Council Democrats Unveil Burlington Forward
Over the past several weeks President Traverse and members of the Democratic Caucus have been working on a plan, Burlington Forward, we released on Friday morning to the public and intend to formally bring before the Council on Monday, August 3rd.
For me, and I think for the many residents, downtown workers, and business owners who attended our press conference, this is an exciting moment for our city that I hope shifts us to make more substantive, measurable progress with a variety of growing public safety concern. In recent weeks this has included a violent sexual assault at City Hall Park, unprecedented and unabashed drug dealing and open use, gunfire incidents, and the recent cancellation of our 150-year traditional Sunday concerts at the Battery Park bandshell due to safety concerns for our community band members. I have personally spent roughly 8-10 hours in the past few weeks walking the garages, alleys, streets, and City Hall Park to have a full understanding of the situation and help small business owners who are begging for help now. I’ve talked to numerous workers, many of whom are high school students and young adults in our community, who are fearful, have been threatened, and continue to experience harm just trying to go to and from work. We can’t be okay with spending $150,000,000 on a new high school for them to thrive in, while also allowing their downtown to become dangerous and unwelcoming for them to have their summer and after-school jobs in. I want to note that our police are woefully understaffed, especially when accounting for officers who are out on injury or other leaves. We only have 4 officers on during the day, 5 during the evening/night, and 2 after midnight--covering the entire city. I am so grateful for their continued service in light of the severe staffing shortage.
Let me be crystal clear–this is not about criminalizing homelessness as the Seven Days seemed to oddly and inaccurately reflect. This is about holding people–all people–in many different ways. In fact, as Chief Burke shared in his report to the Public Safety Committee a few days ago: roughly 20% of all police incidents (so far 1,500+) are the result of less than 90 individuals and 40% of those individuals self-report having housing. He also shared that those people just simply will not comply and, as I believe the data will show in due time, are not following up with their restorative justice options. We also just allocated roughly $1 million this year for additional affordable and supportive housing projects around the city.
I was incredibly appreciative and moved by Councilor Carpenter’s comments–a 40+ year veteran in social services and affordable housing, who said on Friday that she has never felt so alone and that we need help now. I felt that very deeply and our downtown workers and business owners are saying the same thing.
Take time to learn about the plan that we are bringing forward as the start of a conversation with the Progressive Councilors and Mayor, which you can find on this great website built by Councilor Barlow! We encourage you to write to us with any thoughts, feedback, ideas, or concerns you have about anything in the plan–this is a living, breathing document as of now and we are bringing forward for you, your families, and our many visitors and workers. I’m proud of the work that went into this and grateful for President Traverse’s vision and leadership in bringing this together. If able, I encourage you to offer written or verbal public comment at our August 3rd City Council meeting.
Here are the major action items the resolution aims to address:
● Strengthen Accountability for Unlawful Conduct
● Expand the City's Visible Public Safety Presence
● Restore and Activate Burlington's Public Spaces
● Expand Efforts to Improve Cleanliness, Graffiti Removal, and Public Space Stewardship
● Clarify Zoning Policy for Public Health Initiatives
● Strengthen Partnerships with Non-Profit Service Providers and Private Property Owners
● Establish a Sustainable and Humane Framework for Addressing Homelessness,
Behavioral Health, and Substance Use Concerns
● Consider Reasonable Expansion of Temporary Emergency Shelter Capacity and
Sanctioned Camping, While Improving the City's Response to Unauthorized
Encampments
● Strengthen State and Regional Partnerships
Lasting compassion is measured
Please VOTE ON OR BY AUGUST 11
Data shows that, roughly speaking, the August primary vote has only a 5% turnout. That means that only 1 out of every 20 registered voters in Vermont will decide who you get to see on the November general election ballot.
This August 11th primary, you have a chance to help decide who will get to continue on to the November ballot for critical roles like House and Senate reps right up to Governor.
Perhaps most important of all given our current environment in Burlington, is who our top prosecutor (State's Attorney) will be for the next 4 years. This person decides whether to take cases sent by police or reject them. They decide what those charges and plea deals look like. And they set bail policy--effecting whether or not people show up to court or if there are even any consequences for failing to participate in alternative/restorative justice pathways. Currently that seat is held by Progressive-endorsed Sarah George who is being challenged by New North End Democrat, Bram Kranichfeld, in the Democratic Primary.
