[pslresident444]

My wife and I live in "The Quiet Corner" of Connecticut, near the RI and MA lines. We don't like it at all. It is loud from deliberately loud vehicles, has a lot of decrepit housing, and the people are nice enough but not many of the educated cultured middle class. We are middle class educated people who have always lived in suburban single family homes in nice though not highly affluent neighborhoods.

We want to move to a city where there are nearby busses, trains and somewhere within say easy driving distance to an airport which has jet planes, not toy Cessnas and such. We need to sometimes commute to either NYC or Rhode Island either by car, bus or train.

Since we are old, we need a location which has shopping, low crime and low undesirability, (no ugly housing, obvious poverty, idiocy, lots of bars and loud clubs, car racing, etc.), and there must be some condominium communities to make a purchase.

We looked at Norwich and New London, but got scared because people told us about the crime and ugliness. But, we are not ruling anything out at this point. The education in Norwich is actually a bit higher than New London??? Go figure....

Any ideas? Ledyard area? Mystic? Groton? We must consider availability of housing and public transport. The areas near the two casino's? As long as the condos are nice and the area decent looking, it would do.

The large cities would normally be undesirable for us, but when you get to a certain age you must consider the possible need for public transport, shopping, health care, safety and a decent neighborhood environment.

The last thing we want is to wind up in a marginally undesirable area again. We want things to look nice and be reasonably quiet.

[mdovell]

I'd hate to kinda say but what made you move there to begin with? As for crime I really don't think of crime when I hear about New London or Norwich. If you aren't using drugs, selling drugs or direct friends of someone doing either one I doubt you would be impacted.

But with respect to CT as a whole you are more apt to find public transit in urban areas, not suburban. Having said this have you looked at the list of the park and ride system ?
https://portal.ct.gov/DOT/PP_Intermo...icut-Park-Ride

Unless you live by I91 or by the coast access to rail is limited and more apt to be a bus. Not that buses are bad. Earlier there was a discussion about the developments in New Britain, I think it is worth a read.

[CTartist]

Originally Posted by pslresident444

My wife and I live in "The Quiet Corner" of Connecticut, near the RI and MA lines. We don't like it at all. It is loud from deliberately loud vehicles, has a lot of decrepit housing, and the people are nice enough but not many of the educated cultured middle class. We are middle class educated people who have always lived in suburban single family homes in nice though not highly affluent neighborhoods.

We want to move to a city where there are nearby busses, trains and somewhere within say easy driving distance to an airport which has jet planes, not toy Cessnas and such. We need to sometimes commute to either NYC or Rhode Island either by car, bus or train.

Since we are old, we need a location which has shopping, low crime and low undesirability, (no ugly housing, obvious poverty, idiocy, lots of bars and loud clubs, car racing, etc.), and there must be some condominium communities to make a purchase.

We looked at Norwich and New London, but got scared because people told us about the crime and ugliness. But, we are not ruling anything out at this point. The education in Norwich is actually a bit higher than New London??? Go figure....

Any ideas? Ledyard area? Mystic? Groton? We must consider availability of housing and public transport. The areas near the two casino's? As long as the condos are nice and the area decent looking, it would do.

The large cities would normally be undesirable for us, but when you get to a certain age you must consider the possible need for public transport, shopping, health care, safety and a decent neighborhood environment.

The last thing we want is to wind up in a marginally undesirable area again. We want things to look nice and be reasonably quiet.

I am looking for similar things in retirement. I live in Trumbull CT but it will be too expensive to retire here. I have been doing a lot of research about other towns in CT. If you give me your budget (house price & max property taxes) I will give you some suggestions based on my research.

[CTlibrarian]

Many of the quieter suburban towns don't have public transportation, but there is often some type of shuttle bus service for seniors and the disabled. Based on your needs for access to both NYC and RI, I would suggest exploring the towns that border New Haven, since New Haven is a major hub for train service to both places. Towns like Orange, Woodbridge, and Hamden might work. Also, take a look at Milford. I looked quickly at transportation options in Orange and the town operates a shuttle bus service for seniors. Other towns probably have something similar. Here is info about the Orange service: Twenty-four to Forty-eight hours notice is required to schedule a ride. The program transports to Orange, Milford, West Haven, East Haven, New Haven, North Haven, Hamden, Derby, Shelton, Stratford, and additional local areas by request on a case by case basis. Suggested donation donation are $2.00 to Senior Center, $4.00 within Orange and $6.00 outside of Orange all round trip.

