Radiant Waxing in Milford

Geronimo’s, Mezcal, Camacho for margaritas.

You’re not going to find margaritas at a pizza place. BAR and Nolo have a fuller drink menu. The other pizza spots are more beer. Next Door doesn’t open until 4 but has a full drink menu.

Little vague. There’s more than a hundred choices.

Rumaj?

Torino must’ve fallen through?

How is it not relevant? They asked for large lunch portions for the money. That’s what I provided.

A friend used to teach here: https://www.milfordindoortennis.com

Zoi’s has always been good for the money. And P&M, Nica’s. Atticus Market isn’t super cheap but the food is pretty amazing.

Sitar has good lunch specials.

Olmo is filling for a bagel sandwich.

Haven Hot Chicken sandwiches aren’t cheap, but they’re massive. Same thing with Munchies.

Biagetti’s in West Haven is not the cheapest Italian, but a pretty amazing old school joint whose portions will feed you for days.

Bella’s is another that is not afraid of massive portions

Edit: not open for lunch, but Next Door often has some good deals.

Don’t need to eat dinner after that.

Good to know you’ve lived in similar places. That experience helps. Those cities are generally more dangerous than New Haven, with roughly double the crime rate.

Good riddance. Personally, I love seeing chains fail. More business for the little guys.

It’s so good. The lady friend and I split them, they’re huge.

Er, kinda wish you checked with us before committing to that area if concerned about safety. Not the worst area, but far from good.

As far as your car, you can do some things to dissuade thieves. First, get wheel locks. While not foolproof, it helps. Gorilla is one brand that’s common. Secondly, I know it’s old school, but get The Club. And lastly, never leave anything of value inside.

Gotcha. East Rock and Westville could fit that bill in New Haven. Lots of green and parks nearby. Walkable, but leafy and relatively quiet.

Also, it’s most definitely a small city. Even downtown is fairly chill.

Depends on what you want. Are you renting? Buying? You want more of a city or suburb? Coastal? Woods? What kind of property? Kids?

There’s plenty of great, safe areas of New Haven. It’s CT’s best city, for enjoying city life! Downtown, East Rock, Wooster Square, Westville are particularly great areas to live.

Outside New Haven, I’m a big fan of Milford. It’s a really well rounded town with a great shoreline, parks, downtown, and walkable areas.

Tier 1: Greenwich, Darien, New Canaan, Westport. League of their own. There are also isolated areas of larger towns that fit in this elite group, namely Southport and Rowayton.

Tier 2: Fairfield, Wilton, Weston, Easton, Redding, Ridgefield, Woodbridge, Madison, Guilford, Glastonbury, Farmington, Essex, Avon, Simsbury, Roxbury, Washington, Bridgewater. These are towns that are rather well off uniformly, but have a level of access that Tier 1 doesn’t. Upper middle class can live comfortably in these towns.

Then you’ve got isolated areas of wealth in towns that are otherwise not super wealthy. Thinking Stonington Borough, Fenwick, Pine Orchard in Branford, bits of the Lyme’s, Prospect Hill New Haven, much of coastal Milford, coastal Mystic and Noank, Shippan in Stamford, etc.

Rowayton itself is extremely wealthy. It’s one of the most expensive zip codes in the state.

New Canaan, but it’s very busy/crazy. Insane collection of rare and exotic cars, though. New and classic.

Milford has a good one too. More down to earth, but a good variety and usually several hundred cars.

That’s a tough one.

There’s decades of poor planning and urban renewal damage to undo.

You’d have to build a massive amount of apartments and have all new neighborhoods built with street level retail.

It would also help to bury 84, maybe 91 too. But that’s not going to happen.

I always knew New Haven would gentrify, even in its worst days, because it had great bones. There’s a large continuous walkable area that has a traditional street layout (downtown, East Rock, Wooster Square in the heart of it). Not too many office plazas that reduce usable street front space. Not too many parking lots, and the ones left are mostly being redeveloped.

Yes, you have problem neighborhoods still feeling the urban renewal challenge, like the Hill and Fair Haven, but compared to downtown Hartford, it just has a better layout.

I guess my perspective is different, as several former colleagues and friends live in Fairfield without kids. On the other hand, the only singles or childless people that I know that lived in Westport hated it and didn’t last long.

Actually Fairfield and Westport have low mill rates. The property values are high, though, and I agree they’re not great for non-families. Fairfield is better than Westport though.

Ohh, makes sense. Yeah, weirdly West Hartford feels a bit more family-ish than Milford. But still more diverse than other suburbs. West Hartford is a nice town though, depends how much you want access to shore/NYC as it’s a schlep to both.

Gotcha. Maybe look in Milford, it’s a more populated/dense town in general. North Haven isn’t known for a robust rental market.

It depends what you’re comparing to. Compared to New Haven, yes, a bit more family oriented. Compared to any other suburb in CT we’ve lived in, not at all.

We are a childless couple, in our late 30’s. We have other childless couples or singles in town we are friends with. Many I previously worked with who chose the town. The town is very popular for first time homebuyers, and is having a small apartment boom right now. It’s appealing to Millennial buyers because it’s relatively affordable for a southwestern coastal town (much cheaper than Fairfield), has good schools (unlike nearby Stratford and West Haven), has low taxes (unlike nearby Stratford and West Haven), low crime, good walkability (great downtown, and other walkable centers). There’s 3 breweries in town, independent coffee shops, good food. I was talking to a restaurant owner that had their location in Branford previously, and they mentioned how much more buzzing and young the town feels.

There’s also a lot of beaches, parks, a boardwalk, a nature sanctuary, tons of sporting facilities (tennis courts, pickle ball, etc). People are always out in the warm months jogging, biking, walking their dogs.

We are a 15 minute drive to New Haven. So we go 1-2 times a week to eat out, walk around, visit coffee shops, take in culture, see a show. Could also take the train just as easily, which, is super easy to access downtown.

Again, compared to most CT suburbs, this isn’t one of the dead ones full of homebodies.

New Haven is great. You should definitely consider buying in East Rock. But if you want a lower tax sibling on the coast that’s got some liveliness, it’s Milford. In fact, while I love Westville, it’s not super convenient to the rest of New Haven and I’d probably recommend Milford over that.

This site is a great summary: https://discovermilfordct.com

Also, I see you edited your original post to include West Haven. West Haven is great for those on a tight budget. The area of West Haven near Milford, West Shore, is a bargain. The rest of West Haven is fine, but a little rough around the edges. The city has serious financial issues, now the state is having to get involved. Again, it’s a good bargain. Taxes are high. Schools aren’t great, which affects resale. I’m not sure I’d ever recommend it over Milford, unless you were looking for cheap coastal housing in West Shore.

You said you’re buying. I would absolutely not buy in Hamden. The schools appear to be in decline, and the town is not run well. It has what you could call a runaway property tax issue. The mill rate is 55.48, which is insane. In comparison, Milford’s mill rate is 26.65.

Milford and Branford are also coastal, have train access (Milford’s better on the main line, of course), more well defined downtown areas.

Hamden is fine, it has good access to New Haven and some nice areas, but I’d never recommend someone buy there.