Middletown CT (Wesleyan) is about three-quarters the size of Utica and is unusual in its proximity to a campus with so many features consistent with a rural LAC. Offhand, I can only think of Union in Schenectady NY and Vassar in Poughkeepsie with similar contrasts. Do I consider it a dangerous place? No, I don’t. Would I lock my door and shut my windows before I leave anywhere. You’re darned right I would. No one but the most blissed out hippie wierdo would do otherwise so close to a populated downtown. OTOH, for every ounce of caution one has to take there are definite benefits. Middletown has more restaurants within walking distance of campus than any of its NESCAC (New England Small College Athletic League) competitors with the possible exception of Tufts, coffee shops, a four-star hotel and a nifty R. J. Julia bookstore less than three blocks from College Row:
http://www.courant.com/community/middletown/hc-middletown-main-street-bookstore-wesleyan-0524-20170523-story.html
My main objections to Middletown can best be described as the unintended consequences of well-meaning civic and institutional policies undertaken over the years among which I would include, 1) a plethora of urban renewal projects dating from the 1950s which dispersed entire neighborhoods further away from the town center, 2) the raising of the drinking age which effectively prevented most undergrads from mingling with townspeople in the most informal imaginable of settings, and lastly, 3) attempts to close the compensation gap between academia and corporate America which encouraged faculty - particularly junior faculty - to join the rush to the suburbs. All of this has contributed IMO to a conspicuous lack of visible, after-hours, adult stakeholders where I would most like to see them: on the sidewalks, walking their dogs, pushing baby strollers, or just sitting quietly on their stoops watching campus life go by.
There are signs that Middletown may be rounding a corner. The RJ Julia bookstore is one. A brand new apartment building, the first new downtown construction in decades, is about to be completed in September (maybe some of them will own a dog or two.) And, the resurgence of Main Street is genuine. Thirty years ago, there was talk of it becoming “the next Poughkeepsie”. Now, the more apt comparison would be to a smaller version of Providence. I would not be at all surprised if Wesleyan had its own little version of Thayer Street, a bustling boutique and restaurant row on its doorstep, by the end of the decade. That would give a completely different meaning to the phrase, “walking in groups.” 