<p>I was just wondering how safe New Haven was compared to other cities in the USA since I've heard many stories and have never been to the city itself.</p>
<p>Cities I've lived in so far include:
USA: Chicago, New York, Boston, Washington DC, Madison
UK: London, Edinburgh, Manchester</p>
<p>Also, I've never been to a small place like New Haven and was wondering how life is like there? Is there any entertainment at all at night besides clubs and bars? How is the shopping like there (clothes, electronics etc)?</p>
<p>Will it be safe to buy a new car in the city? I'm kinda worried about car thefts and bad drivers/passerbys scratching cars and ripping tires randomly too...</p>
<p>You are thinking of going there as an undergrad freshman with a car? I’m not even sure it’s allowed, but it sure isn’t necessary. My daughter is a freshman, and as has been said many times on this forum, the area right around campus is very safe, very busy, and also very pretty. It is sadly true that NH is a violent city, but most of that violence occurs in areas not terribly close to Yale. As for shopping, etc., it ain’t New York that’s for sure. But is shopping why you go to college?</p>
<p>I have been in New Haven all my life… and yes, there is violence here… but ironically/tragically the worst crime that I can remeber did NOT happen in so called violent New Haven… it happened in Chesire… which is a very so call safe town…</p>
<p>Four years ago… a home invasion… the father was beaten about the head with a metal bat/tied up… </p>
<p>His 11 yo daughter was raped, sodimized, and the perpetrator took pictures of her naked body with his cell phone once he was done…</p>
<p>His 18yo daughter was also raped…</p>
<p>They then forced the wife to take a large sum of $ from their bank, on the way back to the house, the other SOB stopped to by gasoline…</p>
<p>The house was then doused with the gas… and the house torched…</p>
<p>The 18 yo was able to free herself from her bed where she had been tied up… while the home filled with smoke… she tried to make it to her baby sisters room to save her… but she succumbed to the black smoke…</p>
<p>The mother, had been raped and strangled…</p>
<p>What they found out was that the mother and the youngest daughter had been “marked” in a local grocery store and followed home… that same morning…</p>
<p>I say all that to say… that no one would have ever thought that a crime such as this, could have/would have ever happened in such a “safe”/upper middle class area…a place where poverty and gun violence doesnt exist…</p>
<p>I feel safer in New Haven… </p>
<p>Tell your daughter that she has to be careful no matter the time/place…</p>
<p>I forgot to add… all 3 women died… the mother from strangulation and the girls from smoke inhalation… the father was able to make it out… </p>
<p>Tell your daughter to do herself a favor and never have a false sense of security anywhere she is… she must always be diligent about her safety… predators lurk everywhere!</p>
<p>Oh I’m not going there as an undergrad… I’ve already worked for quite a number of years and my company is sending me for graduate studies.</p>
<p>Yes quality of life is definitely a huge factor in my final decision. I don’t wanna spend all my time between school and an empty house? I haven’t cooked in years so I need somewhere to eat and if I decide to go out at night for dinner, I don’t exactly want my car disappearing… you can’t survive on campus food and deliveries all year right?</p>
<p>hmm what cars do ppl there drive usually? Will a BMW seem out of place? I kinda don’t wanna stand out too much but then I have to sell most of my stuff then…</p>
<p>so is it better to be armed there then? I certainly don’t want any nasty home invasions!</p>
<p>This shouldn’t even be a concern for a graduate student with a car. There are lovely areas in New Haven where graduate students live as do professors. The Yale President, Rick Levin, chooses to maintain a home in New Haven and not reside in the president’s mansion on Hillhouse. There are urban and suburban options in easy commuting distance to Yale. Your best bet is to meet with a realtor on one of your visits who can direct you to a place that meets your needs and desires.</p>
<p>New Haven gets a bad rap… but there are some amazing neighborhoods where there are million dollar homes on St Ronan street.( And I just remembered that a Yale grad student was stabbed to death there about 13 years ago., they always suspected a Yale professor)…the point of my original post is that there are no “safe” neighborhoods/cities anymore… I am sure everyone who visits CC can attest to that… we all can tell stories of horror in towns that are quaint and idyllic… my daughter spent her summer @ Choate which is very “safe/quiet”, but I still impressed upon her the importance of not walking alone from dorm to dorm at night, when leaving campus always let someone know where she was going, etc etc etc…I worried about her safety alot while she was gone…</p>
<p>Yes, there are nice cars all over town, but here again, you have to use common sense…and not leave valuables on your front seat or a GPS on your dash… </p>
<p>One other thing that always gets me annoyed… young female joggers who run ALONE at dusk/after dark… what are they thinking? I am sure their parents would not be happy if they knew that this was happening…</p>
<p>There is decent food around…depending on what you want…great pizza on Wooster St, great Thai food across from the Yale Theater on York St…great latin food @ Soul de Cuba on Crown St. Archie Moores does a killer buffalo calamari… so whatever your poison I think you will find it… </p>
<p>Most grad students tend to live in the Orange St area… and being armed? No, we don’t tend to have home invasions here in New Haven… but you never know… just be safe/use common sense… no matter where you are!!!</p>
<p>Another crime of note in recent years was a young research/grad student went missing @ the Yale labs…A week later her body was found, stuffed in a wall on the day that she was to be married… her murderer was her co worker… who was from the suburbs…everyone assumed she had been taken by a bad “New Haven” person…</p>
<p>zoezeo, I’m currently a grad student at Yale. I live in New York City, but also have a room in the grad dorm (HGS) for when I have early morning classes, so I drive back and forth. If you don’t live on campus or close enough to bike easily, there is the shuttle, but if you don’t live near the route, you’d probably need a car, especially for grocery shopping, etc. Don’t waste your money on a fancy car. No one cares what car you drive, especially grad students.</p>
