A recreational marijuana bill made it out of the committee stage for the first time ever. According to the Hartford Courant, the next phase of the bill calls for state agency officials to create a plan to legalize and regulate cannabis. The bill will also create substance abuse treatment, prevention, education and awareness programs, according to the Courant.
Josh Elliott, democratic representative of the 88th District and advocate for recreational marijuana, sees this bill as a last chance after last year’s failed bill.
“Making movement on anything is really gratifying,” Elliott said. “So we had four bills this year and three of the four have died in committee. This was the last chance we had of actually moving this idea forward.”
While there are various views on the issue, Elliott is confident that this bill will force people in positions of power to take a stand on the issue.
“What I would like to see is people on record,” Elliott said. “‘Do you or do you not support it?’ because there are a lot of people up there that kind of want to play both sides of the fence and when you actually have to press the button you can’t really play both sides anymore.”
Elliott, a Quinnipiac University alum, said that his support for this bill is more than just the economic benefit.
“For me it comes back to who have these laws (been) disproportionately affecting for the past 60, 80 years? And it’s the black and brown community (and) that’s highly problematic,” Elliott said.
The completed plan for legislation is due Oct. 1, according to the Courant.
Jorge Cabrera has lived in Connecticut his entire life. During his childhood, his father worked long hours in a factory and often took on a second job to support his family.
Cabrera and his wife Rebecca graduated from Quinnipiac University in 1998 when the tuition was just $27 thousand a year. It has more than doubled since then.
Now as a father of two, Cabrera is running for State Senate in the 17th District as a Democrat. He hopes to win the seat over Republican George Logan to update the struggling Connecticut economy.
Scott McLean, Quinnipiac political science chairperson and associate political science professor, remembers Cabrera as a “politically aware and socially engaged student.”
As a student, McLean said that Cabrera, who was elected as the SGA president his junior year, helped to improve the political science program as a whole and understood the importance of political involvement in his peers.
McLean also remembers Cabrera working to help the non-academic working staff on campus.
Cabrera with wife Rebecca and their twin boys Gabe and Jorgie.
“He was always advocating on behalf of the staff on campus,” McLean said. “And he did have an impact on students who picked up on that advocacy after he graduated.”
Cabrera’s mission is to bring more opportunities to hardworking people across Connecticut.
“In Connecticut there was a time, when my parents were raising me, where it was assumed that the harder you work the luckier you get,” Cabrera said. “It seems like that story is less common now.”
With a degree in political science and hands-on experience in student government, Cabrera went to work as a legislative aid for the first female Speaker of the House after graduation in 1998.
After starting a family, Cabrera and his wife experienced similar challenges to what he had seen his parents face.
“We struggled to make ends meet too. I had to get a second job,” Cabrera said. “My wife is a school teacher, she had to put in extra hours working summer school to make extra money for us.”
Cabrera is motivated by his life experiences to secure a Senate seat for the 17th district, made up of the town of Hamden (where he has lived for 13 years), Woodbridge, Ansonia, Derby, Beacon Falls, Bethany and Naugatuck.
“We need to invest more in Connecticut,” said Cabrera. He feels that the only way to give back to the state’s working class is by jumpstarting the quality of the state’s institutions.
His plan for improvement begins with Connecticut’s children, specifically the state’s public schools.
“We need to fully fund our public schools. We haven’t been doing that,” said Cabrera. “The quality of your public schools can attract businesses and also is a big reason why people make a decision to move somewhere.”
Next up for Cabrera is infrastructure.
“Our bridges, our roads, our rails, they have been neglected for a long time,” Cabrera said. “Connecting all of our communities is vital for attracting businesses who want to come here.”
Improving these facets of the state, Cabrera believes, will stimulate Connecticut’s economy and offer more jobs for people joining the workforce, which he feels has been becoming increasingly more limited.
“I am constantly meeting people on the campaign trail who have college degrees and are still living at home with their parents because they can’t find a good paying job with their degree,” Cabrera said. “That narrative wasn’t as common when I was growing up and even when I got out of school. If you got a degree somewhere you were pretty much assured a job somewhere.”
College is the third pillar of Cabrera’s plan. He wants to make it more affordable and eliminate student debt. For those that are not interested in college, Cabrera feels that the state’s trade school needs improvement as well.
