[Stratford, Ct. Resident]

After reading another poster's thread about Bridgeport, i realized something. The city of Bridgeport saw its best days(in my lifetime) during the Ganim years. It really was on a noticeable upswing, until the corruption stuff hit the fan. Sadly, the city has been on a noticeable yearly steady decline since, IMHO.

Shelton is another one that was on a tear for many years. Then, the corruption convictions came down(Scinto/Botti) and development in Shelton stagnated/stopped. The mayor, while never charged with corruption, has been the subject of federal scrutiny for many years.

Stamford saw a dramatic change as well during Malloy's tenure as mayor. However, there were no allegations/convictions in that city.

I'd love to see one of our universities(QU/Yale/etc.) do a study on this because from what i can see, 2 communities that were "corrupt" saw dramatic improvement in comparison to just 1 community that wasn't "corrupt". Odd....

[Mike 75]

Providence, RI is probably the poster child for just how positive a "corrupt" administration can be. The good that Buddy Cianci did for that city far outweighed whatever crimes he may have committed (he was only convicted of conspiracy).
On the flip side, there's been plenty of corruption in Hartford and Waterbury, but I'd be hard pressed to say that those cities benefitted from it. I think the difference may be that mayors like Giordano and Perez were using their power for their own benefit exclusively, while mayors like Cianci and Ganim were benefitting from deals that also benefitted the larger community.

[Connectikut]

IDK I've been in Bridgeport for almost a decade as stated in another thread but I'm only 25, it seems to be doing better than when I first got here. The corruption definitely negatively impacted the town but it seems to me that the citizens have taken into their own hands to make the town a better place. Theres always live music, community events, art shows and things to do in town even with the lack of government funding. People in Bridgeport are trying to shed the image it has but its hard to do when its so over bearing.

I was raised in Stamford during Malloys term and while he did improve the city, he kinda took the character of Stamford out of it. Where there once was art and a waterfall is now a bank. Where there once was a small park where kids kids would hang out there is a trump tower. Though constant tax hikes it has become impossible for blue collar citizens to live in Stamford. It's still a great place and I will always call it home but Stamford is more of a White Plains Jr than the Stamford I grew up in.

.... I think I may have gotten off point lol. Long story short. Curroption = bad but from what I've seen it has created a more communal based social econoomy . In terms of Stamford, there's been no curroption but it has become another McCity.