[Ex-Ithacan]

Downtown New Britain (and the immediate area) are in bad shape. Lots of abandonment. I was kind of surprised to find out the crime rate was about average, and quite a bit lower than Waterbury. The population is a bit over 70,000.

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hope you enjoyed.

 

[bayviews]

New Britain CT has fallen on hard times, along with the downsizing of of Stanley Works, which had been it's major major employer. Very sad story, part of the the wave of corporations shipping jobs elsewhere. New Britain would have lost more people had it it not been the arrival of many Puerto Ricans as well as Polish immigrants. Hopefully, New Britain will follow benefite from the revival of nearby Hartford & see better days ahead.

 

[ROCguy]

I get the feeling that all of the wealthy in CT are actually transplants, and all of the real CT's are the ones who live in these cities. They are the victims of the post industrial decline that blighted the urban half of CT, while the Rural/suburban areas filled up with the rich people overflowing from NY.

 

[Xusein]

You went through the worst of New Britain. Although their downtown and immediate areas aren't in the best shape, the rest of the city is kind of suburban. Crime isn't really that bad anymore, but the city was terrible in the 90s. But that city has a long way to go, it has high unemployment and the schools are terrible.

That tall building in the first picture is not public housing, it's actually a building for the elderly. If you noticed in that area, there are about 6 mid-rise apartment buildings there, all for the elderly. New Britain has a large senior citizen population

Not all the wealthy in Connecticut are transplants. Even without the New York suburbs, CT is still above average in income. It's just that, like most of the US, the rich don't live in the cities, they live in the suburbs. All of these CT pictures are cities. Some of Hartford's suburbs are rich, but this wealth has nothing to do with New York.

 

[bayviews]

Generally, Connecticut suffers from a big gap between the central cities & suburbs. Fairfield County is one of the most affluent counties in the Northeast. But Bridgeport, it's largest city, also state's largest, has suffered from decades of industrial decline. But Bridgeport seems to be coming back as is New Haven. Hartford also has a big gap between the city & it's affluent suburbs. But Hartford also seems to be on the rebound from the early 1990s. Cities like Waterbury, New Britain & Meriden have become more economically isolated as there traditional industries have closed. CT hasn't attracted as many new immigrants as New Jersey or Massachusetts, so that's another big reason why its cities have lagged in comparison. But CT is beginning to attract more immigrants & that will help it's cities.