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If you're going to live in the Springfield area, just live in Amherst or Northampton. They're great college towns, have a lot to offer because of it, and it's a very nice area. Both Springfield and Hartford as cities are lifeless, run down dumps outside office hours.
If you're going to live in the Springfield area, just live in Amherst or Northampton. They're great college towns, have a lot to offer because of it, and it's a very nice area. Both Springfield and Hartford as cities are lifeless, run down dumps outside office hours.
But they're also where the jobs are, so being near both cities is a plus.
If you're content to work in Northampton or Springfield, then you're good. But if you want access to both the Springfield and Hartford job markets, I'd suggest living in West Springfield or another neighboring suburb. A commute from Northampton to Hartford would be awful, but from W Springfield would be okay.
The Pioneer Valley is way nicer than Central Connecticut, imo.
Maybe I just haven’t explored the latter enough?
I agree. Hartford has nice suburbs, where nice means upscale and restrictive and mainly suburban. And various smaller cities—New Britain, Manchester, Bristol, Middletown and Meriden. Pioneer valley has an agricultural-academic-crafts vibe, some intensely beautiful landscapes. It is not suburban. But thats really the Hampshire and Franklin County thing. Hampden County is post-industrial cities, a few “nice” suburbs (but way fewer than in central Conn), some middle class Trumpy suburbs, and small towns. Springfield and surroundings have more than their share of ugly commercial roadside clutter, esp Riverdale road in West Springfield (US 5) but also US 20, MA 33. Lots of expressways since the ‘60s that radically redistributed the population and economy, hollowing out Holyoke and Springfield. It ain’t pretty. Lots of late Victorian wood frame houses, some in beautiful neighborhoods. Lots of modest mid-century ranch type houses all over, when the area was still prospering and developers were building inexpensive houses affordable to someone working at Whiting Paper, Uniroyal, and other long gone factories. Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee have plenty of houses from both periods.
I agree. Hartford has nice suburbs, where nice means upscale and restrictive and mainly suburban. And various smaller cities—New Britain, Manchester, Bristol, Middletown and Meriden. Pioneer valley has an agricultural-academic-crafts vibe, some intensely beautiful landscapes. It is not suburban. But thats really the Hampshire and Franklin County thing. Hampden County is post-industrial cities, a few “nice” suburbs (but way fewer than in central Conn), some middle class Trumpy suburbs, and small towns. Springfield and surroundings have more than their share of ugly commercial roadside clutter, esp Riverdale road in West Springfield (US 5) but also US 20, MA 33. Lots of expressways since the ‘60s that radically redistributed the population and economy, hollowing out Holyoke and Springfield. It ain’t pretty. Lots of late Victorian wood frame houses, some in beautiful neighborhoods. Lots of modest mid-century ranch type houses all over, when the area was still prospering and developers were building inexpensive houses affordable to someone working at Whiting Paper, Uniroyal, and other long gone factories. Springfield, Holyoke and Chicopee have plenty of houses from both periods.
Depends. I’ve lived in Northampton for a couple of years years ago and my fiancée was in West Hartford Center until COVID. Northampton is a pretty nice place. My Vermont place at the ski resort was 2 hours. It was a way lower stress drive to my boat floating in West Portugal via the Mass Pike and 146. There are no roads between Hartford and Providence and Hartford drivers are a combination of the worst of Boston and NYC. There’s enough on Main Street Northampton to live your midweek life there. Pretty good local golf.
I had a couple of steps who were Springfield physicians with a house in Longmeadow. Longmeadow is the worst snooze of a suburb ever. There’s nothing in the town at all. If you need the gold plated school system, you live there. Nobody in their right mind would live there otherwise.
My fiancée has some staff in one of the Springfield hospitals. The housing choice for the physicians is Longmeadow or the bigger drive from Northampton. It’s split 50/50.
As I wrote up-thread, the Hartford metro is in the top 20 MSA for median household income. There are a bunch of high income jobs that support some really affluent suburbs.
All things being equal, I’d rather live in Northampton than a Hartford suburb. The main thing I’d be giving up is Asian food shopping which is way better on the Hartford/West Hartford line than anything close to Main Street Northampton. I have the same issue in West Portugal. No Indian grocery store. No Asian green grocer. No Asian grocery store.
Well, from Holyoke-South Hadley-Granby north to to NH-VT state line the PV is great. In and around Springfield not so much and most observers without sentimental ties to the area would find Hartford and surroundings much better-- more upscale, better economy, good school districts, somewhat less segregated... Personally speaking it's hard to say.
Criteria
Cost of Living: Springfield
Quality of Life: Hartford
Proximity to Parks/Recreation: Springfield
Crime: Don't know; neither one very good.
Better Downtown: Hartford
Better Future: Hartford
Better Investment to buy: Springfield?
