[EconSean]

Good evening,

My wife and I are contemplating a move to the New Haven area (job-related), and have been wondering about the city.

I do not mean to offend anyone, but I have seen plenty of posts suggesting that New Haven isn't the nicest place to live. Naturally, others will suggest that it is a great place. Of course, I take it all with a grain of salt.

So, I wanted to pose a question which may help me make better sense of the "data" (anecdotal though they may be).

We lived in Center City Philadelphia for about 5 years, and while plenty of folks will have you believe that Philly is a terrible city, we never felt unsafe or otherwise threatened, and generally really enjoyed our time there. We never ventured too far west, and similarly, didn't really go too far north (both areas can be unsafe...and maybe that is putting it too mildly).

Anyway, might anyone have experience with both cities and be able to offer a fair and balanced assessment of each? Are they comparable in terms of crime? Things of that nature.

Thank you in advance for any insight that you can provide.

Regards,

Sean

[skytrekker]

Sean

New Haven is far smaller a city then Philly (around 130K) And a metro area of around 650k.
The city has made substantial improvement in recent years- but has some areas of town that are considered to have various problems- just as in Philly- but the issues are smaller in scale and geographically smaller. Crime will be of course reduced compared to Philly simply because New Haven is far smaller, and again will be localized in a few areas of the city.

The city of New Haven has many fine cultural attributes such as Theater, Museums, great restaurants and of course Yale University is the cities diamond located downtown.

[hsw]

Know at least a couple of smart Wharton finance undergrads who managed their risk exposure to Phila crime by purposefully living in Eastern Cherry Hill, NJ and who simply drove the ?15mis/25mins to Wharton for classes during the wk for the <2 yrs they spent in undergrad (yes, they finished by age 19-20), to minimize their exposure to a crime-ridden area (esp at nt)....

My understanding is New Haven is similarly risky in many parts, esp in eve....and Yale community is a natural, soft target....simple solution may be to live in Westport area and commute....

Would guess that Wharton/Penn has ?1-2 students killed/yr in various rndm crime incidents nr campus....perhaps a less desirable risk scenario is sustaining permanently disabling injuries in a mugging....

[goldenband]

If you have experience living in a city as large and complex as Philadelphia, and are able to get an intuitive sense of which areas are risky vs. which ones are safe, then you should do fine in New Haven, I'd think. I've considered moving there myself in a year or two.

The relationship between Yale and New Haven is, I think, a lot like the relationship between Penn and Philly. Students are more at risk in both places partly because they end up in sketchier parts of the city, like West Philly, in search of cheap apartments; by contrast, those who can afford to live in Center City don't have many problems at all. I'm sure you can find something in New Haven that, in terms of comfort and safety, is analogous to your old Center City digs.

Muggings are a possibility in any part of any city, of course. The only time I ever felt genuinely threatened when I lived in Philadelphia was an encounter I had in Chestnut Hill, which as you know is one of the safest and most affluent parts of the city! (Fortunately, I didn't get mugged.)

The only sure way to avoid muggings is to move to the 'burbs or backwoods -- and even that's not 100% sure. But I don't get the sense that that's what you want to do; nor would I, in your shoes.

Note that the police force in New Haven is reputedly stretched pretty thin, but in terms of crime I don't think there's anything that goes as nuts as parts of North Philly and Southwest can get.

[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

Originally Posted by hsw

My understanding is New Haven is similarly risky in many parts, esp in eve....and Yale community is a natural, soft target....simple solution may be to live in Westport area and commute....

There are numerous safe and attractive towns that are closer than Westport is to Yale.

The idea of the Yale community being a "natural target" is laughable, IMHO.
You're discussing some of the most intelligent and wealthy students in the nation. If the parents felt that the community was a target, they wouldn't risk sending their children. The overwhelming majority of bad things that occur to students, occurs because they've gone looking for trouble.

[Fresh68]

I lived in New Haven for 10 years.It is basically a dump and what has made it worse is a Mayor who has turned it into a dump and a sanctuary city, issuing id cards for ILLEGAL aliens.A Federal crime and I hope he is prosecuted for ruining a great city.If you like overcrowded crime ridden cities then New Haven is the place to go.

By the way many Yale students have been raped, assaulted, and..... murdered on a regular basis. And I'm sure they were not "looking " for trouble as someone said.So if you are looking for a city where Illegals have more rights than the average hard working tax paying citizen then New Haven is your place.

[skytrekker]

Originally Posted by Fresh68

I lived in New Haven for 10 years.It is basically a dump and what has made it worse is a Mayor who has turned it into a dump and a sanctuary city, issuing id cards for ILLEGAL aliens.A Federal crime and I hope he is prosecuted for ruining a great city.If you like overcrowded crime ridden cities then New Haven is the place to go.

By the way many Yale students have been raped, assaulted, and..... murdered on a regular basis. And I'm sure they were not "looking " for trouble as someone said.So if you are looking for a city where Illegals have more rights than the average hard working tax paying citizen then New Haven is your place.

Unfortunately most of what you have said is opinion, and not backed up by facts. I do not agree that New Haven is a 'dump' and from what you said about West Hartford in an earlier post becoming 'crime ridden' when in fact its crime rate is one half the national average- I would look very sceptically at the rest of the information you post here as being subjective and filled with misinformation.

[Fresh68]

Sky trekker please don't skew the facts.You live in Tolland county?I graduated from SCSU and spent 2 years at Yale.I speak from experience.If you are in love with sanctuary cities maybe you'd consider putting your kids in the public school system there.

I said that the 2 areas of Prospect Avenue and Farmington Avenue bordering West Hartford are crime infested neighborhoods controlled by the Latin Kings.Do you even know where those 2 streets are?

Please don't twist my posts.Thanks!

Also if anyone would like facts on these 2 areas check with the Hartford and West Hartford Police Dept.

And if you need info on New Haven, just turn on your local news channel 8, every night and look at the neigborhoods around Yale and Southern to see the number of shootings, and street robberies.

[skytrekker]

Again crime in West Hartford is rated at 167--- the national average nationally is 323-I would have to say the stats speak for themselves-

[Fresh68]

One of the notorius street gangs of Hartford
their turf extends up to PROSEPECT avenue...

http://www.segag.org/ganginfo/frlsolid.html