Bridgeport has a bed rep… just it’s not an accurate depiction

Finest of Italian Cuisine. Tastes like Naples, Sicily, and a hint of Venice in one.

thanks! much appreciated!

No true that is true, you actually have a valid point. The weak job market, the high cost of living, and a 20% US poverty rate (which is when purchasing food or essentials makes up a certain percentage) etc. the thing is OP is coming from Stamford and presumably has a stable job already, and the cost of living well that makes no difference only it’s cheaper. It mentioned crime… but uh… again it’s 49 out of 50 on the list for worst cities by these metrics by that agency/site, the other cities on that list, and higher crime cities that were not included have higher crime. Get what your trying to say, but if one has a job in the state then yeah, Bridgeport is an option, people would have different motives. Edit: sorry for getting all tangled up in this.

Honestly… well do people genuinely think that everyone in the “bad” or say the cheaper, relatively violent parts of Bridgeport… are criminals? Is that like a mentality people have? I’m genuinely curious. This is one great research experiment.

Ok, thank you! Appreciate it!

Oh yeah read the same thing recently. Bridgeport is 2nd in crime, but idk if there was an increase. Uh yeah New Haven did really well this year compared to before in terms of crime. Waterbury had an increase or something tho.

That’s true bro. It’s just the only data I could find. Think Bridgeport is maybe 2nd this year, in terms of shooting incidents (not homicides), two off from new haven, and Hartford is significantly ahead both.

How do you measure lol? Like… it depends on the person doesn’t it? Aren’t some accustomed to say having more? Does the fact that we are in Fairfield County change perspective on this city… idk. Plus, I’d like to see an example list, I’ve read them before and… again I’m sorry about bias but putting that aside those same lists mention new haven… usually… and people like parts of new haven. It’s all perspective lol and those rankings are maybe doing the thinking for us rather than us going out and forming our own perspective on places.

They don’t. It’s fine, even the worst parts of the city (I’m referring to the East Side and East End) are fine if you’re driving there during the day time… honestly… isn’t it kinda an over exaggeration?

I get people joke but I’m genuinely starting to see people are legitimately afraid of Bridgeport and that… that’s kinda… idk no offense but… kinda funny coming from my perspective. Understand it has a reputation but… it depends what your going for… are you going to get food from a restaurant you should be fine… if your going to buy drugs that’s a different story but always remember people A) live here

Crime sadly affects groups more or less based on statistics. About more than half of the 150 shootings in Bridgeport this past decade were committed by African American mostly youth actually (That is if I recall correctly, forgot the stats). Then Hispanics and then what… two dozen whites. African Americans are 37% of the population in 2020, whites are 19% and Hispanics 42% I think in Bridgeport. My question then would be why? Why the statistical disparity to the point where it’s past mere chance but… more than half is a high number (forgot the exact stats, I’d have to check the article). Pretty surprising from my perspective, that would be a concern for Bridgeport.

I’m biased for sure… but this narrative of Bridgeport doesn’t always seem to add up for me.

yes I’ve been to the east side and east end, yes run of the mill people Ik and family that I had there, and by narrative I was referring to the one of Bridgeport being this… horrid place that has no redeeming qualities, as if somehow idk living here were the most atrocious thing to occur. People who are coming from worst of places, this reminds me of a Cambodian who escaped the gruesome genocide of the 80s who said “To me Bridgeport was like heaven”, and various others in an online exhibition by the Fairfield Museum. Higher wages than other parts of the US, cheaper rent than the county… the Hollow neighborhood of Bridgeport is 40% foreign born? Yet people avoid it. To quote one person from the CTPost, from a Latin American country I forgot he “doesn’t feel unsafe” (paraphrase) and that you’ll be fine if one doesn’t get involved or put yourself out there. You’ll be fine, like people who live here idk imho

why not, I'm genuinely curious? Just be wise, and really you will have no issues. Plus its cheap, and well, 148,000 people live there... that is... technically still more people than any other city in the state. One could say that people who live in said city perhaps had no other choice or rather they were born here, edit: for some) which is to an extent probably true (I've got no data or numbers to back this up on the top of my head as of now) to be fair, a lot of the city residents were born abroad, or in a different state within the United States (example... Ik many people who were born in NY) and around 10,000+ in population growth over the past few years. It's a cheap city in Fairfield County on Long Island Sound, think about this.

