[MFinkLoans]

South Windsor is a beautiful town with a great school system (if that matters to you) plus it's next door to manchester which has a ton of restaurants/shopping etc but SW also has its own beautiful shopping center - evergreen walk which has some nice stores and restaurants.

West Hartford is another great place with a great downtown. Both very commutable to East Longmeadow (which is a great town as well!)

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by kintile

What's the deal with Enfield? The schools seem pretty good... Is there a reason no one is suggesting that town?

Enfield is a mostly working class community with a fairly diverse population. There are a few neighborhoods that while not dangerous, are a bit sketchy. The lower grade schools in Enfield perform decently on the Connecticut Mastery Test but the high schools perform under the state averages on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. This gives the town a not so great reputation for quality of education. Check the link below for more information on schools in our state.

Enfield does have some nice areas including a decent small but not great mall. Unfortunately the major anchor in the mall, Macy's, is closing as part of the store's recent realignment of underperforming stores. This is going to leave a big hole in the mall. Who knows if the owners, the also less than great Westfield, can find another anchor to fill the spot. Westfield was recently able to fill an empty J C Penney store at their similarly sized Meriden Mall with the family owned Pennsylvania retailer Boscov. I hope that they see an opportunity in Enfield that they saw in Meriden but nothing has been mentioned yet. We will see. Jay

State Department of Education - CEDaR