Hartford Connecticut?

S

Speng

Super Anarchist
4,993
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Cincinnati, OH
Interviewing for a job in the Hartford area specifically Bloomfield which is just NW of Hartford. Just trying to get a feel for the place. I'm a single guy in my mid 40s and would rather live in a more urban/closer-in residential neighborhood than out in the burbs. I like doing outdoor stuff like hiking and obviously sailing (but I figure I would head to the coast for that). Just from looking at a map it seems like living on the west side of the Connecticut river makes more sense from a commuting point of view My ideal type of home would be probably be a townhouse or maybe a condo because I don't need to own grass. I would prefer a more diverse, middle class neighborhood.

From the sailing point of view I like & have sailed everything: dinghies & OTB catamarans, J24, J80, Ultimate 20, 30+ cruisers etc etc... I haven't done much sailing for the last 10 years or so but would definitely like to get back into the sport which is one of the attractions to this move. I'm looking for casual places to sail and not hoity-toity, Jackets on in the clubhouse places.
 
Mrleft8

Mrleft8

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Suwanee River
Your wants are diverse. Obviously closer to the sound is better for sailing. There are good hiking trails throughout the state, but north west is best. Condos /townhouses are endemic in CT at this point. Stay out of crime ridden areas, like West Hartford, Bloomfield, and East Widsor. (Not to mention areas not in your map, like Bridgeport, or New London)
In the middle of the state your neighbors are likely to be clustered. You're not going to find too many places where middle class white, black, asian, latino, and arab people all live in one place.
Maybe look down river towards where Billy Backstay lives. Cultural diversity will be minimal, but pretty much everything else will be there. East Hampton or areas just north of there might be just the ticket.
(I live in cow country FL now, but I spent the better part of 55 years in CT.)
 
V

valcour2

Member
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97
For your local living requirements, and working in Bloomfield, you should look at West Hartford. Most of the social life activities (restaurants, bars) that would be of interest to a single person in their 40s can be found in West Hartford Center. That area drew off a lot of the nightlife from downtown Hartford - which is pretty dead after 5 pm, except for nights with Uconn games or concerts. West Hartford is hardly crime-ridden, especially west of Trout Brook road.

You can be in full nature hiking areas within 30 minutes northwest of W. Hartford - places where you’ll encounter more deer, black bear, and turkeys than people. Go another 30 minutes and you’re well into the open spaces and hills of Litchfield, CT. A two hour drive puts you in Southern Vermont or the Berkshires.

As for sailing, you would be about an 1.25 hours from Westport CT and Cedar Point Yacht Club, with some of the best One design sailing in the northeast. Casual club with very good racing/social. Essex CT has some decent sailing on the CT river, and you can go a little further southeast for the sailing/racing around the Mystic area. Check out the Mudheads for that.
 
Merrill Levi

Merrill Levi

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Sydney, Australia
^^^ this ^^^
if I was to ever return to the US from the land of Oz, I would be headed to the Noank area, it is small enough and close enough to all the stuff I would look for. Nothing at all to do with all of my remaining family being on the West coast !
ML
 
T

taliessin

New member
36
18
Lived in Connecticut all my life. Greater Hartford west of Connecticut River working hard and succeeding to offer good social opportunities. Several nice condos/rentals downtown. That way you would be going against the rush hour traffic. 84 and 95 inbound can be aggravating.
Riverfront small boat activities available. River is beautiful and lower river has many small caves to kayak.
https://portal.ct.gov/DEEP/Boating/Paddling/Paddling-Resources

Many hiking trails throughout the state.
Re sailing. We moved to New London area because of cleaner water, better wind (east of New Haven) and many small clubs as well as closer access to Narragansett Bay, Block etc. Check out ECSA for racing. (https://ecsa.net/) Essex has had active winter frostbiting.
 
jewingiv

jewingiv

Anarchist
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Somewhere between Charleston, Boston and LIS
Lived in West Hartford as a single guy in my 20s a while ago, I got into sailing out of Cedar Point (75mins away without traffic). My impression of the scene there was that metro Hartford's dating scene looks great on paper - highly educated people, good jobs, etc - but in reality was pretty bland. Lots of nice people who work in back office finance with limited hobbies.

