[DietCokeGal]

My husband and I are considering purchasing a condo in Bridgeport at the Lofts on Lafayette. (It's on Lafayette street)
We have two small children (ages 2 and 3) and my husband works in Manhattan.
Of course my top priority is the school system.
I'd be interested in the Pre-K schools and the Kindergarten for right now.
I'm a stay at home mom who likes to walk places.
How is it walking around Bridgeport?
I should add that I was born and raised in NYC and we currently live in Hoboken, NJ and have done stints in the nice so cool areas of Brooklyn so we aren't afraid of a little grit but if it's totally unsafe to walk the streets with my two kids and the pres-schoolers are bringing guns to class I wanna know.
The other thing I'd like to know about is public transportation. Is there a bus system?
Thanks so much!
Diana

[acornsower]

Can't really address the school system but I DO do a lot of walking in Bridgeport. If you're used to Brooklyn and Hoboken you should encounter no problem.

There is a good bus system but at that location you would hardly need it except for major grocery runs. Downtown (good restaurants already in place and a lot of new businesses set to open as the apartment conversions are completed) and the train station are less than a 10-minute walk. There is the baseball stadium and the arena in close proximity, and the university campus (good library and very international student body) adjoins to the south. Best of all, three blocks south on Myrtle Avenue or Lafayette Street is the 370-acre Seaside Park, with its mile-long beach and waterfront promenades.

The Park was laid out in 1865 and designed by the same three men (Olmsted, Vaux & Viele) who laid out Central Park in New York. A work of genius--and it shows! You will enjoy the walk around Breezy Point from Main Street to Park Avenue at all times of the year with the views and greenery it affords. At the end of the beach is an island that serves as a wildlife sanctuary (nice little walk out on a stone jetty) with an 1823 lighthouse.

From the lofts west on Gregory Street to Park Avenue (grocery store on the corner makes good sandwiches) it may look a little seedy but I've never been bothered. A few blocks to the northwest is the Marina Village housing project which you would probably have little interest to explore. Park Avenue from Atlantic Street south has beautiful old mansions from the late 1800s, and a noted 19th-century landscape architect endowed the neighborhood with all sorts of rare flowering trees.

Your husband's commute into the city can be made by express train in 1 hour and 7 minutes, which I find is the perfect length of time to really devour the New York Times.

[DietCokeGal]

Thank you so very much. That's really wonderful. I'm excited about the area. I think we are going to attempt a visit this weekend.
Diana

[Johnny CT]

I occasionally have to use the Bridgeport bus system, here is a link to their website where you can check out the routes and schedule.
www.gbtabus.com (broken link)

The city is currently constructing a new bus terminal that will be connected to the train station. It will house both intercity and city bus. It is sorely needed since the current bus station downtown is a dump.

[Dockside]

Originally Posted by DietCokeGal

I think we are going to attempt a visit this weekend.

Don't get starry-eyed about Bridgeport. Up front, I have not been to Bridgeport in the last 10 years; I read things have changed. But. At one time Bridgeport was a city in total financial collapse, the political administration even tried to declare bancruptcy but the state wouldn't let them. Bridgeport is a nitty-gritty, ugly little city, with some nasty areas.

Check http://money.cnn.com/popups/2006/biz...tinvest/3.html for their review. Note the caution at the bottom.

The mill rate at 40.32 is one of the highest in CT.

I don't know anything about the schools, but greatschools.net might help.

I'm not bullish on Bridgeport, but in an earlier posting about it someone made the point that Bridgeport is an excellent city for a younger generation to come in and change it, and I agree. Good luck. It also has a beautiful shoreline.

I found the earlier posting by Lincolnian...A group of solid citizens are needed to step forward and rebuild the city. It's proximity to other coastline towns and cities and NYC is strategic. Capitalize on it and make it a birthplace for a new, younger, class of residents who are interested interested in creating a new sense of community.

[acornsower]

Dockside, I remember a time when downtown New Rochelle was dead as a doornail and Williamsburg was a long-faded community where Hasidic Jews were attempting to make a stand against steadily encroaching blight. What a difference 10 or 15 years can make in the life of a city!

