It KILLS me that it's the case. 45 fucking K a year. Just in property taxes. Only about 3,500 sq ft, half an acre. This is common here. I'm thinking about moving back to Michigan but A2 is routinely 25k a year in taxes too now. Crazy.
Well in that case, I'm here to make Chicagoans feel better. NYC suburb here, not living in a mansion by any stretch: 45k per year in property taxes. I just got nauseous typing that.
You make excellent points to consider including access to airports. That had definitely been on my mind. Your insularity comment is a major red flag for me. Obviously, plan would be to visit, then probably rent, then buy but even then it's hard to discern deeper level issues. Thanks for your insights.
I found Denarded's recommendations helpful nonetheless. It seems prices have gone haywire everywhere. Based on D's recommendations, I'm looking right now on Zillow at Traverse City, Elk Rapids, Cedar, and Maple City, and it looks like there are homes in our budget.
I found your comment interesting. Based on the 2020 Census, Grand Rapids seems to be about 43% non-white, which on a relative basis is a high percentage. Should I take your comment to mean that GR is very segregated so the white parts are very white and non-white parts are very non-white? Just trying to reconcile your comment w the census data, thanks.
I lived in Cambridge for a few years. For some reason, I found the winters there far more dreary than in A2. I don't know what it was but I never felt quite at home there.
I hear you. But I intentionally did not want to make the OP even longer than it is and lose potential readers/responses. As it is, the number and scope of responses has been very helpful and exactly what I was hoping for, and I've spent the past hour researching further all of the recommendations.
For someone more inquisitive as yourself, here are some responses. Me, wife, 3 kids. Public schools; wife gets nauseous if the words "home school" are uttered within earshot. Enjoy outdoor activities, but not fanatical about it. Would love to get into fishing but don't fish regularly as a NYC'er. I would consider any location in Michigan but I would guess that family-friendly is most prudent, and by the helpful replies I've gotten the sense that eastern lake MI would be a waste of time to research further. Some commerce in the area would be nice for the wife but I'm indifferent as to city life. Anything is going to feel small towny coming from NYC. I would like scenic views, but who wouldn't, haha.
Wow. LA to GR seems like maybe a bigger culture/climate shock than NYC to GR. How long has it been, and how are you and your family liking it so far? I do run so your point about trails in the Grand Haven/Holland area is going into the research notes! I also did not realize that there are sufficient waves for actual surfing.
I'm ok with it as long as we're talking more snow shoveling and blowing and not, for example, roofs collapsing. Come to think of it, I think I lived over 11 years in A2 and owned a home for part of it so I have some familiarity with snow issues and driving, unless you're going to tell me that it's going to be three times the A2 snow levels!
This is very close to what I've got: 34-24. Special teams cleans up all their foibles from the last game. We're going to see Michigan's run game bludgeon the UW d-line 5-6 yards at a time.
Both fan bases should feel that their teams are teams of destiny. UW hasn't lost a game in 21 straight games. Michigan hasn't lost a game in 14 straight games. I believe the next best winning streak as of today is 6 or 7 games so these two teams have truly separated themselves.
I feel good about this game most of the time. The only times that I don't are when I envision Joe Burrow and his LSU Tigers streaking all over the field putting up 45+ points every game. This UW team reminds me a little bit of that team. People who know more than I seem to think that Kalen DeBoer is a genius and this will be his coming out party. Eeeeek.
One other distinguishing feature is that this game will be played indoors. That helps Washington. We're a team built better for the elements. I know that none of the past three editions of The Game have been in terrible weather but it still plays a part of the game - sudden gusts of wind, sun shining in players' eyes, even the sound of the environment. I still see maize and blue confetti raining down in the end in my mind but I think the indoor factor will help Washington more than us.
There's no question that it's about the money. I'm just saying that I wish it weren't so.
There are many circumstances in which money isn't entirely dispositive of the issue. For example, they probably could make more money by moving The Game a bit later. The noon kickoff creates a 9AM PST kickoff. I know west coast viewership isn't as high but they could probably add some viewers without losing the already-committed viewers. Separately, my understanding is that the in-attendance dollars pale in comparison to the TV advertising dollars.
