Gov. Ned Lamont’s veto of HB 5002—a housing bill aimed at encouraging modest, statewide growth —sent a loud message: we will wait for local consensus, even if that means affirming the same local resistance that got us here.

In doing so, Lamont breathed new life into what I’ve come to call the No-Growth, No-Opportunity Coalition—a powerful and persistent force committed to freezing Connecticut in place.

This isn’t a political abstraction. It’s a real, measurable cost. I know, because I’m paying for it.

My family and I moved to Woodbridge last July, from Hartford. We’re raising one child and are proud to have made a home in a town known for its beauty, its schools, and its promise of opportunity.

I didn’t grow up thinking I’d ever live in a place like this. I was born and raised in Waterbury, Puerto Rican, and poor— the kind of poor that teaches you how fragile opportunity can be. I worked hard. I had help. And I earned the chance to make a choice my mother couldn’t: where to raise my child.

We came to Woodbridge to build a future —and to believe that belonging wasn’t reserved for those born behind an invisible curtain of opportunity.

Moving here peeled back that curtain. Within months, we received a mailer from a local group pushing hard against modest local housing proposals —signaling loud and clear that, for some, growth is something to resist, not plan for.

That mailer pushed me to act. I joined the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee because I wanted to fight back.

And what I found gave me hope: neighbors already in the fight —for fairness, for more housing, for a future that includes more families like mine. But they were swimming against a tide of organized resistance —too often drowned out by voices determined to keep the door closed.

That resistance doesn’t wear a party label. It doesn’t show up with signs. But it shows up in every delay, every deflection, every denial of change. It insists that any step forward is a threat, and any new neighbor is a burden.

That’s the quiet mission of the No-Growth, No-Opportunity Coalition: preserve everything, change nothing, and hope the math works out.

A few months after moving in, our property tax assessment shot up —a financial shock that felt less like a welcome and more like a warning. It didn’t take long to understand what was happening. And it’s happening across Connecticut.

Woodbridge isn’t failing – it’s choosing not to grow. Choosing to keep the door barely open. Choosing exclusion — quietly, structurally — and passing the cost onto the very people it claims to welcome.  

Some in our community love this town so much, they’ve tried to freeze it in time. But protectionism is exclusion. 

I don’t question the motives. I question the outcome. A town that refuses to grow doesn’t stay the same. It just shifts the burden—until fewer people can afford to stay, and fewer still can come at all.

Rejecting growth didn’t pause our bills. It blocked our ability to spread them fairly—across a broader, stronger, more diverse community already knocking at the door.

That’s not preservation. It’s exclusion. And it’s expensive.

I didn’t come to radically change Woodbridge. I came here because I believed in its promise – a promise now at risk. Not just for newcomers like me, but for longtime residents who want their kids nearby, for seniors who want to downsize without leaving, and for families who want a future here, not just a past. 

At a recent Democratic Town Committee meeting, I overheard someone share a story: their grown child had expressed frustration that they couldn’t afford to come back home —to buy a house in the very town they grew up in. That’s not just a loss for one family. It’s a quiet warning for us all.

To those who fear that growth will change the character of our towns, I ask: isn’t it already changing?

When longtime neighbors can’t afford to stay?

When their children can’t afford to return?

When young families can’t afford to come?

When tax hikes on a frozen grand list become the only tool left?

You don’t have to have all the answers. You don’t need to be an expert in zoning or budgets to know that this isn’t working for everyone. Even if you’re just starting to ask the questions—there’s room for you in our movement for a fair and affordable Connecticut.

The cost of exclusion is high, but the cost of letting it define our future is even higher.

The No-Growth, No-Opportunity Coalition may be loud. But they are not the majority. It’s time for those of us who believe in fairness, in inclusive growth, and in towns that welcome —not withhold— to speak up, to act, to lead.

Let’s build better Connecticut communities —169 united for growth and opportunity—so that working people, young families, seniors, and longtime residents alike can belong and grow together. That’s how we take down the invisible curtain of exclusion.

We can build a future that includes all of us. Everyone has a role, and I want to build with you.

And so should Lamont.

Melvin Medina is a Member of the Woodbridge Democratic Town Committee.