Ward 7 voters will get to have their voice on a variety of important elections because our ward crosses multiple house districts (I'm thrilled to continue to support Abbey Duke who is uncontested at this time). Voters in the northern parts of Ward 7 will have the opportunity to vote for Amy Bielawski-Branch or Ali Dieng. Dave Hartnett will appear on the November ballot running as an Independent, so you won't see his name on the August ballot if you are looking for it.
Additionally, we have a hotly contested race for Chittenden County Sheriff this year and Sheriff Dan Gamelin is facing progressive challenger Kevin Bloom in the Democratic Primary.
While there are many races and great candidates. After lots of conversation and review I want to highlight 3 folks I have chosen to endorse and urge you to strongly consider:
Bram Kranichfeld for State's Attorney: Charity Clark is one of the most respected Attorney Generals in the country right now, fighting to protect Vermonters from the Trump administration. Charity endorsed Bram early and without hesitation and to me that shows that she needs Bram on her team. Bram is a neighbor and long-time Burlington resident of both the Old and New North Ends. Raising a family here, he deeply understands the uphill battles we are facing with making headway on public safety in a county where criminal behavior is increasingly not held to account, where charges are dropped and reduced, and where bail reform has taken an equality-based approach instead of an equity-based approach. I've shared with Bram that I believe strongly that bail should be set to ensure people come to court and that bail should be set fairly based on someone's ability to pay (not just the assumption that they can't). He's also doing the job in Franklin County already after being appointed by the Governor to fill a vacancy. He loves Burlington and wants to help us bring it forward and I feel confident that if he is elected we will see the empathetic accountability many of us want to see. Looking back on my experience as a past victim of violent crime in Burlington, I believe Bram will do much more to center victims, advocate passionately for them in the courtroom, and work hard so that we have fewer victims of crime in the future.
Elaine Haney for Senate: I've had the opportunity to spend quite a bit of time speaking with Elaine and decided to join her door knocking this summer as well. She's had a lifetime of impressive experience and community service but what stood out to me most was that she spent the past two decades training and elevating huge numbers of women to ascend to leadership positions through Emerge Vermont. She also had 16 years on the Essex Selectboard and deeply understands, perhaps painfully so, what municipal governments desperately need from Montpelier. She has a real command of municipal government, taxes and affordability concerns, and the most critical issues of our moment. I'm excited to see her step up and hope you'll join me in supporting her.
Martine Laroque Gulick for Senate: What can I say?! We loved her as our Ward 4 School Board Rep, we love the hard work she has done for Burlington students and educators for years in Montpelier, and she is a cherished member of out community. She's understanding, easy to work with, and also gets Burlington's issues intimately and advocates for us in Montpelier with tenacity. I hope we will return her to Montpelier next session.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Progressives and Republicans have nearly no one running on their primaries for these seats. That means if you want to vote for any of these people above you should request the Democratic ballot. If you wish to vote for a Progressive, Republican, or Independent in November you will still have that ability, but the critical contested seats I just discussed are all on the Democratic ballot. You have the right to choose any ballot you wish but you can only vote on one ballot. Governor Scott and Lt. Governor Rodgers will still be on the November ballot as they are not contested within the Republican Party.
You will not receive a ballot in the mail automatically. Voting for Ward 7 residents is at the Miller Center on Gosse Court on Tuesday, August 11th. We have ballot drop boxes outside of the Miller Center as well as behind the Fire Station by Brian's Old North End Auto.