I've always been thankful that The Game seems to be almost always at noon and of course on a Saturday. This situation - a Monday, kicking off the work week, with the game at night - ayayay. Help!
I told myself that I needed to save the money and to get work done by not going to Houston. I guess I'll have to take 50% success.
Haha, on the topic of Join Dates checking out... I was one of the original visitors and posters on this site during the Halo Scan days. When it evolved away from that format, I did a self-check-in and recognized that I was spending way too much time on the site and vowed not to create an account.
July 2, 2009 marks about a week or two into my bar exam prep study. The drudgery and rote memorization and the mnemonics (and 90% of the campus being gone by that point in the summer) broke me and I fell off the wagon. The bar exam was conducted at the end of July 2009 and I dutifully spent all of July on this site although didn't post much.
It still gives me a smirk when I notice my Join Date.
I agree. The only saving grace is that the game appears to be one hour earlier than usual, presumably due to the central time zone, at least for us eastern time zone folks.
I heard this week on Cowherd (?) that college football is the second most watched sport in this country. I wish they'd keep the championship game on Saturdays. F the NFL; play the championship game on Saturday. I know bowl season and New Years makes that wonky and yet we always seem to be able to manage to play it on a Monday every year.
I wonder what is the incremental number of viewers they think they gain by playing it on a Monday night, usually late into the night although less so this year. Certainly makes it harder for many to have a get together over the game.
Oregon runs a relatively physical brand of football. Not saying the exact same. In their most recent matchup, Oregon gained 6.2 yds per rush but Washington jumped out to a 20-3 lead and forced Oregon to play catch up much of the middle part of the game.
In their first matchup, Oregon ran it 40 (!) times for 5.1 yds per rush and I thought they were the better team in that game but Oregon went 0-3 on crucial 4th downs and UW came out with the win.
The Huskies are scrappy and they figure out different ways to win. 21 games in a row doesn't happen by accident.
- guy who has unsuccessfully kept betting against UW all season
FWIW, that was the score of The Game, 100th edition. I know only because I rocked a shirt for almost two decades w the score on it until it became so thin that it was almost see through.
CJ doesn't get enough love. Catches just about everything thrown at his direction no matter if he's six yards away and the ball is rocketed. Think he had 9 catches or so in the Ohio State game. Solid, dependable. Doesn't make mistakes such as trying to show boat and one arm catch balls only to have it pop up and get intercepted. Blocks relentlessly for his running backs. Flies under the radar too much.
Hope he catches a 50 yard bomb in the Championship. Gets the accolades he deserves and gets drafted.
Answer for me: 9 straight losses to us in 9 successive years. We had to endure 8, and that was terrible, so if they have to endure worse, they'd have my empathy. I had to add the 9 years part because given the new CFP, it could happen in, say, 4 years, which isn't as brutal as a fuckin decade long winless streak.
I'm hoping for the Pac 12. I know they're atrocious but maybe as an audition for getting future B1G assignments they wont screw us either. Then again, maybe the Pac 12 has already disbanded as an organization.
Given that it's Iowa, I can't tell if that's a TD + a safety or 3 field goal scores. I forced myself to watch this Iowa team (I had money on the game) and I don't know if you know but they have a defensive tackle playing quarterback. 3 field goals against our defense seems improbable, so I guess it's the former interpretation then!
Here's my trivial contribution to this "trivia". In the mid-90s, Kirk Ferentz coached the o-line on the Cleveland Browns. The head coach was Bill Belichick and the defensive coordinator was Nick Saban - an arguable Mount Rushmore of coaches, at least if you're an Iowa fan.
In 1998, Ferentz was the assistant head coach and again the o-line coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Who started in most of the games at quarterback for that team? Our very own favored son, Jim Harbaugh.
I don't know. I think that's what we like to tell ourselves. Don't get me wrong - I love our team - but a team can also gel really well with a stacked roster of 5-stars. See Bama and Clemson national champion teams of the past and Georgia the last two years. Those teams have a higher ceiling than our team and I think we can only hope that we don't run into any such team in a particular year.