Tax Burden: Springfield
Suburbs/Surrounding Towns: Hartford
Transit (trains): Springfield (has everything Hartford has plus some service east and west)
Food: Draw
Urban Blight: Hartford seems more blighted.
Liveliness/Fun Aspect: Springfield (some nightlife and easy to reach both Northampton/E'hampton/Amherst and Hartford/Middletown.
Hartford has always had the edge on Springfield-- it had the better stores (G. Fox over Forbes & Wallace), better papers (Courant and Times over Union/Daily News/Republican), better music and arts scene, bigger manufacturers (who can compete with Pratt & Whitney?), more wealth period. Today Hartford seems to have a better future as the capital city with a major white & blue collar economy. I'm not sure it's a better investment to buy, at least in the city, because Springfield has better neighborhoods-- more middle class neighborhoods, more room to grow, in some ways more gentrification potential, less of a standoff between poor central city and prosperous, contented suburbs (even though Sheff-O'Neill case makes for some interesting school deseg experiences in the Hartford area.) If I were buying a place to live I'd prefer Forest Park or McKnight over any neighborhood in Hartford.
I'm not sure it's a better investment to buy, at least in the city, because Springfield has better neighborhoods-- more middle class neighborhoods, more room to grow, in some ways more gentrification potential, less of a standoff between poor central city and prosperous, contented suburbs (even though Sheff-O'Neill case makes for some interesting school deseg experiences in the Hartford area.) If I were buying a place to live I'd prefer Forest Park or McKnight over any neighborhood in Hartford.
I actually feel that because Hartford has such a heavy renter population, is legitimately walkable, and has magnet schools in the area is thas a way way better chance of gentrifying. Trinity College is already an elite institution, smack in the middle of Hartford as well as the new UCONN campus is downtown and it has dorms downtown and more were recently built. Hartford also has a nice brewery and movie theater downtown, as well as Connecticut Riverside cruises. being in Downtown Hartford. Because it's so densely populated (really only 13 square miles is inhabited due to North Meadows and South Meadows) its much much more walkable than Springfield, with a more modern center and better more attractive apartments.
Because there are so many low-income renters as opposed to low/moderate incomes homeowners gentrification will be much easier than in Springfield where there's more entrenchment and less mobility than a 75% renter city like Hartford. Renters are easier to run roughshod over no matter how you look at it. Also, the middle-class neighborhoods in Springfield are far enough out that you might as well live in the suburbs anyway. To put it in a Boston context... places like Hyde Park are harder to gentrify than places like Roxbury because the population isn't as vulnerable to being displaced. This is the Hartford vs Springfield dynamic as well.
And add to this there are two new food halls, a hotel, the development of the DoNo neighborhood, a new grocery store and baseball team in Hartford, and well as BRT directly to CCSU's campus. And I think Hartford has more gentrification possibilities than Springfield. Before we even get to looking at the high paying job sector... I think Hartford is a long-term investment looking like 15 years tbh. If you're talking about residential neighborhoods. Springfield I cant see appreciating as much. A modest apartment building just south of downtown Hartford would be a sound investment, an SFH deep in the North End? No.
“History
Since their respective foundings in 1635 and 1636, Hartford and Springfield have possessed a common Connecticut River heritage – both were among the original four settlements of the Connecticut Colony; however, an early legal dispute between two of the cities' Founding Fathers led the settlements to side with different colonies. In 1638, Springfield founder William Pynchon became embroiled in a legal dispute with one of the Connecticut Colony's leading citizens, Captain John Mason. Mason charged Pynchon—and the settlement of Springfield—with dominating the corn and beaver pelt trade with the Natives, to the detriment of Hartford and the Connecticut Colony. The dispute, which Pynchon and Springfield lost in 1638, led to Springfield's annexing itself to Massachusetts instead of aligning with its more geographically and ideologically compatible neighbor, Connecticut. Only since the early 2000s have Hartford and Springfield – the two great cities on the Connecticut River – started to collaborate closely, i.e. as the Knowledge Corridor Partnership.
Both Hartford and Springfield were prosperous from the early 19th century through the 1960s as cultural, technological, and industrial centers.[citation needed] Hartford became the center of the United States' insurance industry, while Springfield became the United States' first epicenter of precision manufacturing, producing innovations like America's first gasoline-powered car, motorcycle, and commercial radio station, among many others. Both cities were especially wealthy – at one point in the late 1800s, they were the two wealthiest cities per capita in the United States.[citation needed] Both cities still feature Victorian architecture built during that period.
