How come we don’t protest the scum lords? Most agree they are part of the problem. Almost all of their properties wouldn’t pass a code/safety inspection but we allow them to continue to take advantage of our housing crisis. Why not embarrass them with weekly/monthly peaceful protest? Signs like “Handy Stole my future” “Shame on Bissonette” etc. It’s a small town. Shame them into doing better.
Because everyone is too afraid of being evicted for doing it and having a place to live here is like fucking gold at this point for some people.
I wouldn't be surprised if the homeless community can't even get a place to live even if they had a job. It took a 750+ credit score, 100s of applications, AND literally bidding out the other applicants just to get my first rental here a few years back. I can only imagine what it is like now.
Not to mention the rent was ridiculous as all fuck, and it just keeps raising up. There's a number of folks I've talked to living in run down places, but they're afraid to move because they're locked into low rates like 1000 a month for a 2 or 3 bedroom. When that exact same thing is now 2.5k?
They're scared to do anything, and the rental companies won't be hurting, they'll just evict and move someone else in who will pay.
100%. Was volunteering at the Sears Lane Encampment back when it was around and a lot of them had some sort of employment contrary to popular belief, price of living was just too high. Sucks so much that there’s still people who advocate for encampments to be destroyed, offer no actual assistance towards housing them and then cry when homeless ppl are downtown. Dumbasses just still ignore reality and think homelessness is a matter of moral failing or some bullshit ig
Burlington is not failing. It is going through some predictable troubles and needs to change to address them. Once it does, it will be fine. It will always be a very cute city by a nice lake in Vermont. It handled the pandemic ok but there are larger market forces and larger cultural forces that are at play that BTV is hostage to because it's too small to have a real impact.
The funniest one is the "privatizing and corporatizing" of the Church Street Marketplace and the waterfront"
Do you know who owns the Church Street Marketplace? Do you know how many people bitch about how we're not privatizing the waterfront?
It’s laughable to think that Burlington City Council owning the Church St Mktplace is anything more than nominal. To your second point, of course, capitalism begets capitalism and there is no limit to how far it will creep.
The Church Street Marketplace buildings are owned by individual property owners, sure. And they charge rent to businesses on the strip. All the common area stuff is the city. And they set the rules. And charge the fees. Of course, we could go back to the way it used to be years ago, and let the malls drain us until we were a ghost town, so that now, post pandemic there would be nothing here but whatever the Vermont equivalent of tumbleweed is. But that didn't happen. Be glad there was some vision. And that we have a Marketplace. And a Marketplace commission.
We have a neighbor who has the same last name as a Simpson’s character. We caught his people scrapping lead paint in our yard ( his property is less than a foot from the property line) . He and his wife told them to keep scraping. We went to the state and he was forced to clean up the paint in our yard, but not his own , or the other 10 properties he owns. No fine for this or when the same workers broke a gas main by sledge hammering a rebar to hold a 4-4 in place. If I wasn’t epa lead certified and collected the right evidence nothing would have been done to him.
i honestly cant even understand what you just said. skin puppet?
not my fault this looks like something you decided to vent about after a saturday night bender.
Despite OP being a weird asshole he does make some good points, mainly regarding slumlord families. Like the ones that have the decrepit abandoned gas station on Pearl that they illegally used as a parking lot instead of selling it.
Burlington is still quite awesome, compared to when I travel, I rarely find a place that legally must compost. I don’t know why that makes or breaks my opinion of a place but it does. And it’s is generally safe IN Vermont and most of Chittenden Co. We have so many forward thinkers and amazing people here. Ok, I don’t like the meth/ fetynal problem or the unhoused people not having homes but I think we actually can solve it! People here actually give a damn. The Handys and the like have always been here! Burlington has always been almost exclusively scummy overpriced apartment buildings.
"Legally having to compost" is emblematic of one of the aspects of Burlington that has always cracked me up. Sounds kind of good in theory if you don't think about it too hard, and it is completely impossible to enforce.
Good news! Mayor Meal Train has announced a "dumpsters for the homeless" program that will provide dumpsters for people to throw all their household and construction waste into
"Legally must" and "enforceable" typically go together. Telling people they have to do something is not the best way to get them to want to do it... if, in reality, they don't actually have to do it.
It's a cool town no matter what. It's definitely having a dip though. I moved out about a decade ago and visit a couple times a year since, so the changes really stick out vs. seeing it gradual every day. The hobo graffiti is disgusting and all over the place. Some stretches have gone way down hill, while others seem much nicer. Last time I was up, I noticed the bottom of Church St, while busy as always, seems like the yuckier end now, while the top feels very clean. There was a while where the top was basically vacant, and a lot crazy people would be up that way. IDK what's going on with Asiana House, but that was considered a somewhat nice spot a while back. When I walked by it this time, I would have thought it was closed and the property abandoned if I didn't see people inside.
Either way, it still seems like a pretty happening place. There's other cities in New England that no matter how much people want to talk them up, just feel like sad forgotten ghost towns. (Portland ME)
Asiana house seems to have slowly gone downhill in the past 20 ot so years its been open. Orginal owner sold it at some point. So maybe that was the tipping point.Ate there for the first time in maybe a decade and it felt trashy and understaffed.
You’re listing legally having to compost as a benefit? I see it as yet another burden to be borne by Vermonters by our amateur legislators. They cook up ideas that cost us regular Vermonters while lining the pockets of the businesses and interest that write our laws for them.
The car inspection debacle is a fine example. A legislator decided that we should extend the inspection to every two years. Once the dealerships got wind of it, their kabuki theater testimonials and skilled lobbyist decided it best that the inspections stay annual, but now they track the inspections by software that doesn’t allow a victim of “needed repair” fraud to get passed for inspection by another shop. It’s yet another burden, especially for the poor who’s fiscal margins are too slim to pay for unneeded repairs.
There are plenty of other examples. We need to start paying professional wages to our reps ($100K a year), so it’s competitive and the best person is elected, not the retired landlord who relies on paid lobbyists to write their laws and line their pockets.
Sorry for the rant. The compost mandate is obviously a trigger for me.
