NEW HAVEN , founded in 1638 by a group of wealthy Puritans from London on a large natural harbor at the mouth of the Quinnipiac River, developed a solid economy based on shipping and, later, industry. In 1716 it became the seat of Yale University , the third oldest college in the States, but it was hardware, firearms, gas and other types of manufacturing in the nineteenth century that really brought the city into its own. New Haven churned out Winchester rifles, musical instruments, tools, carriages and corsets, and Eli Whitney , inventor of the revolutionary cotton gin, discovered in his workshop here a method of mass production that eliminated expensive skilled labor. Today, however, little manufacturing remains in New Haven, and the city has struggled for decades to revitalize and redevelop.

It's an uneasy place, half tension-ridden urban wasteland and half Ivy League idyll. Town-versus-gown conflicts are so marked as to give the city a crackling energy, and New Haven is certainly less WASPish and smug than many other Ivy League towns. Drug pushing, gang wars and homelessness notwithstanding, blacks and whites - and Italians, Irish and Asians - co-exist, uneasily. The city's ethnic diversity, and the undeniable vitality provided by the much-maligned Yalies, make it a stimulating place to spend some time