“Many people I run across want to be a plumber, or a pipe fitter, or a carpenter, or a steel worker. Jobs that are good paying middle-class jobs with the right training programs,” Cabrera said. “We need to do more to invest in those programs and apprenticeship programs, because those (are) sorely needed.”
Cabrera’s mission is shared by many young politicians in Connecticut, that hope to see changes in the state with their involvement. The last election for the Hamden Democratic Committee alone brought 26 new members.
“The energy that young people bring, and the passion, is vital.A lot of the issues we have to solve directly impact college students and younger people,” Cabrera said. “We need to make sure that young people have a voice at the table.”
But young people can only have that voice if they get involved, said Cabrera.
“When you graduate, be aware of what’s going on and speak up. In our country that’s always the way it’s been. When young people get involved things change,” said Cabrera. “College grads and young people are more powerful than they realize, and their voices are powerful too.”
The election for state senate will take place on Nov. 6.
Note: this article was updated on April 9 to clarify Sara MacDonough’s comments.
When Nicole Connery signed with Quinnipiac’s women’s ice hockey team for the 2012 season she didn’t know the suffering she would endure for the next three years.
Coaches from her hometown of Newmarket, Ontario, warned her when she told them where she was going. They told her they had heard things.
“But I was like, a lot of coaches yell,” Connery remembered.
Rick Seeley was Connery’s coach at Quinnipiac until her junior year when the university fired him in April 2015 for verbal and physical abuse of his players. But according to student surveys originally reported by Q30 Television, students had been reporting incidents since 2009.
“It could have been avoided earlier if our surveys were read and understood,” Connery said. “It’s the only thing I don’t understand of how those things were swept under the rug. I’ll never understand that.”
Every student athlete fills out a survey at the end of his or her season. After Connery’s first year she said she wrote long and honest answers detailing the abuse. But after a while she figured no one seemed to be listening.
Photo courtesy of Nicole Connery
In her first survey, Connery described an incident where Seeley had the team run from the Mount Carmel campus to York Hill at 5 a.m. Afterward they had practice without an athletic trainer and a player tore a ligament in her knee.
After her sophomore year, Connery said since she didn’t feel like administrators were listening to the surveys. She just wrote that Seeley, “probably shouldn’t aim a slapshot at a player that did something wrong in practice.”
A more public incident at an NCAA tournament loss against Harvard sparked the end of the abuse.
Seeley not only started swearing at his players, but also grabbed one by the facemask. Another coach had to pull Seeley off of the player.
“Not only did we all see the incident but my parents, other parents, parents on the other team, and players on the other team saw this incident and was horrified,” said one player in her anonymous survey.
Former athletic director Jack McDonald, who was at Quinnipiac during the Seeley scandal, declined to comment on the incident.
The university hired Sarah Fraser in 2016, so she wasn’t around for Seeley’s firing. However, as the deputy director of athletics she is now one of the administrators who reads the athlete surveys.
Fraser is also the senior women administrator at Quinnipiac, a role designed to promote women within the school, according to the NCAA.
She said the student athlete surveys are anonymous because they allow student athletes to feel more comfortable being honest. While she said she feels strongly that they should stay that way, she also thinks the anonymity makes it hard for administrators to pinpoint problems.
“The challenge is not being able to follow up with somebody to get additional detail or verify how true something may be,” said Fraser.
This challenge may be part of why physical, verbal and emotional abuse is widespread in high-level sport – and why it’s been traditionally ignored. Players say that the culture demands that athletes tough it out for fear of retaliation or being seen as weak. So they don’t usually speak up. This leads to a communication barrier between athletes and coaches that can leave abusive behavior hiding in plain sight.
In fact, nearly half of all current or former athletes have experienced some negative interaction with a coach, whether they felt like the coach was picking on them, or crossed a line, according to an online survey of 62 current or former high school and college athletes in the U.S.
It’s a decades-long problem that has recently gotten the spotlight because players are starting to speak out.
Earlier this year, a Michigan court sentenced former USA Gymnastics (USAG) team doctor Larry Nassar on sexual assault charges. The statements from the hundreds of girls and women Nassar abused exposed the true abusive culture of USAG’s desire to win more medals. Meanwhile, a book published back in 1995 explained the abusive culture of elite gymnastics, yet the governing body did nothing until gymnasts started speaking up.
But most athletes do not speak up, according to the online survey. One anonymous respondent said, “we are taught to put our heads down and deal with it.” Many ignored negative interactions with their coaches. But that has consequences.