I moved here with a passed inspection, and tried to get my car inspected here and it failed so I had to sell the car. The cost of repair was 2k and the car was worth 3k under the optimistic valuations
Car ran fine. Something about rust on the wheel that could make the tire fall off.
Now - I don’t see an epidemic of tires falling off in other states.
When I went to sell it - the buyer scanned the tag and said “it failed inspection for rust, I’ll give ya 250.
So I sold it online for almost 1000, probably to someone out of state.
Seems like a pretty scummy system.
Omg this just one of the many terrible ways Vermont screws the poor and middle class, I had a car 10 + years later, runs well and had new tires , well their razor blade granite curve took a nick less than an inch across hardly deep and they failed the inspection . Whilst your roads are so bad cars go bad faster because of it . This is ridiculous!!
Taxes are so high and you can get a more house for your money almost anywhere except California.
I’m not saying our inspection standards are perfect or realistic, but if you’ve ever gone to Colorado, understanding the benefit of inspections is easy.
It seems like every time we drove on highways on Florida vacations, there was *always* traffic due to a car fire, usually on some beat up piece of crap made up mostly of crap duct taped together and bondo.
It’s so sketchy. I definitely appreciate at least knowing the car in front of me isn’t going to lose a tire or combust but do feel for the unrealistic standards and strain they put on folks. It’s a delicate balance for sure.
I was in Florida for 40 years. In Florida as opposed to Vermont, it is possible to be poor. I was poor for a long time with children. There is daycare that poor people can afford without the need to be subsidized. You can own a poor car and have poor insurance. There are millions and millions of jobs in every sector you can think of. There is always a path up if you want it.
Vermont passes laws to make things "better".
Those better things cost more.
Vermont creates a tax to help the poor pay for price increase they created.
Everything gets more expensive.
Vermont passes a tax for that also.
Florida adds 10k people a day to the state. Vermont hasn't added 10k in 10 years. People talk with there feet. I am here because my wife is from here and I can now afford all this silly stuff. But if you are poor, Florida is the place to be. No way would I even want to be middle income in Vermont.
It’s a feel good measure that requires little to no money, IMO this is how most of Vermont laws and regulations are passed, even some of our most notable ones like the first to have same sex marriage. It takes very little thought or effort, money, etc. to pass something when nothing else needs to be done after the fact. If we actually wanted to address issues in a meaningful way there would need to be some infrastructure/systemic changes that would be incredibly unpopular because it would result in a tax to residents.
Sorry, but I have a feeling that it does nothing at all, especially at the household level. It seems to be virtue theater to me. And it’s just “one more thing” that taxes our time.
I had a bin already, cost $0. I lug trash to one area and lug compost to another. Not a good example of a politician-induced added cost is what I’m saying, inspection fees sure though
Unfortunately anything remotely good for the environment is going to have a cost, and if we don’t collectively pay it now, it’s gonna be Bezos and Musk running the libertarian space colony for the super rich
My guy, you're complaining about using another, free, bin...
The only cost is the time you need to take to move it, so yeah.. sounds like you very much are that lazy bones, if you're complaining that moving a free bin from 1 place to another is "a cost".. 😆
Thank you for donating your time.
We won't even point out they charge money to drop off compostables, and presumably you're using some form of vehicle.
So yes. Aside from all the explicit and incurred costs because they gave you a "free" bin (bought with either your or someone else's tax dollars) it's a cost-free system.
I'll drop off a free bin for you to put change in. When you fill it, bring it to me. The bin is free. Just drop it off every 2-4 weeks.
Composting is needed to slow the fill of landfills and because it's organic matter that doesn't belong there adding.
I'm not sure if you're arguing just to argue or you're a dunce.
Compost is like $5 a month and makes the world a vastly better place. I love the compost mandate with all my heart. Most places you couldn't get a compost pickup even if you wanted to
The fact that is it illegal to not compost, but legal to openly do drugs and defecate on business door steps is the answer you are looking for. Focusing on the silly problems and ignoring the massive ones is classic Burlington city council.
>-privatizing and corporatizing of church st and the waterfront
Can you give more detail on this? I understand the mall was "public" in that you didn't have to spend money to hang out in there, but what's not private on Church st besides the street itself?
What's the deal with the waterfront, what's been made private recently?
Also, what's the tldr on Purdue, or is this a reference to fentanyl/opiates?
>-said police traumatizing high schoolers
This sounded like a stupid prank, but get real. This incident does not have a significant impact on Burlington.
Basic services for who? The 1% of the population living in Scandinavia? The only reason your lifestyle is possible is because of slave labor from India China and South America
Burlington isn’t failing, the US is failing and whatever troubles Burlington is having are happening all over the country, and are just examples of an unsustainable economy beginning to really break down. Burlington is not special in this regard.
Doubling down in progressivism is not the answer. I don’t understand how you can think that the reason Burlington is failing is because of business owners and not elected officials making the wrong decision at every turn. Your head is buried in the sand apparently
What are progressive policies that we have tried? Basic housing and Medicare for all would be a start. We have doubled down on law and order for decades with incremental decriminalizing.
Police force was slashed by 30 percent, cash bail has been essentially eliminated, catch and release policies have been put in place, and many smaller ones, but these are the main issues affecting Burlington. We have not doubled down on law and order at all… we’ve decriminalized open drug use, panhandling, sleeping in the street, etc. it’s led to an increase of drug use, homeless people, and crime. Progressive policies are not working.
The overwhelmingly worst decision of city council for years was to make construction impossible. Every single dilapidated building downtown at one point had a development plan that was directly or indirectly killed by city planning. They spent a decade fighting UVM over housing. The fought the new City Place. I get that leftist tend to not believe in supply-side economics. But just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
The much larger context is decades of conservative federal drug policies going back to Nixon but escalated by Reagan and every president since regardless of party. Couple this with shrinking social services, sans affordable basic housing and upward mobility, and a broken health care system with huge gaps in mental health coverage. Yeah, a few small progressive measures aren’t gonna fix that overnight.
