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Originally Posted by movinginjune2010
Does anyone mind doing a comparison of these cities for me? I'm moving to the Northeast soon but have been a Southerner my whole life and am not familiar with the area. I don't have a choice on where I can move, but I was just curious how my future home will compare to other similar-sized cities in the region. Thanks!
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May I ask which city you have to move to?
Providence is a great city. Full of life, restaruants, clubs, bars, galleries, museums, great colleges (with the life to accompany them), beautful residential areas. I went to college there. About an hour commuter train ride to downtown Boston. The beaches are an hour (or less) to the south. Great public transportation, and a great downtown area, with parks and a river. Google 'Waterfire'.
New Haven is the most like Providence, a litte smaller. A little less to do. Life would be dominated by Yale. New Haven and Hartford have pretty bad crime rates for a northeastern city. Hartford is worse. The subrubs are nice. I live north of Hartford in Springfield. Did you consider Western Massachusetts. There is Northampton and Amherst. All the charm of a New England town. Hartford has a large downtown home to a ton of large corportations and insurance companies, but it's deserted after 5pm unless there is an event. It also has a terrible reputation. Most of the office workers escape to their suburbs at that time. Check out West Harford, a very charming suburb about 5 mins from downtown.
Portland is the smallest and furthest away from any other major city. About a two hour drive, albeit you can take the train to North Station Boston. Great downtown and old New England seaport. But a ton of bars, it might be boring after a few weeks. Small metro area (urban area). Maine is for people who love outdoor activities.
If you have a choice, look into Providence, then New Haven (which is only a 90min train ride to Manhattan-if you like). But I would look at Worcester too, much like Providence and about 30 mins from Boston. But I would check out Springfield/Northampton too. Much lower COL that still offers many of the same experiences that a New Haven or Worcester will, but with a stronger sense of regional identity.
You'll find in general, that New Englanders keep to themselves. But you'll most likely have and meet wonderful neighbors. A lot of people complain about New Englanders being rude and arrogant. The easiest way to disprove that is to just get involved in the community you move to, most town has tons of events every week. I will be sure most people will be quite interested in learning about where you're from too.
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