Yale CRIME spike prompts patrol increases

<p>DocT, I'm afraid I don't quite buy the story of no students from your D's school applying to Yale b.c. it was in New Haven. Perhaps they didn't want to be so close to their parents. I went to an exceptionally competitive high school less than 25 miles from New Haven, and I knew at least 5 ppl who applied to Yale. I also have to ask, which "slums" do you have to drive through to get to downtown? Whether you're coming from Rt. 15, Rt. 34, or 95, I can't see where you hit "slums". Poorer neighborhoods, yes. But out-and-out slums? No.</p>

<p>New Haven has experienced substantial economic growth. My friend's house sold for $150,000 a few years ago; now, his neighbor's will sell for $300,000. I think that once again, the most impt thing to remember is that (sadly) economic growth and rehabilitiaton do not occur uniformly. This drags down the average values for the city; however, it's somewhat deceptive: homes in East Rock cost alot more than they used to, but nobody wants to live in the Hill so prices remain the same.</p>

<p>Finally, I would argue that the area surrounding the Yale Divinity School (between Prospect and Orange, going towards Hamden; St. Ronan's Street, etc.) is really lovely and quite well-to-do. New Haven's a city; it has neighborhoods just like any other, good and bad. For that matter, few towns are nearly as socio-economically homogenous as those you mentioned. (Or those in Ffld Cty in general.)</p>

<p>And, yes, the pizza is amazing here. It can't hold a candle to anything in Cambridge, or Boston for that matter. (I've lived there as well.)</p>

<p>Honestly, if there's someone making posts you don't want to deal with, just put them on ignore.</p>

<p>My Control Panel>Miscellaneous>Ignore Lists</p>

<p>DocT, Woodbridge borders New Haven directly, it is just a five minute drive, or a 15-minute bike ride from Yale. The median household income in the town of Woodbridge is a stunning $102,000, which is significantly higher than even Greenwich or Fairfield, and even more impressive considering that Woodbridge, unlike New Haven or most neighboring towns is not located directly along the ocean.</p>

<p>The median household income for the country as a whole, by the way, is about $43,000. CT is the richest state, with a median household income of $56,000; it also has the most doctors per capita, Ph.D.s per capita, patents issued per capita, best public school systems, etc, etc, etc.. In the New Haven area, it's even higher. The neighboring towns of North Haven and Orange, for example, have median household incomes that are through the roof, and certain towns that are a 5-10 minute drive from New Haven, such as Guilford and Madison (median income $87,000), are, like Woodbridge, among the richest towns in the United States. All of these areas are considered part of the "city" (urban area) of New Haven.</p>

<p><a href="http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2005-11-29-wage_x.htm%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.usatoday.com/money/economy/2005-11-29-wage_x.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Also, as the poster above points out, there are extremely wealthy areas right around Yale (such as "East Rock", where many students and faculty live), with homes selling for millions of dollars, gourmet grocery stores on the corners, etc.. Even the condominiums downtown surrounding the New Haven Green are now selling for over a million dollars in some cases. And the above poster is right that housing values have tripled over the past few years, and risen even faster in some areas. Obviously there are poorer areas too, somewhat farther from campus, where many immigrants live (just as you would find in New York or any other major city). But those immigrants are a major source of vitality and growth for the city, even if they can't afford to buy a house or new car just yet.</p>

<p>As far as high schools go, the valedictorians of almost every school district in the state apply to Yale, and Yale has more undergraduates from Connecticut than any other state besides New York and California.</p>

<p>I live in Southbury. I take 67 down to 34 by the Yale Bowl and take that right and left - looks like a real fine area to me with the boarded up houses and then the left unto Howe St by the Y - great area if you're blind. </p>

<p>There is absolutely no way that Woodbridge has a higher median income than Greenwich. The median price of a house in Woodbridge is $459,500 compared to $1,611,250 in Greenwich - not in the same league. There are many towns with a higher median family income in CT. Woodbridge doesn't have a higher median income than New Canaan, Wilton, Weston, Easton, Ridgefield, Darien, Redding, Avon and that is just running them off the top of my head.</p>

<p>By the way, a $300000 house in my neck of the woods is a piece of junk so that doesn't impress anybody. </p>

<p>You guys including Poster X are trying to make a point about Yale. Make the point about Yale and its great departments etc - not New Haven. Yale may be a great school but New Haven greatly detracts from it.</p>

<p>The area around Harvard is significantly more expensive as far as homes are concerned than New Haven and it is a far more desirable area to live in. This is coming from somebody who truly dislikes the Boston area but even I can't deny the fact that the area has much more to offer than any part of Connecticut. While Boston can't hold a candle to NYC, it certainly has more to offer than the New Haven area.</p>

