On Friday, President Trump’s former national security advisor, Michael Flynn, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about communicating with Russians.
According to the Associated Press, his plea to a single felony count of false statements makes him the first person from the Trump administration to be charged in Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s criminal investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.
The Associated Press is also reporting that court papers make it clear that senior Trump transition officials were fully aware of Flynn reaching out to Russian officials just weeks before the presidential inauguration.
In a statement released on Dec. 1, Flynn denied “false accusations of ‘treason’” and said, “My guilty plea and agreement to cooperate with the Special Counsel’s Office reflect a decision I made in the best interests of my family and of our country. I accept full responsibility for my actions.”
On Friday and Saturday, President Trump tweeted about Flynn, saying that he fired him because he lied to Vice President Mike Pence and the FBI.
On Monday, CNN reported that the White House’s chief lawyer told Trump in January that Flynn misled the FBI and lied to Pence.
As the five year anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting approaches, the Newtown Action Alliance (NAA) is organizing its annual National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence in Washington, D.C.
Newtown residents founded the NAA to advocate for families and victims affected by gun violence. The advocacy organization is dedicated to “reversing the escalating gun violence epidemic in this nation through the introduction of smarter, safer gun laws and broader cultural change.”
The NAA organizes a two-day trip, during which supporters take a bus from Newtown, Connecticut to Washington, D.C. This year the trip is planned for Wednesday, Dec. 6 and Thursday, Dec. 7.
The vigil will be held at 7 p.m. on Wednesday. Over the course of the trip, members of the NAA and supporters will attend congressional meetings and hold a press conference at the Capitol Building.
Last year, more than 330 vigils were organized in 43 states. The goal for this year is to hold more than 500 local vigils in all 50 states.
The vigil is in partnership with the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown Survivor Network, Faiths United to Prevent Gun Violence, Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America, Organizing for Action, States United to Prevent Gun Violence, St Marks Episcopal Church and Women’s March.
In 2017 alone, there has been more than 320,000 crashes in the state of Connecticut, according to the Connecticut Crash Data Repository.
Both police and the Connecticut Department of Transportation (DOT) are trying to crack down on unsafe drivers.
“I think drivers should be more careful because they are not only impacting their lives but other people’s lives as well,” Afsha Kasam, a senior public relations major, said. Kasam was involved in a three car accident in Cheshire earlier this year and suspects one of the drivers was distracted by their phone.
Screenshot from Connecticut Crash Data Repository
Reckless driving and distracted driving can indeed have severe consequences. Statistics from the Connecticut Crash Data Repository show that of the 320,000 crashes in Connecticut this year, 254 were fatal. In 2016, there 268 fatal crashes, in 2015 there were 246 and in 2014 there 248.
“The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has 2015 Distracted Driving distracted-affected crash data which states that: 10% of fatal crashes, 15% of injury crashes, and 14% of all police-reported motor vehicle traffic crashes were distraction-affected (for 2015),” Judd Everhart, Connecticut Department of Transportation Director of Communications said.
Last week, Connecticut State Police implemented increased security patrols for the Thanksgiving holiday week beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 22 and ending on Sunday, Nov. 26. Troopers patrolled highways and roads throughout the state and focused on drunk driving as well as aggressive drivers.
During this time frame, there were 524 accidents investigated. Seventy of them involved injuries and two of them were fatal. One of the fatal crashes happened in Cromwell on Interstate-91 northbound. Fifty-year-old Michael Rogers veered off the highway into the right shoulder and hit some trees. He was pronounced dead on scene.
As police were responding to the crash in Cromwell, a drunk driver struck a parked police cruiser.
Connecticut State Police tweet photos of police cruiser hit by drunk driver
The other fatal crash during this enforcement period took place in Killingly. Twenty-six-year-old Hope Butler traveled left off the Providence Pike and struck a tree. She was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Over the course of the Thanksgiving holiday enforcement period, there were 1,010 speeding violations, 363 seatbelt violations, 51 drunken driving violations.
Numbers from the Connecticut Crash Repository Data show that most crashes in Connecticut this year occurred on Interstate-95 and Interstate-84. More than 16,000 crashes on Interstate-84 and more than 12,000 on Interstate-84.
