I have many friends!
Well, to reply to some of your comments/questions:
- Metro Detroit is, indeed, very much growing at a considerable rate. Oakland County (the county immediately north of Detroit) is rather expensive to live in these days. Most of the suburbs are very nice. The typical connotations are not prevalent here.
- There are absolutely no middle-upper/upper class people in the actual city of Detroit, except for a very small number of people living in lofts on Woodward and Fort St., or thereabouts.
- The suburbs surrounding Detroit in Oakland and Macomb county are, for the most part, very wealthy and very nice. The farther north you go, the more the suburbs begin to take on that "row house," "cookie cutter" look. The middle-upper and upper classes live in the townships of Bloomfield Hills and West Bloomfield, among others, and the city of Birmingham. All of these suburbs are a mere 20-30 miles away from some of the worst areas of Detroit. As for the people here, most are snobbish, but some are the typical Midwestern variety. Yes, it's very true that unless you work downtown, you usually only go for sporting events. I live in West Bloomfield (my profile says Detroit only because of its significance with the website), and I go downtown often. Sure, there isn't much to do down there, but you'll find something. I find the city itself beautiful in its desolation, and if you know where to go there's some cool spots. I was just on Belle Isle, an island in the middle of the Detroit river, for the fifth or sixth time this year. It's a really beautiful park, but it's extremely dangerous. People do crack and the like in the parking lots in the center of the island. As far as what other suburban Detroiters think of Detroit, most want to stay away from Wayne County as much as possible. A typical suburban Detroiter will usually say something like this if you mention you're going to a concert on Woodward and Grand Boulevard: "You're going downtown!?!....Be careful!!!!....Wouldn't wanna get robbed! Ho ho ho!"
- There are a few ethnic communities here in Detroit, but it's not as prevalent as New York or Chicago. An extremely large community of Arabs live in Dearborn, some 10 miles southwest of downtown. A large community of Poles live in Hamtramack.
- As far as traffic goes, the suburbs are by far the worst. We have a system of "mile roads" here in Detroit, measured north from downtown (for reference, the city of Detroit begins at 8 Mile Road). The intersection of 12 Mile, Orchard Lake, and I-696 is known to be the worst in the metro area. There's probably at least one accident a day there, and it takes some 20 minutes to get through the intersection. Turning left from 12 Mile onto Orchard to get onto 696 can take even longer.
Enough of my yappin.