Unsure, don't think so though

Under His Eye

God bless you my little freedom fighter

I believe in freedom, majority rule and social equality. I hate absolute authority and blind obedience. I'll let you figure out which political party or belief that aligns with.

I hope you are very Democratic and liberal or you will not be accepted.

I grew up in Hartford, moved to the suburbs about 20 years ago. Hartford is very crime ridden, lots of homeless and drug addicted zombies roaming around. I would not live there again if you paid me. Schools are terrible. I was very afraid attending school. I was very accepted in the suburbs .

If you only have to go to East Hartford once in a while, you could also look in the New Haven and Bridgeport areas.

It wouldn't be a bad commute to East Hartford, and you'd be closer to NYC and many more hospitals (Yale-New Haven is the largest hospital).

The climate is more mild on the Sound, and it's more similar to NYC in terms of culture and diversity. If it matters to you, New Haven itself is a boomtown, whereas Hartford is still really sleepy and economically distressed.

If you're staying in the Hartford area I would recommend sticking to towns that are right along I-91 or I-84, since otherwise you'll be in the car a lot.

Will do

Good luck. Let me know if I can help with other things.

Thanks for the replies. I think I have a fair enough idea now and we'll see how the house hunting goes!!

> How about Portland?

Well, following the easy roads, RT 17 is pretty clear shot. And it is a highway, not a town route. But I have no info on how busy it is. The issue from that direction is that RT 2 gets pretty congested from about the Glastonbury-East Hartford line north of there. But if you get off RT 2 at East Hartford Main St first exit, the main entrance for the main building for P&W is just a block north of there.

Interesting. Something to think about for me!

>that are probably in your price range that have all that. T

Can you point me in that direction? Like construction in progress or recent builds?

Thanks for your detailed reply. I read it with the Google map open and it makes perfect sense.

My wife had a friend in CT long time ago and she lived in Middletown so that was our starting point. I might revisit that town. How about Portland?

Regarding the appetite for commute we have had it all. Currently it is 10-20mins for us, before that we had a bad commute that involved a straight road road but over a bridge and at rush hours the travel time would be 2-3X than normal, before that my wife also had a 50mile/60min commute and it was bad!!!

There’s a lot of new housing developments that are probably in your price range that have all that. There’s also some really old ones that might not

I have lived on both sides. Better restaurants and mall west of the river, but people are much nicer east of the river.

So if you look at the map, and match that up to the roads numbers.

Avoid I-84. That's the worst of them. That leads to West Hartford, Farmington, Avon, that area. The Founders Bridge is the one from lower downtown Hartford to East Hartford. That means a commute in city streets. Not good. The next bridge south is the Charter Oak Bridge. This is state routes 5 and 15. This is better, if you are coming north on I-91, or from the Newington, Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, or points south area. But you can still run into a long delay at the interchange.

Better yet, follow the bridge that used Rt 3 in the southern part of Wethersfield to Glastonbury. Now you have a much better shot into East Hartford, except that once east of the CT River you are on RT2, which is often congested. But the upside is that RT2 has exits pretty much immediately adjacent to P&W entrances. But that opens up Wethersfield, Rocky Hill, and a towns nearby that as options to live in.

Now a lot of this depends on what your's, and your wife's, tolerance for commuting is. Mine is low. So keep that in mind when considering my advice. My current employment had me in an office in West Hartford while living in East Hartford. A distance of almost exactly 10 miles. Almost all of that distance on I-84. A commute that could essentially never be done in under 30 minutes. And 45 was more common. Switching to the East Hartford office for me saved me an hour + a day.

Basically, what I am saying is that the highways around Hartford suck. Make your own decisions. But just be aware of that fact. And the biggest chokepoints are the bridges across the Connecticut River. Which you can see if you look at the map.

The other alternative is to live north of Hartford. The bridge I-291 crosses is probably the easiest bridge to cross in the Hartford area around rush hour. But north of Hartford is also the airport, so you may want to consider if you can tollerate the air traffic noise. Unless you want to go fairly rural, out to say Granby.

West Hartford has a lot to recommend it. It's generally the go to housing location for young professionals who will be working in Hartford. It has more in the way of amenities than any other town nearby. But it is a really aggravating commute to East Hartford. So pick your poison. Farmington city streets have become really congested, anytime I've been up that way recently, for what it's worth.

And, as I say, if they ever do start the rebuilding of I-84 that they've been promising us for a decade or more now, then the people going from West Hartford to East Hartford and vice versa are going to see very bad go to very worse probably for very many years.

East of the river, my personal choice is Manchester. It has the broadest housing options and most amenities. But that's just my choice. And the reason I'm not there now is a family situation I won't bother you with the details of. I've heard people say that the Manchester schools aren't the best. But I can not confirm. East Hartford schools don't rank the best either. You may want to research. There are a lot of magnet schools in the area, and check out Cheney Tech as a high school, if your kids are that age.

Rocky Hill is a little further, but much less aggravating, to East Hartford than West Hartford is. And it's near Middletown, which is having something of a downtown revival.

Driving around Hartford is largely in the chokepoints. And the chokepoints are usually the bridges.

Yikes!!!

There are some really desirable neighborhoods where homes don't hit the market that often.

Last weekend there was a 3br/2bth ranch that hit the market. Elderly couple had both passed and the kids were dumping the house. Entire place needs to be gutted...old Formica kitchen, 70s bathrooms, etc.

Listed for $400k and there were a dozen cars outside at 9am Saturday

Used to be true last minute deals. 2018 was great.

Now… ehhh. But they have nice features like being able to search all your favorites for a set date range etc. Several of the other apps have ‘last min” booking ability now

Awesome. That sounds fun!! Never heard that site. Is it legit last minute deals or just regular prices masqueraded as deals?

Plenty of awesome cities within driving distance. I use Hotel Tonight and do that pretty frequently. Decide on that Thursday where we will go. Could be Burlington VT, Boston, Philly, DC. Then ship out Friday after work.

April. March might start to feel nice. Do not trust it. It is a liar and a deceiver.

And when does spring or end of winters usually come around?

Haha got it. I guess every state has its thing people don't like. I have lived in deep south before where if I post in the city sub there would always be a few people shitting on neighborhoods, asking OP to go back, we don't want you here, etc etc. I am pleasantly surprised by the replies I got so far and it has made me all the more excited about the move!!

One thing we want to do is travel with our kids and looking at the map I see a lot of interesting destinations within a 5hour drive. In my current location I can drive 2 hours in either direction and will hit any mid size city.