By Michael P. Walsh
Special to the Voice
West Haven is among the top-10 safest and fastest-growing cities in Connecticut, according to the real estate infotainment blog HomeSnacks.
West Haven was ranked the ninth-safest place in the state, according to a blog post written by Nick Johnson, a public relations specialist who has secured media placements in The New York Times and Time magazine. The post was published on the website April 28.
West Haven was also ranked the ninth-fastest-growing city in Connecticut, according to a blog post written by Chris Kolmar, founder of the real estate blog Movoto, whose research has been featured in the Your Money section of The New York Times. The post was published May 25, 2016.
“To be recognized as one of the safest and fastest-growing cities in Connecticut is a great honor and something every West Haven resident should be proud of,” Mayor Edward M. O’Brien said. “With our commitment to ensuring our public safety officials have the resources they need, to investing in our infrastructure, and to bringing an unprecedented level of economic development to our city, these recognitions should come as no surprise.”
“West Haven is moving forward,” O’Brien added, “and that is a trend we will see continue.”
Darien topped the list of the “10 Safest Cities in Connecticut for 2017,” followed by Westport, Shelton, Ridgefield, Portland, Windsor Locks, Wethersfield, Bethel, West Haven and Willimantic.
“Looking at the data, you can tell that anything within a 15-minute drive of Darien is the most desirable, according to science and data,” Johnson wrote. “But as most Connecticut residents would agree, almost every place here is awesome.”
Johnson based his research on Connecticut cities with a population of more than 5,000 people. Specifically, he analyzed the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report, published in September 2015, which summarizes the number of property crimes and violent crimes in each city per year.
Three criteria were used: violent crimes per capita — murders, assaults, rapes, armed robberies — as well as property crimes per capita — thefts, burglaries, motor vehicle thefts — and total crimes per capita.
HomeSnacks, which “aims to deliver bite-sized pieces of infotainment about where you live,” is owned by Chasing Chains LLC and based in Durham, North Carolina.
The data collected by HomeSnacks for various blog posts have been cited and used by ABC News, CBS News and NBC News in their reports.
For Kolmar’s post, he based his research on the U.S. Census Bureau’s growth rates for cities with a population of more than 5,000 people in 2010-14.
“We used data and science to determine the places in Connecticut everyone wants to move to today,” Kolmar wrote. “After getting knee deep in the (Census Bureau’s) American Community Survey, we emerged with this set of cities in the Constitution State that have people climbing over each other to get in.”
Danbury topped the list of the “10 Fastest Growing Cities in Connecticut,” followed by Stamford, Shelton, Norwalk, Bridgeport, Norwich, New Haven, Milford, West Haven and Hartford.
Kolmar further wrote, “If you happen to be a resident of one of these communities, you’re probably not too surprised to find it on our list