[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by skytrekker

Joe Lieberman has to be the worse Connecticut politician ever elected - be they Democrat or Republican - I frankly have no respect for this shallow man.

I think far more highly of the Governor - than Mr. Lieberman.

My thoughts exactly. A lot of words come to mind: traitor, weasel, liar, fink. As for Governor Rell, I voted for her. It's still early in her first term. Let's see if she can truly address the transportation issue (her words, when talking about one reason why businesses are not coming to the state).

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by OpheliaPoet

If you want to be a little closer to civilization, consider Cheshire or Prospect. They are near me in the middle of the state, but a little more upscale and have open spaces, great schools, and nice communities. Cheshire has a fantastic linear trail that goes all the way to Hamden on one side and (I think) Southington (which also has a few really nice areas) on the other.

The plan is to connect Linear Trail from West Main Street in Cheshire to the section in Southington. However, its completion is being done in pieces. The last referendum put before the resident of Cheshire was to do the section from West Main Street to Jarvis Street at a cost of $900,000. Surprisingly, it was defeated.

[Iska]

By the way, it was nice to see the raggedy construction on 84 circa Cheshire that I was dreading pre-visit cleared.

[skytrekker]

Originally Posted by Rich Lee

My thoughts exactly. A lot of words come to mind: traitor, weasel, liar, fink. As for Governor Rell, I voted for her. It's still early in her first term. Let's see if she can truly address the transportation issue (her words, when talking about one reason why businesses are not coming to the state).

Believe me Rich

Connecticut got a real whiny arrogant coward in Joe Lieberman-the man is all you described. As for Gov. Rell- I also agree with you- the transportation problems in south western CT are horrendous. In addition the economy is being propped up by Wall Street (with again as much liquidity pouring into the markets as went in to blow up the now deflating housing bubble) If there is a meltdown in worldwide stock markets, Wall street will catch a cold- and the economy will chill in Connecticut as well.

All is well for now- well the economy here is lackluster, but getting by; But as one said in 1929- 'The Markets have reached a permanently high plateau'
yup its 'different' this time around. Connecticut is doing ok with the markets at records high- what happens if they have a meltdown? The economy will feel it here more then in many places.

[markablue]

If you want to discuss politics, even local, create a thread in the Politics forums and you may leave a link here, please.

[Iska]

How's the Kimberly Way development (Mandell Custom Homes) in Glastonbury. Saw online a five-acre unit under construction.

[JayCT]

Iska - I know this development very well. It is very close to where I live. It is really just 2 homes being built on a small private driveway. Not much of a development. It is located on Hillstown Road on the Manchester town line. Hillstown is a modestly busy street, but the houses are set back from the road. I believe that most of the land is wetlands, otherwise there would have been more homes built on the property. It is a convenient location though, near town and Manchester. There are some denser neighborhoods around these homes (mostly houses on 1/3 acre lots), but they are somewhat isolated from them.

These house are located in the Naubuc School district which is the lowest scoring school in the district. Often the snobs in town will say this is bad, but if you look at the test scores you will see the school is very very good (higher than the state averages). Naubuc is a school with a lot of kids from different backgrounds. It serves the towns only low income housing and a portion of the district is blue-collar so it is unfair to compare to schools in town where the families are all well-off professionals or executives.

That said, because of the income difference Naubuc offers a lot services other schools in town do not get. My kids received wonderful one-on-one reading help several times a week for the first couple of years there, even though they were very good readers to begin with. This was a Title 1 program that was only offered at Naubuc. The class sizes at Naubuc are also smaller (my kids never had more than 20 in their classes) and there are a lot of para-professionals to help teachers with the class. Plus the school has a lot of great parents who volunteer their time and energy to making the school better. The PTO built a state-of-the-art computer lab that the kids use regularly. And the teachers are wonderful (not a bad one in the bunch) and the new Prinicpal is young and energetic and kids really love him (he regularly goes out and plays ball with the kids at recess).

Finally, I would just like to add that Naubuc lacks some of the social issues the other schools in town have. Because many of the kids are from modest backgrounds, there is less of a materialism problem than other schools. Over the years I have heard some real horror stories from friends with kids in other schools and I really see this now that my older child is in a school where all the kids from town go. Scary to me! (okay enough said on this, it just gets a lot of us from the northend mad when we hear snobby people downing our school)

The builder (Mandell) has a good reputation and the two houses are very nice looking. I was by there the other day and am contemplating looking at them myself. Anyway, if you have any other questions, please let me know. Jay

[Iska]

Thanks for all the helpful info, Jay.

[4mom]

I would appreciate some opinions about Woodstock ct. We are thinking of relo'ing there - is it friendly? How are the neighborhoods? Is there shopping (walmart, target, and the like) fairly close by? We have a 15, 12 and two 2.5 year olds? Is it a family friendly town? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by 4mom

I would appreciate some opinions about Woodstock ct. We are thinking of relo'ing there - is it friendly? How are the neighborhoods? Is there shopping (walmart, target, and the like) fairly close by? We have a 15, 12 and two 2.5 year olds? Is it a family friendly town? Any opinions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks a lot!

4mom - I suggest you start your own thread with this question. Here is might get lost. Jay