A study from 2008 found that emotional abuse, rather than verbal or physical, had the most negative effect on the well being of 14 elite, retired swimmers. The study defined emotional abuse as “sustained and repeated patterns of contact-free harmful interactions between an athlete and caregiver (coach) that resulted in emotional upset of the athlete.”
Quinnipiac fired Seeley for verbal and physical abuse, but the surveys also show signs of emotional abuse.
“He even told a member of the team that she was in fact nothing to this team and that she was worthless,” said one student athlete in a 2013 survey. “He told a girl … when she was ready to quit that if she goes home all she will be is a waitress and that she will have no life.”
The study also found emotional abuse was the least studied form of abuse, especially in athletics. But it’s one of the most common.
In another 2004 study, all interviewed athletes said their coach had abused them in some way. This resulted in them feeling worthless, lacking self confidence, depressed, humiliated or fearful.
The study went on to point out that these feelings lead to a “lack of belief in their own ability to perform,” which ultimately ends up making them play worse.
Also, the “only the strong survive/no pain, no gain” attitude is a myth according to Celia Brackenridge, the director of the Centre for Youth Sport and Athlete Welfare at Brunel University in West London.
“This attitude reflects institutional intolerance for maltreating athletes and overlooks the longer term harm that can result for ‘tough’ training and coaching regimes,” said Brackenridge in a 2010 keynote address at the “How Safe is Your Sport” conference.
Sara MacDonough, Quinnipiac University athletic trainer and mental health liaison said she couldn’t comment on the women’s ice hockey incident. But in general she thinks communication could be a way to foster a good relationship between athletes and coaches.
“If you can talk it out and understand where people are coming from and understand why they’re doing what they’re doing, then no one abuses their power and we can keep that check and balance in place,” she said.
According to former student athlete Connery, communication wasn’t always a solution for her. While her friends would go to other staff members to “let it out and cry,” Connery said she had no one she felt like she could trust. She said Seeley gave the impression that if anyone talked it would get back to him and they would be punished.
“For me it was hard because I never let myself flush out those feelings, what I had was just bottled up,” Connery said. “It’s not good for your health and you end up numb. Communication was just non-existent for me.”
Kelly Frassinelli, the field hockey coach and senior woman administrator at Southern Connecticut State University, said every school handles the role a little differently.
At Southern, Frassinelli’s role as SWA can include sitting down with athletes and talking with them about athletic, academic or social problems. As the field hockey coach she has regular meetings with her players to check in. However, in addition to communication on the athlete’s end, coaches must have a strong moral compass, Frassinelli said.
“I guess for me with all the stuff that’s going on in the world I just, I’ve never tolerated that. I’ve never felt that you know that in a role of power … you should ever take advantage of that role,” Frassinelli said.
She continued and said it might be easy to get lost in a moment, but that coaches have to remember there is life after sport.
“You have to stick by knowing that these are individuals you’re trying to make better people so that when they leave here, they might not be an Olympic athlete, but they’re going to be a good person,” she said.
Frassinelli recognizes that conversations between athletes and coaches will not always be pleasant, like after a game when a player has made a mistake.
“That’s where we encourage them to come talk to us,” she said. “And I know it’s hard for them sometimes but we’re going to give the honest answer whether you like the answer or not. But we’re going to try to communicate it.”
The line between being a tough coach and an abusive one is sometimes blurry, according to Frassinelli. Avoiding it totally may be impossible, but the important part is the way potentially abusive behavior is managed, she said. Coaches, athletes and administrations must build enough trust to do that.
“I think about how often is there oversight, how often are athletic directors or even associate ADs watching the interactions that are happening with their coaching staff and their student athletes just to check, just to make sure,” Frassinelli said.
Fraser, Quinnipiac’s SWA, said she believes administrator involvement is vital to understanding the cultures of the programs they oversee.
“I think the role is knowing enough about the programs you’re reading about going into the survey, so that most of what is said isn’t a surprise,” she said. “So if you’re doing your job [as an administrator] there shouldn’t be too many things there that you had no idea about because you’re close enough to the coaches, you’re close enough to the student athletes, you’re close enough to the program from just being around.”
However, Quinnipiac counselor Mary Pellitteri believes trust may be the wrong word to use when trying to avoid abusive behavior.
