The coming of a New Haven pizza joint to Manchester has been greeted with awe and celebration, because New Haven pizza is at the core of Connecticut’s economic development marketing plans.
Of the almost endless supply of ten-best and top-ten lists, Connecticut tends to appear most frequently when the subject is, “best pizza.” The New Haven pizza entrepreneurs are a slender reed on which to hang a state marketing program, but better to be known as the state with the best pizza than to be known as the state with the highest electric bills.
And when the “state” thing doesn’t work, New Haven simply flexes its pepperoni-fueled muscles and snags some “best city” award, when the subject is, well, you know, pizza.
Connecticut and its cities aren’t too good at such stuff. While some rating scheme or another has delivered “best” status on almost everything and everywhere, including a few toxic waste dumps, Connecticut doesn’t usually make the grade.
Last summer, Kiplinger’s, the semi-snobby personal finance magazine, cranked out a list of the top 50 “places to live” among American cities. Oshkosh, Wis., made the list, as did Ithaca, N.Y. and Sioux Falls, S.D. and Evansville, Ind. No Connecticut cities. Not one. Not even New England’s Rising Star.
Two of the top Kiplinger’s criteria were low crime rates and low cost of living. Nothing about pizza.
All this is not to say that Connecticut is some barren, arid, desolate place, where you can’t buy a bottle of wine in a grocery store or get a haircut on a Monday.
The American Library Association reported in 2005 that Connecticut residents visited public libraries more than any other state in the union, except for Ohio. Let no rating service claim that Connecticut doesn’t know how to show a girl a good time.
The Census Bureau’s “American Community Survey” of where college graduates live has been a disappointment to Connecticut, which has no metropolitan areas in the top 10 to compete against cool places such as Seattle and Austin and San Francisco. Connecticut cities may suffer from undercounting of college graduates, because most of them are visiting public libraries at the time of the survey.
Not Tops, Not Worst
Similarly, Kiplinger’s (which really, really likes to rate things) “Seven cool cities” analysis of the best towns for young professionals to live, also ignores Connecticut towns, in favor of Atlanta and Austin and Nashville and Denver and other frisky, Wi-Fi kinds of metro-fun palaces.
Despite Connecticut’s bumper crop of rich people; and the Democratic Party’s blood-lust to “tax the millionaires” in Connecticut, the state does not appear as either one of the most friendly or least friendly states for the wealthy, as analyzed by Bloomberg Wealth Manager. Rhode Island, Wisconsin and New York normally lead the field for enemies of the rich, while Wyoming and Nevada and Tennessee are usually the most friendly.
Money magazine performed a series of mysterious metric magic tricks on various economic and social indicators a few years back to decide on the “hottest towns” in America. Of the 99 towns, the only Connecticut local to make the cut was Newtown. Even Newtown was surprised.
Every decade or so, the vaguely left-wing, urban-planning types at the nonprofit Partners for Livable Communities produce an “America’s most livable places” report. Twenty states had at least one city or town on the list. Nothing from Connecticut.
Beyond some preliminary plans by Connecticut economic development types to put a New Haven pizza parlor in every Connecticut town, the best strategy to make Connecticut more lovable is to insist that the “best” lists are sufficiently long to include Connecticut locales.
For instance, when Money magazine did its “best 100 places to live,” Connecticut towns snared five slots. Greenwich, Tolland, New Milford, Colchester and Guilford staggered to the finish line — none in the top-ten.
The struggle to get Connecticut on those 10-best lists is so stressful that most of the economic development bureaucrats take long vacations to unwind. The 2007 Conde Nast Traveler survey of America’s favorite cities suggests San Francisco and New York City and Charleston, S.C. as the top picks among the top 10. Connecticut cities? Well no. But what kind of pizza can you get in Charleston?
Laurence D. Cohen is a freelance writer.
