Submitted by bastetswhiskers t3_znn3z7 in Connecticut
I'm home shopping in the southern Danbury area (near Bethel) and would really appreciate your insights before I make any decisions. Are there any areas I should avoid or look out for? Are people friendly, busybodies or do they just keep to themselves? Is it safe to walk around at night or go jogging in the early morning? Is there a lot of noise from the baseball fields or airport? Anything you can share would be a really big help.
Danbury = A better Waterbury
Can you be a little more specific? I'm from NY and I don't really know much about CT neighborhoods
lmao, funny thing is I really can't
I discussed Danbury with someone two weeks ago, you should read that and see if you have any other questions https://old.reddit.com/r/Connecticut/comments/zd5s78/moving_to_ct_for_2_years/
Thank you! The original post was deleted but the comments are a help!
Is Danbury a must for you? I’m in the New Milford area and it’s pretty good. Close enough to Danbury but far enough away that it’s quieter and a bit more spread out.
New Milford would be my preference, but real estate in my price range is very limited there.
It's better to live in the suburbs. Both city's kinda suck in and of themselves. Danbury is nice to go to Costco and stuff, but you really don't want to live there. No one ever wants to go to Waterbury.
Living in New Milford, newtown, Shelton, redding, Southbury etc would usually be much better places than directly living in Danbury.
Not sure how it is now, but I spent a lot of time in Danbury for a couple of years in the early '10s. I hated it. I am a big fan of small cities, I don't mind sketchy, and sketchy city governments entertain me. While Danbury had all three, it was still a shitty place. I feel like it being close to New York gives it a weird vibe. New Milford is an awesome little town and I would live there in a second.
I just realized you are from NY, Danbury is like a shittier version of Poughkeepsie.
>m a big fan of small cities, I don't mind sketchy, and sketchy city governments entertain me. While Danbury had all three, it was still a shitty place. I feel like it being close to New York gives it a weird vibe. New Milford is an awesome little town an
OK that gives me a very usefuel frame of reference! My biggest issue with Pough'kie was the drug-related crime. I've had many friends from that area over the decades, and it's not for me. Too unpredictable, the idea of leaving the house after 10pm makes me twitchy. As much as I love being in an area with creative/ecclectic flavor, I don't need constant nightlife, and I'm cool with a trip to New Haven or NYC when I'm in the mood for it. I just don't want to worry about stray bullets or getting mugged if I set out for milk in the middle of the night.
I'll move to New Miiford or Bethel in a heartbeat if I can find a sound home investment in my price range. (hey...if your know of any small houses or condos in those areas....)
I'd love New Milford or Newtown but I can't find anything affordable in the area. Southbury is a little too far out for my preference, If you know anyone looking to sell 2+ bedrooms ...?
I don't, but Southbury is where I currently live. If you are close to 84, it is about the same. Travel distance as mid new Milford. You should drive around to really get a feel for distances. As it's all about road arteries moreso than raw distance.
This is a dumb comment. It’s basically saying “Danbury is a less shit city than this shit city” which is not true. Both in terms of economy and safety Danbury is way better than Waterbury. And I get the comment is saying Danbury is better, but to make the comparison in the first place is misleading.
You can use this to compare crime https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ct/danbury/crime. Crime in Danbury is below the Connecticut average, and Connecticut is already the fifth safest state.
Danbury provides easy access to a lot of stores, great food, mixture of cultures , and has one of the strongest economies in ct.
Biggest cons to Danbury are the schools. The downtown could also be better.
Also just depends on what you want. A city of nearly 100k people from all over the world? Or a more rural town of 20k that’s 90% white? Plenty of those around Danbury
But overall a pretty solid place to live and nowhere near as bad as some of the people on here might insinuate
I’ve seen a few small homes pop up for sale in NM on Zillow but your best bet is to hook up with a real estate agent.
Bethel is much much more expensive than New Milly.
>I just realized you are from NY, Danbury is like a shittier version of Poughkeepsie.
I don't agree with this at all. I have no problem walking around Danbury, while Poughkeepsie I don't like to drive through at night. Danbury is much nicer and has much less crime. POU does have that nice walkway and rail trail though.
I go for walks around Rogers Park late nights/ early mornings and have never had any issues.
The airport is general aviation so you'll hear a few planes on the weekends usually but nothing at night.
I love that PK gets such a reaction. Place is what i imagine purgatory is like.
100% this. grew up in the NYC northern burbs (Westchester/Putnam/Duchess) and now live in Brookfield. Danbury is nowhere near as sketch as Poughkeepsie.
I was going to defend Danbury, but this is spot on actually.
Lots of Spanish speaking people. Not that there's anything wrong with that but just know that it's true.
This. It's a garbage city.
Do you have kids? The elementary schools are zoned by neighborhood so there are of course some that are preferable.
I can say from experience, the area around Great Plain is a pretty solid area. Reasonably quiet, residential side streets. Close to Federal and Padanaram.
Unless you live very near the airport, you would never even know there’s an airport in Danbury. Not sure which baseball fields you mean.
Huge Brazilian population. Also significant Central American population. Overall a good city as far as cities go. 🤷🏻♀️
>This is a dumb comment.
no it wasnt't
John Oliver MEMORIAL Sewage Treatment Plant
I never had to step over so much human feces, outside on NYC in the ‘80s.
Full of New Yorkers
Tell me you’ve never been to either city without actually telling me you’ve never been to either city lmao
Comparing downtowns, Danbury is worse. Surrounding areas, they are about equal. People wise, Danbury is just kinda special.
Do you have kids? Danbury is the kind of town where 15-25 highschoolers give birth each year. That number is less than 2 in essentially every town that surrounds it. Not saying that is the only metric but it gives you an idea of the quality of the town IMO
That really gives very little information about anything. How do those numbers compare as percentages? What demographic information is being left out of this? 15-25 is a huge range, what are the actual numbers each year? When you say “essentially every town that surrounds it” which ones do you actually mean and why are you excluding the others? Everything you said may be true, you just presented it so poorly that the information you gave has no meaning
Yea well I’m not a CT town quality statistician lol I’m just saying I know the area and this state has the kind of towns where highschools have daycare centers inside the school and the kinds that don’t, and Danbury is one of the daycare ones.
mkt853 t1_j0hybic wrote
I don't think there will be an issue with the airport. It's tiny and only recreational type planes use it. The Danbury Mall is right next to it, and you can see how the planes land and take off. When they land it looks like they come in over the hill between Danbury and Ridgefield, and when they take off it looks like they are heading more northerly along the state line. I don't think there would be any issue with the planes in Bethel. There's a university in Danbury, so I'd say it's pretty safe to walk around at night because lots of college kids do it every day.