[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Stylo

I totally hear you on the "extended suburb" area of CT. That's why I settled in Milford...

Wha?? Milford isn't a suburb?

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Wha?? Milford isn't a suburb?

Of course it is, but it's also more self contained than the towns the OP is referring to. It has a walkable downtown and some life to it. That's why I quoted "extended suburb" since most of CT is a suburb, but I totally get what they're saying about some of those towns.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Stylo

Of course it is, but it's also more self contained than the towns the OP is referring to. It has a walkable downtown and some life to it. That's why I quoted "extended suburb" since most of CT is a suburb, but I totally get what they're saying about some of those towns.

I completely disagree, and think it's kind of funny that you think towns like Bethany are an extended suburb and not Milford, which is the epitome of suburbia. I actually think that entire stretch from Hamden on down is one extended suburb if anything. North Haven, Hamden, West Haven, Orange, Milford, Stratford, and south. Some of the towns the OP mentioned are completely rural with farms all over the place.

[Stylo]

We're all talking different semantics but I think the OP and I are referring to the same idea.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Stylo

We're all talking different semantics but I think the OP and I are referring to the same idea.

I'm genuinely curious as to what you mean, because it's generally the opposite of what most people think.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

I'm genuinely curious as to what you mean, because it's generally the opposite of what most people think.

Monroe's just like where I came from. Some strip shopping, and then a ton of 1-2 acre homes. Woods. A couple parks. That's it. Not a lot of activity and certainly nothing walkable. That to me is the ultimate suburbia. Most lives center around the family and little league and that's fine. Towns like Milford, Branford, Fairfield, Westport, Madison, West Hartford etc. just offer a different lifestyle. You can have your quiet suburban neighborhood, but go into the town center and be a part of events, walk around, see some life.

All of this is highly subjective of course. The OP can correct me if I'm not transposing what they're getting at.

[kidyankee764]

Originally Posted by Stylo

All of this is highly subjective of course. The OP can correct me if I'm not transposing what they're getting at.

Most of the towns the OP mentioned are fairly rural though...towns like Milford are more in line with what suburbs are like in every other part of the country.

Anyway we can agree to disagree.

[Stylo]

I don't disagree.

[laulob]

Originally Posted by kidyankee764

Most of the towns the OP mentioned are fairly rural though...towns like Milford are more in line with what suburbs are like in every other part of the country.

Anyway we can agree to disagree.

Agreed - If you have to drive to the walkable downtown then it's pretty much suburban.

[eagles89]

Sorry--was offline most of the afternoon. I'll clarify what I meant by those towns. In most of the towns I mentioned, there is no commercial/civic hub. In just about any town today, there are parts of town that you might need to drive from to get to downtown, but the drive would likely be short, and once it was over, you'd be somewhere where you could stick around for awhile, window shop, pick up a cup of coffee, etc. Those kinds of towns breed a certain civic pride--I've lived in enough of them to have a sense for what it feels like and when it's present. In the towns I mentioned, it's very fair that some are much more rural, more distance between homes, etc. But they share the same trait with the more densely populated towns like Orange or Trumbull in that if you want a town center, you're driving all the way to another town to find it. Poor choice of words on my part--they're all "suburban" in one way or another, and true that some are even more rural. But by suburban, I ultimately meant, "no center of gravity"--the kind of town I grew up in, where there was nothing but houses, highways nearby, open land, and the occassional strip mall thrown in to break up the monotony. I've been blessed since leaving home for college that I've never had to live in that kind of environment again. I don't mean for it to come off like those towns are nuclear waste sites. They can be fine, and I like to think I'm pretty well adjusted. Just not ideally what I'm looking for in a place to live and raise my kid(s), yet all that will be open to us if we end up going this route.