[melissaj26]

Thanks for all the replies regarding West Hartford everyone! What about the new Britain area? What are some thoughts on that area regarding night life, age of residents, etc????

[skytrekker]

New Britain is a post industrial city(pop. about 75,000) that is famous for Stanley Tools. The city also has the highly under rated Central Connecticut State University, and the renowned American Museum of Art. The CCSU Art gallery (on campus) is quite good also.

CCSU has a fine campus, spread in the north end of town.

Like many older cities in Connecticut, that where once centers of manufacturing, NB fell on hard times as this shifted elsewhere.
The city reached a nadir in the 1970s. The Housing stock has some vintage Victorians and fine examples of 'triple and 'double' decked homes, some that are perched on hillsides.

The city is a melting pot. People of Polish, Russian, French Canadian, Italian, Armenian, and Latino represent a very diverse city. Some excellent restaurants offering cuisine from eastern Europe to the Caribbean are found.

Nightlife around the University can be loud and zany, from some of the historic and renowned college 'watering holes'. Taverns of rather 'colorful' history are spread around town-offering a rather interesting sociological study of post blue collar industrial America, with immigrants from elsewhere mixing in with new urban pioneers, and ethnic groups of the cities past history.

[wanderintonc]

New Britain is rough. Your car insurance would be on the high end there. There are some nice single-family areas near the edges.

[davfar]

New Britain would primarily just be a place to find cheap housing. Taxes would be insanely high though. You might also find work at New Britain General Hospital or Grove Hill Medical Center. You'd definitely be headed out to Hartford and West Hartford for the night life. So I guess it just matters on what your housing budget is.
A lot of people give NB a bad rap, but truth be told there are only a few streets in the center of town that are "bad". The West End is very nice. So is the Belvedere section which is around CCSU. The North End near Farmington is nice too...very suburban feel. NB is known to have one of the best park systems in the state. There are three very large main parks... Stanley Quarter (near CCSU), A. W. Stanley (near Farmington), and Walnut Hill Park (in the West End near the Hospital).

[BETSRN]

NO, NO, NO to New Britain as far as housing. New Britain General Hospital is an excellent facility, however.

[JViello]

New Britian IMHO is a burnt out mill city. Ugly and depressed.

There are some nice areas on the edges for sure...but overall, it's a hole IMO.

[MikefromCT]

It's basically a scaled-down version of Bridgeport. A city that once had a strong manufacturing base but after WWII the companies either went west or went out of business. Some decent neighborhoods here and there to be sure (especially around Walnut Hill Park), some good ethnic restaurants and Stanley Golf Course is a good bang for the buck. But I would never live there and wouldn't recommend it. Few stable neighborhoods, poor public schools, and a high crime rate. The mayor is trying hard to revive the downtown area to make it desireable, and someday it may be. But it's got a long way to go. The area around the hospital has the look of a place that was once vibrant but has just deteriorated. Not a good area.

[ctcoldplay11]

New Britain as a whole is pretty rough...however, the areas surrounding CCSU are very very nice! Nightlife would be surrounded upon the CCSU campus as well, (many bars and parties), however I wouldn't venture into downtown New Britain itself after dark.

[uconn99]

New Britain High school isn't a bad school by any means. It is the largest high school in the state with over 2500 kids.

[MikefromCT]

Originally Posted by uconn99

New Britain High school isn't a bad school by any means. It is the largest high school in the state with over 2500 kids.

It's pretty bad, Uconn99. It's overcrowded and it has the problems normally associated with larger metropolitan areas, including a drive-by shooting in 1993 that left one student dead. A family member of mine was a secretary at the time who saw the whole thing. There haven't been a whole lot of improvements since then. It's still pretty rough. Like the city itself. The town parks and public amenities are surprisingly good (including New Britain Stadium), but it's not worth living there or using the public schools there.