Some Insights Into My No Vote on Burlington's Current Budget
In June we finalized and voted on the city budget for FY27. As many folks know by now, in the end I felt that the budget had not yet achieved the level of reductions needed to adapt to our pre-recession environment and set us up better for FY28 and FY29, ultimately ending with my voting no. I am happy that throughout my first term I was successful in advocating for resources for the Turning Point Recovery Center, as well as the Heineberg Senior Center. While a lot of work and discussions went into the budgetary process over the prior few months, I still had too many concerns by the time the vote came. I thought I’d share just a few important highlights:
FY27 Budget: I remain concerned about the cost of employee benefits Burlington taxpayers are shouldering. I am a union supporter and have myself been unionized before and have always voted yes to unionize when given the chance. With that said, your cost share of the benefits package, particularly given the skyrocketing cost of medical, is out of alignment from what the majority of Burlingtonians and Vermonters have–and when factored together with step increases, COLA, and our liveable wage ordinance, it is largely unsustainable. If we want to provide these excellent benefits packages, I don’t see how we can also fail to cut more staff given the high percentage of the city budget that is represented by salaries and benefits. The Mayor touted many times how she was proud to bring forward a budget that did not cut any positions and I believe that we unfortunately needed to if we were to maintain these benefits. Gross receipts are down and will continue to drop if we don't get take some real corrective measures in our downtown's safety and vibrancy. Vermont continues to suffer from wages that are highly incongruent with our cost of living and that is a long-standing statewide problem that needs addressing, but in my role advocating for the renters and homeowners of Burlington–this won’t help us move towards an affordable future.
Public Safety Tax Draw Down: In addition, the Mayor drew down the full 5 cents of the public safety tax passed by voters, but it should be noted that it passed with a lower approval rating than FY25’s vote for 3 cents. This largely only covered the required increases due to existing public safety personnel. So I am left asking, where will that leave us over the next two fiscal years when those increases come around again in June? This is a big reason why I don’t think the current budget reflects the cuts necessary to sustain our critical police and fire investments.
A Lack of Transparency and Collaboration: The process lacked the level of transparency that I felt was necessary to reach an informed yes vote. In some cases, I was denied information I requested weeks ahead of the vote even when President Traverse and Councilor Schachter followed up on those requests multiple times. Additionally, the Mayor instructed all Directors to refer questions from us to the Mayor’s Office and also informed us, as well as the media, of this same practice. So when I could not get information or had simple questions, that was declined by multiple directors. We simply did not dig deep enough into the numbers and presentations were kept so high-level that it was unclear what the actual projected costs were and how we would be spending those dollars in many of those presentations. Because of this, I am grateful that my fellow Democratic caucus members have supported my insistence that an ad hoc committee meet regularly beginning very soon to get deeper into each departmental budget long before we reach Spring. I have identified line items that concern me and need more collaborative and cross-party discussion and I look forward to being a part of that work this year, but I strongly believe that it is our responsibility as the “purse-holders” of your tax dollars to be deeply invested, fully informed, and sincerely activated in the stewardship of our limited collective resources.
Building in Parks? Dig Into PlanBTV 2050 & Be Heard Tuesday 7/28
Bird’s eye view of the New North End
Recently there has been a lot of community concern about conceptual design images showing housing in Starr Farm Park and Ethan Allen Park. The full plan was only released recently and is 216 pages. This is a critical and important community conversation and I urge everyone to stay tuned and be involved. I am thankful to the roughly 150 people who came to the Miller Center last week to advocate for their concerns, share their opinions, and ask important questions. Here are a few reflections I have to offer at this time:
While there is no active proposal to build housing and this is simply a visioning project, it is important that we get the vision right because down the line, that vision is much more likely to become a reality if its included in the plan. I remain troubled by seemingly intentional language choices by the Mayor’s administration such as:
There are no active proposals. Well yes, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be. In addition, we have not heard from the Mayor if she has already met with any developers about this topic.
We are not selling off any land. That is true but if developed on the land would be leased, likely for an extremely long time. As some speakers put it, once you build on it we can’t get it back. We need to better understand what leasing and development would look like for the public and what benefit we would receive other than simply making the project more affordable for the developer and therefore making rents or home prices reduced.
Last week’s meeting the Mayor, CEDO Director, and Planning Director all could not be there unexpectedly so unfortunately not as much could be covered and some questions couldn’t be answered. Some community members raised concerns about a vote occurring on Tuesday the 28th at the Planning Committee meeting and asked for a postponement of action. While I was only in the audience in the back of the room, I did reach out to the Planning Chair, as did Planning, and asked that they consider extending public comment if needed and postpone taking any vote/action that would move the NNE plan forward until folks have this opportunity to be heard. I am pleased to say that they made this exact decision and so the Planning Committee meeting will center listening and postpone action. I encourage everyone interested in this topic and those who were at the Miller Center to either attend in person or Zoom from the comfort of your home–even if you don’t plan to speak, to listen and share space with your neighbors and the varying pros and cons of the ideas expressed in the plan.