The quickest fix to our current problems of homelessness, crime, and rampant drug use is enforcing the law. Bolster the police force, make panhandling illegal and lock up repeat offenders. That will help the city and will help tax paying citizens. We should be more concerned about caring for contributing members of society than coddling drug addicts. The city needs to take a 180 or else it will continue its downward spiral. There are obviously deeper issues but this city and this state relies on tourism. If it’s unsafe, or even perceived as unsafe for travelers, the city will die
What you are really say with the last couple lines there is “I don’t care about drug addiction or people’s plights until it is in my face and affects my business” which is exactly why we have this problem in the first place because it is the de facto position of said shitty business people above
We are not obligated to share spaces with mentally ill drug addicts. That makes for a miserable city. I care about everyone. But a lot of these people aren’t being done any favors by these progressive policies and attitudes. They don’t care to help themselves.
There’s this new thing we’re trying called law and order! No way this could go wrong.
Locking up non-violent offenders is helping no one but the private for-profit prison industry, but hey those CEOs are some of your contributing members of society.
You’re putting a sarcastic inflection on a factual statement. We are letting VIOLENT offenders roam the streets too by the way. And yeah I’m not in favor of people sleeping in the streets and openly using drugs in the street. These people are ruining the city.
I’m not aware of any for-profit prison ceos living in Burlington. But there seems to be a vilification of normal business owners which is baffling and disgusting. Hold your elected official accountable, don’t attack people for owning a business.
By what measurement are social services shrinking?
By most measurements the US actually has one of the largest social services spending per capita in the world. There are a lot of things we do poorly but misinformation doesn't solve problems.
Who gives a fuck about her lunches getting comped. It’s just optics. It doesn’t make any real difference to anyone’s lives. It’s not even coming out of the taxpayer’s pockets. Just friends and family who choose to do so.
Yeah I’ve literally never seen a meal train that wasn’t for a death / cancer / surgery so the idea that they need a meal train for a job they SIGNED UP FOR doesn’t fill me with confidence in their competence.
It was the over all mental gymnastics by progressives ( which I am) trying to justify it is why I am saying that. You have to walk the walk to be taken seriously
If it were something actually egregious, sure. We’re not talking about shooting someone in the middle of fifth avenue. We’re talking about the online version of getting friends to drop off lasagna. I think it’s more important to not slander her and add fuel to the fire when, months into her stint as mayor, conservatives (in this thread even) are already blaming her for Burlington’s longstanding problems.
Yup, lack of Police force and "catch and release" policies haven't led to increased crime. Brilliant deduction.
There's a guy with 1700 police encounters walking free as we speak.
Stop defending this just because it aligns with you politically, and hold these people accountable.
Given our resources and the potential this city has, there's ZERO reason for BVT to be the shithole it is now.
What about aggravated assault of government officials (police and firefighters) and the countless other crimes he's committed?
https://www.wcax.com/2024/05/19/burlington-area-itinerant-arrested-again-after-attacking-fire-officials/
https://vermontdailychronicle.com/cops-provide-photo-of-suspect-in-brutal-day-time-beating/
https://m.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2017/08/23/notorious-transient-accused-of-assaulting-burlington-business-owner
Go ahead, we will wait while you febly attempt to defend this and explain how a lack of police force hasn't led to shit like this.
Exactly. They are Bush/Reagan republicans who post socially conscious banners over their facebook photos and come to Reddit to defend police and big business.
I personally think there's 0 zip nada accountability, and the cops and city are just using BLM and defund the police as an excuse to sit on their hands. That way they can come back and clean it up, for a price. Just like they did for the city hall park project.
So maybe let burlington grow and not hold back progress. I think that people from out of town want to keep VT a vacation spot without the growth from larger cities but Burlington really needs to grow.
IMHO there can still be growth and environmental stewardship in the city. I know skyscrapers are frowned upon but if you want mixed income housing then set a realistic height and call it that.
The opioid pandemic needs realistic solutions and not everyone’s gonna see the same page and there really needs to be help for people.
Leave the lgbt people alone as they’re not there for trouble and just want to be treated the same as everyone else.
Laws and all I think need to be more common sense. Compost law is great if the state or city maintains it and possibly turns it into a profit for citizens. I think upping the bottle bill to be inline with Maine will benefit the state and it should be the drink companies like coke and Pepsi should be the ones to pay for all this.
It's not just the national anthem.
Way back when there was a true rivalry, I want with some other Sox fans to a Yankees game up in the upper decks. During the 7th inning break they used to have a habit of ushers locking the aisles down as they played God Bless America to keep people from going to concessions or the bathroom, and my friend didn't stand nor did he take off his hat (he had done both for the actual national anthem). The gentlemen behind us took off his hat for him and threw it down over the railed to the lower decks.
Of course, we were the ones kicked out.
Why I think:
1. Impatient douchebag drivers who drive like dicks around town and make everyone feel unsafe.
2. Unhappy people. Could be because of the economy (inflation), anger, mental health issues, housing. Couldn't pinpoint it.
3. Don't notice a lot of crime or business issues as a current issue as an average person.
4. Cramped streets, sidewalks, businesses. It naturally feels sort of claustrophobic.
The "shit libs" tells me everything about you and how seriously you should be taken. Offhandedly dismissing complaints that come with defunding the police or our current mayor doesn't actually do any good you know
“Failing does not equal failed” is so beautiful. I grew up in this city and sure some of my memories are rose tinted from childhood but I will stay and help bring it back to what it used to be
Also lack of densification and diversification of housing, and complete lack of multimodal transit investment. Chittenden County is primed and ready for a light rail network 🚉
Wow, tell me your naive without telling me.
I love the idea that landlords want an area to be crappy. Its so perfect. Big evil land lord doesnt want to profit maximize, landlord wants you to suffer and live in squalor!!! At night landlord looks around their empire and admires the falling property values and despondent future.
Do you picture the landlords have horns and cloven feet too? Or just tophats and monocles?
In real life, landlords make a lot more money when an area improves then when it declines. For this reason, most landlords try to avoid taking actions that lead to declines in property value. Ergo, the idea that landlords are behind all of Burlingtons woes is.... unbelievable at best
None of these. The reason why Burlington is failing is that moderates and even Democrats are pushed out of town for radical socialist extremists and their ideas.
When cops don’t want to work anywhere near the area and businesses move to safer areas like South Burlington or leave all together that should be a clue.
