Saturday, September 15, 2007

Wrong Side of the Metro North Tracks? Bank Gossip

SCOOP: The Stamford Police caught the guy who robbed my People's Bank last Monday. Guess where he stopped by earlier that day? My credit union, the one that was robbed two years ago. The staff there is obviously on their toes, so when a man walked in last week with his hood low, they asked him to remove it (YOU GO GIRLS), and he left-- to go rob my People's. Read more at the Advocate online.
MY TAKE: When I'm at eating the Gioia salad at Capriccio, wandering Borders, or eating a 4 dollar bag of M&Ms at the movies, it's easy to forget that not everyone in Stamford has such a high standard of living. I could say that my banks are near the "bad" parts of town, but that implies only criminals and sketchy people live there. I don't think it's that simple.
VERDICT on this situation? It confuses me that while the Stamford Symphony Orchestra has a large audience of subcribers, and while Stamford is the highest-rent area in the country (it beats San Fran), there is low-income housing all over Stamford, and as far as I can tell, no interaction between these different types of people. There is very little middle ground in this city.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Stamford is the highest-rent area in the countrY? ERR..I THINK NOT....there's this tittle place 35miles down the road called New York City...highest concentration of renters in the country and higest absolute rents. You need to get out of Stamford a bit. Living here for years as we have makes us a bit delusional about how good it is.

Stamford Talk said...

I dunno, I've read it a couple of places that Stamford rates the highest. Here's a list from about.com that says Stamford has one of the highest median rents:

Ten Highest Rent Cities

Irvine, Calif. - $1,272
Sunnyvale, Calif. - $1,270
Santa Clara, Calif. - $1,238
Fremont, Calif. - $1,196
Thousand Oaks, Calif. - $1,131
San Jose, Calif. - $1,123
Daly City, Calif. - $1,074
Simi Valley, Calif. - $1,058
Stamford, Conn. - $1,007
Huntington Beach, Calif. - $ 985

That's from one site, but I've read it several places (much to my dismay). Since it's median, it might be that NYC has overall higher, but that NYC also has lower rents that balance it out, whereas most of Stamford's are high-priced.

http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/consumer/a/aausrents.htm

Anonymous said...

Not sure what is so "good" about super high rent. 25% of NYC lives in poverty, so maybe you are thinking Manhattan only. Which if the case, is only 1/5th of NYC.

Also, the $1,000 you pay in Stamford, gets you a rather poor place. Quality of life is lower here at that price than any other city in america.

Stamford Talk said...

I don't think it's even possible to get a decent studio for 1,000 around here. Up until 2004, I paid 650 $ for a nice but nothing luxurious place in Waterside with 2 roommates. Forget living alone around here... even when you make the median Stamford income!