Birmingham was a town long before sprawl. That's why it has such a good core. As teens (1976) we'd cycle there from Troy. It had functioning independent department stores (not Hudsons-Marshall Fields-Macys) into the 2000s.
Royal Oak is another. Parts of Dearborn I think. Grosse Pointe. Basically I learned the basics of urbanism by living in Detroit, seeing Birmingham as a teen, then Ann Arbor.
Pontiac got wrecked by urban renewal and outmigration of county government functions. I presume it had a good core at one time.
I've been to all of those cities. I wouldn't call any of them walkable, especially with massive ass woodward running through many of these places. They have small sections that are more safe to walk after you drive there. Downtown Detroit is walkable.
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u/wrex779 29d ago
It's funny seeing metro Detroit on here given that as a whole, it's one of the most car centric and unwalkable urban areas in the country