A day after visiting
PROVIDENCE, I went to New Haven.
New Haven is one of America's earliest real examples of city planning. Its street grid was designed in 1642, to radiate outward from a central public square, or "green" in the New England parlance. That plan is still the heart of New Haven today. With its urbanized area of 560,000, the city is roughly equal in population to Akron, Colorado Springs, Knoxville, or Grand Rapids.
Let's see a quick overview. If it's labeled on this map, you'll see photos below.
Aerial image from Google. All other images in this thread are mine.
Downtown:
Downtown is fine. Reasonably intact, some nice tallish buildings, not too many parking lots. I was there on a summer weekend, so it was empty of both Yale students and office workers. But it appears basically healthy, if lacking anything so romantic as Providence's riverwalk. It's pretty much what you'd expect from a wealthy mid-size New England city.
The Green:
The green is the formal center of town and is an expansive public park, very much in the English/American style of grassy lawns, broad paths, and large shade trees.
Temple Street goes through the middle of the green, and contains major stops for New Haven's bus network.
Bus lanes have special red pavers, so car drivers have no excuses.
Yale:
Beyond the green, Yale University and its famous gothic campus.
Broadway commercial area:
Two blocks past the square, amid Yale, Broadway and its line of shops begins. This is Yale's student ghetto. I'm sure it's bustling during the school year.
Union Station:
Back on the other side of town, southwest of downtown, is New Haven's train station. New Haven is on the Northeast corridor mainline between Boston and New York, so there are plenty of trains, including Amtrak's high-speed Acela, normal speed Amtrak, and
local varieties.
Sorry for blur.
Newport bonus:
I won't do a whole thread on it, but this trip also included a stop in Newport, RI.
Here's my Flickr set if you're interested, with one teaser:
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