Connecticut or North Carolina - YOU VOTE!thread closed. (Bridgeport: environment, estate)

[BigHouse9]

silviodante -

Beaches may not be as nice as NC but it takes us a lot longer to get there from Raleigh and I still find Cape Cod to be far superior to the NC beaches. As far as mountains go, again, closer in CT and the mountains in New England win HANDS DOWN. I am curious to see how Raleigh is better than Hartford or New Haven in terms of nightlife, considering it is mostly suburbia here. Museums, give me a break. The Science Museum in CT is great and the Wadsworth is great. Sports in New England go much deeper as well as it is only NCAA basketball here. The culture here in the Raleigh area is nothing more than suburban lifestyle, hectic and tons of traffic. We do have some good restaurants in Raleigh, but then again so does CT. There are a ton of good parks in the Raleigh area, but again, there are plenty in CT as well. Golf in NC is much more expensive and there does not seem to be as many course unless you travel out to the Sandhills area.

You seem to just want to knock CT or at least just to find the bad. Go right ahead if needed. This thread should be about the good things in both places.

[Golden1]

This is not to knock CT but when you say Raleigh is basically suburbia here then what do think CT is primiarily? This state is one giant suburb with patches of rural areas and patches on some urban. It's even historically described at the suburban state on a pbs special about CT I saw last year. I'd imagine, and I have never been to Raleigh, that it is larger, more populated and a better city than what CT has to offer. CT's strengths are not in their cities. CT's strengths are in it's new england towns along the coast and in Litchfield that are filled with culture and scenary and restaurants. These are places that people want to move to from out of state because they saw "Mystic Pizza." There are places in CT where you can feel the history of New England and eat fantastic seafood. And there are places in CT that look no different from some area of upstate NY or the midwest and are one giant strip mall with the Olive Garden being the area's high point. BUT the best thing about CT is it is small and fairly convienent. It takes less than an hour to go to those quaint places.

I guess everything is a matter of perceptive. I remember the first time I saw Los Angles and thought aside from a few square blocks that it was hardly a city like NY or Chicago. It was one massive suburbs.

[BigHouse9]

Golden -

Trust me when I say that CT, especially Hartford, and Raleigh are nothing alike. The typical cookie cutter McMansions here in the Raleigh area. Very few custom homes. My development is 4 home styles and that is it. It is the small .15 acre lots typically with strip malls and traffic. You have to drive to find anything quaint. Just a different feel than CT. There are some very nice areas here though, don't get me wrong.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by Golden1

This is not to knock CT but when you say Raleigh is basically suburbia here then what do think CT is primiarily? This state is one giant suburb with patches of rural areas and patches on some urban. It's even historically described at the suburban state on a pbs special about CT I saw last year. I'd imagine, and I have never been to Raleigh, that it is larger, more populated and a better city than what CT has to offer. CT's strengths are not in their cities. CT's strengths are in it's new england towns along the coast and in Litchfield that are filled with culture and scenary and restaurants. These are places that people want to move to from out of state because they saw "Mystic Pizza." There are places in CT where you can feel the history of New England and eat fantastic seafood. And there are places in CT that look no different from some area of upstate NY or the midwest and are one giant strip mall with the Olive Garden being the area's high point. BUT the best thing about CT is it is small and fairly convienent. It takes less than an hour to go to those quaint places.

I guess everything is a matter of perceptive. I remember the first time I saw Los Angles and thought aside from a few square blocks that it was hardly a city like NY or Chicago. It was one massive suburbs.

Raleigh and Hartford have metropolitain areas that are about the same size but the difference is that the City of Raleigh covers a much larger area than Hartford. Raleigh has 353,000 people with 134 square miles. The City of Hartford is about 17 square miles with 121,000 people. But Hartford is surrounded by a lot of small fiercely independent towns that do not want to be associated with the City of Hartford. These towns have long proud histories and do not want their identities to be over shadowed by a large city even though they are part of a large metropolitan area. Jay

[JViello]

Originally Posted by Golden1

This is not to knock CT but when you say Raleigh is basically suburbia here then what do think CT is primiarily? This state is one giant suburb with patches of rural areas and patches on some urban.

The suburbs of the South are totally different than "suburban" living here. If you simply define suburb as "areas between an urban metro and cow pasture" then it might fit.

But there are really no master planned communities, no stamped out sub divisions that run into one another, no highway loop around a city core that feeds those subdivisions...every road to them is not a divided blvd lined with strip malls and I really can't think of a gated community in this state even in Greenwich.

