I live in East Haven and commute to work at Yale daily. We have a 2.5 year old, and live right off the town center/mainstream.

I have never had a car broken into, never been mugged, never even seen a "sketchy" thing really.

And my commute to work even in heavy traffic is about 15 min.

This is very helpful to know, thank you! When we move to the area we can maybe set up playdates! (We are nice lol). My "1" year old is almost 2... time flies...

For sure! The library does a lot of young kids events, and the town green is a fun space as well- my daughter love playing on the gazebo.

The beach is one of the best on the shoreline- not in terms of the actual water, but the playground is DOPE, and right across the street in a water-pad play area, large pavilion, and a restaurant

I also love the local diner "Twin Pines Diner" it is a year round staple for when my daughter is being a pickle and I need to bribe her into behaving.

I have never worked in east haven personally but I know a few people that have lived there and I’ve always heard good things! Depending on your price range you can also find affordable homes in Milford, Hamden, north haven and west haven, not too far from the beach too!

I live in New Haven. East haven is fine. It’s safe and cheap. Lots of trumpy Italians. Only town on CT shoreline that voted red in 2020. If that’s your thing, you’ll like it. If not then move before your kid(s) get older

Depending on what you can afford, I’d look at orange/Woodbridge. Excellent quiet towns bordering New Haven, with the best school system near New Haven

After those two north haven, Milford and Wallingford are also great towns.

All those are likely more $ than east haven tho. The east haven school system is not good

I grew up in East Haven. Now in New Haven, but in terms of East it is quite nice. A lot of old Italians who are VERY used to their way of living (translated: there’s a decent amount of biggotry), and a lot of it was passed down to the next generation. Pretty safe and very family friendly, plus if your kid eventually likes baseball we have 4 fields ! Education system is okay, I know two people from my middle school who went to East Haven High and wound up going to Ivy league schools. Overall pretty quiet and people keep to themselves. Main Street is loaded with good, family owned food from various cultures. Some reccomendations as a native: Aniellos, John & Marie’s Pizza, Papas Wings & Seafood, Foliage Chinese Food, and Taqueria la Frontera. We now have a farmers market too, its small but there are some really kind vendors and great businesses that come through!

Look up “Christmas in East haven.” The video will give you a good view of locals’ perceptions of East Haven.

I looked at houses there and here are my several pettyish reasons I chose somewhere else:

-trumpy Italians as someone else said. This only resonated with me because the mindset has bled over to a hesitance to embrace what could be a great opportunity for the town in being more accommodating to the airport and income that could be garnered from it, if done correctly. Aka NIMBYs. Also anti vaxxers.

• proximity to small airport and recent plane crashes, one of which killed a family’s two children as they were in their own house
• swampy mosquito-ey areas
• schools leave a lot to be desired if you have a child that has an iep. These are anecdotes but I know of one family who is suing the school system bc of this, one family that is going into debt to put their kid (who needs accommodations) in a private school to avoid EH public, and another family who is pretending to live at their in-laws in another town, also to have their kid, in need of accommodations, avoid the EH public schools.

I live in Foxon in East Haven. Having moved from milford (born and raised) and Branford.

It's not a fancy town. There are a lot of nice small restaurants. People , for the most part are friendly. The beach is beautiful year round. The green is getting more and more beautiful. Don't listen to nay sayers. Everyone's experience is different.

Nothing wrong with "Trumpy Italians ".

It's definitely an Italian town and I love it and I'm not Italian. Great food and bakeries!

Don’t forget Tolli’s!

I wouldn't recommend it if you're a BIPOC. My family experienced a lot of racism during our brief time living there. They're so good at being racist, they even made national news several times!

>he east haven school system is not good

yeah, traditionally the trumpy Italians send their kids to Catholic school. if you do private school there's nice parts of east haven to raise a small child. Momaguin or Cosey Beach if you can afford it gets you in a quiet area to walk, ride bikes and swim.

East Haven has some of the best saltwater kayaking in the north east though. There's a maze of tiny islands that goes from east haven through branford and a bunch of accessible rivers

i'd avoid east haven public schools if that's your plan

A lot of comments about "trumpy Italians" but that's softening the issue a bit-- East Haven has a lot of racists. I’m an Italian-American and I love the culture and all that but I would never live in East Haven because I'm not a racist and I don't want to live with that many racists.

If racism doesn't bother you, I'm sure it's a fine place to live. Otherwise, I'd second the suggestion to look elsewhere.

