Best Places to Live 2009 - Top 100: City details: Tolland, CT - from MONEY Magazine

Again, Tolland makes the list of Best Places to Live.. I love it here.

Yes, taxes are high. And getting higher. But compared to income taxes, they’re nothing. At least the money we pay gets put into things we use.

And yes, the roads wind around and some are dangerous as hell, thanks to SUV-driving, cellphone-toting soccer moms (and dads) and troopers whizzing around to make it from Troop C to arrest criminals or whatever it is they do at high speed.

But has it lost its charm? I’d argue “No.” You see, there are still a helluva’ lot of trees in Tolland. And the subdivision rate seems to be decreasing dramatically, except for Capstone Builder’s apparent “subdivide even if nobody’s buying my houses” approach. But he’s just one guy trying to make a living.

The schools are good. The neighbors are nice… if you can see your neighbors, that is, since we all seem to have good elbow room here. Town services are just fine. Did I mention that the schools are good?

And being 20 minutes from Hartford is nice, or an hour from Boston is great, or a short drive plus a train hop from Broadway is really cool. But, quite frankly, none of that will make a difference to you if you don’t get out and do it. And that can be said of living in Manhattan.

Buy a bike from Tolland Bicycle, ride at Crandall’s Park. Take a stroll on the hundreds of acres of town-preserved greenspace. Swim in the ponds. Play tennis. Walk to the library.

Or sit on your steadily-increasing-in-size butt and ignore the world around you, complain bitterly about it, and eventually leave. Good riddance.

Us? We’ve been here for 10 years next month, and look forward to the decades to come.