It’s been a long, long time since Seven Days began its life as a scrappy alt-weekly in the grand tradition of the Village Voice and the Boston Phoenix. Credit for sheer survival unlike those spiritual ancestors, but it’s safe to say that 7D is now the voice of comfortable Burlington, the Good Folk who habituate Leunig’s and the Flynn Center and love to amble undisturbed on Church Street and in Battery Park.
That’s my conclusion from co-founder Paula Routly’s latest Publisher’s Note, “Burlington Blues.” She’s far from alone in expressing dismay about crime, drugs and homelessness in the Queen City. But what’s missing in her column is the tiniest shred of compassion or empathy. She seems to be describing a plague or an infestation of vermin with no sense at all that there are living, struggling human beings on the other side of this equation.
Routly seems to expect that her “beautiful burg” will forever be a playground for the well-to-do, a clean, safe, secure landscape that can be enjoyed without a second thought. She doesn’t roll out the reactionary language of “lock ’em up” or call for the BPD to let loose a SWAT team, but she makes it clear that she just wishes The Unwashed would just go away, doesn’t matter where, somewhere, anywhere, and leave this “beautiful burg” to those who rightfully deserve it.
Look, I’m not saying it’s wrong to worry about the state of Burlington. I am saying it takes a certain kind of entitled cluelessness to focus entirely on one’s own discomfort and not give a single thought to the human toll reflected in these urban-porn scenes of trash-strewn alleys, abandoned buildings, and people with no choice but to sleep on the street.
Okay, time for the blow-by-blow.
Routly quotes an unnamed correspondent saying that “Burlington is so scary right now,” and notes that “social media is (sic) abuzz with photos and videos documenting the detritus of drug use and homelessness.” (See, it’s the “detritus” that’s the problem, not the addicted and the unhoused.) Conclusion: “Lots of Vermonters… quietly admit they don’t feel safe downtown anymore.”
Not sure I buy the “quietly” part. There’s plenty of this out loud, and it’s all over the news media.
Next comes a recap of the situation at 184 Church Street, a down-heel apartment building that “generates more police calls than any other Burlington address.” She mentions in passing the owners, the very prominent Handy family, but doesn’t assign them any blame for owning the most troubled housing in town. Then comes Memorial Auditorium, being left to rot by the city. Shocker that it has turned into a nuisance.
Somehow unmentioned in this chronicle of neglect: The Pit, now in its seventh year as an eyesore. Of course, it’s safely fenced in and out of public view,so it’s fine?
Routly then returns to the lack of “organized, forceful” action which sounds like code language for a law ‘n order crackdown. Maybe we need some SWAT teams.
Speaking of which, here’s a nice little drive-by dig at police oversight and justice reform:
Our problems may be the same as those in cities — especially progressive-minded ones — across the country, but the number of lost souls per capita in Burlington is staggering.
“Especially progressive-minded ones”? What the actual what? Is it “progressive-minded’ policies that are to blame for San Francisco’s troubles, not the dearth of affordable housing and the seismic downturn in commercial real estate? Would Philadelphia be a tree-lined paradise if only they enabled their own Sheriff Joe Arpaio? “Progressive-minded” policing and justice policies exist because of the failed track record of aggressive law enforcement.
I’d also point out that while Burlington may be “progressive-minded,” the progressives don’t actually run the city. Last I checked, a centrist Democrat has been mayor since 2011 and his binky, Jon Murad, is chief of police. They seem to get as much of a pass from Routly as does the Handy clan.
Routly closes with her own personal brush with the heart of darkness, both literal and metaphorical. She recounts a walk along Battery Street where some streetlights were out and “there were people sleeping on benches on both sides of the walkway.” And the problem isn’t that there are Burlingtonians with nowhere better to go than a park bench, it’s that the unfortunates interfered with Routly’s desire for a stress-free nighttime stroll.
Thankfully for her, she “emerged unscathed.” God damn. I don’t know who she thinks the unhoused are. The vast majority are not violent or criminal. They are far more at risk than any passing pedestrian from the New North End. They were probably more afraid of her than she was of them.
Routly’s closing paragraph sums up her passion, her concern, and her privileged myopia.
It’s an illuminating window on the city — shattered and dirty but still somehow holding together. Fences might help, but they won’t fix these problems. Does anyone know what will?
“Fences” is your first option? Don’t address the root causes, just contain the damage? Maybe we could round ’em all up and put ’em in The Pit.
This column is all about “us” and “them.” Us, the Good Citizens of Burlington, desiring the untrammeled enjoyment of the vibrant urban lifestyle without having to think about, let alone personally experience, refuse, graffiti, vacant buildings, or poor folk.