“Take trust and throw it right out the window,”Pellitteri said. “That’s a word that is way overused in my opinion because it’s something that has to be earned.”
Pellitteri said athletes need to not only get to know their coaches, but also get over the possible embarrassment of speaking up if they feel wronged.
“We feel like, ‘oh don’t be such a fuddy duddy’ or whatever, and that’s when it gets more and more uncomfortable,” she said. “So I think it’s more about trusting yourself to be able to stand up for things.”
However, as an athlete who has witnessed this behavior, Connery believes athletes sticking up for themselves can be a double-edged sword.
“They’re a wuss if they [admit it bothers them] and then people pull the whole ‘if you’re at a high level, if you’re a D1 athlete you need to be able to handle this,’” she said.
NCAA surveys mirror Connery’s thoughts.
In the most recent Growth, Opportunities, Aspirations and Learning of Students in college or GOALS survey, about half of female respondents said they were “very comfortable” going to their captains with team problems. The percentage increased from freshmen to seniors.
However, when asked how comfortable they were talking to coaches about team problems, a higher percentage of student athletes selected “somewhat comfortable” or “somewhat uncomfortable.”
When asked how comfortable they would be talking with administrators about problems on a team, over half were “somewhat uncomfortable” or “very uncomfortable” across all years.
It was Connery’s captain, Morgan Fritz-Ward who faced discomfort and requested a meeting with administration. She and her team decided they were not going to let any more athletes suffer from their coach’s behaviors.
And once Seeley was gone, Connery, in her senior season found her love for hockey again.
“The coaches let me be a little more like, free, the way that I am,” said Connery. “And all the love poured in again.”
While the new head ice hockey coach and assistant under Seeley, Cassandra Turner, was not someone the players felt like they could go to in their time of suffering, Connery found a way to enjoy her senior season.
“In order for you to do better you have to forgive,” Connery said. “She’s very good at communicating with people … She’s very good at understanding people’s minds. I trusted that she could do well, could teach us well, could be a good coach and everything.”
MacDonough, the Quinnipiac trainer and mental health liaison, said that it’s important for coaches to have a healthy line of communication between them and their athletes and to not let too many personal feelings get in the way.
“We have a duty to check those behaviors, check our emotions at the door. If our student athlete isn’t performing well I do think that we have to hold them accountable and say ‘hey you’re slipping, what’s going on,’” she said.
So while student athletes can sometimes feel like no one is listening, experts say there is a way of managing problems between athletes and coaches. Abuse in women’s sports can be avoided with communication, accountability, respect and self esteem.
From Connery’s point of view, “you’ve gotta really value yourself … and know what you deserve and the kind of way you should be treated … put that value up higher.”
Reporter’s note: In the interest of full disclosure, Grace Manthey is a student athlete at Quinnipiac on the Acrobatics and Tumbling team.
On Saturday March 31, Hamden unveiled a brass plaque commemorating 151 veterans. The plaque will serve as an addition to the Hamden Veterans’ Memorial.
By Cliff Nadel
Earlier today, Hamden Town Clerk Vera Morrison and the Hamden Veterans Commission unveiled a new brass plaque containing the names of 151 Hamden veterans.The ceremony took place in front of Hamden Middle School on Dixwell Avenue, with a full crowd in attendance.
The plaque is the fifth addition since the memorials installment in 1991, according to Morrison. The 2.5 ton memorial is said to contain the names of more than 8,000 Hamden veterans.
Upon the plaques unveiling family, friends, Hamden residents and veterans lined up to take a picture of the new plaque.
While the Mayor of Hamden, Curt Leng, wasn’t present due to prior engagements regarding the holiday weekend, Morrison read a statement on his behalf. Referring to Hamden veterans, Leng said the town is ” truly, truly grateful for everything you’ve done for us.”
Toys R Us is closing its doors nationwide. While local students are disappointed about losing the experience taking a trip to the toy store, they understand the change in today’s toy culture has contributed to the close.
“I think it’s kind of sad,” said Pat Pitts, a junior journalism major at Quinnipiac. “Everything they [kids today] want is on electronics or something like that, so they don’t have that toy experience that you and I had growing up.”
In its long history, Toys R Us has emerged as an important part of the childhoods of Quinnipiac students. Ben Kuru, a freshman marketing major at Quinnipiac even had a specific memorable experience.
“My favorite thing there was a bike that I got to ride around there a little bit,” said Kuru. “The workers there were really friendly and it’s unfortunate that the place is closing down.”
