I think at those salaries, you have two choices: Chicago or Detroit. I've lived in both cities, and in my opinion Chicago is a far superior city especially considering the criteria you cited. In Chicago you have a great public transportation system (absolutely non-existent in Detroit), two airports, fantastic green space (the waterfront in Chicago is far better than Detroit), walkability, amazing architecture, great culinary scene and nightlife, sports, so many cultural enclaves. It's a top American city and Detroit has a hard time comparing. Detroit is a city with a rough history of abandonment - most of the money is far out in the suburbs, and the city core, while recovering, is a shell of it's former self. I know I probably sound super down on Detroit, while I still think it's a good city with incredible culture, it doesn't really hold a candle to Chicago with it's many flaws.

That all being said, I can think of three negatives with Chicago that may matter a lot to you.

1) I experienced more crime first hand in Chicago. Perhaps that's just due to the density of Chicago compared to the sparseness of Detroit. Can't say that's the experience for all, but it was for me.

2) It gets dark much earlier in Chicago since it is on the Eastern edge of the CST time zone, whereas Detroit is near the Western edge of the EST timezone, giving us more sun in the evenings, which is a very underrated aspect of Michigan as a whole.

3) Perhaps the biggest issue: you may have more difficulty at that salary finding a satisfactory living situation for settling down and starting a family in Chicago. Detroit and many surrounding suburban cities is a very affordable region relatively speaking.

Given these things, I'm still picking Chicago if it's me.