<p>The thread is getting pretty exhaustive on the topic, but I do want to mention:</p>
<p>-I tried hard to find the article, and could not, but about a month ago, the Dean of Student Affairs of Harvard College was cited in the Yale Daily News saying things that amounted to “the amount of crime in Cambridge is very comparable to than in New Haven” and “Don’t get me wrong - Cambridge can be quite dangeous.” I don’t know why she said those things, but she did. It was an entertaining read for a Yalie.</p>
<p>-There are Yalies that b|tch and complain about New Haven and those that make the best of it in a way one could not do with a larger place. You realize there is a limited selection of clothing retailers in walking distance, so you take your pick of J Press, J Crew, and Urban Outfitters and you stick with it. There are no endless shopping opportunities to distract you from your studies :)</p>
<p>-Yes, New Haven just wouldn’t be the same without Yale, but you kind of become proud of Yale’s role if you’re economically progressively minded. Yale is smack in the downtown of New Haven and owns a big chunk of the commericial real estate including all of Broadway and most of Whitney Avenue. Those places are neatly manicured and leave you wondering where New Haven got its bad rep. Yale owns a bunch of random apartment housing and keeps buying more and works with the city to develop subsidized home ownership programs. Measures like these help lift the city’s image in many ways. </p>
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<li>The fairly ghettoey places that remain are quite a walk away. Someone mentioned “across the highway.” I don’t recall ever seeing or hearing of a Yalie going over there. If you’re headed in the direction however, the Wooster Street neighborhood is one of the oldest and most interesting, far from ghetto. If you venture as far as Fair Haven going on Grand Avenue, you’ll see the paradigm signs of a ghetto soon enough, though. But if you make it over the Q-Pac River you’ll be in the clear again. The section of Derby Avenue from passing the Yale Bowl to around Dwight Street isn’t so pleasant either which closely relates to the area west of campus being risky. And the Dixwell Ave direction too, I guess, is one to be cautious in.<br></li>
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<p>-There’s ample night clubs and liquor stores in New Haven 
- CLub Image, and the club on College St are good choices and if one considers BAR a club that’s good too. And of course Toad’s can’t be missed. </p>
<p>-There is a shortfall with movie theaters. I’d say even Hanover, NH beats us there…there is one really fancy movie theater nearby, but it only shows indie flicks. Since York Street Cinemas went under, you pretty much have to catch a bus to go to a mainstream movie theater, although the Med School Film Society makes up in part by screening good films about a month after they stop playing in the mainstream theaters. </p>
<p>That’s my take on New Haven. I’m not in too much of a position to evaluate Cambridge, having only been twice.</p>