Over the past year, Toys R Us has faced a series of financial miscues that have led to the company’s downfall.
On September 18th the company declared bankruptcy after being over $5 billion dollars in debt. Four months later the company announced that it would be closing over 100 stores across the country.
By March Toys R Us announced its liquidation, leading to the closure of over 700 nationwide locations.
While debt is arguably the biggest contributor to the company’s demise, some saw different reasons for Toys R Us’s decline.
“I noticed that their video game section wasn’t that drastic,” said Shannon Marmot, a junior public relations major at Quinnipiac. “They tried to base it more on board games and I feel like that was a huge downside to them.”
Others saw issues with the pricing of the items in the store.
Kuru said he thought prices at Toys R Us were “a little bit out there,” but it’s not the only reason he thought the toy store failed.
“Kids are more into technology than they are into physical toys nowadays,” said Kuru.
Lori Hershman, an employee at Evan’s Toy Shoppe in Hamden, Connecticut, had similar feelings on children’s shift towards technology.
“I see in restaurants that they’re playing with iPads instead of coloring books,” said Hershman. “In cars, they’re watching movies or playing games instead of looking out the window.”
Amy Cavallo, a sophomore finance major at Quinnipiac, said there could have been a way to save the store.
“If debt was truly the issue…I think at that point you really need to refocus your business practice on repaying,” said Cavallo. “You could’ve invested that [money] into repaying your loans.”
With the end of the Toys R Us in sight, Hershman is concerned that the absence of the company could have a negative effect on children.
“If there isn’t a toy store and they couldn’t get what they want, that would be detrimental. It’s important for kids to have that experience of saving their pennies and getting that toy they’ve wanted,” said Hershman.
Toys R Us has commenced liquidation sales in all of it’s nationwide locations. The company is anticipated to run out of money by May.
Hartford, Connecticut joined Washington D.C. and hundreds of other cities in a “March For Our Lives” rally to demonstrate support for stricter gun laws in the United States on Saturday, March 24.
Newhallville community members finally have access to the $1 million federal grant it has waited two years to use.
By Grace Manthey
A Christmas tree on Shelton Avenue lit up what is now called the “Learning Corridor” on the Farmington Canal in Newhallville, New Haven, on a chilly December evening. To the left of the tree a small crowd huddled around a table with vats of hot chocolate. Conversation and laughter warmed the winter air as members of the community celebrated the holidays.
But this “Newhallville Winter Extravaganza” wouldn’t have been possible a few years ago, at least not at the Learning Corridor. According to Jeanette Sykes, who grew up in Newhallville and is a member of the Newhallville Management Team, this area used to be called the “mud hole,” and was a hotbed for shootings.
“That used to be a really bad area, but now we have a local guy who comes to cut the grass, we put some flowers out…[it’s] a big piece in our community which it wasn’t before,” Sykes said.
An entrance to the Farmington Canal near Shelton Avenue.
From 2011 to April 2014, Newhallville had two to three times the city crime rate in major violent crime categories. The Learning Corridor transformation is just one example of how residents working on the Newhallville Safe Neighborhood Initiative (NSNI) are trying to reduce that number.
And now the NSNI has a $1 million federal grant to work with.
At the end of October, after two years of meetings, drafts and planning, the Department of Justice approved the grant for implementation.
Over half of the usable budget (minus employee benefits and expenses) will be going to youth-oriented programs, which offer mentoring programs, employment opportunities, and activities designed to keep kids off the street. The grant will give over $200,000 to organizations like the Promised Land Group, the NAFI Youth Police Initiative, the Newhallville Neighborhood Corporation, The Perfect Blend Mentoring Program, Newhallville YouthStat and Newhallville Ambassadors Program over the next two years.
The community members working on the initiative will give the remaining usable funds to community policing and beautification programs, such as the Neighborhood Housing Services and sub-grants aimed at violent “hot spots” and “community cohesion projects through a competitive mini-grant process.” Also, the grant will give to community programing, like the holiday party at the Learning Corridor.
Finally, the Farmington Canal will get a makeover, courtesy of the Byrne Grant. Funding will allow for more lighting and cameras, as well as fixed workout equipment and chess tables.
Roll over each pie title to learn more about what each category represents.
Residents say that positive changes seem to be coming out of the grant. But it’s been a long wait that has had its challenges.