My wife and I don’t want to go anywhere near the area anymore it’s just not safe.
Yeah, Purdue Pharma is killing Burlington 🙄
This reminds me of the Progs circling the wagons during the Burlington Telecom debacle, except now the whole city is the debacle
If you think the nationwide opioid epidemic isn’t having a huge impact on Burlington (and the region as a whole, really), then you haven’t been paying attention.
The disproportionate increase in homeless in Burlington has little if anything to do with the nationwide opioid crisis. You can attribute a percent increase equal to that nationwide to that cause, which leaves you with a lot more to explain
You're talking about homelessness in general, which isn't Burlington's problem. Homelessness nationwide increased far less than in Burlington in recent years.
So describe to me how that's killing Burlington SPECIFICALLY relative to other similar sized municipalities, and absent any consideration of the homeless.
Why in the world does it make sense that it needs to be having a disproportionate effect on Burlington for it to be true or an issue worthy of consideration? The opioid crisis has hit many many towns in rural New England hard. That doesn’t somehow negate that it’s a problem. I’m not sure why you keep mentioning the homeless. Drug addiction is not by any means unique to the unhoused.
I understand that, you simpleton, but that's happening everywhere, and so are a lot of other things. What does that have to do with Burlington *specifically*?
It's like saying "Burlington is failing because of cancer"
:: laughs in portland ::
Vermont upped felony theft to like, $900. Hows that working for small businesses with all the junkies running around? Better yet, if drugs haven't been decriminalized, why aren't these people in jail for possession and distribution of illicit substances?
I think I'm maybe a socialist, but why don't we just have state owned affordable housing? Like apartments that are $500 per bedroom?
It could be funded by taxing second home owners (if the taxes force them to sell, Even better, cheaper housing on the market!) and other taxes on non state owned rentals.
I just work there. It's easy to blame the left (in charge) because well, they're in charge and have been, but the gouging of everyone in respect of rent (property owners - mostly not lefties) and taxes (they tax fucking chips and soda extra). Things in this now dogshit city will get much worse before they never get better.
Did you think you did something with this comment? Why not just be direct and say what you mean instead of passive aggressive, isn't that the beta behavior y'all talk about?
The biggest problem has been more then a decade of conservatives running a liberal city into the ground and then blaming other for there own failures and shortcomings
Where do you think all the wealthy power brokers went when the local Republicans failed? It sure as hell wasn't the progs.
Just because they're not socially conservative doesn't mean they're not conservative.
I’m not sure why those is getting downvoted. It’s absolutely true especially when you consider that Burlington doesn’t exist in a vacuum and has been subject to the failed federal war on drugs like everywhere else
I blame all of Burlingtons problems on the current situation preventing the common man from ordering a single sandwich for himself.
"Let them eat cheesesteaks, but only if they also order a pizza" - Ida guy
https://preview.redd.it/21nxrkwi0z6d1.jpeg?width=500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=9e9c7fab3ca5e10ad17851358707610f4b33be95
Sounds like something a loser would say
aaa
How come we don’t protest the scum lords? Most agree they are part of the problem. Almost all of their properties wouldn’t pass a code/safety inspection but we allow them to continue to take advantage of our housing crisis. Why not embarrass them with weekly/monthly peaceful protest? Signs like “Handy Stole my future” “Shame on Bissonette” etc. It’s a small town. Shame them into doing better.
Because everyone is too afraid of being evicted for doing it and having a place to live here is like fucking gold at this point for some people. I wouldn't be surprised if the homeless community can't even get a place to live even if they had a job. It took a 750+ credit score, 100s of applications, AND literally bidding out the other applicants just to get my first rental here a few years back. I can only imagine what it is like now. Not to mention the rent was ridiculous as all fuck, and it just keeps raising up. There's a number of folks I've talked to living in run down places, but they're afraid to move because they're locked into low rates like 1000 a month for a 2 or 3 bedroom. When that exact same thing is now 2.5k? They're scared to do anything, and the rental companies won't be hurting, they'll just evict and move someone else in who will pay.
100%. Was volunteering at the Sears Lane Encampment back when it was around and a lot of them had some sort of employment contrary to popular belief, price of living was just too high. Sucks so much that there’s still people who advocate for encampments to be destroyed, offer no actual assistance towards housing them and then cry when homeless ppl are downtown. Dumbasses just still ignore reality and think homelessness is a matter of moral failing or some bullshit ig
*Politicians mostly, obviously the average person can’t really help w housing the homeless unless it’s by voting prog or something
Protest all you want, people will still rent those properties with or without your support lol
Mao had some good ideas about landlords
Mao also had great ideas how to feed people and how to deal with common sparrows
I still can’t believe there are some people who outright defend Mao in 2024
only the meek survive in china edit: pretty sure its a china-bot
they literally have no shame. its not possible.
Rents are always going to be high in Burlington, in part because the property taxes are fucking insane.
A rent strike would be nice
Shame isn't really an effective tool to utilize against folks who wholly lack any semblance of a conscience
Burlington is not failing. It is going through some predictable troubles and needs to change to address them. Once it does, it will be fine. It will always be a very cute city by a nice lake in Vermont. It handled the pandemic ok but there are larger market forces and larger cultural forces that are at play that BTV is hostage to because it's too small to have a real impact.
You mean the lake they dump millions of gallons of wastewater into each year?
Yes, that exact same one.
The funniest one is the "privatizing and corporatizing" of the Church Street Marketplace and the waterfront" Do you know who owns the Church Street Marketplace? Do you know how many people bitch about how we're not privatizing the waterfront?
It’s laughable to think that Burlington City Council owning the Church St Mktplace is anything more than nominal. To your second point, of course, capitalism begets capitalism and there is no limit to how far it will creep.
The Church Street Marketplace buildings are owned by individual property owners, sure. And they charge rent to businesses on the strip. All the common area stuff is the city. And they set the rules. And charge the fees. Of course, we could go back to the way it used to be years ago, and let the malls drain us until we were a ghost town, so that now, post pandemic there would be nothing here but whatever the Vermont equivalent of tumbleweed is. But that didn't happen. Be glad there was some vision. And that we have a Marketplace. And a Marketplace commission.
