[habs29]

To make this easier for possible relocaters and I'm curious. What do you all think are the 5 best and worst towns to live in. Lets exclude Hartford,New Haven and Bridgeport from the list.

Best ( no order)

Glastonbury
Tolland
South Windsor
Clinton
Colchester

Worst

Meriden
East Hartford
Manchester
Willimantic
Putnam

[jdhall1]

Best (no order)
-Ridgefield
-Redding
-Woodbury
-Weston
-Kent

Worst
-Waterbury
-East Hartford
-New Britian
-Naugatuck
-Bristol

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by habs29

To make this easier for possible relocaters and I'm curious. What do you all think are the 5 best and worst towns to live in. Lets exclude Hartford,New Haven and Bridgeport from the list.

As a real estate agent, I wouldn't touch this one with a ten-foot pole. Instead, I ask clients to describe their ideal community. Usually from this question, I get a feel for whether the town is rural (under 10,000 people), small (under 25,000 people), medium (under 40,000), large/suburban (40,000 - 60,000), small city (60,000 - 100,000), city (+100,000).

This yields the following:
rural - Durham (approx. 8,000); Middlefield (5,000); Goshen (3,000); Woodbury (10,000)
small - Berlin (20,000); Coventry (12,000); South Windsor (24,000);
medium - Cheshire (30,000); Farmington (25,000); Glastonbury (32,000); Vernon (30,000)
large - Southington (41,000); Wallingford (45,000); Middletown (46,000)
small city - Bristol (61,000); Danbury (79,000); West Hartford (65,000)
urbanized area - Bridgeport (144,000); Hartford (125,000); New Haven (130,000)

I am reluctant to call area with a population of 125,000 a "city" considering that I'm from New York state. But Albany would fall into this category and it is the capital.

[Dragondog]

Manchester has slid in recent years a bit- but it has a fine Main Street and downtown with a very New England 'feel'. The Cheney Mansions off Hartford road add history and charm as well. The town is laid out very attractively as well, with some very upscale areas. Manchester HS has been become rougher, but the schools are not bad.

The shopping offers some of the best in Connecticut, and the Manchester Community College campus is beautiful- the school is the best of 2 year institutions in the state.

Manchester is far more attractive and less 'rough' then Bristol or Meriden. And to lump Manchester in with these two very unattractive towns is wrong.

[mels]

This poll will be all over the place. Personally, I would subtract any Fairfield County Metro-North town off of “the best” list. I lived there for years and must say that the traffic on I-95 makes the quality of life in these towns poor if you have to commute by car. I had to leave that area before it sucked the life out of me.

I would never put Manchester in the same league as Willimantic or Meriden. Have you never seen the town of Bristol? It is about 20 times dumpier than Manchester.

[habs29]

Everone will have different opinions. There are very nice parts of Manchester. I was thinking of a family coming in with kids. I would be nervous with that school system. No matter how nice some sections are, Manchester has slid in recent years.
Again, my opinion. Everything west of the river I would not look at. Any commute seems to be riddled with traffic and usually no easy route either.
This was all for fun...there is wrong or right

[WarderJack]

This is a tough one because, to be perfectly honest it seems like with all the urban flight that has occurred in the last few decades none of the largest CT cities are all that nice. I also haven't lived here my whole life, so it's hard to really accurately say.

Best (ones I liked the most)
-Woodstock/Pomfret (small towns)
-Farmington
-Danbury
-Cheshire

Worst
-New Britain
-Bridgeport
-New Haven
-pretty much anything that an interstate was allowed to carve right through

I have lived in Willimantic for the past year and despite all the naysayers, I have seen far worse places outside of Connecticut.

[toyota4ever]

Best:
None, really, the entire state is overpriced for what you get. Why people like living here I have no idea. If I had to choose, though, it would be Windsor Locks, because that's where the airport is and any plane there can get you out of CT quickly.

Worst (no order):
Hartford
New Haven
New Britain
Waterbury
Bridgeport

...and an honorable mention to my hometown and current place of residence, Meriden.

[Curious in CT]

toyota4ever,

I like your sense of humor!! Meridump!! I can relate.....I grew up there and don't really like to admit that. And I now live in CT's other "worst" town....Bristol. I do have to admit that I think Bristol is much dumpier looking than Meridump! At least the streets in Meridump look clean and somewhat groomed. I like that Meridump has I-691 that can take you from one part of town to the other in less than 5 minutes. Here in Bristol, it takes you 20 minutes to drive through the gloom just to get to the other side (at least for me that's what it takes). I don't mean to bash Bristol, but I just don't care for it here....I just can't explain. At least in Meriden you could get to anywhere in CT fast because of the ease of access to the highways. I do miss that here.

[smarty]

Originally Posted by habs29

To make this easier for possible relocaters and I'm curious. What do you all think are the 5 best and worst towns to live in. Lets exclude Hartford,New Haven and Bridgeport from the list.

Best ( no order)

Glastonbury
Tolland
South Windsor
Clinton
Colchester

Worst

Meriden
East Hartford
Manchester
Willimantic
Putnam

Can you (and everyone) quantify or give your reasons for your pick of best and worst towns?
What is your criteria?

I often tell my kids I like it because I like it.