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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuuirwb wrote

Reply to comment by HartfordResident in New to New haven, recommendations please by ldelizabeth

Ahh... most of the City has not gentrified and most of the population is nowhere near middle class. There are still many areas where some would not feel safe.

Its only downtown that has gentrified (if you can call it that, it was a depopulated commercial district where new "luxury" residential development was built)

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curbthemeplays t1_iuw8h9t wrote

How long have you been in the area? Even East Rock and Wooster Square are much nicer than they used to be. I remember East Rock when most houses needed paint, renovations. It was shoddier looking for sure. It’s much more desirable now.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuwaco7 wrote

I've been here a couple of decades. I agree, the entire city looks better now, even the inner-city sections have been repainted ( probably mandated by chipping lead paint) The two neighborhoods you mentioned were always desirable.

But if we look at gentrification around other cities, New Haven didn't move. Yes it got better but it's as divided as ever.

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curbthemeplays t1_iuwh3ao wrote

What other cities? It has absolutely gentrified but what city “fully” gentrifies? I think you have unrealistic expectations of the effect.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuwl1zt wrote

If you look at nyc, Washington, Philly JC and many other cities that are experiencing gentrification, vast areas of those cities have gentrified. NYC as an example, even as late as early 2000, most would be terrified to go to most areas, even times Square was shady. since then, whole sections of the city, areas in bk queens bronx and more are now gentrified and so on.

New haven has clear and distinct lines of separation that didn't really move. Think Dwight street. anything past dwight Street is considered a no go. that's been the case for decades. But it's literally a few blocks from yale and downtown, surrounded by old beautiful buildings in a walkable area and blocks from the hospitals and a big supermarket. yet it's a no go area as described by every post here.

Yes New Haven got safer and better and yes its originally stable neighborhoods of east Rock, Wooster and westville (and now downtown) are doing well but they always did and gentrification did not spread in any meangful way.

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curbthemeplays t1_iuwmyg6 wrote

New Haven downtown is drastically better than the 90’s. Those are much bigger cities. There’s still a lot of crime issues in NYC, and neighborhoods that haven’t improved that much. JC the same, I have family that still lives there. Outside downtown and the waterfront, it still has issues. Not as bad, but that can be said of New Haven too. New Haven’s crime index is half of what it was a decade ago.

Many of those New Haven neighborhoods you mention were OK but not nearly as desirable as now.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuwouwh wrote

we're talking about gentrification specifficaly as a seperate idea from a nicer look or a safer feeling, though thats part of gentrification. but to use your example JC is not the same. Downtown now is amazing and journal square and the heights have been gentrified. even bergen-lafayatte is looking good. Grand Ave has hip and trendy bars. it's night and day compared to what it was even 20 years ago. whole sections have been gentrified, New Haven didn't get that wave. yes neighborhoods got stabilized and lead chipping paint painted but not gentrified. there is clear divide between original stable neighborhoods and the rest of the city.

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curbthemeplays t1_iuwu29x wrote

I have been around JC for decades. Most of the city is pretty nice but the West Side areas are still not amazing. The waterfront and downtown were looking up as early as the late 90’s. It was really bad in the early 90’s but has been steadily improving for 20+ years.

New Haven has had a shorter run of improvement. Crime peaked around 2010. Since then the city has been improving, lots of investment, new apartments, and as I said before, the crime index in 2009 from City Data based on FBI stats was 769, and 2019 it’s 431. That’s not just looking safer, that IS safer.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuxblpx wrote

it's no doubt safer as most crime has fallen around the county. But if the west side is the only one that's sketchy now in your experience it shows that the thier neighborhood have gentrified in thr last few decades

outside of small pockets of yale development around WinchesterAve, I really can't think of any neighborhood gentrifing in New Haven. can you? yes they got better but gentrified?

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curbthemeplays t1_iuxc0fx wrote

Downtown gentrified 100%. Ninth Square is another example. Parts of East Rock weren’t nice like they are now. Like Goatville. Parts of Westville too. City Point used to be bad, now it’s quite nice. The area around Science Park was very bad, now it’s improving.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuxcpri wrote

I agree that downtown has gentrified ( again, not really as noone was displaced as they added housing to a commercial district) yes, the neighborhoods you mentioned have gotten better and their "safe" boundaries expanded a bit, but the city is made up of far more neighborhoods and they have not gentrified. Back to the dwight neighborhood, it's exactly what would be gentrified but everyone is still advised not to cross dwight st.

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curbthemeplays t1_iuxd4sl wrote

I know someone that lives a couple blocks beyond Dwight and it’s been fine for him. Definitely still room for improvement though.

The biggest problem the city has with progress is the local alderman and general bureaucracy that makes for slow approval on development.

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lifeisbeutiful t1_iuxdvuc wrote

some do live on the other side of dwight and it is fine but that's a very small number.

agreed

alderman are one of our biggest problems, holding this city back approval of projects in this city makes developers run away

other major problems is the union control of the city and massive city giveaways for low income housing. This city has everything it needs to succeed but it's not.

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