On my last lease it was paid from my scheduled monthly payments and put the monthly payments into arrears

NC has a similar income tax as we do. If you make $100k in NC you'll pay $4,750 in state income tax. In CT you'd pay $4,780. In NC you will likely pay higher sales tax up to 7% depending on where you shop. NC also has an annual car property tax like we do. NC also has a driving tax a.k.a. tolls while CT has none (for now). You'll likely save big on property tax on your home, though give some of those savings back in insurance costs. On a net basis you're probably coming out ahead in terms of overall effective tax rate, but on paper it doesn't seem worth taking a haircut on income just to save a little on the tax side. I'd much rather start with the biggest pile of money I can get my hands on, and then figure out how to reduce the tax liability as much as possible. Also we use median incomes to avoid having it skewed by millionaires/billionaires. It's not an average, it's the median.

I tend to leave CT for the winter unless I have to be here. Summer is too hot in Charleston and winter is just kinda miserable here but I was enjoying 75 degree weather in January.

You lost me at “non-Americans” and “Chic-Fil-A’s model is respectable.” I grew from a 16yo first job at Subway to being second-in-command of the non-American owner’s 17 stores.

I’ve met lots of people from this area that moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and said they’d never move back because of the weather here. I just moved here from there. I met them being an Uber driver in SF.

Okay, so let me clarify that I think this practice is messed up but that does not mean it isn't routine. For the record, "law specialist" I am a lawyer, I practice criminal defense and I have dozens of clients who are in the same boat as OP. They file applications and can't even get a call for an interview. No one is telling them "we saw you have pending charges and we won't hire you because of that." They just aren't getting calls. It doesn't take a genius to understand that those things are related and that there is nothing preventing this from happening all the damn time.

You might get some corporate case once in a blue moon where an applicant was making their way through the hiring process and picked up an arrest and suddenly the employer loses interest and you get to make an argument that they didn't strictly follow the EEOC guidelines, but I've got 10 clients every day who tell me they're applying everywhere and can't even get a call back because employers do a google search or check the judicial website and see they have open cases. No one in the employment law sector is even going to hear about a 10th of those cases, let alone try to litigate them.

Cost of living and and my hatred of winter have me thinking lately. I don’t see myself growing old in this state

Money to be made, that’s how this world works.

Right across the street from each other when they were around! Fairfield 90’s when I remember them. I feel like a k-mart was close by too…

I never realized it was singular till your comment. Even reading the post, just thinking Caldor’s. I always called them Caldor’s too!

G's in Hartford is absolutely bomb. Discovered them a few weeks back and honestly I've eaten there like twice a week ever since. Highly recommend the shaved ribeye with wiz, onions peppers fried jalapenos and bacon with chipotle mayo.

That's the only thing I can't stand about living here, but it's the everything else that keeps me here. This state does a pretty good job with the laws we pass. I feel safe here as a woman. I'm proud of the prison reform CT has accomplished. We have good food (pizza), legalized weed, people here are the right amount of friendly, we're close to NYC and Boston (and therefore have access to lots of awesome things, museums, exhibits, concerts, etc). We have good schools, access to top notch health care, we are one of the few states that has paid maternity leave. You can drive 30 mins and be in the city or the country. You can also get to pretty much anywhere using backroads (I love our backroads). The quality of life here is really good. I'm sure CA has many of the same benefits, but the cost of living is significantly higher. You can still buy a decent SFH in CT for under 250k.

I live in florida. It has become more expensive than CT. My homeowners insurance is insane. I have 5 different insurances on my house alone. The pay down here is awful. The housing prices are through the roof.

I still have pictures developed at caldor's wirh the caldor stamped envelope.

I wonder if places we know today will go the way of bradlees, caldor, etc.

I actually don’t think there is an east coast solution, gotta go to the other coast. I would venture to say that CT is desirable from an east coast weather standpoint because you can almost always be outside year round and manage it; this year aside after you acclimate to the colder weather being in the 20’s and 30’s on a sunny day is not unpleasant. If you prefer cooler summers go a little north or warmer winters go just a little south. When you go south of Jersey you start to have the opposite problem. In Florida you stay inside all summer just like we do all winter, it’s too hot and rainy.

Edit:typo

This isn’t just a Sonic thing…CT/New England does not embrace fast food culture the way other states in the south and Midwest do.

These jobs are highly looked down on in CT.

There was a time 20+ years ago where promising high school students would take these jobs and had respect and a goal to be good at their job, even if it’s just part time help. The owners were often also the managers and had pride in their business.

This has changed completely. This is not a discriminatory statement, it’s a culture issue.

Many of the fast food restaurants have been acquired by non-Americans in CT. These folks do not grow up in a fast food culture and only purchase the business for monetary gain. Similar to purchasing a gas station. There is (culture wise) no sense of employee engagement. Their belief is that employees are meant to work and complete tasks for their pay. This is also the same for organizations that own multiple locations. Their leadership has no concern for the success of each location, just making sure volume/inventory is correct.

This leads to high turnover and burnout with American employees. And because the jobs themselves are not regarded highly, you are already dealing with individuals who do not want to be at that job.

Chic Fil A’s model is respectable in that they only sell one location to one owner. The Owner is expected for that to be their full time job. This is why Chic Fil A always feels polite, clean, and quick. The owner is very close by and invested and engaged in its success.

This is not the same when you go to other parts of the US. The positions are still respected (in some places) because opportunities are not as easily available. So you still pull from a base of applicants with skill.

The best bet is to let these fast food restaurants go out of business up here. A new wave of restaurants will take their place and the owners will have to be vested in their success because they won’t have a standard model that you roll out

Not yet but eventually plan to. Hate the grayness here.

Yes it’s a big problem in the northeast. Give yourself reasons and excuses to go out often helps.

I have taken up the habits of the nordic environment and embraced coziness during the colder months. I built a faux fireplace with electric heater in each bedroom. I have cozy lighting, and soft heated throws and i have to say it had helped switch my mindset considerably

Independent brewery scene is nice too, a ton of options if that’s something you’re into. There’s a bunch of places right in the water or so others that are essentially your backyard (the vibe) on steroids. It’s all depending on where ya go/who you talk to

Daffodils were fully in bloom last Saturday.

It's not playing semantics, and again it's literally what it says. And again, for what it's worth, you're talking to somebody who spent 30 years dealing with among other things, this very question. I'm telling you from experience that what it says is how it's implemented. Now at the end of the day, if reading the language literally from the EEOC isn't enough to convince you, if hearing it from an employment law specialist with 30 years of experience on how this is actually implemented is it enough to convince you, then I don't know what else to tell you. You have my permission to believe whatever you want, godspeed. I just hope whatever your job is, it doesn't involve making hiring decisions on behalf of your employer. Because if you are making hiring decisions based on the simple fact of whether or not a person was or wasn't arrested for something, you're exposing not only your employer to some serious liability, but depending upon the state you're in you're exposing yourself personally to liability as well. Do with that what you will.

It’s okay hamus

Trying to separate the conduct of the arrest from the arrest itself, in this context, is playing semantics. The result is the same for the applicant.

You and I both know that even if the EEOC outright banned using the facts of an arrest/pending charges as a basis not to hire, there is almost never going to be a way to prove that's what happened because employers aren't required to, and don't volunteer, information about why candidates aren't selected.

There seem to be 2 seasons in CT: winter and July.