Here you might find a sprinkle of 4000sf modern colonials built amongst some 50-60 year old homes and a few hundred year old homes all mixed together. Hardly the typical suburb with an HOA...another rarity in this state.

And if you were to tell me that Manchester is a planned community in the shadow of Hartford I would say you don't know your history.

[Golden1]

One of the biggest differences between some of New England and the "new" South area that is booming is the sense of history. In these booming areas everything is new and cookie cutter. When you go to say the Mystic area of CT you can feel the history and get a sense of what it was like for a whaler in 1877 to go out to sea. People change, clothing changes, technical advances and some businesses come and go but otherwise everything is old. This is a good thing to me because I like to be around a sense of tradition. Hopefully it will not be overly developed in the future.

I was in Newport RI this weekend and it was anything but cookie cutter. A rich history is there and you feel it with every step... that is when you're walking off the insane food you just ate because the restaurants are awesome.

When I've gone to Florida and South Carolina I did not get this sense of history, but I was in the more developed population boom areas and I'm sure if I went to say a Charleston SC I would feel what I feel in some of CT, MA and RI.

[jeremeyk482]

Originally Posted by JViello

But there are really no master planned communities, no stamped out sub divisions that run into one another, no highway loop around a city core that feeds those subdivisions...every road to them is not a divided blvd lined with strip malls and I really can't think of a gated community in this state even in Greenwich.

Here you might find a sprinkle of 4000sf modern colonials built amongst some 50-60 year old homes and a few hundred year old homes all mixed together.

I can think of many gated communities in Greenwich, Stamford, Ridgefield, Danbury, Middlebury, Woodbridge, Oxford, Trumbull, Darien, New Fairfield, Westport, etc.

You don't think CT has stripmalls? Who are you trying to kid?? LOL! Have you been down the Berlin Turnpike, Boston Post Road, Newtown & Federal Roads in Danbury, most of Waterbury, Derby, Ansonia, Fairfield and New Milford? Even when driving along state roads such as Rt 63 or Rt 7, strip malls are the norm. Coming from someone who lives in Manchester, I would think you'd see this daily.

If you drive around some thriving communities (such as Southbury or Brookfield) many of the new homes are all the same, with just 2 or 3 housing styles. Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful, but every home is cookie cutter. It's not only in NC. I also see it in Canton, Burlington, Derby, Monroe, New Milford and Thomaston.

Originally Posted by JViello

And if you were to tell me that Manchester is a planned community in the shadow of Hartford I would say you don't know your history.

I just read much of the posts and I don't think anybody said this.

Also when discussing sports, this thread is a CT or NC thread. You can't say CT is more involved with sports because of the Patriots (based in MA) or the Red Sox (also in MA). CT has no professional sports teams so to even begin to say that sports are a part of CT itself is just untrue. UCONN basketball is about as big as it gets.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by jeremeyk482

You don't think CT has stripmalls? Who are you trying to kid?? LOL! Have you been down the Berlin Turnpike, Boston Post Road, Newtown & Federal Roads in Danbury, most of Waterbury, Derby, Ansonia, Fairfield and New Milford? Even when driving along state roads such as Rt 63 or Rt 7, strip malls are the norm. Coming from someone who lives in Manchester, I would think you'd see this daily.

Looking at it from this angle, it makes sense that these strip malls are located where 75 percent of the state's population is located. Being from New York state, I noticed the same thing in Poughkeepsie (Route 9), Jefferson Valley (Route 202), and Carmel (Route 6), etc.

As a result, I never sensed that much of a difference among Connecticut (Hartford, New Haven, and Fairfield Counties), downstate New York, or northern New Jersey.

With that being said, I was always at a loss when I'd hear, "Connecticut is typically New England."

To this day, I don't see how based on the parts of Connecticut to which I've been exposed. Having been to Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Vermont, and New Hampshire, I still think that Connecticut resembles New York or New Jersey more.

[Golden1]

I'm with ya JeremyK and Rich Lee. Been trying to say that in a round about way but I always get hammered by posters that seem to live right by a lighthouse and have season tickets to the Bushnell or something.

The topic that makes me cringe the most is when people speak highly of Hartford as a city to people from other states who haven't a clue. People can quote statistics and name restaurants but the average native CT person knows that Hartford is not the city of the future and wouldn't go into it if it didn't have the area's only major medical center.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by jensen beach gal

Im originally from NY

NYS or NYC?