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Why are absolutely no caches northwest of Detroit?


team-noris

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It's possible that since the OP is from Germany, he has no true concept of "bad neighborhood."

You're probably right, but i don't think that this is such an area. If you look at Google Maps you'll find the Detroit Golf Club in this area as well as the Daimler-Chrysler General Offices. The satellite images show nice housing areas. There must be an other reason ....

 

Klaus

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It's possible that since the OP is from Germany, he has no true concept of "bad neighborhood."

You're probably right, but i don't think that this is such an area. If you look at Google Maps you'll find the Detroit Golf Club in this area as well as the Daimler-Chrysler General Offices. The satellite images show nice housing areas. There must be an other reason ....

 

Klaus

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It's possible that since the OP is from Germany, he has no true concept of "bad neighborhood."

You're probably right, but i don't think that this is such an area. If you look at Google Maps you'll find the Detroit Golf Club in this area as well as the Daimler-Chrysler General Offices. The satellite images show nice housing areas. There must be an other reason ....

 

Klaus

 

Yes the ghetto looks good from the air. here are some links to help you out and give you some detail about thoes areas of detroit.

 

http://www.city-data.com/city/Hamtramck-Michigan.html

 

http://www.city-data.com/city/Highland-Park-Michigan.html

 

Once you travel there and through there to go cache,you will see why there are no caches there.

Edited by Buddaman
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I'll spit it out and try and be as politically correct as I can be.

 

It is a ghetto. Cachers don't place caches there because they don't want to risk the lives of their fellow cachers.

 

I pride myself on not being a bigot. But when it comes to the Detroit ghetto that's just what I am. It's an "us and them" mentality there.

 

It's the kind of feeling you get when you walk into a Burger King and you're the only white person in there. As a customer or as a worker.

 

When each block of house has sometimes more than half burned out.

 

Where crack cocaine is sold on the corner - after corner, after corner.

 

Where gas stations don't let you inside - ever. You pay for the gas through the bars, buy your drink or smokes through the bars. Where all gas is prepay 24x7.

 

Where, God forbid, you get a flat tire - you stay inside your car and call road service. Even if you don't have road service.

 

Where if you leave your car overnight it will be stripped by morning.

 

Where you don't want to be out after dark - because you can get shot just for being white.

 

That's why there aren't any caches there.

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

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Now for the positive side.

 

There are a lot of great caches and great cachers too in the metro Detroit area.

 

If you stop by our state geocaching group, MiGO, on the web I'm sure you can hook up with some local cachers and have a good time. You do have to register to access the site but it is free.

 

I don't know if you need a visa to enter Canada but you are just across the river from adding another country to your caching list too.

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

Edited by DeRock & The Psychic Cacher
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Hi Deane,

 

thanks for your reply, is you seem to really know this area, i'll take your words very seriously. I checked the MiGo website, thank you for that information, maybe i'll even visit the " Migo 2008 Winter Social", although - or because - it is a little bit off the beaten track.

 

I just realized, that this area is also not covered by Google Street View, whereas everything around is. Seems that Google didn't want to send their Beetles there.

 

When driving from metro Detroit area to my appartment in Auburn Hills, should i even avoid driving through Hamtramck on the 75? Sorry for that question, but i know the US only from several visits in the San Francisco Bay Area, where i never have seen such ghettos.

 

Thanks again & regards from Bavaria,

Klaus

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Hi Deane,

 

thanks for your reply, is you seem to really know this area, i'll take your words very seriously. I checked the MiGo website, thank you for that information, maybe i'll even visit the " Migo 2008 Winter Social", although - or because - it is a little bit off the beaten track.

 

I just realized, that this area is also not covered by Google Street View, whereas everything around is. Seems that Google didn't want to send their Beetles there.

 

When driving from metro Detroit area to my appartment in Auburn Hills, should i even avoid driving through Hamtramck on the 75? Sorry for that question, but i know the US only from several visits in the San Francisco Bay Area, where i never have seen such ghettos.

 

Thanks again & regards from Bavaria,

Klaus

 

Hi Klaus,

 

Thanks for listening.

 

You'll be fine traveling on any expressway (including 75) at anytime of the day or night. The reason I know about the gas stations is that I made the mistake of running low on gas in the middle of the day and just had to get off and get some. Then I went to a Burger King just down the street and the drive thru was busy so I went inside. Wow, what an eye opener!

 

Six Dog Team- no need to circle the wagons! This is just life in the 5th largest urban area in the United States. In my close urban area - Grand Rapids MI (second largest city in Michigan) there is a ghetto, but nothing as intense as Detroit. I feel safe there any time of the day or night.

 

But I don't ever get lulled into a sense of complacency. I've got my senses on alert where ever I am. I'm not paranoid, I'm just aware. You can never tell where you will find the next wierdo or find yourself in the middle of a convenience store robbery. I also find that this sense of awareness not only protects me but alerts me to some really nice people out there. And I'm the guy who regularly give a ride to the unfortunate person who runs out of gas or has a car breakdown.

 

Life is what you make of it. I don't like the ghetto in Detroit. But just like every other cacher in the Metro Detroit area I have a healthy respect for it!

 

Back to you Klaus-

 

I really hope you do visit MiGO and post a request and try to hook up with a local cacher. We do this regularly when we travel and it has resulted in some spectacular times. The cachers in the Metro Detroit area are some of the most friendly around and will show you a good time. Plus, it's a sure way of learning about some of the great caches the area has to offer and getting a chance to hunt them.