<p>I would think that the more expensive your car, the more likely it would be to get broken into if you’re parking in certain areas of town. The day we moved in in August, someone’s car window was smashed while they were parked in front of HGS overnight. Nothing was taken because they hadn’t left anything in the car, but it was a reminder to be careful… I would park in the evening on the street around Broadway or along Chapel where the restaurants are without worrying, but I wouldn’t leave my car there overnight. Unless you leave your keys in the car I don’t think it would be stolen though.</p>
<p>Most of the worst crime takes place away from campus (murders are pretty much all gang related), and I haven’t heard anything about home invasions, but muggings are definitely an issue. Since grad students tend to live off campus and in cheaper housing, they are the targets of muggings more often than undergrads. I am careful about where I go after dark, and when going between the grad student parking lot and HGS I will get a ride from campus safety if it’s after 9 pm or so, since two grad students were mugged near the lot at like 6:30 pm and 9 pm earlier this year. Most muggings seem to be midnight or later though.</p>
<p>I live in a decent neighborhood in New York and I feel safer here than in New Haven. A big part of that is that here, there are always people around, almost 24 hours a day. In New Haven, there are not. I think if you have common sense and don’t walk alone in quiet areas after dark you’re fine.</p>
<p>My understanding is: It goes to the train station, but not to shopping areas. When DS went to NYC, he took Yale’s scheduled shuttle to the train station. A problem may the on the way back. For that direction, I believe he needs to take a taxi, because the arrival time could be quite late and there might be no shuttle service at that time.</p>
<p>There is always shuttle service from the train station. I’ve gotten in to New Haven at… 3am or later and still gotten a ride back. If he’s a current student, when regularly scheduled service stops, he should call the minibus (432-WALK).</p>
<p>Buses do not go to shopping areas (e.g. Target, CT Post Mall, etc.), but you’d only need to do that at the beginning of the year, and there are parents, friends, and/or freshman counselors for that.</p>
<p>To the original poster:</p>
<p>New Haven life isn’t too bad. For its size, it has a good number of restaurants and bars. Club life will be lacking especially in comparison to many of the cities in which you have previously lived. Entertainment outside of bars and clubs can include the many speaker events held at Yale typically open to the public as well as a number of theatrical and musical events, typically through the Yale School of Drama and/or Yale Rep and also at the Schubert. Breaking into cars is a major problem, and I would not choose to buy one. Zipcars are scattered around campus and would be a viable option if you live nearby.</p>
<p>Is a Princeton student safer on and around campus than a Yale student? Yes.
Is a Princeton student ten times safer on and around campus than a Yale student? No.</p>
<p>Those rate differences primarily relate to parts of New Haven where Yale students rarely if ever go. Princeton doesn’t really have equivalent parts.</p>
<p>I’ll bet the rates of violent crime suffered by students at those different schools are much more similar. I would expect the rate of property crime suffered by Yale (or Harvard) students to be significantly higher than at Princeton, though. New Haven is a city.</p>
<p>And violent crime in east palo alto is 1,100 per 100,000. Let’s put that together with Palo Alto to make some kind of irrelevant point. Stanford students don’t tend to go to East Palo Alto in the same way that Yale students don’t tend to be in the parts of New Haven where crime truly is serious and violent. (I went to Stanford, and my daughter is at Yale).</p>
<p>It seems namaskar could use some Yale coursework on statistical analyses… LOL</p>
<p>Kidding aside: When I was in New Haven, the biggest incident that occured was when a friend of a friend was attacked by a mentally unstable person who was hiding in the bushes near Beinecke Plaza immediately after dinner ~ 7:30PM. This was back in the day when Freshman Commons served dinner. This person picked out a coed at random and charged her swinging a metal rod. Completely bizarre and without provocation. The amazing thing was at that time, Beinecke is filled with people going to and fro. Several students quickly came to the victim’s aid and subdued the attacker. She was hurt rather severely and withdrew due to the seriousness of her injuries. She later ret’d and eventually graduated.</p>
<p>I share this to say that in arguably one of the safest places on the entire campus, random danger befell my acquaintance.</p>
<p>But this and the overall “safety” of Yale, in my opinion, is nothing that would cause me to hesitate one second to send either of my daughters to attend college there (if we could be so fortunate).</p>
<p>New Haven does get a bad rep. Like any city (I’m from Atlanta), there are areas that are “bad” and areas that are “safe”. When a crime happens in a “bad” area, the city as a whole is attached to the stigma. </p>
<p>Our Police Chief emails us when a crime has happened. Based on the emails, no crime has occurred before midnight and no crime has occurred within the campus area. I actually have to look at a map to figure out where the streets mentioned in the emails are.</p>
<p>As for a car, I know plenty of grad students who live off campus. </p>
<p>As long as you use common sense you will be safe.</p>
<p>I was in New Haven for 3 hours, and my car was broken into.</p>
<p>That being said, my brother’s kid went to Yale, loved it, and had no problems.</p>
<p>But all other things being equal, I would rather my kid go to Princeton or Harvard instead of Yale, because New Haven is a pit. Would you rather spend FOUR YEARS in the Boston area, or New Haven???. I would be surprised if someone selected Yale over Harvard.</p>
I would be surprised if someone made a decision on attending a school based on where it was located. I would think the quality of education and how well someone would fit in would be greater factors. Is New Haven the safest city? No, but my son loves it at Yale and doesn’t regret his decision at all.</p>
<p>But seriously, even though New Haven is a dump by any reasonable standard - there may be something to the fact that being an oasis in the desert helps foster a close sense of community among Yale students.</p>