It seems that this year is one of those years because neither Georgia nor Bama looks that good this year. But if we're being honest, I don't see our team this year (as good as they are) beating the Georgia team last year.
I think I agree w just about everything you wrote. People who think that a 12-1 SEC Champion is getting left out are smoking crack. Nothing about the history of the CFP suggests that that would happen. Also, it shouldn't happen. SEC has earned the right to receive the benefit of the doubt.
As for FSU, without Travis, there is no reasonable argument that they are one of the four best teams in the country. The injury is a terrible thing. It becomes an issue of which four deserves it the most versus which four are the best, and the cmte has stated that its goal ultimately is to select the four best teams. That's their objective.
It was a great effort by Roman Wilson. The part of it, however, that he doesn't get enough credit for is that he immediately and genuinely (and demonstratively) reacted to it as if he had control of the ball when he crossed the goal line.
I think this subconsciously influenced this particular referee to make the call maybe sooner than he otherwise would have, and on replay, they had to go with the initial call. From the ref's perspective, all the facts were consistent with a touchdown including the ball carrier's reaction (versus, say, reaching for the ball in the OSU player's hands), and the ref went with his gut. If the ref paused and thought further, he may have reached a different conclusion. For the record, I do believe it was a touchdown in fact.
The other thing that can rattle McCord (and we've shown abundant evidence of our capabilities here) is an interception. I'm looking at you Mikey. McCord is going to turtle up for the game is he feels that half the time he drops back he ends up sacked or intercepted.
Don't worry about the graduating O-Line (if any). We live in the age of the transfer portal and we have a good track record of using it to fill O-Line gaps. Another Olu please.
I got dressed to go running the other day. Flat ground is no problem, but the sudden drop of 5 inches along the curb from my property to the street apparently caught my back by surprise, and next thing I know, pain shot through my back. I slowly walked back to my house and canceled my run. Too embarrassed to explain what happened, I quietly slinked away to my office.
Some people think that this is about a game. It's not. I play board games and weekend softball games. Those are games. Those don't incite me or anyone else to tears.
This is about belonging to something that is bigger than each of us. It's a tribe, with its good and its bad.
FUCK YES. These beautiful play designs have Harbaugh's fingerprints all over them. I've been watching him since his Stanford days and I recognize these. Miss you Coach Harbaugh (but nice job so far today, Coach Sherrone)!
I hear you but it's more complex than that, no? Don't we have to assign some value to a conference that looks to treat us unfairly (as you described yourself)? What else and for how long will there be issues? Officiating, sanctions, fines, bad press, etc.
This is ridiculous. It's a TRO; it's supposed to be adjudicated with urgency. All of it is absurd from the timing of Petitti's biased decision to two PSU alums making a decision that directly grants a competitive advantage to their alma mater in a game less than 20 hours later to this judge failing to issue an order last night or even this morning (or now it's being reported, even today).
I disagree with those posters who think Harbaugh's absence will give us an motivational edge. These players perform at an unbelievably high level. They are not going 90% typically with 10% to be tapped into in the event such as a head coach suspension. They give 100% every game. This is a massive fuckin distraction to the players and coaches who have to deal w something that PSU does not have to deal with. Always, Go Blue
Recent Comments
It KILLS me that it's the case. 45 fucking K a year. Just in property taxes. Only about 3,500 sq ft, half an acre. This is common here. I'm thinking about moving back to Michigan but A2 is routinely 25k a year in taxes too now. Crazy.
Well in that case, I'm here to make Chicagoans feel better. NYC suburb here, not living in a mansion by any stretch: 45k per year in property taxes. I just got nauseous typing that.
You make excellent points to consider including access to airports. That had definitely been on my mind. Your insularity comment is a major red flag for me. Obviously, plan would be to visit, then probably rent, then buy but even then it's hard to discern deeper level issues. Thanks for your insights.
Helpful, thank you!
