New Haven, Hartford among top places to live, according to U.S. News & World Report

[HooperScooper]

I'm not going to ask how or why. I will just take this as gospel.

Report: New Haven, Hartford among top places to live in U.S.

A report released by U.S News & World Report ranks Hartford and New Haven among the top places to live in the United States for 2022-2023.

www.nhregister.com

 

[husky429]

I'm not going to ask how or why. I will just take this as gospel.

Report: New Haven, Hartford among top places to live in U.S.

A report released by U.S News & World Report ranks Hartford and New Haven among the top places to live in the United States for 2022-2023.

www.nhregister.com

I mean, if you count the metro area, then it makes sense. Towns surrounding Hartford/New Haven within a 20 minute drive are fantastic places to live.

 

[Palatine]

The quality of life in Connecticut has never really been in question. It scores high compared to the rest of the country. That certainy affects the scores of Hartford and New Haven.

 

[fatlucy]

We just lack a diversity of housing types to attract young professionals and retain retirees.

 

[Rocktheworld]

Here’s my insight regarding New Haven

I’m from NJ and never really heard of new haven until I went to UConn. I learned that that’s where Yale is, and that there’s supposed to be randomly good pizza there; but it’s overall a sketchy town that people didn’t really mess with much. For point of reference, I got to UConn in 2008. I didn’t make many friends from the area; mainly people from western and central CT like the Danbury area and the Hartford metro area, so this is really all I would hear from them.

My girlfriend’s step dad comes from a decently well-off family from the area and I met and visited them this last winter. They live in Cheshire but he lived right in the Wooster Street neighborhood for a time as a kid. We went to Modern the first night we were there, then she and I spent a day walking about the downtown area. I was very pleasantly surprised. Having lived in Boston proper for 3 years then downtown San Diego these last 6, I was ready to see some stuff; but overall it really wasn’t bad. In fact the talk of the town was apparently no worse than a band of teenagers on bikes causing trouble. Housing prices looked very good for a couple decently paid yuppies

 

[Hey Adrien!]

If I worked closer to New Haven, I'd totally be excited to live in the New Haven area. It's always a good time when I visit and I generally love the entire city's vibe.

Add in, some of my best friends from UConn are from the New Haven area, so I really got to start loving the city around then.

 

[Greedo]

Here’s my insight regarding New Haven

I’m from NJ and never really heard of new haven until I went to UConn. I learned that that’s where Yale is, and that there’s supposed to be randomly good pizza there; but it’s overall a sketchy town that people didn’t really mess with much. For point of reference, I got to UConn in 2008. I didn’t make many friends from the area; mainly people from western and central CT like the Danbury area and the Hartford metro area, so this is really all I would hear from them.

My girlfriend’s step dad comes from a decently well-off family from the area and I met and visited them this last winter. They live in Cheshire but he lived right in the Wooster Street neighborhood for a time as a kid. We went to Modern the first night we were there, then she and I spent a day walking about the downtown area. I was very pleasantly surprised. Having lived in Boston proper for 3 years then downtown San Diego these last 6, I was ready to see some stuff; but overall it really wasn’t bad. In fact the talk of the town was apparently no worse than a band of teenagers on bikes causing trouble. Housing prices looked very good for a couple decently paid yuppies

I also started at UConn in 2008, and came from PA. I didn't know a ton about CT when I went. In general, what I found was most of the kids from CT had a skewed perception of what sketchy actually is, and think a lot of places in CT are worse than they are. I loved going to that post office brewery in Willimantic, and though the town had a cool vibe. But everyone I talked to thought you'd get stabbed by 50 heroin needles just by crossing the border into town.

Edit to add: I think CT is an awesome and beautiful state, and if my life had played out differently I'd love to live there.

 

[Waquoit]

This just in: Water is wet!

 

[Huskybass]

I live very close to Hartford. New Haven has a much better vibe.

 

[storrsroars]

I won't be convinced until @Deepster chimes in.

 

[navery12]

Please move this thread to the Food and Travel board

 

[Deepster]

 

[Rocktheworld]

I also started at UConn in 2008, and came from PA. I didn't know a ton about CT when I went. In general, what I found was most of the kids from CT had a skewed perception of what sketchy actually is, and think a lot of places in CT are worse than they are. I loved going to that post office brewery in Willimantic, and though the town had a cool vibe. But everyone I talked to thought you'd get stabbed by 50 heroin needles just by crossing the border into town.

Edit to add: I think CT is an awesome and beautiful state, and if my life had played out differently I'd love to live there.