Most crashes occur between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Fridays.
Screenshot from Connecticut Crash Data Repository
“Defensive driving is something that most drivers have learned and is a vital tactic for being aware of potential dangers on the road – including distracted drivers,” Everhart said. “For those who consider using their phones, eat while driving, check their GPS for directions, it is important to rethink those actions and get into the mindset of driving without distraction.”
The Connecticut DOT Office of Highway Safety has been implementing aggressive yearly safe driving campaigns that consists of high visibility enforcement, public outreach and education campaigns and educational programming for high schools and young drivers.
August is National Distracted Driving month and during that month, Hamden Police relaunched the “U Text, U Drive, U Pay” campaign in which police cracked down on distracted driving. This campaign included partnerships with 51 police agencies in 2016.
“At the Highway Safety Office, Distracted Driving is one of many challenges that we work to address and it is a top priority. People go to work here at Highway Safety with the goal to save and protect lives on our roads from death or injury,” Everhart said. “We partner with all levels of law enforcement agencies, universities, schools, and the media to get this message out in all forms including education, enforcement, and greater public awareness.”
While police in Connecticut have conducted enforcement periods and distracted driving campaigns, the number of crashes within the state is still high and some are questioning whether law enforcement officials are doing enough to ensure people’s safety.
A look into diversity, free speech and issues in between
By Ayah Galal
Devastating. Horrific. Shocking. These are some of the words members of the Quinnipiac community used to describe their reaction to the series of events that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia over the summer.
Hundreds of white nationalists gathered on the University of Virginia campus to protest the removal of a confederate statue on Friday, Aug. 11. They held torches and chanted slogans like “Jews will not replace us” and “blood and soil.”
“I was actually really shocked,” said Mazel Genfi, president of the Quinnipiac chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). “It was a moment of disbelief but then not surprised actually. I guess the country that we live in people actually feel comfortable to do things like that.”
Mazel Genfi, QU NAACP President
By the next morning, counter protesters clashed with protesters and events took a violent turn. A white supremacist drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters and killed 32-year-old Heather Heyer, who lived in Charlottesville.
The series of events drew widespread attention across the nation and sparked conversation about America’s current racial climate.
Some activists, pundits and universities responded to the incident quickly, saying more conversations about white supremacy, racism and xenophobia need to occur.
Others argued universities should prioritize safety over freedom of expression. Racist incidents have certainly marred Quinnipiac over the years. It has been nearly three months now since the events in Charlottesville. How did Quinnipiac respond? Are conversations on race still happening? Should the university be doing more to address race relations?
Quinnipiac responds
Ten days after the Charlottesville incident, Quinnipiac Vice President and Provost Dr. Mark Thompson sent a memo to the university community.
In the email sent out on Aug. 21, he wrote, “The violence, hatred, bigotry and intolerance demonstrated by white supremacist and neo-Nazi groups in Charlottesville have no place in our world and certainly have no place within our university community. Acts of violence and hatred run counter to our values as a community, and each one of us has a responsibility to ensure that these despicable types of behavior do not occur here.”
He added that students will have the opportunity to participate in social justice and inclusion-related events throughout the year to deepen their “understanding and ability to learn from one another about various aspects of the world in which we live.”
A few days later Quinnipiac President John Lahey addressed the addressed the class of 2021. Each year Lahey welcomes the incoming freshman class during “Welcome Weekend” right before the semester starts. While President Lahey tends to avoid politics during his speeches and statements, this time it was different. He was quick to condemn the hatred and bigotry that was present in Charlottesville.
President Lahey discusses Charlottesville during an interview with Q30 Television
“I must say in light of recent events in Charlottesville it saddens me that in 2017 we still have to publicly and unequivocally condemn and state so clearly how unacceptable the views of white supremacists, Ku Klux Klan, neo-nazis [are]. Those views are simply not welcome here on the Quinnipiac campus,” President Lahey said to the freshman class. “Any behavior associated with any of these despicable kinds of beliefs and activities will not be tolerated on this campus.”
While President Lahey doesn’t consider what he said to be political, many were taken back by how direct and passionate his response was. In an interview with Q30 Television in September, President Lahey said he was “a little surprised by the reaction.” He thinks it’s because of the extent to which he discussed the incident and believes his address was “well-received.”
