Connecticut suburbs, per person, spend more than cities. That’s the conclusion of an article by CT Mirror reporters Keith Phaneuf and Clarice Silber. In an examination of wealth inequality, the story declares … “when municipal spending is examined on a per capita basis, it’s Connecticut’s suburbs–and particularly those in Fairfield County–that lead the way in spending.”
After Hartford at 19, the rank of the other distressed municipalities and their per capita spending were:
— Derby, 27, spending $4,438;
— New Haven, 41, $4,213;
— East Hartford, 57, $4,026;
— Bridgeport, 71, $3,907;
— Waterbury, 78, $3,852;
— Naugatuck, 82, $3,818.A wealthy suburb of nearly 28,000, Westport is home to one of the worlds’ largest hedge funds, Bridgewater Associates, and about an hour by rail from Wall Street. With a median household income of $166,307, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, only 4.4 percent of Westport’s population is below the poverty level.
Meanwhile, Bridgeport–the state’s largest city with 146,000 people–struggles with some of the highest unemployment and violent crime rates in the state.
More than 20 percent of its residents live at or below the federal poverty level and the median household income is $43,137, or about one-quarter that of Westport.
About 58 percent of the homeless in coastal Fairfield County reside in Bridgeport, said Pam Ralston, a manager for the Connecticut Coalition to End Homelessness. The city also received nearly 10,000 phone calls in 2017 from people making housing and shelter requests.
Full story here.
Those soccer fields and lacrosse sticks cost a lot of money.
The people in the suburbs are for the most part selfish self centered assholes. They think the world revolves around the needs of their dopey kids and their significant other half who in all probability has some sort of drug problem.\
Dont worry we will keep the hospitals open and the drunk schools functioning. Dont worry we wont send our poor people there to buy affordable housing because there is no affordable housing. Just so you assholes know affordable housing does not start at $350K. You drunked up kids can still come here for rehab because they have no where else to go.
To all you suburbanites and the 2 reporters I have a resounding FUCK YOU for all of you people
Mr. Fardy I’m sincerely curious of your opinion and/or ideas to right the wrongs of Suburbs -vs- Urban…
I will be glad to answer you. Here is what I think, the suburbs are self centered and for the most part think their towns are free of all the inner city problems.
The suburbs go to varying lengths to keep city dwellers out. They do this with affordable housing that they claim they have. Tell me how a city dweller can afford an affordable unit that sells for $350,000? He cant. The burbs get money back from the state for education take a look at what that has done to the suburban schools and the plants that have been built. Just go take a look at Trumbull High then come down and look at Bassick High School,how can these kids compete?
The cities house the area Hospitals, Rehab centers, home for the elderly, homes and places to stay for the homeless who for the most part are mentally challenge. All of this costs money. The suburbs dont have to pay for any of this. All of these place take taxable property of the tax rolls and we do get money from the state call PILOT. You get away with a volunteer FD that does a good job when they are around.
BTW I will take our Bridgeport Kids over the brats from the burbs any time.
How do you think the affordable housing can be improved?
Looking at Trumbull High and Bassick High what are the issues you have with them? How do you think these issues can be corrected?
Affordable housing should be just that affordable housing. The burbs get away with this by including affordable housing in all new tracts of housing. Then the burbs smile and place price tags that they know can not be met by city dwellers, thus the number of whites increases and the number of minorities stays the same.
Bassick and Trumbull high schools you know the difference but I will tell you anyway. Bassick houses over 1,000 students, the schools is over 80 years old and the roof leaks like hell.
The sport teams have no facilities of their own and must walk 3 blocks to a city park to practice. Trumbull has sports facilities for each of its teams football, baseball, lacross and the list goes on.Mr Tobin if you are testing me have at it if you dont already know what I have written about get off your ass and go have a look. The people who live where I live pay the price for everything including suburbanite freedoms look at the list of KIA and check the number of city dwellers that died in combat then look at the list for the burbs. Fuck the burbs
Mr. Fardy no testing here. I am genuinely asking you what do you think is the solutions to correct housing and education.
Should the suburbanite low their prices and how do they do that?
Should Trumbull demo their sports fields and not fix their school roofs?
Tell me how to fix these issues…
First off these rich suburban school districts should not be getting anywhere near the state monies they now receive. There should be a formula that has the burbs paying for all the non profit services that are in Bridgeport. Why should I pay for a drunk from Trumbull who has to come to Bridgeport to dry out.
As far as housing goes the burbs have no affordable housing/ Why is that? Pure and simple they dont want minorities moving into their town.
No Trumbull should NOT demo their sports complexes but State grant money should not be used to build these complexes.
Look at the sports teams and the uniforms and equipment they have in the burbs compared to the inner cities.
Look I am done writing on this subject. The inner cities fight your wars take care of all your other needs and you people go on ypur merry way.
Mr. Fardy, so you think the burbs should have their own rehabs and that when the cities fight a war they should not benefit from the outcomes? I’d like here some example of a war a city fought and was beneficial to the burbs. And your solution for the burbs having nice sports complexes, equipment, uniforms and schools is they should not get any grants from the state or federal gov. because everyone in the burbs has a lot of money and don’t need it.
Thanks for your time.
Talking about the socioeconomic problems/disparities of Connecticut has become about as meaningful as talking about the weather… We hardly need any more award-winning, journalistic coverage of our 50-year-long Connecticut “rainy day.” We are all familiar with the socioeconomic disparities of our state, and painfully aware of the stupidity and injustice involved in the misery and failure of our state as a political and socioeconomic entity… What we could use is some journalistic leadership in the form of hard-hitting editorializing that names names and suggests how rapid socioeconomic change might be accomplished in this regressive, failing, bastion of myopic indifference known as… ? … (Mississippi?!)…
The parties gubernatorial nominations are out as we head towards primaries. Based on whose left, do you have any faith there is a candidate who understands math and can begin to fix the state?
I don’t understand any of this spending on what? BpobbyWaksh please explain this in layman’s terms