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Hartford is bankrupt. It's not viable without massive state bailouts. The state took over $755 million in defaulted Hartford debt last year. Without that, Hartford would have had no choice but to go bankrupt. The city keeps piling up debt it can't repay so it's going to happen again in another 10 years. With all the state property and nonprofit property in Hartford completely off the tax rolls, there isn't enough tax base in all that slum housing to fund the place. If you hit the office towers too hard with taxes, the companies bail out.
I disagree with you calling residential Hartford a ghetto. Just like any city it has its good neighborhoods and it’s bad. There are many nice neighborhoods (South End, West End, Downtown, Southwest, Blue Hills), certainly as many areas as Providence. Hartford is also the second largest employment center in New England with more than 112,000 jobs in the city. It is also home to some of the country’s largest insurers. Providence does not come near that. Because of this I would say Hartford is No. 2 in New England. Jay
Yeah, and everybody flees those office tower jobs at 5pm every day to the suburbs. There's simply no comparison between the usability of Providence vs the usability of Hartford. If you're talking suburbs, that's another story entirely. Metro Hartford has about 200,000 people worth of gold-plated suburbs surrounding a poverty stricken urban core of 125,000. Just look at the Hartford demographics. They're failed city demographics. Enormously high single parent rate. Very high poverty rate. The literacy rate in the public school system is frightening so it's generational poverty.
Yeah, and everybody flees those office tower jobs at 5pm every day to the suburbs. There's simply no comparison between the usability of Providence vs the usability of Hartford. If you're talking suburbs, that's another story entirely. Metro Hartford has about 200,000 people worth of gold-plated suburbs surrounding a poverty stricken urban core of 125,000. Just look at the Hartford demographics. They're failed city demographics. Enormously high single parent rate. Very high poverty rate. The literacy rate in the public school system is frightening so it's generational poverty.
Check out the literacy rate in Providence........if you dare. And Rhode Island has surpassed Maine for the highest poverty rate and child poverty rate in New England. My advice? Put the shovel down!
Or you could sit up at the state line on 95 north in the morning and watch the wave plates smash into each other in their haste to escape the economic ruin.
Cambridge doesn't belong in this discussion. Cambridge is Boston. No, not technically, but it is for all practical purposes.
Cambridge is Boston? Is Warwick Providence? Is Cranston? Is Brookline Boston? How about Quincy? Milton? Dedham? Somerville? Cambridge really is a separate city y'know. Golly, it's got it's own government n'everything. People's Republic and all. Do you think these things through, kid?
My mom used to live in Wickford. You can't get from Jamestown to Providence in 30 minutes. You might be able to make Rhode Island Hospital in 40 minutes at midnight. During commute hours, you'd have a big delay layered on top of that.
We'll just have to disagree on a commute I'm very familiar with. 30 minutes is early morning, but 35 minutes at normal good weather morning rush hour may be more typical.
In fact, a very respected acquaintance of mine once described Massachusetts as Boston with 3 Rhode Islands grafted onto it. Really not far from the truth. Please understand, that Boston flourishes DESPITE it's government, not BECAUSE of it. And without it's inherent advantages, it'd be.......Rhode Island. Rhode Island though, simply can't get away with it's own liberal, welfare state policies. It's just too poor.
Nailed it to a T. Not a single inaccuracy here.
And the bolded portion is especially on point.
But as far as states being run into the ground, I think IL takes the cake over RI. Even with an economically potent city, they are the most fiscally insolvent of all 50 states.
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