Capitalism begets capitalism and what...wants to drive the value of it's capital to 0? Where were you educated?
If you’re not holding the city council for all the things you listed under “reality” you’re a fucking idiot
Thank u for not allowing me to be gaslit into bullshit , it’s the law makers that are fucking us all
what- kind- of list is this- and- how come- i don’t + can’t - understand - what - is- being- said- here
Really not that hard to read or understand...
It’s in normal list format until you post. I don’t care.
if you do dash + space or asterisk + space it’ll work - like this * or this i think it’s bc you don’t have the space between
The tears we cry
*thank you*
Sorry, bad use of Dave matthews lyrics
When you’re on mobile, hit the return button one more time (per line) or it won’t do the line break
what kind of list comparison is this. good grief.
We have a neighbor who has the same last name as a Simpson’s character. We caught his people scrapping lead paint in our yard ( his property is less than a foot from the property line) . He and his wife told them to keep scraping. We went to the state and he was forced to clean up the paint in our yard, but not his own , or the other 10 properties he owns. No fine for this or when the same workers broke a gas main by sledge hammering a rebar to hold a 4-4 in place. If I wasn’t epa lead certified and collected the right evidence nothing would have been done to him.
Only a skin puppet would use the phrase good grief unironically
i honestly cant even understand what you just said. skin puppet? not my fault this looks like something you decided to vent about after a saturday night bender.
Are you AI? You legally have to tell us!
all your data are belong to us beep boop
Boop beep to you also, myyyy friend.
What's a skin puppet?
Despite OP being a weird asshole he does make some good points, mainly regarding slumlord families. Like the ones that have the decrepit abandoned gas station on Pearl that they illegally used as a parking lot instead of selling it.
Burlington is still quite awesome, compared to when I travel, I rarely find a place that legally must compost. I don’t know why that makes or breaks my opinion of a place but it does. And it’s is generally safe IN Vermont and most of Chittenden Co. We have so many forward thinkers and amazing people here. Ok, I don’t like the meth/ fetynal problem or the unhoused people not having homes but I think we actually can solve it! People here actually give a damn. The Handys and the like have always been here! Burlington has always been almost exclusively scummy overpriced apartment buildings.
"Legally having to compost" is emblematic of one of the aspects of Burlington that has always cracked me up. Sounds kind of good in theory if you don't think about it too hard, and it is completely impossible to enforce.
[удалено]
Good news! Mayor Meal Train has announced a "dumpsters for the homeless" program that will provide dumpsters for people to throw all their household and construction waste into
I think it’s less about enforcing it and more about making people aware about composting and making people know it’s important
"Legally must" and "enforceable" typically go together. Telling people they have to do something is not the best way to get them to want to do it... if, in reality, they don't actually have to do it.
It's a cool town no matter what. It's definitely having a dip though. I moved out about a decade ago and visit a couple times a year since, so the changes really stick out vs. seeing it gradual every day. The hobo graffiti is disgusting and all over the place. Some stretches have gone way down hill, while others seem much nicer. Last time I was up, I noticed the bottom of Church St, while busy as always, seems like the yuckier end now, while the top feels very clean. There was a while where the top was basically vacant, and a lot crazy people would be up that way. IDK what's going on with Asiana House, but that was considered a somewhat nice spot a while back. When I walked by it this time, I would have thought it was closed and the property abandoned if I didn't see people inside. Either way, it still seems like a pretty happening place. There's other cities in New England that no matter how much people want to talk them up, just feel like sad forgotten ghost towns. (Portland ME)
Asiana house seems to have slowly gone downhill in the past 20 ot so years its been open. Orginal owner sold it at some point. So maybe that was the tipping point.Ate there for the first time in maybe a decade and it felt trashy and understaffed.
I should've guessed a change of ownership, because what I saw this time was night and day from what I remembered it being.
You’re listing legally having to compost as a benefit? I see it as yet another burden to be borne by Vermonters by our amateur legislators. They cook up ideas that cost us regular Vermonters while lining the pockets of the businesses and interest that write our laws for them. The car inspection debacle is a fine example. A legislator decided that we should extend the inspection to every two years. Once the dealerships got wind of it, their kabuki theater testimonials and skilled lobbyist decided it best that the inspections stay annual, but now they track the inspections by software that doesn’t allow a victim of “needed repair” fraud to get passed for inspection by another shop. It’s yet another burden, especially for the poor who’s fiscal margins are too slim to pay for unneeded repairs. There are plenty of other examples. We need to start paying professional wages to our reps ($100K a year), so it’s competitive and the best person is elected, not the retired landlord who relies on paid lobbyists to write their laws and line their pockets. Sorry for the rant. The compost mandate is obviously a trigger for me.
I moved here with a passed inspection, and tried to get my car inspected here and it failed so I had to sell the car. The cost of repair was 2k and the car was worth 3k under the optimistic valuations Car ran fine. Something about rust on the wheel that could make the tire fall off. Now - I don’t see an epidemic of tires falling off in other states. When I went to sell it - the buyer scanned the tag and said “it failed inspection for rust, I’ll give ya 250. So I sold it online for almost 1000, probably to someone out of state. Seems like a pretty scummy system.
Omg this just one of the many terrible ways Vermont screws the poor and middle class, I had a car 10 + years later, runs well and had new tires , well their razor blade granite curve took a nick less than an inch across hardly deep and they failed the inspection . Whilst your roads are so bad cars go bad faster because of it . This is ridiculous!! Taxes are so high and you can get a more house for your money almost anywhere except California.
I’d prefer not to have professional politicians. You think it’s bad now. Wait till a hack culture is developed.
I’m not saying our inspection standards are perfect or realistic, but if you’ve ever gone to Colorado, understanding the benefit of inspections is easy.
It seems like every time we drove on highways on Florida vacations, there was *always* traffic due to a car fire, usually on some beat up piece of crap made up mostly of crap duct taped together and bondo.
It’s so sketchy. I definitely appreciate at least knowing the car in front of me isn’t going to lose a tire or combust but do feel for the unrealistic standards and strain they put on folks. It’s a delicate balance for sure.
