Flint says hi, and invites you to come have a drink of water.
Yeah. Do you really think that's the only place that's had water quality issues or experienced the decay of decades of corrupt leadership? I haven't lived in Flint... but I have lived near Atlanta.
It's not just Detroit that is blighted. Much of the rust belt is on down times, from Pennsylvania and upstate New York on across to Michigan.
Some of the urban areas for sure. But that's like judging Tennessee by Memphis or Missouri by St Louis or Oregon by Portland. I know a few people from Michigan and northern Indiana. One is from the U.P. There are some really great places and people in these states.
Towns and cities in Michigan are shrinking. Negative population growth. Between 1970 and 2022, Detroit LOST a half-million people. Over those same 50+ years, Memphis--the worst city in Tennessee--grew by a half-million.
That doesn't mean Michigan is correctly represented by the pictures you posted or the generalization you made. The decline of the auto industry was a function of things Michigan could control and other things it could not. Unions, poor management, and government regulation made producing cars and components in Michigan and other states unsustainable. But they also found themselves like many others competing with effective slave labor in other countries.
The decline of the auto industry in the north involved a loss of people and money. However in some respects other areas of all of those states got better by some of the more corrupt influences losing power. Detroit has lagged Pittsburgh and may be a lost cause. But again the generalizations aren't accurate. FWIW, the Saturn experiment in TN didn't work out any better, did it?
Folks are bailing on one, but coming to the other. I'd say Memphis wins hands-down, based on the votes of a half-million people, if you want to compare "worst to worst."
The context was the pictures you posted. In general, TN is a better business environment than Michigan. TN has a fairly long history I believe as a Right to Work state. That mass exodus you mentioned resulted in a shift in the Michigan legislature. They became a right to work state 10 years ago because the "good" and socially/economically healthy areas of the state were able to override the veto of a Dem governor. I believe they were only able to enact a law that impacted private sector workers. And where do we continue to see problems in that state, particularly Detroit? Government and public sectors.
And this is my problem with the statement "Michigan is gorgeous." You have to put in all the caveats.
Actually, it is the "caveats" that you are pointing to. Michigan has a lot of "gorgeous" areas. Do a Google search of the Upper Peninsula. Or just "Michigan". Parts of the state are hilly. They have a very long shoreline on the Great Lakes. Again, just not fair to judge how "pretty" a state is by its rundown urban areas.
Cropland isn't particularly "pretty" in the winter but neither are low woody hills. Few things are prettier than winter wheat when it first starts to green up in the spring or corn fields in June. Michigan is also a good place for apple orchards and one of the best placed on the planet for blueberries. You are free to "not" like things like that or find them "gorgeous"... I do.
"Sure, just don't live in Detroit." "Okay, or in Flint." "Okay, not Lansing, either." "Okay, maybe not in winter unless you like shoveling snow and being shut in," "Okay, not...."
I don't care to live in any city- north, south, east, west. They're all for the most part ugly. Guys who like cold and snow would say you are stupid for not appreciating snow mobiles and ice fishing. You are just making generalizations that aren't correct.
There are no caveats to living in Tennessee, other than "stay out of Memphis and Bucksnort." There are 95 counties, and 93.8 of them are absolutely gorgeous. Year round.
Go Vols!
There are A LOT of people who would disagree.
The 10 Worst Places to Live in Tennessee
And being "gorgeous" is as subjective as you can be about anything. I like TN. I grew up in the Smokies and definitely like some parts of TN better than others. But among other things there isn't a ton of diversity. Check out some of the Michigan shoreline pictures. Those are beautiful places that TN doesn't have.
I could give a lot of reasons someone wouldn't want to move from TN to MI... and maybe some the other way. But no place is all bad while other places are all good.
I don't think Heupel would leave but the pictures you posted likely wouldn't have much at all to do with his decision. He's from SD and may miss the snow. To him, Michigan wouldn't even be cold.