As the Ward 7 representative, I have limited my opinion to Ethan Allen Park since Starr Farm is in Ward 4 and refer you to Councilors Barlow and Carpenter for questions and comments about Starr Farm. With that said, I have spoken to many Ward 7 residents who are concerned about Ethan Allen Park and if it came to me for a vote as it stands now I can’t and won’t support a plan that develops this critical community space beyond something small-scale and appropriate such as community gardens or a community gathering space. I believe we have better sites for potential large-scale development and we are doing some serious heavy lifting by bringing Cambrian Rise online, which stands to become Vermont’s most densely populated neighborhood. Ethan Allen Park is the closest large park and playground to the rapidly-growing Cambrian Rise neighborhood and our high school and that should not be ignored either.
As a lifelong renter, a 12-year resident of a CHT affordable housing community, and a voting member of the Housing Trust Fund, I am passionate about bringing more and affordable housing online, but I don’t believe park land needs to be sacrificed to achieve our shared housing goals.
VISIT THE PLAN BTV NNE WEBSITE AND SIGN UP FOR EMAIL ALERTS
ATTEND THE PLANNING COMMITTEE MEETING TUESDAY AT 6:30PM OR SEND THEM YOUR WRITTEN THOUGHTS
Ward 7's Ballot Item Results
Ward 7 supports our Police and Fire Departments. We want a safe community where we feel comfortable letting kids play and explore, to know police and fire will respond in an emergency, and to ensure they are supported in return. With that said, there was a stronger-than-expected NO vote percentage and it's important to point out that I don't believe folks who voted no don't support our police and fire departments. We still would have been obligated to find the money for our contractual obligations to our Police and Fire Unions. What I think this shows is that some folks are skeptical of the Mayor's willingness to cut the city budget substantially enough and not leverage the pressure release from the 5-cent increase to justify making fewer cuts in other places. I remain committed to a difficult but necessary deep budget reduction and having tough conversations about what are essential city services and what are nice to have but we need to shelve for now. We need safely navigable streets, sidewalks, and bike paths. We need pipes and mains repaired. We need police and fire to respond to emergencies. These are the basic expectations we should meet. But I hope to hear from you throughout the budgetary process on specific programs or efforts you think need to be preserved or shelved. You can see our current budget here.
Ward 7 is divided on all spending. What I see in the other 3 ballot item outcomes is a divided community desperately seeking critical financial relief during difficult economic times. That itself was made abundantly clear to me at nearly every door that opened for me. It's important to me to let you know that I see and hear that division and I will keep that in mind as we move forward with a very challenging budgetary discussion. It is my hope that other Councilors will join me in my position to not draw down the full 5 cents approved by the voters without substantive and meaningful cuts from the Mayor. This is an important moment to stay plugged in and involved in our local budgeting process. Please consider attending our neighborhood NPA, future Board of Finance meetings, or future City Council meetings between now and June. All of these meetings have time for public comment.
Cleaning Up for Our Community.
Hello Neighbors,
Thanks are owed to The Morning Drive team on WVMT for having me on twice. It’s clear from the number of emails and calls they got that the public is invested in addressing syringe litter in Burlington.
Recently the CDNR committee had finished the Syringe Litter Report and Recommendations. This has taken us a year to get this off that ground. Good policy takes time, If policy takes a month, it’s just not good policy.
We reviewed other cities that have programs to mitigate syringe litter. We don’t have the capacity and resources to replicate these programs but here in Burlington we can still take inspiration.
I am not advocating against SSP’s. They help us prevent bloodborne diseases spreading amongst our community. I’m asking for oversight and recommend a model for that. State officials and service providers shouldn’t be able to bring in almost 1,000,000 needles and have no plan for the litter it produces.
The report makes recommendations for the City to ask AHS to create oversight and transparency measures, to fund incentives for users to return their syringes, and for the city to create a robust training and data program for volunteers.
I wish the people who were passionate about harm reduction came to the table to discuss what is not working and not just be defensive for the programs. Harm reduction is needed and important yet we have to look at ‘whole community harm reduction’.
Many people in working class jobs are put in harm's way when syringes are not properly disposed of and poke them. The cost of a needle poke is very high, some medications taken after a poke costs $200 per day for a month. Every person I have spoken with who has been victim to an unintentional needle stick has talked to me about the sheer emotional and psychological toll it has taken on them and their families. I want them to know that their safety and wellbeing matters to me.
