I would look for a place to live in West Hartford/Newington/New Britain/Berlin as housing costs are more affordable there compared to the shoreline, and OP can take Amtrak straight to New York City from either the Hartford or Berlin station and have OP’s employer buy OP Amtrak Ten Way tickets from Hartford to Penn Station while OP’s wife has a more reasonable commute.

There is a strong drinking culture in the Connecticut House of Representatives and it has been a problem for many years.

For instance, I personally attended a state party fundraiser a few years back where there was members of the house who were blackout drunk and yet still drove home. The former Mayor of Hartford at the direction of the former Governor even ordered the Hartford police chief to move a DUI checkpoint away from the party fundraiser to avoid any embarrassment.

Let’s be honest, this isn’t a political issue. This is a public safety issue. And I am angry about it. While the vast majority of our Representatives are responsible and are professional and would never do anything to put other people’s lives in danger, there are around 15 members of the General Assembly - primarily from the House and from both political parties (as well as some legislative staffers) - who need to be called out and held to a higher standard. It isn’t just Representative Comey. She by far isn’t the first one to drive while under the influence. She just got caught.

I’ve seen so many instances of legislators getting drunk even in the mornings at the Capitol, to legislators and staffers getting hammered at the end of session even to the point of taking off their clothes and throwing hoops from the forth floor balcony onto the Nathan Hale statue in drunken celebration. And back in 2020 when several members were caught drinking in the middle of session and when Rep Comey was drunk on the House floor, the Speakers of the House refused to do anything but issue a stern warning not to drink on the job. There were no consequences. And the message that everyone received at the Capitol was drinking is acceptable and we can do whatever we want as there won't be any consequences.

There is a huge drinking culture at the Capitol. It is extremely problematic. Some people have even left their jobs because they felt unsafe. Some were sexually harassed and assaulted while employed. I personally have never witnessed a drinking culture so intense and that includes my time in college.

There is no other workplace where you can show up to your job drunk and keep your job. There is no other workplace where you can drink on the job and not face any consequences. Let's be honest: Speaker Ritter failed in his job by refusing to uphold the laws of our state and apply them equally to people in positions of power. Speaker Ritter refused to hold multiple legislators accountable for their behavior and for their failure to follow the law and there should be an independent inquiry to investigate the behavioral misconduct by both representatives and senators - not just for the substance abuse issues but in matters including sexual harassment issues as well - in order to ensure a safe working environment for all legislators, all staffers, and all members of the public.

I like Representative Comey and she is a good legislator. But she needs to resign and seek professional help. She could have been killed. She could have killed others. It is nothing sort of a miracle that no one was seriously hurt. I had a very close friend who was killed by a drunk driver and I hate to see anyone else get hurt.

This is not a one time incident but an on going issue spanning decades and a issue that is getting significantly worse. There needs to be an independent investigation into the drinking culture as well as the sexual misconduct issues at the Capitol and people need to be held accountable. Legislators and legislative staffers who are found as a result of a investigation to have engaged in unlawful or improper conduct need to resign. Also, there needs to be a thorough examination on why there was a failure to follow state laws and legislative rules at the seat of government. And finally, there should also be a independent task force should make recommendations as to any legal safeguards that should be implemented in order to prevent more people from getting hurt or worse.

Edit: grammar

Finding a therapist can be a challenging process, one that can take up to several months. Unfortunately, in my experience, lists of therapists from insurance companies or psychology today aren’t kept up to date and are full of people no longer practicing, deceased, or not taking new clients. I am not saying this to deter you, as getting a therapist is an incredibly brave and wise decision. But it’s important to understand at the start of your search that our state’s mental health services are very overwhelmed right now, and you should not give up if you don’t find someone right away as it’s not personal, as everyone is going through a challenging time right now.

With that in mind, in addition to reaching out to your insurance provider and various websites, it would be helpful to also reach out to your primary care physician to ask for a referral. Also, contact your town’s social services office and make a appointment and ask them for referrals. I got a great therapist from a referral from my town’s social services department. You can call 211 and ask them for a referral. You can also just go to your community mental health provider and set up an intake appointment and let the intake person know that you are in need of a therapist. CMHC is the community mental health provider for the New Haven region. Finally, if you are ever in a crisis, you can dial 988 for immediate help.

UConn does indeed have a lot of top notch scholars, but for the most part as a UConn student you won’t have access to them in your freshman or sophomore years.

As a student at any public higher educational institution in Connecticut, your classes are the same regardless whether you start out at community college and transfer to a four year university or if you start right at UConn. At UConn as a freshman or sophomore, you are literally paying $30,000 per year as a in state student to take the exact same classes, using basically the same exact textbooks, in a lecture hall with 300 other students learning the exact same material than you would at community college except your not paying anything because we have free community college for in state students and instead of being in a lecture hall with 300 students your in a class with 20-25 students and you actually can speak with your professor during office hours instead of waiting a week to speak to a T.A. at UConn.