As students and faculty began settling in for the new semester, the Quinnipiac Center for Religion held an event titled “A Conversation on Charlottesville” on Sept. 5. The event was intended be an open forum for members of the Quinnipiac community to discuss their feelings and reactions to Charlottesville.
The incident especially hit home for Executive Director of University Religious Life Father Jordan Lenaghan. Lenaghan was a former Catholic chaplain at the University of Virginia.
“When I saw images, when I saw media coverage, when I saw news reports, when I saw photographs of places where I hung out with students, where I had worked, it hit me on a very visceral level,” Lenaghan, who helped organize the event said. “I have a job that involves words and I didn’t have words for what I saw.”
Breaking down President Trump’s response
During difficult times, presidents of the United States traditionally try to unite the nation. But at a moment where many Americans already felt divided, President Trump’s words did little to bring together the nation.
At a press conference in Trump Tower shortly after the incident, President Trump said, “I think there is blame on both sides.” Many at Quinnipiac were frustrated that he compared the violence perpetuated by white supremacists with the violence committed by counter protesters.
“I honestly believe President Trump is an absolute idiot,” Genfi said. “For him to say that says a lot about who he is and what he represents – which is basically white supremacy whether he likes it or not.”
But others at Quinnipiac did not consider his response problematic.
“He should have prefaced what he said by saying white supremacists have no place in this country,” Jeremy Wiss, President of the Quinnipiac College Republicans said. “But at the same time, both sides displayed some sort of hatred and violence; both sides showed the bad side of humanity.”
Wiss is Jewish and said the incident hit home because his great-grandparents fled persecution in Germany and Poland. While he says the situation was upsetting, Wiss believes Confederate statues should stay up so that history is not erased.
Jeremy Wiss, President of Quinnipiac College Republicans
“I can see why they continue to perpetuate issues because it is a big deal,” Wiss said.
Is hate speech free speech?
The national conversation surrounding freedom of speech intensified after white nationalists chanted slogans like “white lives matter” and “you will not replace us,” at the Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville.
But is hate speech actually protected under the First Amendment? The answer is yes.
“A lot of people think that hate speech is given no First Amendment protection,” Kearston Wesner, assistant professor of media studies said.
Kearston Wesner teaching a Communications Law and Policy course
Political speech especially enjoys careful protection under the First Amendment. Hate speech is difficult to define and banning speech because some view it as hate speech would be unconstitutional.
“If we start going around banning speech we dislike, usually what happens is the law that we build … tends to be applied in a broader sense against the people we were initially hoping to protect,” Wesner, who teaches Communications Law and Policy, said.
There is an exception, however. If hate speech contains incitement – an imminent threat of violence – that speech is not protected by the First Amendment.
Additionally, private universities can restrict speech. For example, Quinnipiac could choose to not allow controversial speakers like Milo Yiannopoulos or Richard Spencer on campus.
“Private universities can build their own rules and they can restrict speech how they want to,” Wesner added.
While the chances of extremely controversial speakers coming to Quinnipiac are not high, Wesner said, “It gets a lot greyer how much the university could get in and restrict that [speech] because it has a lot to do with whether it’s a university sponsored organization or an independent organization.”
When asked how Quinnipiac would respond if a student organization on campus wanted to bring a controversial speaker like Richard Spencer or Milo Yiannopoulos to speak, administration did not answer.
Confronting hate
Even before the Charlottesville incident in August, students and faculty have often discussed concerns related to race and diversity at Quinnipiac.
A racially insensitive Snapchat taken by a former Quinnipiac student
In September 2016, a Quinnipiac student posted a racially insensitive photograph and caption mocking the Black Lives Matter movement to Snapchat. The photograph went viral and sparked outrage not just at Quinnipiac, but in other parts of the country as well after large outlets like the New York Daily News picked up the story.
Other incidents such as swastika graffiti, caricatures of of people’s racial identity and use of derogatory terms have plagued Quinnipiac. Student Affairs takes these incidents seriously and has an established a “Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy” in the Quinnipiac Undergraduate Student Handbook.
