CT's Best Places to Live List for 2023 Snubbed Greater Danbury

Niche is an app that helps you "find where you belong."

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The website's about section reads:

"Niche is the market leader in connecting colleges and schools with students and families. With in-depth profiles on every school and college in America, over 140 million reviews and ratings, and powerful search and data tools, Niche helps millions of students and families find and enroll in the right school for them. For schools, school districts, and communities, Niche’s platform, data, and services help thousands of schools recruit and enroll more best-fit students."

All those shiny bright words make it sound like they might know what they are talking about, but their recent study results indicate otherwise. Niche just put out their 2023 Best Places to Live in CT list and the Hat City got the the s--- end of the stick. Danbury wasn't the only Greater-Danbury town, all of them were missing. We didn't even make the Top 25 list.

Here are their Top 5 with links to each town's demographics from Advance CT

1 - West Hartford

2 - Newfield - Neighborhood in Stamford

3 - Weatogue - Village in Simsbury

4 - Riverside - Neighborhood in Greenwich

5 - Noank - Village in Groton

I'm sure these are wonderful places to live, but they're similar in a lot of ways, they are quiet, mostly wealthy and not very diverse from what I can tell. Where was the consideration for Danbury? We can't get into the Top 25?

Photo: Lou Milano

If I said Danbury has to be the best place in CT, I'd be letting my hometown pride get in the way of an actual discussion but not in the Top 25? Every year Danbury is ranked as one of the most diverse cities in America.

While we are at it, where is Ridgefield? Ridgefield is beautiful and ranks as the safest towns in CT, every year. Where is New Milford? New Milford's slogan is "Best Town in the USA!" Niche doesn't even think New Milford is in the Top 10 places in Litchfield County, they ranked them #11 in their own county!

This is all poppycock is what it is.

We talked about this on the Friday (3/24/23) edition of I-95 Morning Show, listen below.

Later, that day we spoke to Danbury Mayor Dean Esposito and asked him about it.

Check out the Ethan, Lou & Large Dave Podcast on Apple and Spotify

NOTE: Niche is not affiliated with Advance CT, I added the demographic link from the state to allow you to learn more about the areas in question.

Photo: Lou Milano

P.S. I'm sure the folks at Niche are wonderful people but you missed a few things, namely:

Danbury
New Milford
Ridgefield
Brookfield
Bethel
New Fairfield
Newtown

Exclusive Photos, Videos, and Interviews on the Set of New Milford Horror Movie

"Candlewood" is a horror film that just finished filming in New Milford, CT. This is how the filmmakers described the project on their Indiegogo:

"Candlewood is the first movie of three in the psychological/horror feature film franchise. A blended family moves from the city to a small town in Connecticut, where a local urban legend adds chaos and terror to an already fragile family dynamic. The staunch patriarch, who desperately wants his family to not see him as a failure but as the father that did everything, he could to keep his family together through difficult times. Candlewood follows a family leaving New York City for a simpler life in the country town of New Milford, CT. The haunting and mysterious true stories of missing hikers near a popular state park, Lover's Leap, coupled with the town of Jerusalem sitting at the bottom of Candlewood Lake gives credibility to our narrative. We bring to life the struggle of good vs evil and what happens when lifelong, outdated traditions are challenged."

A while back I got in touch with the folks behind the movie, invited them on the I-95 Morning Show with Ethan, Lou and Dave and talked about the film, and shooting in New Milford. We spoke with Director Myke Furhman and Writer/Executive Producer Victoria Flores-Argue. During that discussion, I demanded to be in the movie, telling the duo that I have some experience acting on TV shows that never actually made it onto TV. Against all odds, they did invite me to participate and I visited the set on October 20th to shoot a scene that is important. I was extremely nervous and I had zero idea of what I was in for. Below are some insider moments from my day on-set and from others.