Submitted by Neckties-Over-Bows t3_zwwxag in Connecticut
I live in Stamford now with a roommate. It's been great, I've enjoyed Stamford so far, our living situation has had no problems, and I like my new life away from home. However, my roommate and I will be amicably parting ways this summer when our lease expires and he moves in with his now-wife.
I've been weighing my options as far as what to do about my own living situation when the time comes. I've thought about finding a new roommate and staying in Stamford or finding a new roommate and moving to Norwalk. I've also floated around the idea of moving to Bridgeport, which would give me the opportunity to live on my own since it costs less than Stamford. It'd give me a 30-minute commute to work, but that's the give and take. I'd like to at least drive up and see some apartments there before I make my final decision.
I'd like to ask the folks in this subreddit what their experiences have been with Bridgeport and what they think about it. I've asked some folks here about it, but part of me thinks their opinions are a bit jaded. Some of the folks here talk about Bridgeport like it's Chicago or Gary, Indiana. Is the crime that bad? My first thought is that it just depends on the part you live in, as is the case with most cities.
Anyway, I'd like to hear some people's thoughts. Still some time to go before I need to get my ducks in a row and hit the ground running, so I want to try and get as much info as possible in advance.
IGameOnMac t1_j1xcm0t wrote
The crime stats from January to September this year: https://www.bridgeportct.gov/filestorage/341307/341425/341439/371966/Bridgeport_Crime_Report_Jan_Sept_2022.pdf
https://ucr.fbi.gov/crime-in-the-u.s/2019/crime-in-the-u.s.-2019/tables/table-8/table-8-state-cuts/connecticut.xls
Crime stats for CT municipalities the last few years. Bridgeport: 843 in 2019 for violent crime, making it #3 in the state for violent crime. Hartford has 1,049 that year, an New Haven had 1,168. Stamford had 264. Bridgeport, generally speaking, is 3rd in Connecticut when it comes to crime behind Hartford and New Haven. Bridgeport had the highest property theft rate at 264, but has half the agrivated assault rate of Hartford and New Haven, Bridgeport at 300-something, the other two art over 700. Nationwide I'm not sure how that would rank, Idk how to get accurate stats. I'm a high school student who runs a newspaper (in Bridgeport, just started a few months ago) and I can tell you that every story I've read from the Connecticut Post and DoingitLocal.com every shooting in the city (shootings, not homicides), more than 8... perhaps... all occurred on the East Side of the city, particularly south of Boston Avenue, and north of the railroad tracks with the exception of an incident south of the railroad tracks on East Main Street on a morning and an assault on Wade Street (the Brooklawn section of Bridgeport, a few blocks from there Fairfield line) for a Chinese restaurant where a worker was shot but the man (18 years old) was caught in neighboring Stratford 20 minutes later thanks to collaboration between the two stations. All have happened, including that one, after dark, now a days in winter it is 5:30 or so. As far as I know, those are the only incidents, besides a stabbing on the west side, that is all I'm aware of. I'll not provide my personal experience living in Bridgeport as I am biased (very). A shooting in downtown Bridgeport at 2:00 AM also occurred, the first shooing since 2018 when a man shot a rival gang in front of the courthouse and before that another shooing in 2013. No other incident is what I can think of, Bridgeport has a population of around 148,000 in 2022, Stamford has a population of 136,000. New Haven as well at 135,000, Hartford at 122,000.
Edit: I've been collecting these crime stories on a daily basis for 3 or 4 weeks and compiling a map of them. No other crime incident involving murder or potential murder comes to mind. The man who assaulted the restaurant was a drug trafficker who was wanted for that after an incident with teenagers at Trumbull Mall (Westfield Trumbull). The stories I have read mostly involve minors or people under the age of 20, but what percentage I have not (hence an observation but no concrete data to support my claims). I can also say that Bridgeport's crime rate fell below 1,000 for the first time in a long time around or right before 2013, to 900, and has not gone above that number until this chart ends in 2018. https://www.macrotrends.net/cities/us/ct/bridgeport/crime-rate-statistics . In terms of crime that is the data I have.
​
My opinion of Bridgeport is heavily skewed by the fact that I live here, was born here, (Bridgeport Hospital in the mid 2000s) and that it's the city I've always thought of as my home before I was even aware of its reputation. It is a place that, has really been an average place for what I can recall for most of my childhood. Edit: Grew up in both the Hollow (until I was 2) West Side and Brooklawn parts of Bridgeport (Park and North Avenue intersection), moved to the north end last year (junior in HS). My parents are immigrants, as is 29,9% of Bridgeport's population in 2022, so my thoughts are uh... more biased towards the situation in Latin American or 3rd world countries rather than a city where most people make over $38,000 which is a very almost wealthy wage in large parts of the world, for pluses tho, Bridgeport is a diverse city, that I really strongly believe gets a bad reputation and I can empathize yet try my best to comprehend why, meanwhile just kinda wishing people would kinda see it in a nicer light, it's really not that different from other large cities or medium sized ones, other than what I think (but no data) is crime limited to certain regions for reasons that span decades of various a) federal and state policies, and B) the deindustrialization for a city with over 500 factories, the home of various major corporations, and the state's main manufacturing city, c) redlining, d) the tax base leaving, leaving the city in '80s to have a far smaller police force than either NH or Hartford, aka smaller cities, e) all of these areas are or were once home to public housing, which was a) made for middle class white residents but b) became home to black and latino ones who could not afford to pay because the jobs were gone, and in the 30s-60s could not create wealth in the form of owning real estate. To be fair the city was the most violent per capia in the northeast in 1989, and went bankrupt in 1992, and in a wealthy region, it really gained a reputation as well as apparently highway view. I'm someone who wants to be an urban planner, and the city, well in terms of education, or other things idk, idk what to think really, never have given it much thought. Nice architecture, an incredibly diverse population (largest foreign born population in the state according to the census, and more than 48% of the residents speak a non English language at home (a quarter of kids in my high school are English learners, and you can hear the conversations in Portuguese and to a lesser extent Spanish in the hallways) with large Puerto Rican (22% of Bridgeport's population), African American (37%), Italian and Portuguese (some immigrants from Tras os Montes around Madison Ave with many Portuegse restaurants too around there) and Brazilians, Mexicans (5.8%), other Central and South Americans like Colombians, Peruvians, Nigerian, Vietnamese, Bengali, oh right a Ghanan restaurant on Main Street then other southeast Asians as well in small numbers. Outside of that I can tell you... people love Black Rock, as in what I'm getting mostly artists and urban professionals! Like seriously, no crime that Ik of at all, very good shopping and scenery, wealthy mansions overlooking the sound, Mexican, Indian, Guatemalan places line up with mom and pop shops, the "New American" restaurants, steakhouses, upscale and whatnot. Oh right your next to a train station, uh yeah.
​
It's what you do with it. The supposed bad areas are also in my opinion the ones with the best food, like Puerto Rican food at El Coquito, its off the highway, and my entire fam, teachers etc are fine, so idk. Being cautious is true for anything no?