Yeah now that you mention it I remember all the “hard hittin New Britain” talk and such lol

Don’t get me wrong, I grew up in a relatively nice, sheltered town; but being in the middle of NJ, and with my dad working in NY (and Jersey City before that), I went there and Philly a bunch, and maybe got to see what is actually sketchy; I don’t think a lot of people across Connecticut did that growing up. For me, an area isn’t sketchy until the houses have bars on their windows.

 

[Chin Diesel]

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Article says they ranked top 150 metro areas in terms of population.
Hartford is around #50 and New Haven is in 110's.

Hardly qualifies as top. People want to live there, that's fine.

I have always had Huntsville and Melbourne in top places to move to if I had to move again. My area was about same overall ranking number as Hartford and the two areas are about polar opposites in every way.

Doesn't matter to me where you live. If you like the area and it meets your needs, good for you.

Several of those places in the top 20 I wouldn't ever want to live.

 

[Rocktheworld]

That analysis has some problems. I think they are doing simple rankings on crime, when if they adjusted for the proportional crime rates many of these Southern cities would be deemed unlivable. States like Arkansas, Missouri, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennesse have 2.5-3x the crime that we have in Connecticut.

The school systems in many of these states are simply terrible, and USN&WR understates the problems that many of these southern school systems have chronically low teacher pay leading to difficulty attracting quality teachers leading to huge percentages of teachers needing waivers to teach. I believe that almost half the teachers in the state of Arizona are currently teaching on waivers because they do not meet the basic qualifications to be a teacher in the state. I don't know why anyone would be a teacher down south, because one comment acknowledging someone's two fathers could land a teacher in jail under the "Don't Say Gay" bills popping up in the South.

I also don't know how 20% of the Quality of Life ranking can be based on healthcare availability when the healthcare outcomes in a lot of these states are not much better than third world countries' health outcomes.

I am fine with a Desirability Index, but why is that given almost the same weight (17.5%) as a Job Market index (20%)?

Southern states have low taxes. They are low for several reasons that actually make these metros less appealing, not more.

7/10 not bad

 

[Rocktheworld]

Lies, damn lies and statistics

Article says they ranked top 150 metro areas in terms of population.
Hartford is around #50 and New Haven is in 110's.

Hardly qualifies as top. People want to live there, that's fine.

I have always had Huntsville and Melbourne in top places to move to if I had to move again. My area was about same overall ranking number as Hartford and the two areas are about polar opposites in every way.

Doesn't matter to me where you live. If you like the area and it meets your needs, good for you.

Several of those places in the top 20 I wouldn't ever want to live.

Holy crap I actually just looked at the list LMAOOOO

 

[Palatine]

50 puts Hartford in the top third. If you listen to some around here, Hartford would be in the bottom 1%.

 

[superjohn]

I also started at UConn in 2008, and came from PA. I didn't know a ton about CT when I went. In general, what I found was most of the kids from CT had a skewed perception of what sketchy actually is, and think a lot of places in CT are worse than they are. I loved going to that post office brewery in Willimantic, and though the town had a cool vibe. But everyone I talked to thought you'd get stabbed by 50 heroin needles just by crossing the border into town.

CT. has always been hilarious like that. It's such a wealthy state with so many nice towns all over the state that any semi urban environment with poverty and crime was viewed as going to the worst favela in Rio. I remember going on a school field trip to Bridgeport as a kid. Teachers gave us time on our own to go to the fast food places for lunch and I wandered off with some friends and we hung out in an Army Navy store. We showed up to the bus an hour late. The teachers told us they heard sirens and thought we were all dead, lolz. Bridgeport was legitimately dangerous back then but people treated it like the worst third world ghetto.

There's certainly bad areas in the state where kids have it rough with very little hope but those areas are relatively small and you have to seek them out. Everything is relative though, CT. is certainly more dangerous than the rest of New England but New England is overall an incredibly safe place. Areas in and around Detroit are a whole different world in terms of blight and crime, same with in and around Philly.

 

[karstenkibbe]

All of these “Best Places” lists are subjective and somewhat flawed. For example, anyone with an understanding of the current situation in Syracuse and its environs would find its #38 ranking on this list laughable.

 

[CL82]

All of these “Best Places” lists are subjective and somewhat flawed. For example, anyone with an understanding of the current situation in Syracuse and its environs would find its #38 ranking on this list laughable.

Syracuse? I thought this list was only for American cities.

 

[Tex-Lager93]

Omaha at #29 would be a nice place to live...for about 11 days starting on the 16th.