[sandy6879]

I lived in Bristol for 9 years. There are areas that are not so great. There are areas that are very nice and well to do. We lived in the Forestville section, which borders Southington and Plainville. It's a very nice section and tucked away from the not so great section. Elementary school, my daughter went to Greene-Hills which has since been replaced by a brand new school. That area within the district was actually very good from an education standpoint. The principal was actively involved in making the school the best he could and I was pleased with all the teachers I had interaction with. You will get some diversity, it's not super high income, and they do bus some of the kids in from other areas of the district -- they do this to get more diversity in the schools and so that no 1 school has all the kids from the lower socio-economic side of town. I was happy with her education there. We moved before she went to high school so I can't comment there but I was very involved in her elementary and middle schools (which has also been put into the new school, they changed it to a K-8).

Private schools are all parochial there, if I remember correctly. There may be 1 that was not but I'm fairly sure all the private schools are religious based.

It's definitely not like West Hartford at all. I would not call it cosmopolitan.

Personally, I don't really recommend living in Torrington but you could easily commute there from Bristol.

[Stylo]

What about Southington? A little further than Bristol, but a generally nicer town with better schools - yet still a bit more economically diverse than some of the other suburbs you've been looking at.

[UconnHusky1]

Watertown isn't bad and right in between Torrington and Waterbury.

[TobinJ]

Unfortunately when people drive through Bristol it's usually on 72 or 69 and those routes have some shady areas as any well travelled thoroughfare does. There are plenty on nice areas as others have mentioned and many of the schools have been replaced with new buildings. I always get a chuckle that people mention West Hartford like it's some holy grail when areas new Bloomfield and Hartford are worse than all of Bristol or Torrington (IMHO) but I digress.

Have you considered the Harwinton area, the school would be the Har-bur/region 10 complex for middle/high. It's far from Cosmo but it's a nice place to live and you can do your shopping hanging in Torrington, Bristol, canton, Farmington which are all within 15 minutes or so depending on your exact location. You can find the list of other towns served by that school I think Burlington is included, parts of Bristol are hard to distinguish from Burlington & Terryville in the Chippens hill area.

Don't be afraid of being one of the only diverse families, the exact reason you're not moving there is thee act reason immigrants end up clustered in certain areas. Yes it may be tough in the beginning but the pool of diversity starts with just one drop. As a regional school your children would have people and teachers of other cultures. Look into it...

Also you can check out the Hartford business journal, they report town statistics for towns that are showing economic development. They also show the diversity of the population, average home cost, etc. if you're looking for a home that's going to rise in value or towns that might grow in diversity those economic stats should help. Cerc.com appears to also have the town profiles as PDFs now.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by UconnHusky1

Watertown isn't bad and right in between Torrington and Waterbury.

I was going to suggest Watertown(the Oakville section, specifically, for this OP), but it definitely isn't cosmopolitan.

[EUPL]

Bristol is the redneck city of CT. Try West Hartford, New Britain has more culture as well.

[goldenage1]

Originally Posted by TobinJ

Have you considered the Harwinton area, the school would be the Har-bur/region 10 complex for middle/high. It's far from Cosmo but it's a nice place to live and you can do your shopping hanging in Torrington, Bristol, canton, Farmington which are all within 15 minutes or so depending on your exact location.

My brother went to the Harwinton/Burlington Regional High School, and it is a good school. However the area is basically rural, and the families are 96-97 % white. Burlington has slightly more Asians, Hispanics and Blacks. However, with the development of the ESPN center in Bristol, I believe the population will eventually diversify.

[parentologist]

Originally Posted by EUPL

Bristol is the redneck city of CT. Try West Hartford, New Britain has more culture as well.

If you can afford elsewhere, not New Britain. Largely Hispanic slum town, some black slum mixed in, some areas with Polish, who mostly choose the parochial schools. There are some really nice areas, like up by the reservoir, or by the park near the hospital, but you don't want to send your kids to the public schools there - there are so many disruptive children coming from homes which do not support education. New Britain is the Hispanic version of Hartford.

[parentologist]

The problem is that any decent school district near Torrington is going to be rural, and largely white. Harwinton/Burlington is relatively close, and has good schools, but it's 93% white. If you want to live in a town with both diversity and good schools, I think you're going to have to commute from West Hartford. If you look on the website greatschools.org, they give ratings and ethnic breakdowns for schools and districts. Southington has decent schools and some diversity, but it's pretty far from Torrington.

[Humanista]

Originally Posted by parentologist

If you can afford elsewhere, not New Britain. Largely Hispanic slum town, some black slum mixed in, some areas with Polish, who mostly choose the parochial schools. There are some really nice areas, like up by the reservoir, or by the park near the hospital, but you don't want to send your kids to the public schools there - there are so many disruptive children coming from homes which do not support education. New Britain is the Hispanic version of Hartford.

I went to school in New Britain and had a great education. I had a good number of AP / Co-op classes at the time and got into every college I applied to including 4 Ivies and MIT. If your child is smart and everyone in the family values a good education, it can be done. Even in New Britain.