Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I was really talking a metro, Stamford metro or fairfield county.
New Haven county is similar to that Fairfield county because they both have commuters who take the Metro North trains to commute to an urban center, either Stamford or NYC for jobs. Both have
decent downtowns. New Haven downtown is quite walkable. But I have to split urban vs suburb for the whole county whole area. Fairfield county area goes to urban in my opinion, like Boston metro. New Haven county goes to suburb. Majority of New Haven county residents are not commuters on trains. Most still on cars for everything except for small portion in downtown, mostly work at local area, many local job offices are outside downtown new haven, therefore requiring a car for employees.
My impression of Providence metro or RI in general is like New Haven county. Providence metro is more or less like Hartford metro or new haven metro. It is not my impression that majority of Providence metro residents are on trains commuting to Boston or buses to Providence downtown walking around.
The number of New Haven County residents commuting to New York or Stamford is small. Very small. The only New Haven County town with any likely number of commuters to there would be Milford and according to data from the Connecticut Economic Resource Center, less than 800 out of 29,000 working Milford residents work there. Milford residents primarily work in Milford itself, New Haven, Bridgeport, Stratford, Shelton, Fairfield and West Haven. Jay
I realize I created this thread, but even I had a hard time ranking the metros. So what I did was split the 15 metros into 5 groups based on population to make it easier for me (and everyone else).
Largest 1/3:
1. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA* 4,873,019 - Boston Metro has it all, just wish it were cheaper.
2. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA MSA* 1,624,578- Providence is fun and affordable and the proximity to the beaches is great
3. Worcester, MA-CT MSA* 947,404 - Worcester is up and coming and I see a good future for this city.
4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT MSA* 943,332 - Stamford is improving and Bridgeport is...Bridgeport. But still, not a bad area and it's proximity is NYC is fantastic.
5. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT MSA 1,204,877 - Hartford. The downtown skyscrapers are boring, the neighborhoods are run down and the suburbs remind me of route 128 on crack. I would only move there if I needed a job.
Middle 2/3
1. New Haven-Milford, CT MSA* 854,757 - Third favorite metro next to Boston and Providence. NH is a great little city and the suburbs aren't bad, either.
2. Portland-South Portland, ME MSA 538,500 - Beautiful city! Only loses out to NH because of it's half the size and has limited opportunity.
3. Springfield, MA MSA 697,382 - Springfield is okay - I sometimes think we don't give this city enough credit. The nightlife isn't bad, either. Some of the suburbs are nice, too (Westfield, Northampton, Greenfield, etc).
4. Manchester-Nashua, NH MSA 417,025 - Manchester is very meh and Nashua is livable. Not bad places, but not places that wow me. The best part of theses MSAs is their proximity to the mountains. Also, when I first made this list, I just assumed Concord was part of the Nashua - Manchester, MSA, but I was wrong.
5. Norwich-New London, CT MSA 265,206 - Nice area, weather, beaches and activities. I would definitely live here if I could work from home, because sadly there aren't many jobs here.
Smallest 2/3
1. Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA 220,411 I love this town and region. I lived there for a year, but as much as I loved the scenery and the city, there were two things that really got to me. 1. The cold was just too much for me. 2. There were a lot of self-absorbed and "flighty" people. I can't tell you how many times I had people promise me something and then just disregard that promise without any consideration to how I (or anyone else) felt).
I don't rank the rest of the smaller MSAs because I haven't spent enough time in each of them to formulate an intelligent opinion on them.
Barnstable Town, MA MSA* 212,990
Pittsfield, MA MSA 124,944
Bangor, ME MSA 152,148
Lewiston-Auburn, ME MSA 108,277
There's a lot of detailed weighing in for New England topics and it makes me wonder if New Englanders are on the high side in terms of intraregional travel compared to other places. It would make sense since there's a somewhat coherent larger identity, somewhat shorter distances among cities, and a decent amount of geographic variation.
There's a lot of detailed weighing in for New England topics and it makes me wonder if New Englanders are on the high side in terms of intraregional travel compared to other places. It would make sense since there's a somewhat coherent larger identity, somewhat shorter distances among cities, and a decent amount of geographic variation.
Speaking only for myself, I can say that growing up in the Merrimack Valley (MA) going to college at Quinnipiac (in Hamden, CT), living in Burlington, VT for a little over a year and having family in NH, MA, CT has helped me to develop an opinion on these places. I also sometimes went down to New Bedford and Providence and even Maine for day trips away.
I guess you're probably right Oy, the fact that I could can get to the border of every single state in New England in less than 1.5 hours makes it easier to see the area and its MSAs.
There's a lot of detailed weighing in for New England topics and it makes me wonder if New Englanders are on the high side in terms of intraregional travel compared to other places. It would make sense since there's a somewhat coherent larger identity, somewhat shorter distances among cities, and a decent amount of geographic variation.
