dearborn, mi area?

Yes, if you want a 30min commute, Ann Arbor is too far.

Look at Plymouth or Northville, get a house within spitting distance of Hines Drive. There is a bike trail there miles long with access to a few trails in some of the many parks along the river there.

thanks for the input!

any idea if there would be areas of Redford or Dearborn Heights near parks or bike trails?

Get ready for some culture shock. Dearborn has the largest Muslim population in the US. Apparently there's quite a bit of covert funding of terrorist activities taking place out of certain local mosques as well. There are some decent places nearby though -- Northville, Plymouth.....Downriver area isn't too bad.

get out of west michigan much?

Spoken like someone who hasn't spent much time in Dearborn. You speak of it as if it is Baghdad. Downtown Dearborn, Hines Drive, and portions of Outer Drive are very scenic and completely safe for running. When I worked in Detroit and lived in the suburbs, I would often stop in Dearborn on my way home to run.Downtown Dearborn also has some great restaurants and bars, Greenfield Village and Henry Ford Museum are just outside of the downtown area.Plymouth is one of the few suburbs in the area that still has dirt roads, a major plus.

gv10k wrote:

Get ready for some culture shock. Dearborn has the largest Muslim population in the US. Apparently there's quite a bit of covert funding of terrorist activities taking place out of certain local mosques as well. There are some decent places nearby though -- Northville, Plymouth.....Downriver area isn't too bad.

The west side of Dearborn is fine. Many nice neighborhoods and good places to run.

About 1/3rd of the city is of Arab descent. Many of them are lebanonese Christians.

yeah, big props for Hines Drive...I grew up in Dearborn, folks still live near Michigan-Telegraph...lots of trails near Fairlane Town Center...I used to work downtown, and ran with a group through Detroit neighborhoods, cemeteries, etc...was fun, very safe in a group, but not anything you'd do alone...Dearborn, on the other hand, couldn't be safer...only problem: no hills to be seen

cool, thanks a ton for the insightful info

I live in Ann Arbor and my boyfriend lives in Dearborn so I do the commute pretty much everyday. It's right around a half hour and totally do-able.

There are decent trails in Dearborn at the Ford Estate, right off of Michigan Ave. There is also a bike path that goes through UM Dearborn and then down Hines Dr for miles and miles (they actually do an out and back marathon on this bike path I think). I happen to think the running gets kind of monotonous in Dearborn, but I do run there occasionally anyway, I think I am just spoiled cause there are more places to run in Ann Arbor (or else I just know of more places). Commuting to Dearborn from Ann Arbor would NOT be bad, the traffic is generally fine, the longest it would take you would be 45 minutes, like on a Friday at peak traffic time.

If you decide to live in dearborn, the absolute best place is probably the condos on Michigan Ave, right behind all the bars and restaurants (like Michigan between Military and Monroe). The economy in the area isn't the best right now, so you can probably get a lot for your money. I know that some Detroit Lions live in those condos off Michigan Ave, and you can see them out at those bars like Cheli's and Bailey's.

Anyway, hope this helps!

The out-and-back on Hines is the Martian Marathon (www.martianmarathon.com)

Course map:

http://www.usatf.org/routes/view.asp?rID=101884

(Wife is doing the half and I work in Dearborn.)

there is a bike trail (paved) along Hines drive 20 miles long good for winter running as it gets cleared of snow within days of a snowfall. good for a lunchtime run. at rush hour the drive is packed with cars.

there are dirt trails half way up from dearborn along the hines drive (around wayne rd and Joy rd) good for a 6-miler.

I live in Ann Arbor. The drive to Dearborn is in the 30-40 minute range. Generally speaking, the rush hour tieups are not too bad. So you could handle it, many in Ann Arbor work at Ford.

Plymouth is actually a fairly decent place with a cute downtown with several fairly hip restaurants. It's not the north side of Chicago, or even Ann Arbor, but it's OK. One *big* advantage of Plymouth is that it has a fairly central location, so if you change jobs in SE Michigan, you won't trash the commute.

Royal Oak is the other sorta hip place around SE MI.

If you're bold, buy something in the city of Detroit. At the moment, it's incredibly cheap. There is a gradual renewal thing going on along the river. For a blighted area, the people are relatively friendly.

I don't know much about Dearborn itself other than the high Arab population that others have mentioned.

thanks again to everyone, there is some great info.

I would reconsider living in Michigan all together.

goulet wrote:

I would reconsider living in Michigan all together.

Bbbbbb-but why?

Come here and you will be blown away!

kuc wrote:

there is a bike trail (paved) along Hines drive 20 miles long good for winter running as it gets cleared of snow within days of a snowfall.

Wrong answer!

Did my long run on Hines last Sunday and, as usual in the winter, the path was unusable due to snow.

Another Dearborn tip, from nordicskiracer.com...

Rollerski on Hines Drive: Closed to Autos Every Saturday

Sun, May 14, 2006 - By Mike Muha

A six mile section of Hines Drive is closed to automobiles from Outer Drive Road going west to Ann Arbor Trail, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every Saturday from May 6 through September 30, 2006 for walking, cycling, inline skating - and rollerskiing!

Hines Drive is an 18-mile road that winds between Northville and Dearborn, through Wayne County's Hines Park. Much of the road has been resurfaced in the past several years. The closed section of road is wide, has mostly great pavement, and one easy hill.

Part of the park is located on a flood plain for the Middle Rouge River - including parts of the six-mile segment closed to cars. The road, bike path, and grass areas along Hines Drive as it goes under Middlebelt Road were submerged under several inches of water yesterday from all the the rain we've had over the past several days. I saw some bikes going through it, but it would have meant water-filled ski boots to rollerski through.

Lesson: Wait a day after it rains. You can also listen to radio traffic reports - they indicate when the road is impassible.

There are also paved bike paths of varying quality and hiking trail throughout the park. Parking is available at Warrendale (Warren Ave. east of Telegraph), and Nankin Mills Picnic Areas (Hines Drive and Ann Arbor Trail). I recommend rollerskiers park at the Merrimen Road entrance (Merrimen Hollow Rec Area), just north of where Merrimen crosses over Hines Drive. The road from Merrimen going east has not been repaved and has a number of bumps and slippery repairs. Still skiable, but not the smooth road like newer pavement heding east from Merrimen.

In any case, there are barriers across all the roads leading to any Hine Drive entrances during the Saturday closure. You can legally drive around the signs to get to the Nankin and Merrimen Hollow parking areas - signs on the barriers ban all traffic except cars going to those parking areas.

northern boy wrote:

Another Dearborn tip, from nordicskiracer.com...

Rollerski on Hines Drive: Closed to Autos Every Saturday

Sun, May 14, 2006 - By Mike Muha

A six mile section of Hines Drive is closed to automobiles from Outer Drive Road going west to Ann Arbor Trail, from 9:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. every Saturday from May 6 through September 30, 2006 for walking, cycling, inline skating - and rollerskiing!

Running, unfortunately, is prohibited on those Saturday's. They are a hazard to others.

Jenard Taylor wrote:

Running, unfortunately, is prohibited on those Saturday's. They are a hazard to others.

Nice try but completely false.