Submitted by Swagnasty95 t3_z7gmyc in Connecticut
Me and my girlfriend are currently living in Wisconsin and got job offers in New Haven. Neither of us know anything about the area and don't know anybody from it so I figured I'd ask you guys. I'm getting a vibe that there are a lot of unsafe areas in New Haven and the last thing we want is to accidentally end up in an unsafe area.
That's what I keep thinking. All I can find on the internet is how shitty a rough the city is but I've lived close to Minneapolis most my life and I never thought it was that bad. A big reason I made the post was to see what people from the area thought of it just to make sure.
Were both mid 20's and looking for affordable renting which seems to be tough basically everywhere in the country.
Depends on what you want. Are you renting? Buying? You want more of a city or suburb? Coastal? Woods? What kind of property? Kids?
There’s plenty of great, safe areas of New Haven. It’s CT’s best city, for enjoying city life! Downtown, East Rock, Wooster Square, Westville are particularly great areas to live.
Outside New Haven, I’m a big fan of Milford. It’s a really well rounded town with a great shoreline, parks, downtown, and walkable areas.
We're both in our mid 20's with no kids. Definitely looking to rent with no plans on buying a house for years to come. I don't think we want to live downtown as none of us have ever lived inside a big city before and we both enjoy having as much nature close to us as possible.
Gotcha. East Rock and Westville could fit that bill in New Haven. Lots of green and parks nearby. Walkable, but leafy and relatively quiet.
Also, it’s most definitely a small city. Even downtown is fairly chill.
There are no big cities in CT, but Id also recommend Westville / East Rock for getting outdoors.
You'd have either East or West rock within spitting distance which makes it easy to get outside, even in the cold months. I'm always amazed at how empty West Rock is, very peaceful.
If you're a reasonable person then it's safer than most all other 100k+ population cities in the US that aren't just another soul-sucking suburban wasteland.
It's an old city with old problems, but I've never seen trouble for those that didn't go looking for it yet.
Westville is a cool area if you want to be in the city of New Haven. Otherwise, Milford is a great town with good restaurants/bars and nice beaches. It’s right on the train line with easy access to New York
Woodbridge, Bethany, Orange, are all towns not too far from new haven. When I lived out there a long time ago, woodbridge had money, bethany was more rural, and orange was maybe in between.
Orange is like suburban neighborhoods, Woodbridge is like rural neighborhoods and Bethany is rural. All are nice if you're looking for a nice, safe, peaceful place to live. Not much to do after 9pm though.
Pretty much this. Our city's are small what would be a nice neighborhood elsewhere is a neighboring town here.
Orange is bisected by a strip mall called the post road.
Living just north of Bethany it's a nice drive in your close enough to things but not in them. Lots of horse farms and nice places but 15 minutes from things to do.
I had a friend who moved from California to CT as her husband had a job in New Haven, I told her to rent in Branford or Guilford. They found a place in Branford and liked it so much they wound up buying a place, and what was supposed to be a couple of years turned into a decade. I would give you the same advice, those are still two great towns which will feel more like Wisconsin.
I have family living there and my dad has a small business in new haven. I would just stay completely out of new haven , and avoid west haven and Hamden. look into north haven, Branford(A lot of rentals) , Bethany, Oxford, Woodbridge, northford, north Branford, guilford , some parts of east haven .
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New Haven is a nice, small city. Anyone who has lived in or near other US cities will find it laughable when you arrive and wonder what all the sky-is-falling-stuff was about.
Milford. There's a train station to get you there if you don't feel like driving there.
Great schools, beaches, a mall (kind of dead though), a movies at the mall, Walmart, and Barnes&Noble.
iidexzy2 t1_iy6lmph wrote
might be helpful to know what you are looking for/interested in. How old are you and your gf? Do you have kids that need to go to school? Apartment or House? Etc.
I don't think New Haven is as dangerous as it's made out to be. But it certainly has it's problems like any city.