These are not Burlington’s problems alone, this is a state problem. The State is funding SSPs and asking for other communities to develop them. We have an opportunity to lead the way on the discussion and policy for syringe litter and harm reduction.
I encourage you to listen to my interviews and reach out for questions.
Statement on City Hall Park, Aug. 25, 2025
Violence in our City Hall Park has predictably led to the worst case scenario—the loss of a life. When we first began talking about the lunch distribution in the garage, I took issue that leaving the open and pervasive substance use and dealing 2 blocks over was more concerning to me than the latter. Both issues deserved discussion and addressing.
While I am grateful for the increased public safety resources that have been redirected to our City Hall Park, including the Mayor’s new Situation Table funded by the State, they are unfortunately merely a band-aid for a problem that lives at the intersection of:
1) an under-resourced substance use and mental health treatment system that also lacks legal mechanisms to hold people who pose a public danger but cannot be prosecuted due to mental health incapacity,
2) a pervasive shortage of affordable housing stock for most income levels,
3) an overly permissive culture and practice of harm reduction that largely falls short in taking into account whole communities or pathways to recovery,
4) a prosecutorial culture that chooses not to prosecute large numbers of cases and refuses to ask for equity-centered bail placing judges in tightly restrictive parameters on when they can and can’t hold someone without bail.
5) discounting the lived negative experiences and realities of downtown workers, residents, and visitors with a counter-narrative
I was glad to see President Traverse’s recent letter and resolution calling for a new, determined approach to restoring the public trust in our City Hall Park. I was particularly disheartened to see at least one Progressive Councilor instead chose to go live from the park on social media at night to interview people on how safe the park was. Let me be clear, I’m so glad those people felt and were safe. I have also seen and heard enough to know that this is not always the case. I have supported multiple Ward 7 victims of violent crime that was unprovoked, during the day, and by an unknown assailant including a person who was beaten in her head while walking home from an early dinner with her husband, and a person who was attacked while loading her toddler into a stroller for a morning walk. Their experiences happened, they matter, and it’s a disservice to us all to erase them away with counter-messaging or political posturing.
I have also felt this way when trying to talk about syringe litter. The Howard Center made comments to VPR that syringe litter was “largely a beautification issue,” and people continue to argue that there is no public safety concern with syringes while simultaneously I have met many people in a variety of trades who have recounted what it feels like to go through the terrifying experience of a needle stick and the expensive prescriptions you have to take as a precaution while waiting for your blood results. My landlord’s landscaper contracted Hepatitis B after being stuck by a needle hidden in a bush next to our playground. Patients matter and he matters too. We should not explain away the problem or center individuals over whole communities.
There are moments in the park that are beautiful, safe, and joyful, and there are also moments that are frightening, unnerving, and unsafe. Both of those truths matter and everyone’s experience is different based on many factors including sheer luck of being in the park at the right or wrong moment. I am also not so naïve to think that this issue, which is often traceable to a small group of individuals both housed and unhoused, won’t then pop up somewhere else like the Moran Plant, Manhattan Drive, Buell Street, Battery Park, or any other known past or present problem areas. We need to stay focused on those 5 issues I mentioned above and not on important but non-municipal topics like global geopolitics—particularly at a moment where our own nation is being tested to its breaking point by a corrupt President and gerrymandering politicians.
I’m excited to see new emails coming in every hour from members of the public who are answering the call and asking for action to reclaim and reframe our beloved and historic City Hall Park. Please keep writing, speaking, and telling your stories.
On Monday night, my hope is that public comment can aim to be as solutions-focused as possible rather than on a narrative war of “well this did or didn’t happen to me so therefore there is or is not a problem.” Let’s roll our collective sleeves up and deal with it together. It has nothing to do with whether or not someone is housed or unhoused but rather specific harmful and criminal behavior people are engaging in and sometimes that is attributable to Substance Use Disorder and sometimes it’s not, but it is happening.
I implore everyone who chooses to come or Zoom in to Monday’s Council meeting to center both realities, shared respect, and collaborative solution crafting. We can and should have tough conversations about the problems facing our city but we should do so with a keen eye on the solutions and remind ourselves that we are all neighbors in the same community.