To be fair all of New England including far northern Maine is still a smaller than a lot of states so it makes sense that there would be a lot of intraregional travel. I don't think the amount of travel or distances are unusual if anything people tend to be averse to longer distance travel than in other regions it is more a matter of everything being close together.
Anecdotally I grew up in Central Vermont on the border with NH and my family didn't often travel very far but I did get to visit a lot of different places because things are so close together. Within a 5 hour travel time from where I grew up we could get to over 10 cities with a city limits population of over 100,000. There is just a lot very close together here.
There's a lot of detailed weighing in for New England topics and it makes me wonder if New Englanders are on the high side in terms of intraregional travel compared to other places. It would make sense since there's a somewhat coherent larger identity, somewhat shorter distances among cities, and a decent amount of geographic variation.
Yeah, there's truth to that. I grew up in CT and MA, but we would vacation in ME, had relatives in NH, and our "local" beach was in RI (40 miles away). Once I turned 16 and had mobile friends, we would go to VT snowboarding (and parlaying that into secret trips across the border to Montreal, but that's a whole other thread ). MA is the central hub of NE, so everything is not too far, and there's a lot of great stuff to see and do. In that respect, it does kinda/sorta function as one larger state.
I would say it has a stronger regional identity than almost any other part of the country, although I have heard the PNW may be somewhat similar in that regard (but only been a small handful of times).
I would have a tendency to rank Burlington, Portland, Bangor and Boston as the top 4 here, as I've lived in two, and visited the other two (Portland, Bangor) many times. Burlington has UVN within its city limits, while the University of Maine is ony few miles away from Bangor (Orono)..
I realize I created this thread, but even I had a hard time ranking the metros. So what I did was split the 15 metros into 5 groups based on population to make it easier for me (and everyone else).
Largest 1/3:
1. Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH MSA* 4,873,019 - Boston Metro has it all, just wish it were cheaper.
2. Providence-Warwick, RI-MA MSA* 1,624,578- Providence is fun and affordable and the proximity to the beaches is great
3. Worcester, MA-CT MSA* 947,404 - Worcester is up and coming and I see a good future for this city.
4. Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk, CT MSA* 943,332 - Stamford is improving and Bridgeport is...Bridgeport. But still, not a bad area and it's proximity is NYC is fantastic.
5. Hartford-West Hartford-East Hartford, CT MSA 1,204,877 - Hartford. The downtown skyscrapers are boring, the neighborhoods are run down and the suburbs remind me of route 128 on crack. I would only move there if I needed a job.
Middle 2/3
1. New Haven-Milford, CT MSA* 854,757 - Third favorite metro next to Boston and Providence. NH is a great little city and the suburbs aren't bad, either.
2. Portland-South Portland, ME MSA 538,500 - Beautiful city! Only loses out to NH because of it's half the size and has limited opportunity.
3. Springfield, MA MSA 697,382 - Springfield is okay - I sometimes think we don't give this city enough credit. The nightlife isn't bad, either. Some of the suburbs are nice, too (Westfield, Northampton, Greenfield, etc).
4. Manchester-Nashua, NH MSA 417,025 - Manchester is very meh and Nashua is livable. Not bad places, but not places that wow me. The best part of theses MSAs is their proximity to the mountains. Also, when I first made this list, I just assumed Concord was part of the Nashua - Manchester, MSA, but I was wrong.
5. Norwich-New London, CT MSA 265,206 - Nice area, weather, beaches and activities. I would definitely live here if I could work from home, because sadly there aren't many jobs here.
Smallest 2/3
1. Burlington-South Burlington, VT MSA 220,411 I love this town and region. I lived there for a year, but as much as I loved the scenery and the city, there were two things that really got to me. 1. The cold was just too much for me. 2. There were a lot of self-absorbed and "flighty" people. I can't tell you how many times I had people promise me something and then just disregard that promise without any consideration to how I (or anyone else) felt).
I don't rank the rest of the smaller MSAs because I haven't spent enough time in each of them to formulate an intelligent opinion on them.
Barnstable Town, MA MSA* 212,990
Pittsfield, MA MSA 124,944
Bangor, ME MSA 152,148
Lewiston-Auburn, ME MSA 108,277
I have to say I find your rankings of large cities to be severely flawed and kind of biased. There is no doubt Boston for its size, diversity, employment opportunities and entertainment options makes it No. 1 but your ranking of Hartford under Providence and Worcester shows you don’t know much about the city. Hartford is the second largest employment center in New England. It has a wealth of well paying finance and insurance jobs (it’s the Insurance Capitol of the World) as well as precision manufacturing and engineering with companies like Pratt & Whitney, UTC Research, UTC Aerospace, and Stanley Black & Decker. These alone make it heads and tails over Worcester and Providence for places for employment opportunities.
