Burnside Avenue

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Burnside Avenue is a main thoroughfare connecting East Hartford, Connecticut's Main Street to Manchester, Connecticut. The road is part of U.S. Route 44. It runs through a low income portion of East Hartford, and is home to a significant population of Hispanic and African Americans. East Hartford Middle school is located near the center of the avenue, and is next to the main campus of Goodwin College. The eastern portion of Burnside Avenue has minimal housing, but is significantly developed with strip malls and restaurants. The Avenue is home to two important parks in East Hartford. Martin Park, in the west has a swimming pool and a skating park along with access to many of East Hartford's bike trails. The east of the avenue has an entrance to Wickham Park, a large park consisting of a large portion of Manchester, and a small portion of East Hartford. The park contains an aviary, bike trails, hiking trails, picnic grounds, and a beautiful view of Hartford's skyline.

Burnside Avenue and its side streets are home to thousands of inhabitants, who live in a mix of low rise apartment buildings, duplexes, and inexpensive one family homes. Past crime in the area has given Burnside a bad reputation. However, the removal of prominent housing projects in the 90's created a low income, yet relatively safe area.

Although technically just a part of East Hartford, the Burnside area, and its offshoot areas are considerably more urban than the remaining part of East Hartford, and has more in common with the city of hartford than East Hartford or any of the surrounding towns.