During the mid-20th century, both Hartford and Springfield experienced a loss of manufacturing during economic restructuring. The growth of the highway system—in particular Interstate 91—engendered white flight to the suburbs, where a disproportionate amount of both cities' wealthy citizens live, (e.g., in Longmeadow, Massachusetts and West Hartford, Connecticut).[citation needed] During the 1960s and 1970s, the Connecticut River was polluted and Interstate 91 was built along both riverfronts – slicing through existing neighborhoods. During this period Hartford, which had historically always been slightly more populous than Springfield, hemorrhaged residents. By 1960, Springfield had become more populous than Hartford, and remains more populous as of 2011.[citation needed] During the 1990s, Hartford and Springfield established a professional hockey partnership, as the Springfield American Hockey League team (first the Indians and then the Falcons) served as the development affiliate of the National Hockey League's Hartford Whalers.
Since 2000, both cities have seen an increase in public and private investment, and a general increase in culture, vitality, and civic pride.[citation needed] The Knowledge Corridor high-speed intercity rail line is one such project, intended to unite the region and ease residents' dependence on Interstate 91. Also, both cities are pursuing different strategies to reconnect with the Connecticut River for economic and recreational opportunities.
Complementary strengths
For decades after the decline of New England manufacturing, Hartford and Springfield competed for similar businesses. During the early 1990s, a former Springfield mayor even went so far as to launch a campaign for Hartford businesses to "leave Hartford behind" for Springfield, touting Springfield's "quality of life". Since the two cities started to work collaboratively in 2000, both Hartford and Springfield have consciously defined themselves in different but complementary ways, like Raleigh-Durham, Minneapolis-St. Paul or Dallas-Ft. Worth. Both cities still feature many of the same strengths (e.g., prestigious universities and healthcare centers); however, Hartford is increasingly being defined as the Knowledge Corridor's business center, with its postmodern skyline, numerous corporate headquarters, government district, and relatively wider main thoroughfares, while Springfield is being defined as the Knowledge Corridor's recreational center, with numerous amusements for both children and adults; renovated, human-scale Victorian architecture; and a walkable, lively Metro Center. Journalists note that the Springfield features culture that far outsizes its metropolitan population of 1.9 million (see below). In 2018 the MGM company opened the MGM Springfield a destination resort casino in with over 2 million square feet of hotel, casino, shopping, and amenities in Springfield. The construction project involved the restoration of a number of historic buildings that had been damaged in the 2011 New England tornado outbreak.”
I grew up in the area and I'm openly a Springfield booster. Sure, it's difficult. Yes, despite its notably illustrious past Springfield is a sad case in so many of the ways already mentioned, but it is getting better. There are quite a few historic neighborhoods that are relatively intact in comparison to those in most cities and, given the reputation, you might be surprised to see the extent of pride that owners take in their houses. If it was really as much of a dump as people often claim, why do the residents invest in maintaining their Victorians? Not all of them, but a good many in places like Forest Park, Mcknight or on Mattoon Street.
Downtown Springfield has unique independent bars from the White Lion Brewery, to Student Prince, to Smokey Joe's Cigar Lounge, to the Irish Ale House, which seems typical on the outside but has great food made by expert chef Vinny. Mardi Gras and X-Room have full nudity - where else can you find so many male and female dancers in the same complex? And there are two more strip clubs within walking distance. People are always whining about the demise of the edgy, seedy '80s NYC, but it's sort of alive and well in Springfield. It's a good city for vice and decadence and of course the price one pays is in the existence of crime and perhaps a lack of typical upper middle class people and the professions that they require, but if you're a remote worker who doesn't want to just live in some suburb or the middle of nowhere, Springfield is a pretty good option.
The middle eastern and Indian restaurants are also quite good. Pick up a gourmet sandwich at Nosh or the 413 Cafe - better than most places I go in Cambridge or Somerville. Also, there's a great Italian Bakery further down Main Street. Quite serviceable Vietnamese options by the X and good taco trucks - yes, other cities have this, but in Springfield they are more affordable and often better because they cater to immigrants. I have more fun in Springfield without ever going to be the casino than in Boston (unless my friend invites me out on his boat in the harbor) or Worcester, which has a sort of conventional feel to it with all of the college kids.
Forest Park and Van Horn are both wonderful large spaces for nature near downtown and there are plenty of great places in the surrounding areas. Also for those saying that Longmeadow is the only nice suburb, I would offer that Wilbraham has even more nice neighborhoods, some with stunning hilltop views and if you go further East, you have Monson, Brimfield, etc. All great towns. The same goes for the areas heading West. Sure, it's true that the area immediately around Springfield is sort of mediocre strip mall land, but that's the sad reality for many American cities and it's nice to have a costco within 10 minutes of downtown.
Last edited by Mattoon Street; 10-27-2021 at 11:58 AM..
I did not make this clear, but i am more or less comparing metropolitan areas to eachother. So Springfield MSA to Hartford MSA
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