I found Denarded's recommendations helpful nonetheless. It seems prices have gone haywire everywhere. Based on D's recommendations, I'm looking right now on Zillow at Traverse City, Elk Rapids, Cedar, and Maple City, and it looks like there are homes in our budget.
I found your comment interesting. Based on the 2020 Census, Grand Rapids seems to be about 43% non-white, which on a relative basis is a high percentage. Should I take your comment to mean that GR is very segregated so the white parts are very white and non-white parts are very non-white? Just trying to reconcile your comment w the census data, thanks.
I lived in Cambridge for a few years. For some reason, I found the winters there far more dreary than in A2. I don't know what it was but I never felt quite at home there.
I take it property taxes are low for you to sit on a vacant lot for four years?
I hear you. But I intentionally did not want to make the OP even longer than it is and lose potential readers/responses. As it is, the number and scope of responses has been very helpful and exactly what I was hoping for, and I've spent the past hour researching further all of the recommendations.
For someone more inquisitive as yourself, here are some responses. Me, wife, 3 kids. Public schools; wife gets nauseous if the words "home school" are uttered within earshot. Enjoy outdoor activities, but not fanatical about it. Would love to get into fishing but don't fish regularly as a NYC'er. I would consider any location in Michigan but I would guess that family-friendly is most prudent, and by the helpful replies I've gotten the sense that eastern lake MI would be a waste of time to research further. Some commerce in the area would be nice for the wife but I'm indifferent as to city life. Anything is going to feel small towny coming from NYC. I would like scenic views, but who wouldn't, haha.
Wow. LA to GR seems like maybe a bigger culture/climate shock than NYC to GR. How long has it been, and how are you and your family liking it so far? I do run so your point about trails in the Grand Haven/Holland area is going into the research notes! I also did not realize that there are sufficient waves for actual surfing.
I'm ok with it as long as we're talking more snow shoveling and blowing and not, for example, roofs collapsing. Come to think of it, I think I lived over 11 years in A2 and owned a home for part of it so I have some familiarity with snow issues and driving, unless you're going to tell me that it's going to be three times the A2 snow levels!
I like Moore a lot but Minter has higher upside.
The last two CBB national championships weigh on me a bit. Please - a different result this time.
This is very close to what I've got: 34-24. Special teams cleans up all their foibles from the last game. We're going to see Michigan's run game bludgeon the UW d-line 5-6 yards at a time.
Both fan bases should feel that their teams are teams of destiny. UW hasn't lost a game in 21 straight games. Michigan hasn't lost a game in 14 straight games. I believe the next best winning streak as of today is 6 or 7 games so these two teams have truly separated themselves.
I feel good about this game most of the time. The only times that I don't are when I envision Joe Burrow and his LSU Tigers streaking all over the field putting up 45+ points every game. This UW team reminds me a little bit of that team. People who know more than I seem to think that Kalen DeBoer is a genius and this will be his coming out party. Eeeeek.
One other distinguishing feature is that this game will be played indoors. That helps Washington. We're a team built better for the elements. I know that none of the past three editions of The Game have been in terrible weather but it still plays a part of the game - sudden gusts of wind, sun shining in players' eyes, even the sound of the environment. I still see maize and blue confetti raining down in the end in my mind but I think the indoor factor will help Washington more than us.
There's no question that it's about the money. I'm just saying that I wish it weren't so.
There are many circumstances in which money isn't entirely dispositive of the issue. For example, they probably could make more money by moving The Game a bit later. The noon kickoff creates a 9AM PST kickoff. I know west coast viewership isn't as high but they could probably add some viewers without losing the already-committed viewers. Separately, my understanding is that the in-attendance dollars pale in comparison to the TV advertising dollars.
I've always been thankful that The Game seems to be almost always at noon and of course on a Saturday. This situation - a Monday, kicking off the work week, with the game at night - ayayay. Help!
I told myself that I needed to save the money and to get work done by not going to Houston. I guess I'll have to take 50% success.
Guys, stop. I can't get any work done.