I know a lot of people keep saying Providence is fun but I just don’t see it. Maybe if you are a drunken college student wanting to bar hop it is but for regular people and families, I think Hartford has more. Hartford has a lot of entertainment options including theaters (awarding winning Hartford Stage, the Bushnell, Theaterworks), museums (Wadsworth Anthenum, Connecticut Science Center, Mark Twain House, Harriet Beecher Stowe House, Connecticut History Center), and music venues (Xfinity Meadows, Infinity Music Hall). Dunkin Donuts Stadium, home of the Hartford Yardgoats minor league baseball, has league record attendance with most home games selling out during the season. The XL Center arena offers UConn basketball, minor league hockey, large scale concerts and other entertainment. The Connecticut Convention Center brings trade shows and other shows as well. Does Providence or Worcester have anywhere near that. I don’t think so. Not even close.
Your comment on Hartford being rundown also rings of blind bias. All cities have rundown neighborhoods, even Boston. Hartford is certainly no more rundown than Providence or Worcester. Hartford’s Downtown is full of high rise towers full of white collar office workers. Neither Providence or Worcester have anywhere near the same number. In fact Providence’s tallest building, the iconic Industrial Trust Building, has been vacant for seven years now with no prospects for reuse or redevelopment. In contrast to that, Hartford has drawn businesses like Infosys (1,000 jobs), HLC Technologies (500 jobs), and GalaxE Solutions (200 jobs). It also has seen scores of its old outdated commercial buildings being converted to apartments that are renting almost as fast as they are built. This has added a couple thousand housing units to downtown. There has also been new apartment construction as well including buildings on Front Street, NoDo and South Green.
I also don’t understand your nasty comment on Hartfords suburbs. It kind of shows your lack of knowledge of them. Sure Hartford has its snobby very affluent suburbs but every major city does too. You do not seem to know about beautiful middle class suburbs like Wethersfield (check out very charming Old Wethersfield, which is a large neighborhood of beautiful older homes built from the 1700’s to the 1920’s), Newington, Rocky Hill or South Windsor. It also has a couple of highly diverse but well maintained suburbs where the minority population exceeds the white population (Bloomfield and Windsor).
West Hartford, just west of the city, is an affluent but surprisingly diverse town of over 60,000 people. It has a very wide range of housing options from modest rentals to lavish estates for the city’s many corporate executives. West Hartford Center is an unbelievably attractive central business district with a wide range of stores and restaurants including one of the best dining scenes in New England.
Greater Hartford also has the unbelievably beautiful Farmington River Valley. The valley is sort of a wooded Shang ra la separated from metro Hartford by a line of small mountains. There are no highways into the valley so you get a different feel as you cross over the mountains and enter the valley and some of greater Hartford’s most desirable suburbs like Avon, Simsbury, Farmington, Burlington, Canton and Granby. These are great places to raise a family. There is nothing comparable in greater Providence or Worcester.
I think all this shows how underrated Hartford is, particularly in your ranking of large New England cities.
I also think you greatly underrate the Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk area. While Bridgeport is an old industrial city that has seen better days (though Black Rock is beautiful and downtown is being redeveloped into a wonderful residential area), Stamford and Norwalk are vibrant super affluent cities with many of the nations leading corporate headquarters. The suburbs of them are among the most desirable and wealthy in the nation including nationally and internationally known towns like Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan and Westport.This alone should push it up in your ratings. A few other things to note about the area include Charter Communications new 777,000 square foot corporate headquarters under construction in downtown Stamford, the 2,000 plus unit Harbor Point complex in Stamford which is one the largest privately developed residential developments in metro New York and the SoNo Collection, a brand new upscale shopping mall with Nordstrom’s and Bloomingdale’s. You can’t support this kind of development without being a great metro area.
Based on this, I’d rate Boston No. 1; Bridgeport-Stamford-Norwalk No. 2; Hartford No. 3; Providence No. 4 and Worcester No. 5. Jay
Jay mixes up the metro and the city comparisons and maybe we all have I don’t know for sure but Hartford and Providence compare inversely. On the metro level of course Jay’s right: Hartford has a medium sized metropolitan Economy, way more than Providence or Worcester. Boleboleh’s comment about Hartford’s suburbs is a throwaway line. As a city providence leaves Hartford In the dust. The downtown is lovely, it has an artistic buzz, college hill is beautiful, benefit Street has an old world early New England vibe to it, Federal Hill has the restaurant scene — there’s just no comparison. Worcester‘s economy is improving but Worcester is a really different place than Hartford; its a manufacturing city without any significant office white-collar sector and without a lot of suburbs. It’s a fairly big city especially for New England, second in population to Boston, but it doesn’t really have suburbs anywhere near the way Boston and Hartford have. Fairfield Co wags the dog in Connecticut but there’s no one city there, more a sprawl of urban and suburban places in the New York orbit. Fairfielders will object but it doesn’t seem to belong in the comparison of New England metros.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
). MA is the central hub of NE, so everything is not too far, and there's a lot of great stuff to see and do. In that respect, it does kinda/sorta function as one larger state. 