<p>As far as students applying to Yale, there aren't many students who really want to stay in Connecticut period! I don't care from what town they're coming from. There isn't anything here to keep graduates in the state unless they want to work in some dying industry. I'd like to see the statistics of the number of students graduating in Connecticut and staying here or leaving.</p>

<p>DocT, I grew up in Weston, where $300,000 houses don't even exist. Some of our best students applied to Yale. I don't go to Yale, and I like New Haven just fine. In fact, when I took time off from my studies I chose to live there rather than my parents' house in Weston.</p>

<p>I was transferred to Boston for a job, and lived on the outskirts of Harvard Square, which I found a terribly boring, homogenous experience. Additionally, I experienced some exceptionally threatening situations while living there and in Toronto. </p>

<p>I moved back to New Haven within 6 months of moving to Boston, and have yet to experience something similar here. I used to live not two blocks from the Y on Howe Street. I felt safer walking home there than I did walking around in some parts of Stamford. </p>

<p>I would also point out that while brain drain has historically been a problem in CT, it is on the decline, mostly due to the economic constraints faced by many young graduates.</p>

<p>DocT, I'm guessing you've taken at least a class or two in economics. So I'm sure you know that property values can be influenced/det'd by a number of variables. Proximity to New York City, quality of schools, population density, amt of disposable income, planned future development, commercial enterprise and development, tax base, planning and zoning regulations--all of these can affect the property values of a given town.</p>

<p>New Haven has held off on doing any citywide property revaluations since the real estate bubble began, as its poorer residents would be unable to afford any additional property taxes. New Haven homeowners have a particularly high burden in order to compensate for the amount of valuable property owned by a tax-exempt entity. So property values are not in keeping with area trends. </p>

<p>Regardless, unless one is comparing towns that have a significant number of these traits in common, any assessment or conclusion drawn on the basis of property value will be relatively meaningless. The same house in Weston will sell for less in Groton. The same house will probably sell for more in the right section of Greenwich. </p>

<p>Finally, urban renewal happens one block at a time, one neighborhood at a time. New Haven is making fantastic progress. New Haven won't ever be Cambridge--which is great, because Harvard Square's pretty much an overpriced mall/tourist trap--nor will it be Manhattan. But you know what it is? A great college town and a great place to be young. </p>

<p>Next time you're over at Kline, take the scenic route past East Rock park to Romeo and Caesare's or Nica's for a panini. You'd be surprised.</p>

<p>now that is a targeted response,..</p>

<p>What do you mean?</p>

<p>You wrote: "There isn't anything here to keep graduates in the state unless they want to work in some dying industry." </p>

<p>CT has the highest number of Ph.D's per capita, and the greatest number of patents issued per capita, of any state in the country. Obviously it has to be filled with high-tech, patent-generating jobs for that to be the case. Just the area within a few blocks of Yale alone has dozens of biotechnology companies that have seen an influx of billions of dollars of investor capital. According to the Wall Street Journal, the New Haven urban area has the second-highest per-capita concentration of high-tech jobs in the United States, after San Francisco/Silicon Valley. And then there are hedge funds (most hedge funds are in CT), startups, some of the world's largest corporations (General Electric, United Tech, etc.), and many other white-collar firms, all of which employ many young college graduates. It also has the nation's highest average teacher salaries. The bottom line is that, as the richest state, most of Connecticut has the highest average salary relative to cost of living in the country. Within CT itself, New Haven has the highest number of 18-24 and 25-34 year olds, and areas like West Hartford, Fairfield and Stamford are also popular among young people.</p>

<p>A huge city like New York is attractive for a couple years right out of college, when you're still used to living in a dorm room with bunk beds and infested with rats and roaches (e.g., <a href="http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349700)%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=349700)&lt;/a>. But most young people very quickly realize that while it's a great place for visitors or tourists, as a place to live it is overpriced, dirty, unbearably hot in the summer, overcrowded, has very little or no access to the outdoors, unbridgeable income gaps between ultra-rich and poor, subway commutes that are way too long, etc. They then move somewhere nicer, where you can buy an entire house for the price of a 10 x 10 foot room.</p>

<p>As far as median incomes go, please look up the numbers for yourself before you question the figures I posted about Woodbridge etc. Woodbridge's median household income is indeed higher than the famous Greenwich, CT. Property values themselves have little to do with average income - they mostly have to do with whether a place is overpriced or not (i.e., how close it is to a speculative investor market such as Miami or Wall Street). Plus, I don't see how property values are that low in the New Haven area given that many areas have average home prices close to a million dollars.</p>