The grant application was originally submitted on May 6, 2014. Planning officially began in October of the same year. A few months later in January 2015, it was approved by the New Haven Board of Alders.
But the approval process was nowhere near finished, according to New Haven Youth Services Director Jason Bartlett.
“Ordinarily when you write a grant…you say I’m gonna do all these prescriptive things and they give you the money and then you have to do it. That’s not what happens here,” Bartlett said.
According to Bartlett, the approval process for grants like the Byrne grant are usually long. But while the city worked with the DOJ to finalize the planning and budget for the grant, the DOJ expected officials to start building “community cohesion” to create support for the initiative and the grant.
“These grants are targeted toward neighborhoods that are systemically dysfunctional…[with] lots of problems on both the political level as well as dealing with difficult demographics. And a lot of times some of Byrne Grant communities, you know, they don’t even want the money. We actually faced that question here in New Haven,” he said.
Bartlett said a lot of it has to do with “Yale fatigue.” With Yale being so close and such a high profile university, many people in communities like Newhallville feel like “lab rats” when grant money comes through, and they feel like a lot of the research is more about helping the university than helping the people.
To fight that “Yale fatigue,” and build community cohesion, Bartlett and the city were then forced to “do some of the work without the money.”
In October 2015, one year after planning had officially started, Bartlett hired Arthur Edwards as project manager for the initiative. As a native of Newhallville, Edwards played an important role in building trust between community members and city officials.
“I saw it as an opportunity to be that person to really facilitate positive change in Newhallville … We already knew that there was a trust factor on several levels that would have to be worked out … I thought I would be a great fit being from the area and knowing a lot of the residents in Newhallville,” Edwards said.
“I stayed focused on the fact that collaboration is key, and the only way that we are going to get change is through a collective effort,” he continued.
To facilitate that “collective effort,” Edwards set up a governance council of 13 people to serve as his advisors and representatives of the Newhallville community. The council included three alders, leaders from the Newhallville Management Team, the Board of Education, religious leaders and regular community members.
Edwards and the council continued the work that Bartlett started.
So while working with an organization called the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), a non-profit community development financial institution, to get approved by the U.S. Department of Justice, Edwards and Bartlett engaged with young people, started a program called YouthStat, invested in beautification projects around “hot spots” like the Farmington Canal, started a clean streets initiative and worked with the New Haven Police Department. All of this to prove the long term effects to the DOJ.
“You’re basically making an argument in writing on paper that what you’re doing is going to have a lasting impact on those hot spots and somehow you’re going to alleviate the hot spots in the neighborhood and that’s going to last beyond the two years and the million dollars,” Bartlett said.
For Bartlett, Edwards, Sykes and the rest of the governance council, the decision of how to divvy up the money to ensure sustainability in the community wasn’t an easy one.
“The biggest challenge for me was the communication between various governments … again you’re talking city to federal … the turnaround for information was very challenging and frustrating at times,” said Edwards.
But it wasn’t just communication between city and federal departments that hindered a smooth planning period.
“Everyone was so passionate about what they believe in,” Sykes said. In community meetings the governance council held about the grant, Sykes said there were definitely arguments over whether the money should be spent on elderly, youth, redevelopment or activities. However Sykes assured the community members that no matter what the money was spent on, “everything intertwines.”
“I said to them even if you do a youth program or a youth workshop, a youth workshop can help the elderly. What about the elderly people in our community that still have their houses but they can’t do their lawn? Or they can’t do the snow removing? Well maybe that’s a job we can develop for a young person to do,” Sykes said.
She continued and said that once the community was able to refocus the passion to sustainability, that was when the transition become smoother.
“We do have a lot of great organizations. And a lot of little organizations that have been around for 10 years, 15 years, 20 years. We went wow! You’ve been doing this all this time? Okay well you need to come to the table,” Sykes said.
It may be difficult, though, to conclude how much this initiative has helped curb crime in the neighborhood. According to crime data from the New Haven Police Department, between 2015 and 2016 violent crime in police district seven, where Newhallville falls, actually rose from 11 percent to 14 percent relative to city-wide violent crime rates.
Up to December 3, 2017, however, the total relative violent crime rates did drop one percentage point to 13%. And after a spike in 2015, total crime in the district seems to be dropping. (See chart)
Numbers based on data collected from the New Haven Police Department.
