Tag Archives: Dan Drew

FEATURED
Middletown is Now a Sanctuary City

“This president is wildly overstepping his bounds. This is a pathetic, amateurish move on his part and I’m not going to violate somebody’s constitutional right and put the people of Middletown in jeopardy to follow an illegal order by an illegitimate president.” – Mayor Dan Drew

Aerial of Wesleyan Universitiy campus and Connecticut River at Middletown, CTOn January 25, Donald Trump signed an executive order that targets cities popularly referred to as “sanctuary cities.” This executive order grants the power to designate “sanctuary jurisdictions” to the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and states that any city or state with this designation will not be eligible for future federal grant money. Sanctuary cities often have a set of codes and ordinances that commit to non-enforcement of federal immigration laws.

Yesterday, The Middletown Press published an article responding to the new executive order in which Mayor Dan Drew declared Middletown a sanctuary city. This comes after Wesleyan’s declaration of its status as a sanctuary campus last fall. Read more for some choice quotes from Dan Drew about Cheeto-in-Chief:

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EVENT
First Annual Mayoral Film Series in Middletown

Mayoral Film Series PosterYour first Fun Thing to do in Middletown, CT, this school year:

Middletown Mayor Daniel T. Drew and Wesleyan University’s Film Studies Department are pleased to announce that they are partnering to offer the first annual Mayoral Film Series in Middletown. The series will consist of three time-tested, classical gangster movies and will commence with a showing of The Maltese Falcon on August 22, 2015 followed by Angels with Dirty Faces, starring James Cagney, on August 29, 2015. The third and final film screening will be The Usual Suspects, on September 5, 2015. Films will be shown at 7:30 p.m. at the Film Department’s theater located at 301 Washington Terrace.

Mayor Drew personally selected these films. “These are among my favorite films and each is both entertaining and informative. I appreciate the Film Department opening their doors to the community and I look forward to seeing people at the screenings.”

Jeanine Basinger, Corwin-Fuller Professor of Film Studies and founder of the film department at Wesleyan says, “We’re all delighted to work with the Mayor on this series. He is definitely a movie lover! All these films are crowd pleasers and the Mayor made great choices. It’s a pleasure for all of us at the Center for Film Studies to be able to present these films for the community.”

Admission is free, with a requested donation of $5 per person to benefit the Buttonwood Tree.

Screening Dates: Saturday, August 22; Saturday, August 29; and Saturday, September 5
Time: 7:30-10 PM
Place: Goldsmith Family Cinema, Center for Film Studies
Cost: Free, with a suggested donation of $5 for the Buttonwood Tree
Link: here.

EVENT
Tomorrow: Public Hearing Regarding Washington Street Development

In case you somehow missed it, there has been a lot of talk since last semester about a proposed development that could find itself right next to Wesleyan’s campus on Washington Street, between High and Pearl. For those who have strong interest and/or opinions about this topic, Middletown’s Planning and Zoning Commission is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, February 27th at 7 p.m. that will address two zone-change proposals that could either allow or prevent this development from happening.

Specifically, the hearing will address the developers’ zoning code text amendment proposal — which would allow for more commercial development on Washington Street to go forward — and that of avid opponent to the development Ed Mckeon, which would make the zone under consideration become eligible for residential use only, thus preventing the development from going forward. More information about the two zone change proposals can be found here, but disregard the original pre-Nemo hearing date.

If you want to attend and/or testify at the hearing, here is some important information:

What: Middletown Planning and Zoning Commission Public Hearing on proposed zoning code text amendments
Where: 245 DeKoven Drive, Council Chambers (in City Hall)
When: February 27th at 7 p.m.
If you plan on testifying: try to arrive before 7 p.m., and bring at least one printed copy of your testimony. You will only be given a couple minutes to deliver it, so make it concise.

For extensive reporting on all things Washington Street Development, check out the links after the jump (provided by the WSA).

