Hartford is great. Consider living in the city itself. You might also look at the New Haven-Stamford area, which is similar but more diverse. It gets more expensive as you get closer to NYC but the area around New Haven isn't hugely more costly than the Hartford area. Some of the suburbs throughout CT have a reputation for white supremacy but others are more diverse, and of course you should definitely consider the cities themselves, especially New Haven, if you like Boston.

Union League, Hachiroku, Olea, Otaru

1. There are free spots in the public schools, if you're lucky enough to get a seat. You apply through the public school lottery. You might get in off a wait list.
2. You can get a "school readiness" subsidy at one of the private PreKs if you earn less than a certain amount (like $130K for a family or 4 or something like that) or so but there are limited spots. That would usually bring the cost down from like $1500-2000 per month to something more like $500 (or less depending on your income). Ask around to see which ones have subsidized spots. Again there's probably a wait list and/or the private programs reserve the spots for families who are going into a second year at the same school.

Tons of people arrive on every train. The station and area around it are safe, and there are usually a few people walking from the station to the Yale campus and downtown area after each train.

If the weather sucks, or if you are carrying valuables and are walking around the city at like 2am, then you might want to do the cab to get to where you're going. There is also a free public bus that runs from the train station through the downtown and back though I'm not sure the schedule. Overall though, I wouldn't worry too much, just stick to the main, well-lit streets where there are other people around if it's very late at night.

Because the area has improved so much over the past decade or so, people are building giant luxury apartment blocks and high-end laboratory towers in this area, so there are some construction sites that you may want to use caution around due to sidewalk closures and such.

That's too bad but at least the Hartford area facility is growing.

Make a reservation for Hachiroku or Otaru

I haven't heard of a lot of major places closing in New Haven lately. A ton of places have opened. It has a heavily populated and fast-growing downtown with like 300 or 400 restaurants, unlike Hartford or Worcester. The one place I heard might close at some point is State House (a concert hall) because they are building a new apartment block on top of it.

There are a ton of threads answering similar questions in a TON of detail, if you search this reddit.... just saying, if you want insider info and a lot of good recommendations it's worth reading down through some of the threads the past few months.

Also, NH is an awesome city, way more interesting than Worcester. And you're so close to NYC too.

How is it "sketch"?

Pay the tickets or you may get into a fix. They even drive around scanning the plates at night using specialized equipment, looking for cars to boot.

That's genius. Not sure if any of those make a pit stop in Hartford (if so, the train from New Haven to Hartford runs late)

No, those are all rules that are well known to increase affordability. In some cases the unit that the rule applies to might be more expensive - for example, a taller building might have more expensive units because the apartments at the top have a better view and rent for more - but that's certainly not the usual scenario. Overall, the effect is that more apartments get built, which means there are more homes to go around. Every time a new apartment gets built (or a large apartment gets split into two apartments), it opens up an apartment for someone else.

Agree. Sometimes the best things are right in front of your face and you are too myopic to realize it.

There are so many I wouldn't know where to start. Place 2 Be just opened but there might be kind of a wait to get in. It's known for bottomless drinks and very drunk people

You could take the CT Rail commuter rail train to Hartford and then take an Uber to Boston for maybe $150. The last trains run very late. Or just take an Uber from New Haven since it might not be a huge price difference for you if you're already spending that much.

Those are good points. But if the city truly wanted housing to be more affordable, it would just give tax breaks, allow smaller units, allow more building height/density, allow larger footprints, and/or get rid of parking minimums for all developments automatically. Housing is being kept expensive because of these rules and zoning laws.

All of the other towns are pretty "meh" though if you're looking to live in a walkable urban environment. Personally I'd rather find a roommate than have to live out in Branford or Meriden or something.

People who own homes (city council persons, mayors, community organizers) love making up policies that pretend to help poor renters, but in reality make the problem a lot worse

There is a huge population of young adults. Some people think New Haven and Hartford are small cities because, unlike anywhere else in the United States, there's a new "town" every 1-2 miles (that's a relic of the 1600s). However if you consider the population density it's actually quite large. For example if you live in New Haven you can drive or take a train for a few minutes and you're in places like Stratford and Derby with dense populations, breweries, etc., that are rarely considered to be part of New Haven even though they are just a few minutes away. Hartford is a short train ride from New Haven and the two cities combined have 2 million people in their center and immediate suburbs. And basically everything along the train line between New Haven and NYC is as densely populated as any of the largest US urban areas.

TLDR, you're moving to a big city, not a "college town." Enjoy.

Most will and you should probably order in advance / order online.

This really sucks. Hartford really needs to have more money for housing enforcement. It is severely understaffed.

One friendly tip: It's the landlord's responsibility to control mice, but you might be able to get rid of them for a while by putting out a bunch of traps. You can get a dozen on Amazon for a few dollars and they might rid the area of mice for a few weeks/months. Mice can be bad in a lot of suburban homes , in rich neighborhoods, too but it might be one thing that you can control if it's not a huge infestation.

Inclusionary zoning is a tax on developers. In other words, it raises the cost of development. That means fewer units will be built. The result of fewer units is more demand from households for each unit. The result of that is that the cost of housing is much higher than it would be otherwise.

Do you realize how bad the housing shortage is in Southern CT? New Haven (and Fairfield County) need to be building as much as they can regardless of what the price is.

Also the price is set by the amount of government subsidy so if you want the new units to be more affordable you need to lobby the Lamont administration and Congress to make more subsidies available. Unfortunately Lamont is pretty conservative and Congress is even moreso.

Yeah if it gets really cold you might be looking at $600-800 per month in the two worst months. It depends on how well insulated it is and what you set the thermostat to, plus whether oil prices go up or down. If it's a mild winter the costs are much lower.

For local, I like Giv - you can do mail order, and some coffeeshops like Pistachio sell it. Also Fussy Coffee, Story and Soil (in Hartford) and other high-end cafes sell interesting bags from around the US. Willoughby's is also very good.