"The traffic is one thing for the college," said Mike Knowles, a telecommunications expert who has lived across from the campus for the last five years. "But you see how the cars go by?"

Some cars go 50 mph down the road, he said. "There's going to be big traffic pressure."

Attorney Donald Beebe, a Harland Road resident who helped lead Mahan Drive residents' opposition to the consolidation, praised the governor's decision, saying a consolidation on Mahan Drive would have led to costly traffic and flooding problems there.

The neighborhood around Thames Valley has a mix of ages and ethnic backgrounds. Many people interviewed Thursday are employed at the casinos, including Robin Kingston, a casino floor manager who was working on his car at a home next door to Knowles'.

When the school opens, he said, litter from passing cars, mostly wrappers and discarded paper cups, begins creeping up. "Nobody goes 25 mph down here," he said. "It gets busy around the peak periods, when the school opens and when the school closes."

Michael Hodge, a banquet server at Foxwoods who lives on Manwaring Road, liked the location, literally across the road for him.

"I can't discern between school and casino traffic," he said.