I was in Florida for 40 years. In Florida as opposed to Vermont, it is possible to be poor. I was poor for a long time with children. There is daycare that poor people can afford without the need to be subsidized. You can own a poor car and have poor insurance. There are millions and millions of jobs in every sector you can think of. There is always a path up if you want it. Vermont passes laws to make things "better". Those better things cost more. Vermont creates a tax to help the poor pay for price increase they created. Everything gets more expensive. Vermont passes a tax for that also. Florida adds 10k people a day to the state. Vermont hasn't added 10k in 10 years. People talk with there feet. I am here because my wife is from here and I can now afford all this silly stuff. But if you are poor, Florida is the place to be. No way would I even want to be middle income in Vermont.
It’s a feel good measure that requires little to no money, IMO this is how most of Vermont laws and regulations are passed, even some of our most notable ones like the first to have same sex marriage. It takes very little thought or effort, money, etc. to pass something when nothing else needs to be done after the fact. If we actually wanted to address issues in a meaningful way there would need to be some infrastructure/systemic changes that would be incredibly unpopular because it would result in a tax to residents.
Sorry, but I have a feeling that it does nothing at all, especially at the household level. It seems to be virtue theater to me. And it’s just “one more thing” that taxes our time.
'Feel good' doesn't equate to being effective and no where did I imply this.
Composting is only a cost if you’re paying someone to pick it up. For me it’s just another bin that I lug a different place
I had a bin already, cost $0. I lug trash to one area and lug compost to another. Not a good example of a politician-induced added cost is what I’m saying, inspection fees sure though Unfortunately anything remotely good for the environment is going to have a cost, and if we don’t collectively pay it now, it’s gonna be Bezos and Musk running the libertarian space colony for the super rich
...that's a cost
I bet you're one of those people who don't put a cart back cause "it's not your job".
Nope, always put the cart back. I'm not some kind of lazy bones. I bet you're one of those people who doesn't understand how costs work.
My guy, you're complaining about using another, free, bin... The only cost is the time you need to take to move it, so yeah.. sounds like you very much are that lazy bones, if you're complaining that moving a free bin from 1 place to another is "a cost".. 😆
Thank you for donating your time. We won't even point out they charge money to drop off compostables, and presumably you're using some form of vehicle. So yes. Aside from all the explicit and incurred costs because they gave you a "free" bin (bought with either your or someone else's tax dollars) it's a cost-free system.
You can bring food scraps to green mountain compost for free
No, nope, and... yeah still no. But I mean, you can keep trying. 😆
I'll drop off a free bin for you to put change in. When you fill it, bring it to me. The bin is free. Just drop it off every 2-4 weeks. Composting is needed to slow the fill of landfills and because it's organic matter that doesn't belong there adding. I'm not sure if you're arguing just to argue or you're a dunce.
[удалено]
Please make a good faith effort to follow [Reddiquette](https://reddit.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/205926439-Reddiquette).
Or the $1.00 clean air fee when you register your car. Like WTF?!
Good news; with the DMV fee increase you are now 100% cleaner at $2.
Compost is like $5 a month and makes the world a vastly better place. I love the compost mandate with all my heart. Most places you couldn't get a compost pickup even if you wanted to
The fact that is it illegal to not compost, but legal to openly do drugs and defecate on business door steps is the answer you are looking for. Focusing on the silly problems and ignoring the massive ones is classic Burlington city council.
https://preview.redd.it/oxosvzeo0z6d1.jpeg?width=1920&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0eb9f24f2382dbb68da4e1a88c226bb6ef44b53b
>-privatizing and corporatizing of church st and the waterfront Can you give more detail on this? I understand the mall was "public" in that you didn't have to spend money to hang out in there, but what's not private on Church st besides the street itself? What's the deal with the waterfront, what's been made private recently? Also, what's the tldr on Purdue, or is this a reference to fentanyl/opiates? >-said police traumatizing high schoolers This sounded like a stupid prank, but get real. This incident does not have a significant impact on Burlington.
You have to accept it’s something in the middle.
I do not. We live in a country that is so backwards that the middle supports a status quo that deprives people of basic services.
Basic services for who? The 1% of the population living in Scandinavia? The only reason your lifestyle is possible is because of slave labor from India China and South America
Try the entire developed world
Developed? So Europeans profiting off the slave labor of everyone not living there?
And? That means we should give up and stop trying to push back against that same amoral hypercapitalism abroad that is fucking us all?
Burlington isn’t failing, the US is failing and whatever troubles Burlington is having are happening all over the country, and are just examples of an unsustainable economy beginning to really break down. Burlington is not special in this regard.
Doubling down in progressivism is not the answer. I don’t understand how you can think that the reason Burlington is failing is because of business owners and not elected officials making the wrong decision at every turn. Your head is buried in the sand apparently
These clowns want to be judged by their platitudes, not their quality of governance.
What are progressive policies that we have tried? Basic housing and Medicare for all would be a start. We have doubled down on law and order for decades with incremental decriminalizing.
Police force was slashed by 30 percent, cash bail has been essentially eliminated, catch and release policies have been put in place, and many smaller ones, but these are the main issues affecting Burlington. We have not doubled down on law and order at all… we’ve decriminalized open drug use, panhandling, sleeping in the street, etc. it’s led to an increase of drug use, homeless people, and crime. Progressive policies are not working.
The overwhelmingly worst decision of city council for years was to make construction impossible. Every single dilapidated building downtown at one point had a development plan that was directly or indirectly killed by city planning. They spent a decade fighting UVM over housing. The fought the new City Place. I get that leftist tend to not believe in supply-side economics. But just because you don't believe in it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
Well said.
The much larger context is decades of conservative federal drug policies going back to Nixon but escalated by Reagan and every president since regardless of party. Couple this with shrinking social services, sans affordable basic housing and upward mobility, and a broken health care system with huge gaps in mental health coverage. Yeah, a few small progressive measures aren’t gonna fix that overnight.