If I had to work in metro Hartford again, I would live along the lower CT River for the great sailing and sailors found around the Black Seal and Gris, or maybe I'd set up in New Haven, which has improved a lot and has tons of cultural offerings, more single people due to Yale, easy access to the eastern Sound and places like CPYC, not to mention the best pizza anywhere. New Haven also has some surprisingly good hiking at East Rock and Sleeping Giant State Park. Both of those spots are about 45mins from your work.
 
Mrleft8

Mrleft8

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Suwanee River
dacapo said:
mystic pizza sucks mooseballs..........................

However Modern Apizza in New Haven.............mmmmmmmmmmmm
Click to expand...
Modern is third after Sally's and Frank Pepe's, Zupardi's in West Haven is a close contender, and Bella Lisa in North Branford can compare with any of them on a good night.
Mystic Pizza is pretty bad. Better than you can get anywhere in North Florida, but they really shouldn't try to compete in CT.
 
dacapo

dacapo

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NY
Mrleft8 said:
Modern is third after Sally's and Frank Pepe's, Zupardi's in West Haven is a close contender, and Bella Lisa in North Branford can compare with any of them on a good night.
Mystic Pizza is pretty bad. Better than you can get anywhere in North Florida, but they really shouldn't try to compete in CT.
Click to expand...
Ahhh see to I like the original Frank Pepe’s. But one day about two years ago I made a run from my home here in New York to New Haven. I ordered two from FP’s and Two from Modern and brought them home for a blind taste test with a few friends. It was unanimous that modern was the winner to us. I never had Sally’s. My band had a show in Middletown this summer so I’ll stop by on the way home ( or before ) and grab one to try
 
billsreef

billsreef

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Miami
Mrleft8 said:
Mystic Pizza is pretty bad. Better than you can get anywhere in North Florida
Click to expand...
Not hard to do better pizza than anywhere Florida.

Not too far from Mystic Pizza we found a really good wing place. The mild wings had my mother-in-law complaining about the spice level. I was quite happy with the hot wings.
 
Mrleft8

Mrleft8

Super Anarchist
28,089
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Suwanee River
dacapo said:
Ahhh see to I like the original Frank Pepe’s. But one day about two years ago I made a run from my home here in New York to New Haven. I ordered two from FP’s and Two from Modern and brought them home for a blind taste test with a few friends. It was unanimous that modern was the winner to us. I never had Sally’s. My band had a show in Middletown this summer so I’ll stop by on the way home ( or before ) and grab one to try
Click to expand...
Sally's is a thinner crust even than Pepe's. It's hard to transport therefore. Another place that gets good reviews regularly is/was BAR..... I never had their pie, so I can't really comment except that one of the two owners was/is a real asshole.
Back in the day, there was The Spot Apizza. A little hole in the wall in the parking lot near by Pepe's. Owned and run by Ernie Bacliacella.(SP?) Lore has it that Sal Consiglio (Who's family owned the block) and Frank Pepe Sr. (Who's family owned the next block down) worked for Ernie before opening up their own shops. Sally (Sal) and his wife Florence (Flo) set up shop in what had been the stable next to one of the churches, across the street from his parent's restaurant (Consiglio's). Frank Pepe Sr. set up his shop next to his parent's candy/tobacco/ newspaper shop a block down.
Now even back in the late 70s, if you drove down Wooster st. you'd see the old goombas sitting out front of these places. Playing cards, chewing (not smoking) cigars, and watching every car or truck that drove down the street. These were the old time made guys. Gambinos, Longos, Giancarlos, Annunziatos, Colombos, and Tropianos.... All in a very fragile neighborhood.
You went in to one store, you didn't go into the other store unless you were a stupid fuckin' Yalie who didn't know better.
BTW if you want to order out at Sally's call ahead, and give it an hour.
 
P

phillysailor

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Detoured on the way back from NH last summer, checked out my old house in West Hartford.

Drove past the ice rink and the church (now a school?) and was impressed by the revitalization of the Main Street area… lots of multicultural shops & eateries. Looked pretty trendy. Good lunch at some Asian fusion place.
 
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