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FEATURED
Mayor Drew Thinks Bookstore Move is a Good Idea

Despite all the brouhaha over the potential Wesleyan bookstore relocation—including dissenting voices from Middletown resident Jen Alexander ’88 and Red & Black owner Ed Thorndike ’89—Mayor Dan Drew remains committed to supporting the development on economic grounds. In a press conference on Wednesday, Drew praised developer Bob Landino’s proposal as a potential job-creator in Middletown. As Middletown Patch reports:

“This will bring a $6 million influx of funds into the Middletown economy,” said Mayor Dan Drew. “It will create 30 full-time jobs in the development complex.”

Joining Drew at a press conference in council chamber of city hall were Robert A. Landino, president and CEO of Centerplan Construction; Gerry Daley, longtime chair of the Economic Development Commission; and Larry McHugh, president of the Middlesex County Chamber of Commerce.

Drew also compared the model to William and Mary College (though this slab of Washington Street is at least a few blocks from Middletown’s “historic downtown”) and praised Landino’s connections to the Middletown community (read: he’s not from “New York or Boston or Chicago”):

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EVENT
Mayor Drew to Speak with Students Tomorrow

To all those who are interested in learning about Middletown and the town-university relationship, a message from Michael Linden ’15:

Middletown Mayor Dan Drew will be coming to WesFest tomorrow, Friday April 13th, to talk about the Wesleyan-Middletown relationship and how Wesleyan students can become involved in both the town and university communities during their time here.

Come many and come with questions, this is a great opportunity to meet Middletown leadership!

  • What: Mayor Drew is coming
  • Where: Usdan 108
  • When: Friday, April 13, 4:30 – 5:30PM
  • Who’s invited: all members of the Wesleyan community (past, current and future!)

Mayorlection Watch: Mtown Press Endorses Giuliano, WesDems Dan Drew

So it continues, two days after Mayor Giuliano vows to cease all active campaigning until power is restored. (Not so, says Wes students who spotted the mayor handing out fliers in Usdan.) (Hold him to it, Washington Street. It’s gonna be a while.) Today, Middletown Press reveals its official endorsement: Giuliano, writes the local news source, “is a guy immersed in the nuts and bolts of building a better city and protecting its traditional assets.” Sure, he’s made mistakes—”failures in tactic, in tone and in transparency.” But at least he owns up to them:

Talking about who started it or who is most to blame would be as big a waste of time as debating the size of the new TV monitor in Giuliano’s office or how many local events his opponent has attended. We are endorsing Sebastian Giuliano for a fourth two-year term as mayor in Middletown because his knowledge of and dedication to the city is without question.

So there’s a caveat:

We endorse the re-election of Sebastian Giuliano on Nov. 8, but in doing so urge him to draw upon the “long view” of Middletown that makes him a good mayor.

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Do Not Be Disenfranchised!

Visiting Assistant Professor of Government Brian J. Glenn ’91 (yeah, he’s a professor and a Wes alum) teaches a course on Campaigns and Elections* here at Wesleyan.  Today, Glenn writes in on something especially relevant to that class, and to all of you:

On Thursday, the Republican Registrar of Voters for the City of Middletown announced that she is invalidating on a technicality roughly half of the 450 or so registration forms submitted by Wesleyan students.  This is an outrage, and I encourage each and every student to go down Court Street to Middletown City Hall on Monday the 31st and register in person before the November 1 cutoff.
A line of 2,000 students forming outside the Registrar’s door would send the message that Wesleyan’s students will not tolerate attempts to silence them for partisan ends.

If you ever wondered whether your vote matters, the Republican Registrar just answered that question!  Your vote matters.  Please register to vote in person on Monday.

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Dan and Seb’s Epic Battle: Liveblogging the Middletown Mayoral Debate

Not pictured: candidates.

Hey folks! I’m sitting in Crowell right now next to wieb$ preparing to liveblog the Middletown mayoral debate. So far, the scene isn’t too exciting; we’ve got a handful of people sitting in seats or milling about, a small child who runs down the steps every few minutes, and a television reporter standing behind me trying to figure out how to plug in his microphone, to no avail. We’ll be indicating which one of us is posting by timestamps and brackets. I would explain this further, but doing so seems unnecessary.

T-minus 7 minutes to start. Keep an eye on this post – updates below the jump.

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