress (Andelina Farms) just outside city limits in Saline township.

[margekr]

Tardigrade1, wondering if you made the move to Ann Arbour and how you like it there? Asking as we are thinking of moving there too. Were you able to make friends and settle? How do you find the town? Are people friendly and was it easy to meet people?