East Rock Neighborhood - New Haven, CT

The 425-acre park surrounding East Rock drives much of the neighborhood's pedestrian and fitness culture. On any given day you'll find half the population headed to the park for a hike and the other half headed to gourmet grocery stores like Nica's or Romeo’s.

Along the way, you would see neighbors taking advantage of the bicycling lanes, especially for the easy commute to downtown and Yale University. Lulu's Coffee House is the starting point for Sunday morning rides for the area's avid cyclists.

And you would see people taking advantage of roomy front porches on the Victorian and Queen Anne style houses and duplexes in the area. Many of these are occupied by faculty and graduate students from Yale University, which borders the area on the south and west. Along with the public tennis courts at Wilbur Cross High School, tennis and swimming are available at the private New Haven Lawn Club.

The eastern border of East Rock is State Street, which is thriving with professional offices, boutiques and restaurants like Portofinos, Christopher Martin's, J.P Dempsey's and Modern Apizza, the neighborhood's own dark horse favorite in the perennial “best pizza” contest.

Other schools in the neighborhood and nearby include Leila Day Nursery, St Thomas's Day School, Calvin Hill, Foote School, Worthington Hooker, Wilbur Cross High School and Albertus Magnus College.