[New Englander]

I think it'll be challenging to find towns with local public transport, however, if you are looking for connectivity to NY/RI, I would say that places like Old Saybrook, Mystic/Groton will work. If you are willing to travel to New Haven, then you can add Clinton, Madison to the list as well. All of these areas will offer most of what you are looking for, in terms of the middle class experience. Good Luck and keep us posted!

[The_Quiet_One]

I think you should just move to Providence. It has the transit, the large airport, the housing options, and would negate the need to commute to Rhode Island. Getting to NYC every now and then could take a little longer, but I think it'd be worth the tradeoffs of getting most of what you want.

[Stylo]

Originally Posted by CTlibrarian

Many of the quieter suburban towns don't have public transportation, but there is often some type of shuttle bus service for seniors and the disabled. Based on your needs for access to both NYC and RI, I would suggest exploring the towns that border New Haven, since New Haven is a major hub for train service to both places. Towns like Orange, Woodbridge, and Hamden might work. Also, take a look at Milford. I looked quickly at transportation options in Orange and the town operates a shuttle bus service for seniors. Other towns probably have something similar. Here is info about the Orange service: Twenty-four to Forty-eight hours notice is required to schedule a ride. The program transports to Orange, Milford, West Haven, East Haven, New Haven, North Haven, Hamden, Derby, Shelton, Stratford, and additional local areas by request on a case by case basis. Suggested donation donation are $2.00 to Senior Center, $4.00 within Orange and $6.00 outside of Orange all round trip.

Yeah, accurate. Much more public transportation options by the coast near New Haven.

[pslresident444]

Just to be clear about two things:

1. We tried for 4 years to move to Rhode Island from Florida in order to be closer to children but there were and still are very few properties for sale as there is no construction to speak of, and at least a 10,000 housing unit deficit; plus the prices are astronomical for what you get. We lived in RI for many many years and it is a dead loss now because they simply failed to build on the vast areas of undeveloped land because the local towns simply don't want new residents, especially those from the greater Providence area, for ethnic reasons. They make the permitting process onerous, and the builders are small companies who won't risk building on spec.. I spoke at length with the RI Builder's Association president and he explained all the reasons that Rhode Island and indeed southern New England has a massive housing deficit. It was not our fault we couldn't find a place to buy at a reasonable price, and there was NOWHERE to rent while we could await what might come on the market. House rentals are also astronomical. Frankly, I don't know how anyone thinks they would be paying a reasonable price for any house right now. I get real estate listings and a lot of them are clearly much over-priced.

Frankly, I hear a lot of anti-ethnic stuff and actually witnessed a racist tirade at a Dunkin' Donuts drive up window while I was inside. Despicable conduct, but it is found quite a bit. I don't want to debate this issue at all, so let's stick to housing.

2. New London drug and crime issues are in the demographic data on the City Data site. Norwich is an old city with its own issues, and the realtors told me if I did decide to move there, try to stay near the hospital area, as it is not as likely to have undesirable features. I don't want to debate that when there are statistics for all these areas, including, for example, New Haven.

[The_Quiet_One]

It sounds like you want to be near RI to visit family. I thought it was work-related. To narrow down places in CT, could you provide a more concrete definition for what you’re looking for?

-When you commute to NYC and RI, will it be by car or transit?
-Specifically where in NYC and RI are you going?
-Ideally, what would your max commute time be to the destinations in RI and NYC?
-Will you be depending on public transit to get to a job or is it for errands around town?

I think your main problem is that the best public transit in CT is in the cities, and the cities tend to have the most “ugly housing, obvious poverty,” which you don’t want.

I don’t know your budget, but if you can afford Fairfield County, that might be best. You can also consider Westchester in NYC.

If you’re looking for local public transit but will drive to RI and NYC, then I think you should look in the Hartford area. West Hartford has very good transit by CT standards and is a clean town, though expensive. Parts of Manchester may work. The other suburbs around Hartford can work as well if you live on a major bus line (check maps).

Another thing to consider. Depending on your age, many towns in CT have shuttle bus service for seniors, often run by the local senior center.

[JayCT]

You do not give a budget which will make a big difference. If you settled with northeast Connecticut because it’s cheap, then you likely will have a problem affording anywhere else in the state. To be honest it sounds like you want champagne on a beer budget.

Without a budget, and given what you say, I’d suggest considering Groton. It has less expensive housing and public transportation. It’s a generally safe town and you can access to trains in New London to New York and Boston.

You mentioned needing public transportation as you age. Many towns in Connecticut offer Dial a Ride services for the elderly. The cost is usually modest and they take people where they need to go like food shopping, doctors appointments, etc. Below is a link to the Eastern Connecticut Transportation Consortium website. Good luck, Jay

https://www.ectcinc.org/