They print in lower volume now, so it costs them more to print per issue. I subscribe to the digital edition (but currently get free Sunday papers delivered as a bonus). It only costs a few bucks a month, a small price to pay to keep local reporters employed. We don't have as many journalists to hold local officials to account as we once did, and God help us if we lose all the local reporters.

I don't think there's any NY/CT difference, I've lived all over the Tri-State Area, and it really varies from town to town, and even within towns/neighborhoods.

I didn't want to give too many specifics, but that's a pretty good guess.

Does anyone still go to a bookie? What's the point? It must only be old guys who don't have iPhones now.

In Central CT, trash collection is run by big companies like All Waste, but in Western CT, there's all those little trash collecting companies, and the corporate trash collectors can't get a foothold. I wonder why that is? A kid I went to school with runs one of the local trash companies and almost went to prison just for cutting deals with Galante, who was a competitor.

There's also active mob in Hartford, but they're more active in construction, sports books, vending machines, drugs, etc. They've been dying out though. The current generation is much less powerful than the last one. I used to go to a restaurant in the South End where you could place bets with the bookie bartender and eat Italian food with all the old mobsters, but it was sold, bulldozed and replaced with a chain store a decade ago.

Ever since RICO, a lot of the smarter young guys are figuring out that it's easier and safer to make money in the private sector. That's leading to a brain drain leaving the knuckleheads in charge of the rackets, so they keep getting weaker with time.

The author should go to the News-Times to write obituaries for a few years and learn to be concise. If he wants to write for conservative media, he can’t be that boring unless he comes from money (and with a WestConn degree, that’s probably not the case).

It smells like Mambo in here

After years of raking, bagging and multiple trips to the dump for 40-50 bags of leaves, I just pay a guy $300 for a Fall cleanup. Time is money, and a freed up weekend is worth more to me than $300.

No, it’s cheaper than New Haven though, and much easier to get in and out. I think it’s $7 daily, but I do the 6 month pass for $300. It’s free if you roll the dice, they seldom check (the guy who parks next to me has a pass that expired in June and hasn’t been ticketed yet). I used to live in Danbury and remember Brewster parking being a hassle, but that was many years ago and may have changed.

It’s a little cheaper and faster, but for me it’s a 1:15 drive to Brewster vs. 45 min to West Haven, and 84W tends to be less reliable than 91S (especially through Waterbury). Also parking in West Haven is painless.

Yes indeed, 1:37 from Milford to GCT on my train. And the fares are insanely cheaper than Amtrak.

I commute from the Hartford area to NYC, it’s a little under 3 hours door to door. I drive 40 min. to West Haven then take Metro North, then it’s 1:45 on the train and a 20 min walk (or 5 min subway ride) to my office. Boston is going to be tougher. One day I hope a commuter train connects Springfield to Boston and you can take the Hartford Line all the way up. Until then, it’s Amtrak (which isn’t really feasible for commuting) or driving. Driving is doable, but it’s a grind (even just 2x/week). I’d aim to negotiate that down to once a week while you look for something else. While Hartford is equidistant from NYC and Boston, NYC has a larger commuter radius thanks to better transit options. Much of Fairfield County commutes to NYC, and even a few maniacs like me are out as far as Central CT. With Boston, CT and even Western MA aren’t considered commutable (though Lamont and MA business leaders have been pushing for a Springfield to Boston connection for years). I could cut a half hour off my commute by driving, but there’s too much day to day uncertainty with traffic, and 4+ hours in the car in one day is too much. I can relax on the train, catch up on work, or take a nap if I need it (and frequently do).

Boughton could have easily beaten Lamont in 2018, but Republicans had to pick the guy who couldn’t win. Lamont was the successor of the least popular Democratic governor in the country in 2018 and should have been easy to beat. Now it’s 2022 and Bob is running against the most popular Democratic governor in the country.