| |
About Me
(way too much!)
In 1985 I moved to
Arlington, Texas
from Ann Arbor,
Michigan. I lived there for 20 years but after such a long time decided I no
longer wanted to live in Texas. Texas was definitely an adventure but I
seriously began to miss the distinct change of season, huge trees, multitude of
natural lakes and lush green beauty of home.
So one day about three years ago I decided it was time to make a move, a very
big move. My first thought was to pack it in and move south to Austin, the
capital of Texas but the thought of intense heat even worse than that of
Dallas/Fort Worth made me look to the north. Now I know what many of you are
thinking. Why on earth would you leave a place that has such mild winters to go
back up to Michigan? Well, for me that's easy. I'm sick and tired of winters
that amount to nothing but bland lows of 35-45 degrees and highs of 55. I like
snow and I didn't leave Michigan because of it in the first place. On the flip
side, the things I miss the most are my mom, relatives and Tex-Mex food. I love
Mexican food and you just can't get it in Michigan. If you want it, you've got
to make it yourself or go without.
My first choice was my hometown of Ann Arbor. I was born and raised there
graduating from Community High School
in 1984. I attended WCC for one year and
then moved to Texas in June 1985. From there I got a job, lived on my own, got
promoted, got married, had a baby, got divorced, went back to school, ex-husband
died, received associates' degree in computer networking and realized the only
reason I had stuck around Texas as long as I had was because of shared custody,
and now that shared custody was no longer an issue, I could move. So I packed up
my daughter and we did so.
It took about a year of looking to narrow down the right city. Of course, I
wanted to return to Ann Arbor but after seeing what houses cost I widened my
search. I wanted to buy a house outright and not have to carry a mortgage. My
mom and aunt kept telling me 'you can never go home' meaning I can't expect it
to be the city I left and they were right. I will always love Ann Arbor but it
has changed so much in 20+ years and while some of the changes are good, far
more of the changes I think, suck.
Main street is one big sidewalk restaurant which is just fine if you're hungry,
but the off-beat retailers, small co-ops, art studios, street
buskers and bookstores hardly
exist there anymore because they can't afford the rents. So what you end up with
are the big-box food
franchises and bookstores. Taxes in Ann Arbor are terrible as well and you find
that many people who have lived there for years are renters, not owners which
adds to the transient nature and idea that nobody can put down stakes unless
they are independently wealthy or willing to live in a totally crappy hovel.
It's too bad but because of this negative stuff it hasn't bothered me so much to
not live there. I guess you can never really go back. However, if I had enough
money to buy something in Ann Arbor, I'd move to Boston or Baltimore. ; )
I still have a sister that lives in Michigan and we were always very close. She
has two teenagers that I hardly know because they grew up 1200 miles away from
me and I thought it would be nice to get to know them better.
I looked at Monroe
(located in SE Michigan on the shores of Lake Erie). Monroe looked very nice but
it was almost an hour from my sister who lives in Manchester and it was simply
too far. Milan,
Chelsea and
Manchester were all too expensive too (being bedroom communities to Ann Arbor).
I also had certain criteria that had to be met in order for me to want to live
in the city. I'll get to this in a second. First let me tell you about the
place I left.
Arlington, Texas. Population: 330,000. It's a huge city sitting between Dallas
and Fort Worth (a.k.a. the D/FW Metroplex), so you'd think there is great public
transit, plenty of sidewalks, parks, etc. Wrong, wrong, wrong. Everything is a
good drive away from you. That's right, if you want to get there, you must get
in your car or truck and drive. Now, I'm not saying everything is too far away
to walk to, but there is very little sense of connectedness. Although there is
an old downtown, Arlington has expanded so rapidly, sprawl is all you have. Big
malls, mini-malls, strip malls, the miscellaneous scatterings of fast-food
restaurants. In many instances, over the decades, you find abandoned mega-malls.
Because once one area builds a big mall, small businesses and the big mall
'corner-blocks' flock to it. Sears, Penney's, Dillard's, Bon-Ton, etc.
Restaurants crop up, a movie theatre appears. Then, 7 years later, everybody
packs up and leaves because a new developer has constructed another mega-mall 5
(or less) miles away. The old mall then falls into ruin and the theatre and
restaurants disappear. It might later be inhabited by numerous $1 stores and
indoor flea markets. Essentially what you are left with is a ghost-town,
tattered hulls of commerce that used to exist. Home Depot, Toys-R-Us, Best Buy
all abandon their digs for prime sites nearer the new mall which is now causing
a cluster-f*ck of traffic and aggressive humanity. I know I sound bitter but it
seems city planners could have done so much better; But I'm sure there are too
many of these officials making $$$ off the sale of property that they knew would
be worth something in a few years. To top it off, when a new street or road is
built, or one is widened, they don't even add sidewalks and if they do, it is
only on one side of the street. When this is the case, pedestrians and bike
riders create what are called pig-paths; ruts in the ground between two-foot
high weeds and litter that they are forced to trudge through if they don't wish
to be run over by speeding vehicles. Also, there is no bottle or can deposit in
the state of Texas. There as been one in Michigan for 30 years or more. This
greatly reduces the amount of bottles and cans you see on the sides of roads.