And honestly, the liberal arts and social sciences programs are better at ConnCSU than at UConn for undergrad. If I had a child in college who wanted to major in English or become a teacher, I would tell them to go to CCSU. It’s much more affordable, class sizes are much smaller, and you have more employment opportunities than you would at UConn if you plan to stay local. On the other hand, if I had a child in college who wanted to obtain a degree in the sciences or a mathematics degree, UConn is obviously the better option.

It depends heavily on your major and what your priorities are in choosing your school especially as a undergrad. I think it’s insane that UConn students who attend all four years of undergrad have to take on $120,000+ in expenses now. I personally don’t see much value in that especially in your first two years where there is literally no difference in your classes and quality of your education between UConn and community colleges. But some people value “the college experience” and they really want to go to a big university with D1 sports and something going on all the time even if it will close them $60,000 extra to do it. It’s a legitimate value but not one that I or a lot of people share.

Community colleges are extremely vital and offers tons of certification courses from nursing to accounting to paralegals to manufacturing. We have a lot of high tech manufacturing companies in CT which are highly dependent on community college graduates, and people who graduate from our community college manufacturing programs have a 100% job placement rate before graduation.

UConn has its role as a research university and ConnCSU has its role as teaching colleges and university’s. I strongly disagree with your various comments that UConn is superior. It’s not. You can’t really compare UConn and ConnCSU because they are so different and they have different functions and they serve different purposes. UConn certainly has a lot of advantages as a research university but the state universities has a lot of other advantages over UConn as a teaching university.

I was fortunate to serve in the student senate at my community college as well as at UConn and funding and the structure of the student governments is different.

We used to have three separate systems. Governor Malloy tried to combine the state college colleges, the state universities, and UConn into one system back in 2011 but UConn said no (because UConn have veto powers over the Governor /s) so that is why we have two systems now: UConn and everyone else.

That’s not entirely accurate. Connecticut did have a public option healthcare plan called the Charter Oak Health Plan. Every adult in CT could join and your premium was on a sliding scale based on your income. Governor Malloy killed the public option back in 2011 as he knew the CT Access Health insurance exchange couldn’t complete with it.

https://www.ct.gov/GovernorRell/cwp/view.asp?Q=422194

1. Of the 187 legislators, 178 have a job outside of their legislative position.

2. In the state of Connecticut, it is against the law for an employer to deny leave to an elected representative serving in the legislature. Employers must excuse employees from work without any punitive action to employees who are elected to the state general assembly.

3. The $40,000 salary is higher for most. If you serve in a leadership position (committee chair, vice chair, leader, whip, debuty speaker, speaker, etc) you get several thousand more dollars annually. All 36 state senators are in leadership and nearly have of the 151 state representatives are in leadership. State representatives also receive a travel stipend which can be worth several thousand more dollars, free meals, good healthcare, and a pension if they serve for ten years. Legislators also have access to a staff and a office at no charge.

There are a lot of ways to make friends. Here are my recommendations:

1. Ask your co workers at work if they want to socialize after work. If your in college, join several clubs.

2. Join a group through meetup.com or the app and attend a event.

3. Join an adult recreation league.

4. Volunteer for a non profit like a community organization or reach out to the Mayors office and ask if there are any vacancy’s on any city board or commission. There are 45 different boards and commissions in New Haven and there is always a need for more residents to serve the City.

5. While Tinder, Bumble, and other apps are useful, use them as a supplement and not as a substitute for meeting people. Your best opportunity to meet new people is in person.

Feel free to pm me if you want to talk or if your lonely. I’m willing to be your friend too if you want.

Being somewhere new and alone can be challenging. Here’s an helpful video that can help as well: https://youtu.be/n3Xv_g3g-mA

I live in the neighborhood and it is a great, safe, walkable neighborhood. The neighborhood is patrolled by both NBPD and CCSU PD, and the crime rate here is very low so jogging/walking your dog is incredibly safe. There are a lot of food options downtown and you are 5 minutes from the Westfarms shopping area. There are countless restaurants, breweries, etc. New Britain is home to three theatre companies, a sympathy orchestra, the New Britain Museum of American Art as well as a collective art studio downtown, the New Britain Bees Baseball team ($6 tickets and $2 Hot Dogs) and many of the sports games at CCSU are free or cheap. Living in the neighborhood you are near both Stanley Quarter and A.W. Stanley Parks. If you enjoy golfing we have the Stanley Golf Course nearby and as a resident you are eligible for a discount. You would be severed by several CT Transit bus lines, with the main one being the 128 which will take you to downtown/westfarms in 10 minutes and downtown Hartford in 20 minutes. The closest CT Fasttrak station is the East Street Station with plenty of parking. I attached a link to the visit New Britain website. I would recommend watching the video and browsing the website.

The only thing you have to worry about is dealing with college students walking to and from their parties on Thursday nights from late August-October and late spring. Sometimes they can be loud and wake you up and occasionally you might have someone drunkenly pee in your yard. If you do run into issues with CCSU students, I would recommend attending the town and gown meetings at CCSU which are held monthly at the student center. But honestly that’s the least you have to worry about.

If you end up moving here and ever want to meet up, feel free to message me. https://www.visitnbct.com