“I would say the majority of the incidents hands down are in the first-year areas without a doubt,” Megan Buda, Director of Student Conduct said. “Traditionally if a student is found responsible for a violation of our bias-related policy there’s some form of removal, whether that’s from housing or separation from the institution.”
The Bias, Harassment and Discrimination Policy in the Undergraduate Student Handbook
The most common type of bias-related incident at Quinnipiac is offensive graffiti, Buda added. While displaying a Confederate flag is not a policy violation, Student Affairs understands that such a display could offend some people on campus, and tries to have constructive conversations with students who choose to do so.
Hate crimes are defined differently from bias-related incidents and the standard for a hate crime is higher since it’s defined criminally.
Screenshot of the Quinnipiac Annual Security report
According to Quinnipiac’s Annual Security Report, there were two hate crimes in 2016, three hate crimes in 2015 and four hate crimes in 2014. The report does not specify the nature of the incidents.
In June 2017, the Connecticut state legislature passed one of the strongest hate-crime bills in the nation. Punishment for hate crimes in the state once was a misdemeanor but the new law treats hate crimes as a felony.
While the Ku Klux Klan has had a presence within the state of Connecticut, the threat of its extreme beliefs is not high, according to Andy Friedland, Assistant Regional Director for the Connecticut Anti-Defamation League.
“Often these days we’ll see an individual print-off flyers from the KKK website, leading people to think there is an active branch of the Klan in their town, which is not true in the state of Connecticut today,” Friedland said.
What is Quinnipiac doing to address race relations on campus?
Especially after the Snapchat incident at Quinnipiac, departments ranging from Student Affairs to Cultural and Global Engagement have been organizing discussions, lectures and even Netflix series screenings to address topics related to race and diversity.
Quinnipiac Chief Diversity Officer Diane Ariza says that race-related incidents like Charlottesville have stirred up a lot of conversation.
“I think that’s healthy because it’s making us not too comfortable of where we’re at in the world,” Ariza said.
In September 2013 the Inclusion, Multiculturalism, and Globalism in Education (IMaGinE) strategic plan was created to help Quinnipiac become “a more inclusive, multicultural and diverse campus community.”
Some IMaGinE events planned for the Fall semester
Ariza, along with the help of the IMaGinE Advisory Board, organizes events that foster discussion of diversity in the Quinnipiac community. Events include “A Place at the Table” and “Circle of Perspectives” discussions.
A Place at the Table is a dialogue series that seeks to recreate an after-dinner atmosphere to encourage informal conversations about issues related to social justice and current events. Circle of Perspectives is a series of nonpartisan group discussions involving critical thinking about diversity and social inequalities.
“I think educating is what we’ve decided our department has decided to do with the social issues,” Ariza said.
Student Affairs is also taking a similar approach. Megan Buda and Mark DeVilbiss, co-chairs of the Student Affairs Diversity and Inclusion Committee, say the committee is dedicated to celebrating diversity and facilitating conversations on race and inclusion. The committee has representation from the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement, Residential Life, Counseling Services, Student Government Association Religious Life and Community Service.
The Diversity and Inclusion Committee started hosting screenings of episodes from the Netflix series “Dear White People,” followed by a discussion.
Dates Student Affairs is screening episodes of “Dear White People”
“It fueled a very thorough discussion of everything, from what it means to be white to what it means to be a person of color on a white campus,” Buda said.
The committee plans to show more episodes of the series during the semester in hopes of facilitating more conversations.
“We want to be able to help people understand and know how to talk about issues of inclusion and diversity, whether that’s religious or racial or ethnic,” Director of Residential Life Mark DeVilbiss said. “I’m proud to be part of the efforts that are happening campus-wide whether it’s in the classroom or something DCGE is doing, or any group on campus.”
Dr. Thompson also announced plans for establishing a new curriculum with more diversity-related courses. Two intercultural responsibility and citizenship courses will be mandatory for future students.
Opening ceremony of the multicultural suite in the Carl Hansen Student Center
Last semester, the Multicultural Suite – a space for culture and identity based organizations – opened in the Carl Hansen Student Center.