And, Governor Granholm is currently working on legislation to get a deposit of
some sort put on plastic water bottles. Excellent idea!
I sometimes wonder why I settled for Arlington when I could have gone further
south to Austin and had
many of the amenities that were also found in Ann Arbor but I think it is
because all I could think about was survival which meant getting a job and a
place to live and by the time I accomplished this and made friends, I didn't
want to leave.
On with city hunting. My mom is the one who brought up
Jackson, Michigan.
I had been to Jackson a couple of times before I moved from Ann Arbor. Once was
to go with a friend to see some of his relatives and it wasn't in a good part of
town but I remember thinking how much I loved the old house they lived in. The
other time I went was to a camera equipment swap meet and I got an awesome
1960's American flag camera strap. Remember those? Anyway, Jackson's claim to
fame is the inner-city walled prison that was erected in the mid-1800's. It was
the largest walled prison in the United States (oh goody). Another claim to fame
is they are the birthplace of the Republican party (back when the party's ideals
were today's equivalent of the Democratic party, let's not forget). There
are other cities that claim the same thing and I say, take it, it's yours. The
first Republican convention was held in Jackson, Michigan. Jackson needs a new
moniker that means something to the city and has a positive draw. In my sisters
city, Manchester,
they are the 'Home
of the Chicken Broil' and all the cities around know and enjoy the chicken
broil. This is precisely what Jackson needs.
I have always dreamed of living in an old house with woodwork and wood floors
and high ceilings. In areas that are newer (such as Arlington) chances are you
aren't going to find an old house like this (they do exist but they are far and
few between). Arlington has many cool homes that were built in the 40's, 50's
and 60's. Both my mom and aunt have these types of houses but I wanted something
older, like the houses I used to dream about having when I was a kid.
My research for Jackson had begun. I was truly amazed. Beautiful old houses
selling for almost nothing. I knew there had to be a hitch but what was it? I
posted in a newsgroup in the Jackson
Citizen Patriot and asked locals about neighborhoods. I was told anything to
the east of 1st street is bad and that anything with a man's name is bad news.
That explained many of the super-cheap price tags but still, overall, the houses
are very reasonably priced and the taxes are fair. On top of the reasonable
prices there needed to be public transit, plenty of parks and things to do. My
requirements for a house were simple: within walking distance to many stores,
public transit, close to a major highway, cheap, old, must have a yard and it's
own driveway. I knew whatever I got would be a fixer-upper but that was fine
with me as long as I could pay for it in full. Jackson had all of this and so
much more. My aunt and I made a couple of trips to Jackson in early 2005 to
scout neighborhoods. Some of the neighborhoods I was told to avoid weren't near
as bad as what I thought they'd be. I mean, in Texas, in areas that are bad, you
see window bars everywhere and cars parked all over the yards. In Jackson it
isn't so. But I'm not just going to paint a rosy picture of Jackson either.
There is too much crime (most bad things happening around 2AM in bad
neighborhoods) which needs to be addressed. Also, too many of the homes are
rentals and there isn't enough ownership (these are those bad neighborhoods).
There are entire neighborhoods full of houses that have been converted into
multiple units which wouldn't be so bad if it were the owner of the house living
in one of them and the houses were in good shape. But they are owned by
investors who could care less about appearance, etc. and these places rent cheap
and are inhabited by a nomadic rental crowd loaded with n'er do wells. I think
the city should stand on the necks of these slum-lords to bring the homes up to
code and give special incentives to folks who wish to buy homes here and live in
them. This is why I feel Jackson should campaign to bring people from the East
and West of us to take advantage of lower taxes and affordable houses and get
some positive people in here. Even in the worst parts there are no bars on
windows. Don't ask me why because if I lived in a place where the chances of
something bad happening were probable, I'd have my windows barred. I guess I
just got used to living in a very big city and that's the way it was there. In
May 2005 I put a bid on a big old Folk Victorian-style house. It needs tons of
work but it sits in a terrific area of the city. My bid was accepted and I
closed on the house in June 2005 and was fully moved-in by the end of August
2005.
Jackson does have a lot of positive things going for it and it
is in the middle of an urban renewal. A huge investment of about 70 million
dollars in an
Armory
Arts Project and
Grand River Arts Walk located at the site of the now historical landmark
inner-city State Prison should have a positive draw (and it's only about 10
blocks from our house!). Many groups have become active in rebuilding the
downtown area and the area along the Grand River (unfortunately, it's really
just a big creek by the time it goes through Jackson, but hey whatcha gonna do?)
or areas that connect to downtown like the
Falling Water
Trail. I hope the momentum continues and we end up with a city we walk and
ride bikes in to get to the places we want to be and enjoy the outdoors while
we're at it. If I had millions, I'd give a good portion to Jackson to help build
interest in this already
cool
city.
Folksy Lady
folksyl1@folksylady.net
This site was last updated
07/12/08 |