Haha, on the topic of Join Dates checking out... I was one of the original visitors and posters on this site during the Halo Scan days. When it evolved away from that format, I did a self-check-in and recognized that I was spending way too much time on the site and vowed not to create an account.
July 2, 2009 marks about a week or two into my bar exam prep study. The drudgery and rote memorization and the mnemonics (and 90% of the campus being gone by that point in the summer) broke me and I fell off the wagon. The bar exam was conducted at the end of July 2009 and I dutifully spent all of July on this site although didn't post much.
It still gives me a smirk when I notice my Join Date.
I agree. The only saving grace is that the game appears to be one hour earlier than usual, presumably due to the central time zone, at least for us eastern time zone folks.
I heard this week on Cowherd (?) that college football is the second most watched sport in this country. I wish they'd keep the championship game on Saturdays. F the NFL; play the championship game on Saturday. I know bowl season and New Years makes that wonky and yet we always seem to be able to manage to play it on a Monday every year.
I wonder what is the incremental number of viewers they think they gain by playing it on a Monday night, usually late into the night although less so this year. Certainly makes it harder for many to have a get together over the game.
Oregon runs a relatively physical brand of football. Not saying the exact same. In their most recent matchup, Oregon gained 6.2 yds per rush but Washington jumped out to a 20-3 lead and forced Oregon to play catch up much of the middle part of the game.
In their first matchup, Oregon ran it 40 (!) times for 5.1 yds per rush and I thought they were the better team in that game but Oregon went 0-3 on crucial 4th downs and UW came out with the win.
The Huskies are scrappy and they figure out different ways to win. 21 games in a row doesn't happen by accident.
- guy who has unsuccessfully kept betting against UW all season
FWIW, that was the score of The Game, 100th edition. I know only because I rocked a shirt for almost two decades w the score on it until it became so thin that it was almost see through.
CJ doesn't get enough love. Catches just about everything thrown at his direction no matter if he's six yards away and the ball is rocketed. Think he had 9 catches or so in the Ohio State game. Solid, dependable. Doesn't make mistakes such as trying to show boat and one arm catch balls only to have it pop up and get intercepted. Blocks relentlessly for his running backs. Flies under the radar too much.
Hope he catches a 50 yard bomb in the Championship. Gets the accolades he deserves and gets drafted.
JJ seems to think he's in a fastest football throwing contest.
I don't care how many Michigan supporters say to the contrary, CFP is far more important than the OSU game. Even more so, starting next year.
National stakes > regional stakes.
It's 2024 not 1924. Winning this type of game starts to move the needle in the recruiting battles.
I hope they're practicing on natural grass.
We thought we were just watching games but apparently they were also try outs.
Smart man. I just watched and instantly regretted it. Utterly dominant. I don't care about the competition level; he is flying across the field.
Answer for me: 9 straight losses to us in 9 successive years. We had to endure 8, and that was terrible, so if they have to endure worse, they'd have my empathy. I had to add the 9 years part because given the new CFP, it could happen in, say, 4 years, which isn't as brutal as a fuckin decade long winless streak.
Allegedly?
I'm hoping for the Pac 12. I know they're atrocious but maybe as an audition for getting future B1G assignments they wont screw us either. Then again, maybe the Pac 12 has already disbanded as an organization.
I don't want Texas first round. Give me FSU. We're the one seed and we should get the weakest opponent and that's FSU.
The Michigan crowd was champing at the bit to boo him with a deafening roar but alas never really got the chance.
Washington is not the same team that it was at the start of the season. Defenses seem to have gotten better at defending their schemes.
I think either Washington or FSU would get boa constricted to death by us. I would LOVE to see either of them in the semis.
Given that it's Iowa, I can't tell if that's a TD + a safety or 3 field goal scores. I forced myself to watch this Iowa team (I had money on the game) and I don't know if you know but they have a defensive tackle playing quarterback. 3 field goals against our defense seems improbable, so I guess it's the former interpretation then!
Here's my trivial contribution to this "trivia". In the mid-90s, Kirk Ferentz coached the o-line on the Cleveland Browns. The head coach was Bill Belichick and the defensive coordinator was Nick Saban - an arguable Mount Rushmore of coaches, at least if you're an Iowa fan.
