This commentary is by John Bossange of South Burlington. He is a retired middle school principal who is committed to making Burlington a vibrant and enjoyable city.
I moved to Burlington from the metropolitan area of Boston 38 years ago. Retired now, I no longer live within the city limits, but I am in Burlington almost every day attending board meetings and events, visiting multiple stores on Church Street, enjoying a cup of coffee, and dining at a favorite restaurant.
I still have great passion for a city where I once served as a Commissioner, chaired the park foundation that steered the bike path rehabilitation project, and served on the boards of Mercy Connections, the King Street Center, the Flynn Theater and the board of advisors for the College of Education and Social work at UVM. I’ve given time and treasure to these and other organizations.
For a long time, Church Street and the downtown core were a very pleasant place to live and work or visit. That’s not true today. One day last week, I took a stroll up and down Church, St. Paul and South Winooski streets and walked along the core crossing streets of Pearl, Bank, College and Main to see why the excitement and joy I once felt in Burlington were no longer there. I discovered two reasons, one new and depressing and one known and revealing.
It’s no secret that Burlington does not feel as safe as it was just five years ago. The tent settlements keep moving from one location to another, the begging continues on Church Street and now at traffic intersections, groups of homeless people gather at the same locations to exchange and use their drugs openly in alcoves, alleyways and next to adjacent buildings. I’m now using my big-city “smart hat” to walk on the other side of the street and not make eye contact like I used to do in a much bigger city four decades ago.
My walk reminded me that Burlington is really a very small college town. It’s not a city at all. It claims to have a population of about 44,000 residents, but when you total the 2,000 Champlain students and the 12,000 UVM undergraduates, assuming that they live on campus or in off-campus apartments in Burlington, that’s a total of 14,000, or 32% of the population — making it very much a student town.
During my walk in that town core area, I counted 18 bars, (not restaurants with a bar), which is what I expect in a town dominated by students. No surprises there. However, the six tattoo parlors, nine cannabis shops and more visible graffiti opened my eyes and gave me a sense of how the environment now reflects a changing population. I’m not too concerned with people getting tattoos or using marijuana, but the parlors and shops along with the graffiti do change the face of the commercial and social center of Burlington.
On the surface, these changes seem to be harmless, but when combined with the growing drug-dependent population who still gather near the bars, parlors and shops, that environment feels remarkably different to me. For anyone who has not witnessed the decline of a rust belt town or a section of a big city and thinks that these factors should not be of concern, it’s time to wake up and take a road trip to the Ohio Valley where I went to college and visit towns like Zanesville, Middleton, Warren, Huntington or Wheeling.
In those towns and cities where the homeless population is growing, so has the market for more drugs, marijuana shops and tattoo parlors, gangs who wage war over the black markets, prostitution, robberies, assaults, violence in schools, graffiti and overall crime. Like other towns across America, store owners and visitors in Burlington will soon leave and not place their businesses, employees or their personal safety in jeopardy. Private security in stores is now a common site. This too is part of the changing face of Burlington.
In towns that are in decline, these factors caused those once vibrant core areas to be abandoned for public safety reasons. Stores, theaters, arenas, restaurants, offices and other businesses relocated, leaving more room for the homeless to camp, drug dealers to operate, more bars and parlors of all sorts to spring up, and cheap, late night food to support the habitants of this population. I counted 15 fast-food outlets already in Burlington’s downtown core, a sure sign of the changing environment.
14,000 students, mostly renters and temporary residents bring a much-needed and welcoming youthful energy and life to our town. But living nine months in a campus bubble, they might not feel that public safety is an issue in Burlington and vote for Progressive city councilors and mayor. That’s expected. Unfortunately the Progressive coalition appears to remain in their own ideological bubble world and still do not accept the current disintegrating environment of a town in crisis. Their continued naïveté and idealism is unacceptable and dangerous.
Believe me, the other 30,000 homeowners, taxpayers, permanent residents, and business owners invested in Burlington see things differently. Those who are committed to the economic vitality of Burlington and who still enjoy the cultural events, celebrations and positive vibe of a small college town, now see a growing, unsafe town core attracting a different crowd. I worry that if there is no bold action, people of all ages, especially younger families and senior citizens, will lose their joy and excitement for Burlington and we will not live, work or spend time in the town we once loved.
Read the story on VTDigger here: John Bossange: A different Burlington today.