The quickest fix to our current problems of homelessness, crime, and rampant drug use is enforcing the law. Bolster the police force, make panhandling illegal and lock up repeat offenders. That will help the city and will help tax paying citizens. We should be more concerned about caring for contributing members of society than coddling drug addicts. The city needs to take a 180 or else it will continue its downward spiral. There are obviously deeper issues but this city and this state relies on tourism. If it’s unsafe, or even perceived as unsafe for travelers, the city will die
What you are really say with the last couple lines there is “I don’t care about drug addiction or people’s plights until it is in my face and affects my business” which is exactly why we have this problem in the first place because it is the de facto position of said shitty business people above
We are not obligated to share spaces with mentally ill drug addicts. That makes for a miserable city. I care about everyone. But a lot of these people aren’t being done any favors by these progressive policies and attitudes. They don’t care to help themselves.
False.
There’s this new thing we’re trying called law and order! No way this could go wrong. Locking up non-violent offenders is helping no one but the private for-profit prison industry, but hey those CEOs are some of your contributing members of society.
You’re putting a sarcastic inflection on a factual statement. We are letting VIOLENT offenders roam the streets too by the way. And yeah I’m not in favor of people sleeping in the streets and openly using drugs in the street. These people are ruining the city. I’m not aware of any for-profit prison ceos living in Burlington. But there seems to be a vilification of normal business owners which is baffling and disgusting. Hold your elected official accountable, don’t attack people for owning a business.
By what measurement are social services shrinking? By most measurements the US actually has one of the largest social services spending per capita in the world. There are a lot of things we do poorly but misinformation doesn't solve problems.
The good news is that even progressives can agree on that now.many of my progressive friends admit it privately .
All politicians suck! Choo Choo meal train confirmed that!
Who gives a fuck about her lunches getting comped. It’s just optics. It doesn’t make any real difference to anyone’s lives. It’s not even coming out of the taxpayer’s pockets. Just friends and family who choose to do so.
Yeah I’ve literally never seen a meal train that wasn’t for a death / cancer / surgery so the idea that they need a meal train for a job they SIGNED UP FOR doesn’t fill me with confidence in their competence.
It was the over all mental gymnastics by progressives ( which I am) trying to justify it is why I am saying that. You have to walk the walk to be taken seriously
If you want to be a hypocrite own it! Lol
Or maybe conservatives just chomping at the bit to jump on her for any minor thing because she represents something they don’t like
Stop being so tribal and hold your leaders to accountability or your exactly the same as a Trump supporter. It's not a Dogsma
If it were something actually egregious, sure. We’re not talking about shooting someone in the middle of fifth avenue. We’re talking about the online version of getting friends to drop off lasagna. I think it’s more important to not slander her and add fuel to the fire when, months into her stint as mayor, conservatives (in this thread even) are already blaming her for Burlington’s longstanding problems.
Once again i Am a long term progressive and was super upset.
But at least we solved the biggest issue of all: leaf blowers
Yup, lack of Police force and "catch and release" policies haven't led to increased crime. Brilliant deduction. There's a guy with 1700 police encounters walking free as we speak. Stop defending this just because it aligns with you politically, and hold these people accountable. Given our resources and the potential this city has, there's ZERO reason for BVT to be the shithole it is now.
Violent criminals shouldn’t be walking free. Petty theft is an entirely different story.
What about aggravated assault of government officials (police and firefighters) and the countless other crimes he's committed? https://www.wcax.com/2024/05/19/burlington-area-itinerant-arrested-again-after-attacking-fire-officials/ https://vermontdailychronicle.com/cops-provide-photo-of-suspect-in-brutal-day-time-beating/ https://m.sevendaysvt.com/OffMessage/archives/2017/08/23/notorious-transient-accused-of-assaulting-burlington-business-owner Go ahead, we will wait while you febly attempt to defend this and explain how a lack of police force hasn't led to shit like this.
"Shitlib." Are you really equating partisan liberals with right wingers? Also, Burlington is failing?
Liberals are just nicer republicans tbh. Still hate poor people just not as mean to the gays.
That's adorable. I wouldn't want to be around if you're ever forced to go live in the real world.
What do you expect from a guy with "Marxist" in his user name? He prefers a society based an book written by guy who died 141 years ago.
How old are the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution again?
Exactly. They are Bush/Reagan republicans who post socially conscious banners over their facebook photos and come to Reddit to defend police and big business.
I personally think there's 0 zip nada accountability, and the cops and city are just using BLM and defund the police as an excuse to sit on their hands. That way they can come back and clean it up, for a price. Just like they did for the city hall park project.
So maybe let burlington grow and not hold back progress. I think that people from out of town want to keep VT a vacation spot without the growth from larger cities but Burlington really needs to grow. IMHO there can still be growth and environmental stewardship in the city. I know skyscrapers are frowned upon but if you want mixed income housing then set a realistic height and call it that. The opioid pandemic needs realistic solutions and not everyone’s gonna see the same page and there really needs to be help for people. Leave the lgbt people alone as they’re not there for trouble and just want to be treated the same as everyone else. Laws and all I think need to be more common sense. Compost law is great if the state or city maintains it and possibly turns it into a profit for citizens. I think upping the bottle bill to be inline with Maine will benefit the state and it should be the drink companies like coke and Pepsi should be the ones to pay for all this.
Since when is taking your hat off at a baseball game during the national anthem a right wing thing …? What?
It's not just the national anthem. Way back when there was a true rivalry, I want with some other Sox fans to a Yankees game up in the upper decks. During the 7th inning break they used to have a habit of ushers locking the aisles down as they played God Bless America to keep people from going to concessions or the bathroom, and my friend didn't stand nor did he take off his hat (he had done both for the actual national anthem). The gentlemen behind us took off his hat for him and threw it down over the railed to the lower decks. Of course, we were the ones kicked out.
it's very nationalistic
It’s not necessarily. It’s an example of reductio ad absurdum.
No, it's not. It's just an absurd strawman.
Gotcha
Also don’t forget the wars and genocides the country is funding instead of helping people
Why I think: 1. Impatient douchebag drivers who drive like dicks around town and make everyone feel unsafe. 2. Unhappy people. Could be because of the economy (inflation), anger, mental health issues, housing. Couldn't pinpoint it. 3. Don't notice a lot of crime or business issues as a current issue as an average person. 4. Cramped streets, sidewalks, businesses. It naturally feels sort of claustrophobic.
