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Residents tell Meriden council they feel unsafe; allege Housing Authority liaison absences
Summary
At a Meriden mayor and city council meeting, multiple residents raised safety concerns—citing drug use, assaults, and patrol gaps—while several commenters and written submissions accused the Meriden Housing Authority of closed-door meetings and inconsistent liaison attendance.
Multiple Meriden residents used the council’s public input period to press elected officials on public-safety and housing-authority concerns, saying police presence is insufficient, drug activity is affecting children, and Meriden Housing Authority (MHA) engagement with the community is inconsistent.
Dan Zborowski, who spoke first, questioned the city’s firehouse distribution and said he was troubled that “American Housing Authority. They are holding closed door meetings with our city manager,” adding that the acting director “won't say anything.” He also noted Meriden’s six firehouses compared with neighboring towns and asked, “Can you tell me why?”
John Malavenda, representing Community Towers residents, said tenants “don’t want any interference with the day-to-day operations” and criticized repeated absence of the council liaison at MHA meetings. Jennifer Addy said she is fed up with “the smoking of crack cocaine, doing heroin…this constant outside these children's windows,” and said security was not responding to threats she has reported.
Brian Steadman, another Community Towers resident, described ongoing altercations and urged more visible police foot patrols during daytime hours: “Get out of their car, show some presence…put the fear of God into these people so that you can break up and disperse these crowds of criminals.”
The clerk read several written submissions into the record. Jesse Franklin asked why the public-safety committee had canceled three meetings in a row and said those cancellations denied the public opportunities to question departments. Randall Jenkins urged the city manager to intervene at MHA and wrote that the entire MHA board should be replaced.
Mayor and council members did not move to take immediate action during the public-comment period; the mayor closed public input after the scheduled speakers and the council proceeded to the city manager’s report and agenda items. The written comments and public concern about liaison attendance, building security and patrol frequency were entered into the record for council consideration at future meetings.