Quinnipiac is also hosting a one-day conference on social justice and civic engagement titled “Creating Space: Solidarity, Dialogue, Social Justice, Opportunity.” Director of Community Service Vincent Contrucci says the purpose of the conference is to provide students from across New England with a space for dialogue surrounding social justice related issues.
Additionally, 21 percent of the current freshman class identify as students of color, which makes the first-year class the most diverse in Quinnipiac history.
What still needs to be done
Last semester, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost and the Department of Cultural and Global Engagement engaged MRW Consulting Group International LLC to help with an assessment of Quinnipiac’s campus climate and help the university identify ways to improve the attitudes, standards and behaviors of the university community.
A representative from MRW Consulting Group discusses findings from the campus climate study during a university town hall.
MRW held focus groups with 134 students over the course of the Spring 2017 semester. The firm interviewed 15 affinity groups including the Quinnipiac NAACP, Latino Cultural Society, Gender Sexuality Alliance and Greek Life. The consulting firm compiled a 51-page report and found areas where Quinnipiac can improve its campus climate, as well as suggestions on how to do so.
Thompson organized a town hall-style event in the Mount Carmel Auditorium on Oct. 3 during which MRW Consulting Group shared the findings from the campus climate study, suggested courses of action and answered questions from the audience.
The report acknowledged the progress the university has been making, but also pointed out areas where there could be more improvement.
The study found that many students felt that more could be done to recruit higher numbers of faculty, staff and students of color. The study also found that it would be helpful to train faculty members to be more comfortable having difficult conversations they may need to have with students.
Many minorities in the focus groups described how uncomfortable they are when asked to represent an entire group in classes. The study also found that Quinnipiac can improve the campus climate by increasing the number of minority Greek organizations on campus.
The firm also suggested that Quinnipiac should “leverage campus commitment by getting everyone involved in solutions.” Many students from the focus groups also emphasized the need to integrate diversity, inclusion and multiculturalism into the core curriculum.
Quinnipiac administrators recognize lots of work needs to be done and they plan to continue to facilitating conversations on diversity and race in an effort to make Quinnipiac more inclusive.
But some students think more can be done to address race relations on campus and make minorities feel more comfortable at Quinnipiac.
“In my honest opinion, I do see that they’re trying, but not trying hard enough,” said Genfi, the QU NAACP president. “I feel like if they were trying hard enough, certain things wouldn’t have happened.”
She believes the university is taking the right steps, but that Quinnipiac should be more proactive. Genfi also thinks that students at Quinnipiac are becoming more comfortable discussing race than they were four years ago.
“People are more open to being educated and stepping out of that Quinnipiac bubble, whereas four years ago that would have never had happened,” Genfi added.
Strong winds, heavy rain and flash flooding impacted many towns and cities across Connecticut Sunday night.
Trees and power lines came down as a result of the severe weather, which came on the five year anniversary of Hurricane Sandy. Eversource Energy is reporting that over 139,000 customers in Connecticut did not have power as of 10:41 a.m. Monday. An additional 4,900 United Illuminating customers are without power, 507 of them are Hamden residents.
A map showing the number of Eversource Energy customers in Connecticut without power as of 10:47 a.m. Monday.
A map showing the number of United Illuminating customers in Connecticut without power as of 10:38 a.m. Monday.
The storm debris created difficult driving conditions and many schools near Quinnipiac closed. Hamden, Cheshire and North Haven public schools closed Monday, according to WTNH.
Despite there being much debris on campus, Quinnipiac did not close or have a delay. Several residence halls have been leaking including Irma, Dana, Ledges, Perlroth and Larson on the Mount Carmel campus and Crescent on the York Hill Campus. The Athletic Center, School of Business and Arnold Bernhard Library are also leaking, according to the Department of Facilities.
A Facilities worker holds a bucket up to a leaking roof in the Dana Residence Hall.
The Hamden Fire Department responded to twenty-six storm related emergency calls overnight in Hamden.
Hamden Police also responded to several transformer fires overnight, one happening on Whitney Avenue near Walgreens.
For more updates on the impact of the storm, follow HQ on Twitter @hq_press
Curt Leng has been the mayor of Hamden for two and a half years. He was first elected in a special election in May 2015, then ran six months later. Now, he’s running for a third term. HQ Press sat down with Mayor Leng to discuss where he stands on certain issues as well as what he hopes to accomplish if re-elected.
