New Haven

RORY: I’m sure you and I can figure out a fun thing to do while they’re off at dinner, some cool road trip thing.

LORELAI: In New Haven? … Sweetie, have you ever been to New Haven? … Take a look at the coffee pot tomorrow before I clean it, that’s New Haven.

New Haven is a city in Connecticut on New Haven Harbor on the northern shore of Long Island Sound, and is part of the New York City greater metropolitan area. With a population of around 130 000, it is the third-largest city in Connecticut. One of the first planned cities in America, founded by Puritans in 1638, it is the home of Yale University, New Haven’s biggest employer and taxpapyer, and an integral part of the city’s economy. It bills itself as the “Cultural Capital of Connecticut”, and is also known as “The Elm City” because of the trees planted during the first public tree planting program in America.

Lorelai’s view that New Haven is a complete dump is one shared by quite a few people. The city has the fastest growing income inequality in the US, so there’s a lot of poverty, a high crime rate, and apparently it has a problem with littering and dumping trash illegally. Another view is that it is a cool, diverse city that’s far more interesting than most of Connecticut.