In 1998, Ferentz was the assistant head coach and again the o-line coach of the Baltimore Ravens. Who started in most of the games at quarterback for that team? Our very own favored son, Jim Harbaugh.
I don't know. I think that's what we like to tell ourselves. Don't get me wrong - I love our team - but a team can also gel really well with a stacked roster of 5-stars. See Bama and Clemson national champion teams of the past and Georgia the last two years. Those teams have a higher ceiling than our team and I think we can only hope that we don't run into any such team in a particular year.
It seems that this year is one of those years because neither Georgia nor Bama looks that good this year. But if we're being honest, I don't see our team this year (as good as they are) beating the Georgia team last year.
I think I agree w just about everything you wrote. People who think that a 12-1 SEC Champion is getting left out are smoking crack. Nothing about the history of the CFP suggests that that would happen. Also, it shouldn't happen. SEC has earned the right to receive the benefit of the doubt.
As for FSU, without Travis, there is no reasonable argument that they are one of the four best teams in the country. The injury is a terrible thing. It becomes an issue of which four deserves it the most versus which four are the best, and the cmte has stated that its goal ultimately is to select the four best teams. That's their objective.
It was a great effort by Roman Wilson. The part of it, however, that he doesn't get enough credit for is that he immediately and genuinely (and demonstratively) reacted to it as if he had control of the ball when he crossed the goal line.
I think this subconsciously influenced this particular referee to make the call maybe sooner than he otherwise would have, and on replay, they had to go with the initial call. From the ref's perspective, all the facts were consistent with a touchdown including the ball carrier's reaction (versus, say, reaching for the ball in the OSU player's hands), and the ref went with his gut. If the ref paused and thought further, he may have reached a different conclusion. For the record, I do believe it was a touchdown in fact.
The other thing that can rattle McCord (and we've shown abundant evidence of our capabilities here) is an interception. I'm looking at you Mikey. McCord is going to turtle up for the game is he feels that half the time he drops back he ends up sacked or intercepted.
Don't worry about the graduating O-Line (if any). We live in the age of the transfer portal and we have a good track record of using it to fill O-Line gaps. Another Olu please.
I got dressed to go running the other day. Flat ground is no problem, but the sudden drop of 5 inches along the curb from my property to the street apparently caught my back by surprise, and next thing I know, pain shot through my back. I slowly walked back to my house and canceled my run. Too embarrassed to explain what happened, I quietly slinked away to my office.
Some people think that this is about a game. It's not. I play board games and weekend softball games. Those are games. Those don't incite me or anyone else to tears.
This is about belonging to something that is bigger than each of us. It's a tribe, with its good and its bad.
When he starts to drop back to pass, a warm cozy feeling overcomes me.
I really like Drew Allar. Someone start an appreciation thread.
Holding by the RG on that PSU TD play.
FUCK YES. These beautiful play designs have Harbaugh's fingerprints all over them. I've been watching him since his Stanford days and I recognize these. Miss you Coach Harbaugh (but nice job so far today, Coach Sherrone)!
That is a late hit. I don't care that Corum didn't act it out like others do. It was a push out of bounds and could have ended up badly.
I hear you but it's more complex than that, no? Don't we have to assign some value to a conference that looks to treat us unfairly (as you described yourself)? What else and for how long will there be issues? Officiating, sanctions, fines, bad press, etc.
This is ridiculous. It's a TRO; it's supposed to be adjudicated with urgency. All of it is absurd from the timing of Petitti's biased decision to two PSU alums making a decision that directly grants a competitive advantage to their alma mater in a game less than 20 hours later to this judge failing to issue an order last night or even this morning (or now it's being reported, even today).
I disagree with those posters who think Harbaugh's absence will give us an motivational edge. These players perform at an unbelievably high level. They are not going 90% typically with 10% to be tapped into in the event such as a head coach suspension. They give 100% every game. This is a massive fuckin distraction to the players and coaches who have to deal w something that PSU does not have to deal with. Always, Go Blue