What made you want to become mayor in the first place and why are you deciding to go up for re-election?
I’ve been involved with the town actually for 20 years now. I got involved when I was 20 years old and I ran for council as a 20 year old just coming out of high school, in college traveling back and forth from UConn. I didn’t win my first election that I ran as an independent candidate. And then two years later ran as a Democratic candidate and fortunately I’ve been winning ever since.
I got involved to begin with because actually in high school I had to do ten hours of work on a political campaign. So I went to the local person that was about a mile from my house and found that I really enjoyed it and I enjoyed digging into the issues that people were working on, both the neighborhood and debating them and the pros and the cons and really digging into it.
I learned quickly that you can get involved and you can and people will listen to you and people will you know appreciate the work that you do and you can actually get stuff done even when you’re not in office yet as long as you take that step and kind of open your mouth and get involved. And ever since then I’ve been on that track.
I like working to help people. I find this is one of the one jobs…that you can help somebody every single day. You know a call comes in–hey here’s a problem that I have– you can’t solve everything, there’s no question about that. But usually, several times a day, you’re able to help folks and I think that here at the local level, it’s kind of where the rubber hits the road. There’s things we can actually directly do pretty quickly to help people out.
So you’ve been in Hamden your whole life, correct?
I’m 43, I’ve lived here my whole life, except for when I was at school and my family has been here for a hundred years.
What are some of the initiatives you’ve been able to accomplish in the past two years that you are proud of?
A couple that I’m most proud of have been returning our police to walking beats and bicycle patrols–really focusing on community policing. We hadn’t had walking beats in probably forty years and we have our first walking beat that started two years ago and now we have two regular walking beats and we have 10 different bicycle patrols that go out in all different neighborhoods on the canal, on the shopping area.
Town finances is not necessarily an initiative but it’s one that we really focus on a lot and we’ve been able to strengthen the town’s finances quite a bit. Our bond rating has been upheld. We had the first budget without a tax increase in ten years this past year, so that took a lot of work and spent a lot of time with our delegation making sure that our our state funding is fingers crossed still coming through.
So finances would be number two and number three probably it’s not exactly a specific initiative but I think that there’s a community pride I feel is coming back and I think it’s coming from the ability to communicate more with local government with with I think it’s partly the mayor’s office and I think it’s partly the police department I think it’s partly council members having more interaction with people. And also having a lot more events that people get to go to.
Obviously this doesn’t come easily. What are some of the challenges you faced along the way?
I think every day is like pushing a boulder up a hill. Well, it goes back to finances probably is the main challenge because if the town’s finances aren’t good then it’s kind of the foundation in which everything else is built off of so if the finances are not doing well and if you’re not making sure that the pension is doing better than it was–we have pension reform that’s like three quarters of the way through we have to see that through the end–making sure that your spending is not out of control so that you can keep balancing budgets and keeping the taxes down, you know holding the line of taxes at least. Then you can’t do things like expand bicycle patrols and invest in sidewalks and streets. We’ve done a lot of infrastructure improvement.
In fact in the two and a half years years I’ve been mayor…we’ve paved thirty five miles of road in two and a half years.Fifty-six roads happening right now in the 2017 season and we’ve done probably about a mile of sidewalk so a lot it’s a lot of of infrastructure improvement. Even though we’ve got a lot of roads, I certainly know that we have a lot more to do.
Where would you say the relationship stands now between the town of Hamden and Quinnipiac?
Much improved. You know much, much stronger. I’ve been able to have regular communications with President Lahey. We meet, we talk, we text. Sometimes we’re both busy people and sometimes that ends up being the way that we can connect on certain things. So we have a regular communication now and that’s really nine tenths of the whole game, because if you’re communicating then you can say “hey I have a problem with this and this” or “hey can you help me out with this or this” and going both ways. I think its been a much better situation for everybody because nobody really wants bickering and fighting and and Quinnipiac is a great asset for the town globally. There’s problems with off campus housing sometimes yeah and it’s going to happen with any college in any town USA. Starting last year there was much better communication between our police and the campus security.
How do you facilitate balancing the needs of Quinnipiac students versus the needs of other residents in Hamden?
