Getting Hartford to 140k people

[Recchia]

bridgeport has a large brazilian population. i don't think they consider themselves hispanic.

Apparently not large enough to matter though, it's top ancestry is actually Italian (8.6%).

Hartford-19% foreign born, Bridgeport-21% foreign born, I guess not enough difference to delineate the two.

[drc72]

I would've said that Bridgeport may have remained steady resulting from more immigration than Hartford, but that's probably not true. I just looked it up, and Hartford is 40% Hispanic while Bridgeport is only 30%, so that kills my idea...

10% can make a big difference sometimes.

[HartfordTycoon]

I'm not sure about Springfield because I would imagine that real estate in W. Mass is cheaper than in Greater Hartford, but in Bridgeport part of the issue is that middle class residents can't afford to move to any of the near burbs to their city due to it being on the Gold Coast and all. Here in central CT we have much more moderately priced burbs so people with less money can still afford to leave the city, especially families with school aged children who will move to Bloomfield, Windsor, or East Hartford for bette schools, and it will be easier to enroll kids from the burbs in the Hartford magnet schools to boot since all the kids already in the Hartford system already enter the lottery for the magnet schools.

[MadVlad]

I'm not sure about Springfield because I would imagine that real estate in W. Mass is cheaper than in Greater Hartford, but in Bridgeport part of the issue is that middle class residents can't afford to move to any of the near burbs to their city due to it being on the Gold Coast and all. Here in central CT we have much more moderately priced burbs so people with less money can still afford to leave the city, especially families with school aged children who will move to Bloomfield, Windsor, or East Hartford for bette schools, and it will be easier to enroll kids from the burbs in the Hartford magnet schools to boot since all the kids already in the Hartford system already enter the lottery for the magnet schools.

You know, that's probably the best point I've heard. Well, good for Bridgeport, they may not have much going for them, but they do have the fact that all the lower middle class can't afford to move out of town....

[robm324]

A big reason I think Springfield has not experienced huge population loss is because there are very large sections of Springfield that have a good middle and lower middle class housing base. Sure Springfield has its share of blighted properties in the lower income sections, just light Hartford, but the middle class sections do not end up having houses that turn into burnt out vacant properties...someone new eventually always moves into a modest middle class home. Also, If we have established that living-on-campus college students are counted in the census where they go to school, then Springfield does have about 6K-7K residential students between Springfield College, Western New England College, and American International College.

I feel like I should know this but I don't...Does Hartford have a residency requirement for all municipal workers? Springfield does, and while this doesn't account for 10s of thousands of people, its does mean that a lot of people with steady middle to upper middle class jobs have to take up residence in the city somewhere.

[MadVlad]

I don't believe they do, but I could be wrong.

[HartfordTycoon]

We do have a residency requirement, however I did hear that somehow it was considered discrimination to people from the suburbs. Whatever. But they still have it and it is enforced if you apply for a job, I know from numerous attempts to escape my Simsbury office and return to my city. I don't think they can fire someone or force them to move though if they don't live in the city, but you have to at least act like you live here to apply for most jobs.