If you're a recently arrived immigrant, 29% of Bridgeport residents were born abroad. and 48% over the age of 5 speak a foreign language at home, Bridgeport is cheap in an area with a wealthy population thus, I'd assume landscaping and construction jobs would be what people are after in the city's nearby suburbs or up to Greenwich or Westcheser. You might have had an uncle (maybe... these are all hypothetical) who came here first for a job). Asked my Portuguese teacher why there were so many Brazilians in Bridgeport and she said "because Connecticut is a good state, they come here for jobs, and its next to New York and Boston) or something along those lines.

If you're a resident of New York City, or even say the Bronx or Brooklyn, a city that offers cheaper homes in an expensive areas with vast lawns and a lower crime rate statistically speaking than many of those areas

If you're African American from the south, or Puerto Rican from the islands, perhaps because of family that lives there and has been established for years

If you're an urban professional who works in Stamford, maybe you were priced out or something.

Putting people into boxes like this is a... not a good way to look at anything, after all people cannot be clean cut into categories, these might apply to many people. Ofc, we must in my opinion strive to understand.

edit: idk what else to think of

Once had a conversation about Bridgeport with a Peruvian and Mexican couple on the lines of Bridgeport and its reputation (was around like middle school then, casually chatting)... and the wife was actually surprised... and her husband said "no it's true... people have told me things like "you must be very brave to live in Bridgeport?" or something like that... and he said he'd respond "no not really (laughed)". Edit: he lived in the North End of the city. The convo was in Spanish if context is important idk. These social differences on how places are perceived fascinate me. The city is alright in my opinion, it depends on the perspective. Understand crime is an issue... but... yes, in select areas, b) seems to me (no experience with gangs or crimes other than what I've heard at school) that uh it seems to be a youth issue, and no major gangs operate in bridgeport, mostly groups of juveniles, from various sections of town or projects. Always, if your house looks dilapidated, one could paint, ask the landlord or idk

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?

Your right… Lombardis in New York is often given this honor… Frank Pepe’s started selling his tomato pies in the 20s… Lombary’s started 1903 or around then… and they are credited with also being the pizzería that created the idea of selling individual pizza slices as workers would wrap them in tin foil and eat el at lunch while at their construction jobs.

Oh… and let’s get back long island… only… that’s three times our population right there and they wouldn’t like being ruled from hartford

Bridgeport exists… and it’s in bold letters to indicate it’s city status!

Ah… before 1821… my major city… Bridgeport hasn’t popped up yet either

Someone mentioned southington is no where to be found… founded 1779 so before then I assume

Holy cow thst was interesting! They should really make it a tourist trap and clean it up or really what a shame

Today I learned Hartford actually had a river flowing through it

For reference New Haven had 86,000 people and Bridgeport had 48,000. Hartford had 50,000. Even Waterbury had just 25,000, the rest were way smaller.

Hmm… how about a restaurant? https://theculturetrip.com/north-america/usa/connecticut/articles/where-to-eat-well-in-bridgeport-ct-the-10-best-restaurants/

Btw can I cross post this to r/Bridgeportct?

Ohhh… good one!

Oh water too for Long Island sound (and Pequonnock River)

https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgeportCT/comments/yce0g7/cont_we_need_a_new_flag/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf try now

Like your thinking…. If so man… idk if to also like do an homage to the city’s past (Native Americans,maybe our factories etc) like in the seal. At first my thought was a simplified version of the seal… but it seems parks is more popular an idea.

Super bad rough draft: https://docs.google.com/file/d/1qSxeTmWTKK455PhWOwZB__h-hrF5zz9N/edit?usp=docslist_api&filetype=msword

Ah right… the seaside one right?