<p>Gosh darn it posterX! Pip had replied so well! Why must you continue to make such outlandish statements? It's not like anyone believes them.</p>

<p>DMW</p>

<p><a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=2431758&postcount=5%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showpost.php?p=2431758&postcount=5&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>You wrote: "There isn't anything here to keep graduates in the state unless they want to work in some dying industry." </p>

<p>PosterX, I definitely didn't write that. I heart New Haven, too, if you haven't read my posts. But you and DocT are both using supporting data that's totally irrelevant/inapprorpiate/not even data/just plain wrong! Seriously. And piling on some extra bile for good measure doesn't make it any more accurate.</p>

<p>I heard the streets are paved with gold,...</p>

<p>DocT if you think some of those towns you listed are richer than Woodbridge you are mistaken. I live in Woodbridge, I know perfectly well how much house prices have shot through the roof and how Woodbridges numbers are brought down by a certain part of town. The "flats" by New Haven have crappy values with houses between 150-300 grand. They are close together and in general its a crappy place to live, thus house values in the town go down. Now consider the rest of Wdbg. with many many house going for well over 1 million, and they sell very very quickly. Everyone wants to live here due to the schools so house values have shot up. My own house was bought 10 years ago for 150,000 now its worth 600,000 and located extremely close to the schools in Woodbridge. Also consider how many Yale professors live in Wdbg. the number of huge, along with administrators. </p>

<p>Now onto New Haven, unless you a looking for trouble and acting like a typical cocky ivy leaguer you will be left alone. If you act the part people will reward you by assaulting you and stealing from you. Now if you keep your mouth shut, go about your daily business like in any other city you will be perfectly fine. Even in shifty neighborhoods. I've lived here all my life and can say I feel safer in New Haven then in other cities I've been too like D.C. and NYC.</p>

<p>DOCt you also seem not to know that many CT students do want to stay in state, thats why uconns enrollment is booming and its harder and harder to get in. I don't know what "kids" you talk to, but everyone I know would go to Yale if they could from CT.</p>

<p>True, the University of Connecticut has been the best public university in New England for quite some time now. UConn is going through a $2 billion expansion and has many very highly-regarded programs. It is booming. </p>

<p>You are also correct that New Haven is much safer than larger cities; statistics show that most of the crime in New Haven occurs among people who know each other, e.g., rival drug dealers, prostitutes or lovers who were quarreling. In fact, 100% of the 14 murders there last year were solved because they all involved people who knew each other. In contrast, only 30% of the 80 murders in Boston were solved (Boston has a higher per capita murder rate and is a more dangerous city, but also more "random" crime, apparently) and only 40-50% of the 500-600 murders in New York City were solved. That's not to say you don't have to use typical common sense like in any other city but you do make a valid observation. Of course, the best way to stay safe is to stay away from cars - auto accidents are why cities are actually safer than suburban areas.</p>

<p>define 'know'. Would you say we 'know' you?</p>

<p>Did THIS little incident get reported in the Yale Daily News, TROLLSTER?</p>

<p><a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/05/23/police_officer_convicted_of_sexual_assaults/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.boston.com/news/local/connecticut/articles/2006/05/23/police_officer_convicted_of_sexual_assaults/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>My mother has urged me to sign up for yale and not columbia b/c of its name but mainly safety. But I did look up somewhere that NYC is the safest urban city in america, and high up there in the world rankings. I have been to New Haven and it seems that both sides are right. Yale is a really safe campus with emergency phones, police patrol, and shuttle pickup anywhere around the city. Nevertheless, outside the campus it gets nice for a little bit then outside of yale it does go into the slums where many crimes have been reported. It seems like New Haven is putting a large facade just for Yalies as it tries to put make up over the black spot of poverty and crime. I have never visited Columbia though. So can someone compare both colleges in accordance to safety? Especially Morningside heights?</p>

<p>New Haven has no slums, it has projects which are not nearly as bad. Sure they aren't good, but you have to venture pretty far out of your way to encounter the projects if your a Yalie.</p>

<p><<<did this="" little="" incident="" get="" reported="" in="" the="" yale="" daily="" news,="" trollster?="" http:="" www.boston.com="" news="" local="" co...exual_assaults="">>></did></p>

<p>Byerly, that story was in the New Haven Advocate years ago! Hardly part of the "CRIME" wave of which you speak. I do have a question: if Harvard and Cambridge are so fabulous, why is it necessary that you post such nasty things about Yale?</p>