But the primary goal of the initiative and the grant is long-term sustainability, and implementation only started a relatively short time ago. So despite the fact that according to Sykes, talks of this initiative started nearly a decade ago, seeing a significant difference in a year may not be realistic.
“I think we need to get the bad rep off of us,” Sykes said. “I think that every community has their strength and every community has things that they can work on. And I think when people hear Newhallville they automatically go to the negative. And it’s not all negative. [There’s] a lot of positive that happens in Newhallville.”
By investing the positive aspects of Newhallville: the youth, and the long-lasting projects, community leaders hope the DOJ and city goal of sustainability will become a reality. According to Bartlett, in two years “a million dollars is not that much money. So what you’re doing, you want to be able to sustain it so that there’s real and lasting transformation.”
Because at the end of the day, according to Sykes, “Our message is we are committed to our community, we love Newhallville and it’s not just a safe haven for us, it’s a loving community.”
Above, it is easy to see the time it took for the DOJ to approve the grant, in comparison to when New Haven officials originally submitted the application.
One of the many trees knocked over by the wind at QU after Wednesday’s storm.
Photo by Bill Ruocco
A tree down in an HQ Press reporter’s road
Photo by Rob McGreevy.
HQ Press reporter Rob McGreevy couldn’t make it to class today because of this tree
Photo by Rob McGreevy
Rugby coach Becky Carlson’s driveway in Guilford, CT
Photo by Becky Carlson. Her dog could get out of her driveway, but she had to cut the trees with a chainsaw.
As the snow picked up Wednesday morning, officials in Hamden closed “non-essential” offices as of 12 p.m on March 7. These include the government center, the memorial town hall and libraries, according to the Town of Hamden Facebook page.
Hamden Public Schools Superintendent Jody Goeler announced on Twitter that the district closed all schools at around 5 a.m. Wednesday morning.
Hamden Public Schools are closed today, Wednesday, March 7th. Editorial note: I hate March. Stay safe.
Quinnipiac University, Southern Connecticut State University and Albertus Magnus College all cancelled classes as well.
City officials also issued a parking ban, which prohibits parking on any odd-numbered sides of streets. Additionally, the city encouraged residents not to shovel snow from their private driveways onto streets. Violators risk a fine up to $50 for either offense.
Courtesy of the Town of Hamden
In spite of the closings, Hamden officials announced the opening of 24-hour warning centers at the Police Department and Hamden Fire Stations.
Contact Fire Chief Berardesca’s office at 203-407-5880 for more information, and call 911 in case of emergency.
The Connecticut Citizen’s Defense League logo, courtesy of the CCDL official website.
By Bill Ruocco
On Wednesday, Feb. 28, both Walmart and Dick’s Sporting Goods made efforts towards slowing their sales of firearms. Walmart, America’s largest gun supplier, adjusted the age requirement to 21 in order to buy any firearm. Dick’s made the move to completely cease the sale of any assault rifles.
To learn more about the situation with Dick’s and Walmart, click here.
There is no shortage of these super-stores that sell firearms in Connecticut. Take a look for yourself, the map below contains every Dicks Sporting Goods and Walmart in Connecticut that sells firearms.
Locally this announcement did not send shockwaves of any sort given Connecticut Dick’s Sporting Goods have not sold assault rifles since the tragedy of Sandy Hook.
“So-called ‘assault rifles’ have been banned already in Connecticut back in 2013,” said Scott Wilson, president of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League. “The policy to up the age to 21 years on up was more of a surprise.”
Members of the Connecticut Citizens Defense League, or CCDL. Photo courtesy of the CCDL official website.
Wilson is not the only individual who commonly puts the words “assault rifle” in quotations these days. In the gun community, a lot of the frustration is geared towards the broad definition of an “assault rifle” that is quickly placing bans on many firearms that seemed relatively tame and very safe in their eyes.
The remaining frustration is a driving idea that most gun enthusiasts share.
“Our job as a gun rights organization is to educate the public at large about how little more laws would have little effect on such outcomes,” said Wilson. “Remember, criminals bent on murder do not really care about the laws.”
In the minds of most who are passionate about firearms, the recent laws and bans are virtually pointless.
Leaders in organizations specific to gun rights are not the only local individuals who have grown weary of regulations on firearms.
After a quick visit to Blue Trail Range Gun Store in Wallingford, Conn. it was quickly apparent how people feel.