 

The MiGO Winter Social is one of our 2 big events in Michigan. Last year 110 caching teams attended. You would be a big hit there! It is only 90 minutes traveling time from Auburn Hills, and even though it will be the middle of our winter I'm sure coming from Germany you have dealt with snow before. The good thing is we don't have any mountains to worry about. And the main roads you would have to travel are always well maintained. You can do the whole thing as a day trip easily. The event runs from 11:30 a.m to 4:30 p.m.

 

Your visit is going to be an eye opener compared to the Bay Area. Hope you enjoy it.

 

Ask any other questions you can think of - we're here to help if we can.

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

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When driving from metro Detroit area to my appartment in Auburn Hills, should i even avoid driving through Hamtramck on the 75? Sorry for that question, but i know the US only from several visits in the San Francisco Bay Area, where i never have seen such ghettos.

 

Hi,

 

Just for the record, there are definitely areas like that in the SF Bay Area. The worst are actually not in San Francisco, but in the East Bay (Oakland, Richmond, etc). For example, look at the geocaches in Richmond, CA:

 

richmond_ca_caches.jpg

 

The only cache is GCRPE7 and the description states:

 

"Based on inputs from a well-known (does that mean notorious?) retired BART police officer there are at least 5 reported crimes per day including felonies and miscelaneous infractions. In the daytime there are generally vehicle break-ins while at night there are crimes against people, so chose your caching activities carefully."

 

So these areas are all over the place - similar ones can be found in South Central Los Angeles and I'm sure every city of any size.

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I'll spit it out and try and be as politically correct as I can be.

 

It is a ghetto. Cachers don't place caches there because they don't want to risk the lives of their fellow cachers.

 

...................

 

Deane

AKA: DeRock & the Psychic Cacher - Grattan MI

 

What's DeRock know, he's 130 miles from there, LOL

 

Deane is totally correct, I live just five miles NE of Detroit in the area where caches are located. IF you look at he map to the East, you'll see the cities of Grosse Pointe, Grosse Pointe Farms and Grosse Pointe Park, those are the areas where the Multimillion dollar homes are located along Lake St Clair. They do not want anyone outside of their communites coming onto their private parks. They do'not like anyone suspicious around that area.

 

So you have two diffenrt areas with-out caches. One area the muggles are hookers, gang members and drug dealers, STAY AWAY. head north, your OK there.

Edited by Team CoyChev
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Here's the New York City area.

Lower left is Manhattan.

The void around routes 278 and 895 is Harlem and The Bronx.

 

killmejw5.jpg

 

One time after a Yankees game, we actually went through some streets in the area to avoid the highway traffic and noticed a nearby park where we thought about putting a hide to lower the "void" a little, but thought the area too unsafe both from the standpoint that it would not get many finders (and/or complaints from people obsessed with clearing 10 mile radii, etc. who really, really want not to go there) and (something not noted here too much as another reason why so few "ghetto hides") that it would likely get muggled very very fast.

 

Note that we actually have a couple of Bronx hides, while in areas nowhere near as bad as the area in the "void" in Mopar's maps, still have received some of those "10 mile radii" complaints about them.

 

those are the areas where the Multimillion dollar homes are located along Lake St Clair. They do not want anyone outside of their communites coming onto their private parks. They do'not like anyone suspicious around that area.

 

 

We have a similar issue here along the wealthy Long Island Sound shore and Hudson River communities in Westchester County, NY and Fairfield County, CT. Lots of parks that are "private" at least from the late spring to the early fall (or where if you don't live there, they simply charge a fortune to let you in so that they are being slightly "politically correct"). There are even caches in some of them (with notes about it being cheaper/easier to get to in the colder months). Heck, we even have a hide in one of them.

Edited by HaLiJuSaPa
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This is pretty darned silly.

 

Most caches are found in either parks or commercial areas. Most folks to not want strangers roaming their alleys or backyards to look for caches. If you look at Belle Isle, Rouge Park, the Riverfront, Downtown, or Hines you do find lots of caches.

 

Detroit itself is mostly residential (though not as dense as it once was), as are the NW suburbs (Farmington, Bloomingham (yes it is made up, but you know the area), Southfield.

 

People do cache in the City proper and in the NW burbs, there just are few of them in these residential areas.

 

In addition many of the folks in Detroit aree not as well off financially as your average geocacher so there are only a few of us who live in the City proper with caches.

 

I have to support the person who used Grosse Pointe as an example.

Edited by JeffyMI
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Whenever I'm traveling and notice a large area where there are no caches I try to stay away from that area. 9 times out of 10 there is a reason there are no caches placed there. Whatever that reason is , good or bad, they don't want caches or cachers around.

 

Most of the time it turns out to be a bad area of town but not always.

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Funny story about Detroit, first year I had to go there to shoot NFL we were working with our local affiliate waiting to do a live shot, so we're all talking and it was a late December game, so I asked him how many homicides they had. He said we're actually down a little this year (05 if I remember right) I think we're about 310 or so. I aked if that was metro wide, he said Oh no, just Detroit, then he started ratteling off suburb after suburb with triple digit rates as well, putting the metro well over a thousand! Sad really. So then another guy I was working with asks "so how far would I have to go to find crime?" (Mind you we're right outside Frod Field next to Comerica ballpark at about 10pm on a Sunday night. He says, oh only about 6-8 blocks in any direction and crime should find you no problem. Comforting thought really. It has to be one of the only cities where walking the streets of downtown I totally feel uneasy, Ford Field is such a great place though, and they always put us up at the Ren Center, so we have a blast... usually over in Windsor at least one of the nights we're in town.

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