It’s tough. There’s no be easy black and white you know clear cut type of an answer on this one. You know, encouraging the university to build more housing where it’s fit and where people that will live in the units makes sense and you know there’s another two hundred or so beds that are going to be built up on York Hill which is good. That’ll get a certain number of people in and the truth is that it’s not all of the people off campus at all. It’s a small fraction that make it bad.
There’s many times that I talk with residents and I have someone say actually I students next door and they’re really nice and they came over and chatted and said hey if we have a little party or something on the weekend if it gets too loud would you be able to let me know…people learn how to live in a neighborhood and have a common courtesy for each other.
So it’s a balance of trying to figure out how you can have rules that are appropriate and legal that kind of incentivize locations that make more sense for student development period. So it’s a matter of trying to plan these things out and the more that you work I think with the neighbors, university, town, students together which we haven’t perfected yet; I think you’ll get better and better each year. Because other towns there’s always problems but other towns seem to have perfected it better than we have.
And I talked with folks from Fairfield University as an example and Sacred Heart and it seems like they had very very similar problems thirty years ago or twenty five years ago and you don’t hear much about it at all now so you know trying to follow those models I think is something that we need to spend more time on.
So is there anything you think maybe Quinnipiac can or should be doing differently or students in general?
I think it’s all of us have to really make a concerted effort to do a more formalized town gown committee commission and really commit to having faculty, students, government, residents participate in a positive way so it’s not just an airing of grievances. You know probably quarterly, I would think. And we’ve got kind of a framework of it and it’s something that I’d like to try to accomplish over the next over the next term if I’m still here.
Mayor Leng speaks with Hamden residents during his event titled ‘Mayor’s Night Out’
I went to your event Monday night and you had mentioned SeeClickFix. What are the people in the town of and then concerned about?
Traffic is definitely up there without question…we’ve been doing some traffic calming work so it’s physical improvements to roads. Beyond that, we’ve kicked up enforcement a lot. The enforcement this year compared to last year is we did about 500 enforcement actions in the summer of 2016 and summer of 2017 there was 1388, so almost tripled the number of enforcements and we’re in a bunch more locations with selective enforcement stopping and watching, people go through a light, speed trap, all those type of things.
Graffiti and dumping issues occur in any municipality. If you’re fast with them, then they don’t become a problem if you’re not, they do. So SeeClickFix can be a good tool for that.
Any place that you can kind of get information flow back from residents and from the government to the residents even if it’s not completely productive you know, it’s good. Because the more information flow, the better because people seem to get most frustrated when they don’t know what’s happening.
What do you think sets you apart from Salman Hamid and why do you think people should vote for you instead of him?
Record of accomplishment that they can actually look at and say okay has this person accomplished what he said he was going to and do I think that it’s a good amount of progress that I want to see this direction continue and see what happens with another couple of years of his team together.
And then I’ll probably say that experience. I’ve been involved in in government and I understand municipal finances and I have been involved with the many local and state laws that really do bind a lot of the things that we do some good and some constricting. And without knowing these things and having a pretty fluid comfortable handle on them, it would be really really enormously difficult to accomplish things.
And keeping things positive. I think right now there’s a positive vibe about the town and I think it’s important not only for people’s opinions and you know just being happy and proud of your hometown but it also has a value to it outside of Hamden in that if word gets out more I think as it is now that Hamden is a pretty good place to be for a variety of reasons then families are gonna want to invest here, and buy a house and business are going to want to come here and set up shop and it’s good for our local economy and there’s nothing bad about it. So you know, trying to keep promoting that you know the track that we’re on. I think we’re headed in the right direction is probably the simplest way to answer that.
The Starbucks in the Quinnipiac Student Center has been open for just over a week and lines are consistently long. On average, students wait about 30 minutes to get a drink from the Quinnipiac Starbucks. There’s a Starbucks in the Hamden Plaza roughly 10 minutes away from campus and one in North Haven as well.
Despite long lines throughout the day, there is one time period where you won’t have to wait too long. HQ Press ventured out to the Student Center Starbucks and the Hamden Plaza Starbucks at the same time and one location had a much shorter line. Watch the video to find out which Starbucks you should head to in the mornings.