They’re so racist the FBI investigated the police department, and confirmed all of the awful allegations!

Also I’m very sorry you and your family had to endure that. Hope you’re doing better now

School system sucks

Old school Italians, trump supporters, bad school system, but nice beach and low taxes

Didn’t you ask about West Haven a couple of days ago? I’m the former Denver resident. East Haven is ok, if crime stats are all you’re interested in look at crimegrade.org. East Haven is about a 180 from Boulder culturally. And Tweed has a new airline causing lots of noise if you’re too close.

Moved to EH last year. Can confirm: Many trumpy italians

A looooooot of people are complaining about the airport issue since Tweed decided to start marketing their flights and branching out.

East Haven public schools have had a less than stellar reputation for a very long time. I’m not sure how it is now.

Airport working hard on local politicians to expand drastically. 737s are no joke when the fly right over your house.

Nice area try to stay away from the airport.....unless you don't mind the noise of jets. Down by the water is nice...some nice places up north too northbranford area.

Scared the shit out of me the first time one of the avelo flights went over me in North Haven. It looked like it was almost skimming the trees

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I’ve lived here for 15 years, and grew up in Branford. Yea, there are trumpy Italians, we are not, but there are some very nice people here as well. My daughter is a junior in high school and we have had zero issues with any of her schooling, beginning with kindergarten. She is in all honors and ap classes and we like most of her teachers. A lot of public school is what your child and the parents, make of it. We live in Foxon, so it’s very close to Route 80 and 91. Anyways, the beach is great in the summer, lots of yummy places to eat, close proximity to other towns and New Haven, the library is adorable and has events for children of all ages, the rink is opening back up, completely brand new. We have little festivals, a nice farmers market in the summer, and of course, the airport, which I have used many times to go to Florida. Please do not listen to all the negative, we live in a diverse neighborhood where everyone is friendly. It’s a nice little shoreline town.

This. THIS.

I lived in East Haven my whole life growing up, my parents still live there, as do most of my best friends, and I went through East Haven Public Schools. East Haven is HEAVILY Italian-American but it's changed a lot in my lifetime. Many of my friends at East Haven High came from many different backgrounds, Ecuadorian, Puerto Rican, Cambodian, you name it. It's a great place to raise a family, people are very friendly and the school system isn't fantastic, but it's pretty good for the kids that really want to do well. East Haven has really good food (John & Maria's, Twin Pines, and Gutiz Bakery) and it's not snobby like other towns on the shoreline can be. Obviously there is some crime, it's a pretty blue-collar town, but otherwise it's very good for raising a family. Most of the people in the area look down on East Haven because of it's working class vibe, but honestly it's a pretty friendly and diverse place, and honestly it's a much better bang for your buck compared to other New Haven area towns.

You take the Trumpy out of Italians and there’s nothing wrong.

It’s the Trumpy thing that’s the problem.

HORRIBLE. Especially if miss Lynn is still in charge of the middle school.

Staven born and raised (for full disclosure, not proud of it) I've heard Wallingford is equally racist

And that's your opinion.

But I’m raising a large child.

Congratulations and best of luck with the move. My first piece of advice is to carefully reconsider buying a home until you have lived here for at least a couple years. New Haven and the surrounding towns all have neighborhoods that will probably meet all your needs. You need to get to know the area to find the area that suits your specific needs. Don't rely on a real estate agent or, even worse, a bunch of opinionated strangers!

Safe neighborhoods are not hard to find in New Haven and elsewhere. I let my kids walk and bike all over the place without supervision. They walk to friends' houses, stop for a soda, etc. There are plenty of good schools to choose from. This is Connecticut, not Alabama. You will be fine.

Maybe in your reality.

East Haven schools are not good. All my cousins went to private school

And that's all you focused on in my comment. 😂🤣🙄

Wow! Trumpy Italians. Thats not racist?

Well, I mean it is true. If you’re a Trumper then you live in a much different reality than the rest of America. You may believe that is my opinion, but it seems like if others are expressing their disinterest of living around “Trumpy Italians” then it’s no longer an opinion that Trumpy people suck, it is a fact.

Why does everything have to go political?

I actually don't hear anyone discussing politics when I am out and about EH daily. People pretty much keep it to themselves in public.

Makes sense because there’s nothing to debate when you’re with your own people.

Perhaps

If it's a boy he'd dominate the playground and get a cool 'Staven nickname like Moose or Bundy or el Oso