“The key word in the Second Amendment is infringed,” one anonymous individual stated, “That means it cannot be touched at all.”
The man also said, in so many words, that once we give up one of our rights, we are vulnerable to give up everything else.
The York Hill campus, courtesy of Quinnipiac’s website
By Tatyana Youssef
As Quinnipiac reaches its goal of 7,000 undergraduate students, the student body is experiencing changes in the traditional housing structure. More students are being fit into the 15 different residential areas on York Hill and Mount Carmel campus, while many others are living in off-campus options such as Quinnipiac owned houses or apartments. “Approximately 4,800 students live in university-owned housing in traditional residence halls, suites, apartments and off-campus houses,” according to the university’s website.” With housing selection approaching, students are making decisions with the limited options and new changes.
In early 2017, Quinnipiac announced a variety of changes to the housing structure aimed at reducing the crowding being experienced in some dorms due to the increasing size of incoming classes. There is no longer enough room for all sophomores and freshmen to live on Mount Carmel campus, which is within walking distance of classes.
Current senior and Vice President of the Student Government Association Jacqueline Schmedel has seen drastic changes in housing since she began her experience at Quinnipiac. She says, “I have seen freshmen packed into common rooms, students temporarily displaced due to combusting generators, and underclassmen being sent up to York Hill because there isn’t enough space on campus to accommodate them.”
Good thing Quinnipiac ran out of Housing for over 100 sophomores…… Including myself
Some sophomores are currently living on York Hill, a campus originally intended for upperclassmen. While the university’s website states, “The Crescent and Westview residence hall is one of our newest residence halls, providing housing for upperclassmen,” this does not hold true for the many sophomores living in Crescent dorms.
Alongside freshman dorms of Commons, Ledges, Mountainview, Irma, Dana and Larson, the rise in populations opened up Judge Philip Troup Hall, a former sophomore housing option, as a freshman dorm.
Junior options expanded on York Hill as the former senior dorm, Townhouses, now houses six juniors each. Whitney Village, a living option off campus in a condominium style is now open for juniors.
For many students, living on campus is seen as a privilege entering their first two years at Quinnipiac. When news broke of the sophomore separation, students were disappointed and feared losing their sense of community tied to the Mount Carmel campus. Whitney Leyland, a sophomore psychology major, recalls what her peers say about the York experience. “I haven’t heard of it being stressful on York. Some of my friends actually really like it.”
Charlotte Gardner, a sophomore journalism major, was nervous to find out her higher lottery number left her with a crescent room option on York Hill last spring semester. This year, she is satisfied with the experience, “I love living on York. I’m so much more relaxed and calm and not as anxious as I am when I’m on Main (Mount Carmel campus)- it really feels like I’m coming home as opposed to a dorm.”
Students have expressed frustration with the random “lottery system” through which housing numbers are assigned. Freshman health science major Gisselle Acevedo vocalizes her annoyance with the current housing process, describing the experience as “too competitive.” She questions the temporary solutions combatting the influx of incoming students accepted this year. “I don’t like how for most of the good rooms it’s seven people. What is the point of a forced triple? Why not make rooms with 8 people and have equal space?”
Whitney Leyland, currently living in Sahlin on the Mount Carmel campus, understands the temporary solutions but sees what makes it so complicated for the students new to the process. “The whole lottery system is chaotic because after people start to get their housing situations set up, people have to get kicked out to fit other styles.” In an ideal world, she believes having the same number of students in each room allows the housing selection process to run smoother. “Having the same amount live together would alleviate the stress of the possibility of getting kicked out and everyone would know how many they needed to fill the room.”
One administrator proposed a different idea when approaching the random lottery housing process. Erin Twomey Provistalis, Assistant Director of Student Affairs, says “I think there should be a way for students who get a certain GPA, are involved outside the classroom, pay their bills on-time, etc. get preference in the lottery.” With the unfairness that stems from random lottery, Twomey would “love to see a system that rewards our students who are really making an impact at Quinnipiac.”
When it was being constructed in 2010, the York Hill campus was originally approved to have several more dorms in addition to the ones that were built. While these dorms were never constructed, President Lahey revealed in Fall of 2017 that Quinnipiac was beginning the process of applying for permits to begin constructing a new 220-room dorm on the York Hill Campus. The addition of this new building could alleviate much of the stress experienced during the housing process by giving students more modern and attractive options.