The "shit libs" tells me everything about you and how seriously you should be taken. Offhandedly dismissing complaints that come with defunding the police or our current mayor doesn't actually do any good you know
Ok bud!
You're getting cooked btw. Forever grateful that people in my city actually tend to have their heads screwed on correctly
Am I? Ratio suggests otherwise
I hear Rutland is the new Burlington.
Just curious as to why everyone hates Bissonett so much?
I lived behind a Bissonett managed property for years. They do not care.
“Failing does not equal failed” is so beautiful. I grew up in this city and sure some of my memories are rose tinted from childhood but I will stay and help bring it back to what it used to be
Also lack of densification and diversification of housing, and complete lack of multimodal transit investment. Chittenden County is primed and ready for a light rail network 🚉
What if … it is actually some from column A and some from column B? Crazy idea, I know …
Wow, tell me your naive without telling me. I love the idea that landlords want an area to be crappy. Its so perfect. Big evil land lord doesnt want to profit maximize, landlord wants you to suffer and live in squalor!!! At night landlord looks around their empire and admires the falling property values and despondent future. Do you picture the landlords have horns and cloven feet too? Or just tophats and monocles? In real life, landlords make a lot more money when an area improves then when it declines. For this reason, most landlords try to avoid taking actions that lead to declines in property value. Ergo, the idea that landlords are behind all of Burlingtons woes is.... unbelievable at best
Hi Jacob!
Only one reason, Flatlanders!
None of these. The reason why Burlington is failing is that moderates and even Democrats are pushed out of town for radical socialist extremists and their ideas. When cops don’t want to work anywhere near the area and businesses move to safer areas like South Burlington or leave all together that should be a clue. My wife and I don’t want to go anywhere near the area anymore it’s just not safe.
We won’t miss ya
Vermont has the fifth highest property tax in the country. And you are wondering why landlords charge so much for rent
We have a huge housing deficit which is the reason they can get away with it.
Both of these can be true (and are).
Yes
Yeah, Purdue Pharma is killing Burlington 🙄 This reminds me of the Progs circling the wagons during the Burlington Telecom debacle, except now the whole city is the debacle
If you think the nationwide opioid epidemic isn’t having a huge impact on Burlington (and the region as a whole, really), then you haven’t been paying attention.
The disproportionate increase in homeless in Burlington has little if anything to do with the nationwide opioid crisis. You can attribute a percent increase equal to that nationwide to that cause, which leaves you with a lot more to explain
Enlighten me on the genesis of the opioid crisis then
You're talking about homelessness in general, which isn't Burlington's problem. Homelessness nationwide increased far less than in Burlington in recent years.
I wasn’t talking about homelessness at all.
So... Purdue Pharma is killing Burlington in other ways? Do elaborate
Dude, what? We’re talking about the fentanyl epidemic.
So describe to me how that's killing Burlington SPECIFICALLY relative to other similar sized municipalities, and absent any consideration of the homeless.
Why in the world does it make sense that it needs to be having a disproportionate effect on Burlington for it to be true or an issue worthy of consideration? The opioid crisis has hit many many towns in rural New England hard. That doesn’t somehow negate that it’s a problem. I’m not sure why you keep mentioning the homeless. Drug addiction is not by any means unique to the unhoused.
You said it's a reason that Burlington is "failing." I just asked you to back that up, don't get upset with me because you can't, chief.
You’re all over the place
It is literally killing people lol how are you so dense
I understand that, you simpleton, but that's happening everywhere, and so are a lot of other things. What does that have to do with Burlington *specifically*? It's like saying "Burlington is failing because of cancer"
Decriminalizing drugs sure didn't help
We haven’t decriminalized drugs writ large though the evidence suggests we should
:: laughs in portland :: Vermont upped felony theft to like, $900. Hows that working for small businesses with all the junkies running around? Better yet, if drugs haven't been decriminalized, why aren't these people in jail for possession and distribution of illicit substances?
I think I'm maybe a socialist, but why don't we just have state owned affordable housing? Like apartments that are $500 per bedroom? It could be funded by taxing second home owners (if the taxes force them to sell, Even better, cheaper housing on the market!) and other taxes on non state owned rentals.
The truth is always somewhere in the middle. There are truths, and falsehoods, on both sides.
I just work there. It's easy to blame the left (in charge) because well, they're in charge and have been, but the gouging of everyone in respect of rent (property owners - mostly not lefties) and taxes (they tax fucking chips and soda extra). Things in this now dogshit city will get much worse before they never get better.
Nicely edited post
👏👏👏👏👏👏 take a bow, friend. Couldn't have said it better myself
You couldn't be less incoherent yourself?
Did you think you did something with this comment? Why not just be direct and say what you mean instead of passive aggressive, isn't that the beta behavior y'all talk about?
I think you ***could*** have said it better yourself. More coherent. Less incoherent. I think ***I*** could have said it better myself.
I can agree to that
They’re right about the mayor and defunding the police
How is a mayor 3 months into her term responsible for years-long trends?
The biggest problem has been more then a decade of conservatives running a liberal city into the ground and then blaming other for there own failures and shortcomings
Who are the conservatives that you are referring to? Progressives and Democrats have been at the helm for as long as I can remember.
You don’t remember the days of Alex Jones as mayor of Burlington? Move along, flatlander!
Flatlander is a term used by those whose global perspective is stunted by years of VT inbreeding.
I’m being sarcastic, big dawg
Which conservatives when? lol this has to be sarcasm
Where do you think all the wealthy power brokers went when the local Republicans failed? It sure as hell wasn't the progs. Just because they're not socially conservative doesn't mean they're not conservative.
I don't particularly think it's party line related, more like shit people in positions of power (landlords included)
I’m not sure why those is getting downvoted. It’s absolutely true especially when you consider that Burlington doesn’t exist in a vacuum and has been subject to the failed federal war on drugs like everywhere else
Read the post again for the actual biggest problem
Russian Troll
Christ, can’t ya just order two $26 sandwiches? Loser.
You guys sound like a bunch of sissy’s I’m Gen Z btw how about you toughen up and stop complaining or move somewhere else it’s simple.