What’s New Haven like?

1. It is like Florence. It has too many one way streets that lead you astray, so that if you go down a block to check out curbside parking and there isn’t an open spot, you may as well reconcile yourself to a thirty minute detour just to get back to the same block again. The city is best explored without a car.

So many stop lights! Sometimes, the wait forces you to look up and admire what's around you. The baloons are there to welcome in the new academic year. 

2. It is like any University City, USA. Strip it of the university and you would have a cone without the ice cream, a shell without its inhabitant, a lake without water… you get the point. Is it an unhappy alliance? I wouldn’t say so. More like a love-hate, push-pull affair. When I lived in Hyde Park, home to the University of Chicago, it was push & hate all the way. Here, it depends whom you’re talking to at what time in the day. I find New Havenites generally a friendly bunch, unreasonably so, considering how much they can be left out of the university powerhouse.

If you're not inspired to learn in this setting, then hang it up 

3. It is like Little Italy, NY. This is, after all, the outpost for many an Italian immigrant family. Aside from the great pizza, you’ll find bakeries with those terrific Italian cookies that aren’t too sweet and that make every coffee break a sensual experience.

One of the many, many excellent pies -- this one appeasing the mushroom lovers and the pepperoni nuts 

4. It is like every urban center in the States: its commercial periphery is too vast, too abundant, too cluttered, too heavily trafficked. Consider this: yesterday, I needed to purchase a small coffee maker – a simple machine that would brew small quantities of the caffeinated beverage. I could now list you 100 places within a ten mile radius that sell them, from Walmart, to Linens and Things, Walgreens, Sam’s Club, etc etc. Why do we need so many stores?

5. It is an ocean port without any visible sign of the ocean. I can be here for five days and never see any body of water. But sea gulls are everywhere.

6. It is like New York City – overflowing with a great number of mid-range eateries (and like NY, it has an abundant upper range as well, but I’ll pass on that). There are more excellent (typically ethnic) restaurants within a 10 block range than I have ever seen anywhere (5 terrific Thai places alone to choose from, 3 Indian, several Ethiopian, Malaysian, etc etc).

7. It is like the island of Fiji in that it is in love with pure (bottled) Fiji water. I personally do not understand why one must go half way across the earth to find water suitable to sell in New Haven, but there you have it: you want bottled water, you have to buy the Fiji stuff.

the hottest selling water in town 

8. It is not like Madison. As I said earlier, it’s farmers market is inferior to ours. Two stalls, open Saturdays from 9 ‘til 12. It is interesting, though, to come and shop. You have to wait patiently as customers take out their “Connecticut Produce” coupons (I am guessing that these are a form of “food stamps”) and give them to the farmer and then together they select foods that will fill the, say, $12 ration. Those waiting (me for instance), give enthusiastic advice as to what might be a good next choice, and the farmers generously throw in over and beyond what the coupon might buy. For $12, the shopper walks away with a large supply of produce. At the Madison market, $12 wont go very far.

New Haven farmers market: stall number one 

New Haven farmers' market: stall number 2. Don't scroll further -- it ends here.