Royal Oak Suburbs
The upper-middle-class suburban city of Royal Oak is surrounded by its own mini-constellation of suburbs; most of these are communities filled with tree-lined residential streets, ranch-style or bungalow homes, and the occasional Meijer store or strip mall. Incorporated early in the twentieth century, Royal Oak now has a population of nearly 60,000. In the past two or three decades, the city has developed a downtown area full of nightlife, shopping, restaurants and high-rise condos and lofts.
Huntington Woods, known as the "City of Homes," is one of the least ethnically diverse cities in Michigan (with a 96% white population as of the 2010 census.) This small town lies just to the west of Royal Oak. The Rackham Golf Course and Detroit Zoo occupy more than one fifth of the total area of the city, with the Zoo a major contributor to the local tax base and overall prosperity of the area.
To the south and east of Royal Oak, right along I-75, Hazel Park is a place of more modest means, but with a tightly-knit community: trailer parks and small but well-maintained single family homes predominate, along with eclectic landmarks such as the barn-shaped Dairy Park restaurant, a well-known fast food joint with a bell tower on top. Right across Eight Mile from Detroit proper, Ferndale is a more working-class city, with areas of mixed single-family homes and apartments.
Northeast of Royal Oak, Madison Heights is both residential and industrial, with an enclave of light industry and tech companies adding to its economy.
Most of these smaller cities look like less run-down versions of the sprawling Detroit neighborhoods--perhaps with more trees. Their green lawns and well-maintained homes often share the same basic architecture of post-war expansion, built on slightly wider streets. It's a bizarre sort of similarity, as if Eight Mile Road is a skewed mirror, and Detroit the poverty-stricken reflection of the communities that exist just outside its borders.