Bridgeport's brush with bankruptcy--when Harry Reasoner reported on 60 Minutes from the bombed-out ruins of a housing project that this was one of the most horrendous cities in America--is ancient history. The artists began to move in, the cutting-edge conoisseurs of true urban grit found a place they could embrace with gusto, and the energy of immigrants from every corner of the globe trying to carve out a niche in American society transformed this place with lightning-like speed. Come up for a look and you will be amazed! The city is rife with historic buildings being restored and new businesses and residents flooding in.

While you're here you can have your pick of dozens of Southeast Asian restaurants, Brazilian churrascarias (waiters will keep serving you portions of all kinds of savory grilled meats until you say uncle!), Mexican family places where you feel like you're in Oaxaca, and literally scores of the best Italian and Portuguese dining spots this side of the Atlantic. There are Polish delis where you can find two dozen kinds of kielbasi and Asian-owned supermarkets that offer several different varieties of durian fruit and mangosteens as well as delicasies like octopus roe. I have close neighbors from Uzbekistan as well as Western Samoa, and I see people in my daily travels wearing veils, turbans, saris, and even pointed straw Oriental hats.

As H.L. Mencken observed, 'A big city is like a mother's knee.' As a product of the Bridgeport public school system I learned at an early age to look beyond superficial differences and that people are people. It gauls me that only a few miles away in the 'burbs kids are being raised full of fear of anyone who looks different from themselves, certain that the instant they cross the city line thay will be hauled out of their cars and beaten just like Reginald Denny. They may never know what incredible beef soup the Vietnamese make or what great chicken sandwiches the Turks cook up with their little three-sided rotisseries, much less what catchy lively music people from Kurdistan and Senegal listen to.

You want bland, you like Outback Steak House and TGIFriday's and the mall, there is always Trumbull and ever-more-ghastly Shelton. You want to raise a kid prepared for tomorrow's world, you want to live an environmentally sustainable lifestyle where a car is an option and you can walk to everything, you want a community of people who are alive and not automatons, then Bridgeport is waiting with open arms.

You think this town is ugly? Get off I-95 for once and take a walk on the cliffside promenade at St. Mary's by-the-Sea; cross the rocks out to the nature sanctuary at Fayerweather Island; check out the exuberant Victorian architecture of Washington Park or the modest homes of the Hollow with their old-world grapevine-embowered driveways. Check out Beardsley Park, an untouched gem that reveals Frederick Law Olmsted's genius, or take a long walk out to Cape Cod-like Pleasure Beach and know what it's really like to unwind. Then you may begin to understand my Bridgeport.

And as for politics, yes, the dinosaurs are still in control, but their days are clearly numbered. When they are expunged at last this city will become the New Canaan of the next generation.

[Rich Lee]

Originally Posted by acornsower

Dockside, I remember a time when downtown New Rochelle was dead as a doornail

Very true. Sometimes it is as simple as rebuilding the city block by block. Whenever I go to the Expo Center, I always catch a glimpse of the sign that says, "Welcome to New Rock City." It's a small gesture, but it does illustrate that pride is returning.

Originally Posted by acornsower

You think this town is ugly? Get off I-95 for once

How timely...last Friday, upon returning from the New York International Auto Show, we got off I-95 in Bridgeport to go to Red Lobster near the mall. The improvements to that particular part of the city were pretty apparent. Bridgeport, unlike New Haven or Hartford, doesn't have a local television station to tout its progress. I'm sure that the Connecticut Post does this but its market penetration doesn't reach me in Cheshire. So, unfortunately, the rest of us in Connecticut are a little behind in our assessment/opinion of Bridgeport.

[Dockside]

Originally Posted by acornsower

Then you may begin to understand my Bridgeport.

You do great PR! I don't know that Bridgeport because I was always happy just to get out of there alive.

Bridgeport reminds me of Brooklyn Heights or Park Slope in Brooklyn. Incredible resources that need hard work and dedication to turn it around.

Good luck, and get those mill rates down!

[jdhall1]

The New York Times did an article about Bridgeport this week. You can find it in the real estate section.

[DietCokeGal]

The two things that really worry my husband is the super high crime rate (yes it's going in the right direction but the numbers still seem awful high) and the school system.
Does anyone have a young child or children in the schools there? Can you speak to the level of education my children would be getting?
I'm all for a diverse neighborhood and a multi-culture area. That's doesn't worry us in the least. What concerns us is the quality of life in the area.