Aside from “fences,” there’s no discussion of possible solutions. There’s certainly no consideration of the city’s complete lack of affordable housing or the failure of current policies to address an opioid epidemic that has Burlington setting new records every year for overdoses and drug-related deaths. No thought that property owners (or bureaucrats or the city’s militant NIMBY crowd) might be to blame for failing to maintain or repurpose rotting buildings in the middle of an incredible boom in real estate.
Routly’s fears and concerns for the welfare of her city are understandable. What’s not is her completely one-sided view of the situation. Now that the Burlington Free Press has devolved into an irrelevant lifestyle publication, Seven Days is now the primary news It has also taken the Free Press’ place as the journalistic voice of the city’s elite.
The Vermont Political Observer. 
You said, “There’s certainly no consideration of the city’s complete lack of affordable housing…”
C’mon John. I was working in City Hall when Burlington adopted the inclusionary zoning ordinance that has resulted in hundreds of affordable housing units. In my opinion, it was one of Peter Clavelle’s greatest achievements thanks in large part to John Davis’ leadership in CEDO.
BTW – John was instrumental in founding the Burlington Community Land Trust in the `80s (now the Chittenden Housing Trust).
With respect, this deserves an apology. I can’t begin to tell you how much I respect John Davis and what he (and his colleagues) have accomplished. Is there still a problem? You bet. But it would be a heck of a lot worse but for John, CHT and all the remarkable affordable housing folks in Burlington.
I am always amazed at the regular cast of people who harken back to the great acts of the 1980s. Brian Pine does this all the time. And here we are again.
First, in a time of retrograde politics around the country in the ’80s, leaders in Burlington struggled and achieved programs to offset the depredations of Reaganism (funny what a socialist mayor can lead to, eh?). Very good.
Second, during the Weinberger years, there has been a push to limit or eliminate inclusionary zoning. CHT is basically a leader in the Non-Profit Industrial Complex that has absorbed the condescending classism and patronizing tone of the rest of Vermont’s liberal elite. Look into the shift in the functioning of NGOs over the last 40 years.
Compare the two periods. One provided lasting solutions. One provided warmed-over Clintonian plans that will not work in the new reality.
The 80s are over. The last 20 years require new solutions and Burlington has failed on this front.
Your critique isn’t fair. Seven Days has led coverage of housing and homelessness for years. In her recent piece Routly dedicates words to the way many residents feel. It is not the sum of all she has said or has to say. What is missing from both your accounts is the degree to which the housing policies of the surrounding burbs is driving the pain and suffering. This is a regional problem effecting many people who end up in Burlington with no place to live. My suggestion to Routly is that holds my town (Jericho) and others accountable for using zoning and town plans to exclude people with low and modest incomes and creating a housing shortage which causes lots of pain.
Well said, John!
I think that we all have empathy and compassion for the less fortunate, but she’s not wrong at all. How much compassion should I have for organized gangs of bike thieves? How about if you have six hours to case a house, you have time to get a job? To ignore the problems of the city because its “the poors” doing it ignores that ignoring the current problems hurts the working poor the most.
“Entitled cluelssness” is an excellent phrase that describes so many of Vermont’s upper class these days. I bet many would like to see the “organized forceful approach” with a baton in one hand or a one way bus ticket in the other. And those “fences” around the pit could be a little higher and why not consolidate them to make services easier…
Entitled liberal progressive assholes are still assholes.
To any Democratic or republican policy maker society mover and shaker- Fuck your feelings. Play games with peoples’ lives and I hope your first day in Hell is your shortest. Anyone dies this winter because they sleeping rough and their death is on you.
You just summed up why Vermont has among the highest rates of pathological social ills in the nation per capita. So, what’s new? Nothing ever changes in Vermont. If the denizens of the “Wicked City” (yes, that’s what Burlington was called at the turn of the century) read their own history books, they would learn that they are engaged in the same conversation in which they were over 100 years ago.
Vermont dehumanizes its most marginalized citizens. In fact, Vermont creates its own vulnerable citizens. Vermont intentionally cultivates a criminal class. Why don’t you just come out and say it John? Oh wait, you already did: Bring Back Eugenics!
You know you want to do it Vermont, so bring back eugenics. Class genocide via human sterilization will cure your problem — in about 900 years, if you’re consistent in your off-with-their-cocks practices. Hell, Vermont still has a sterilization law on the books. Put it to use, or pray to your Deity, he’ll make it all better! And no, that was not a reference to the creepy shit-grinning wax statue you call Governor.
The problem with pasty white, parochial and bigoted decisions, of who is and who is not worthy of life, is who gets to make those decisions, known in Nazi Germany as Rassenhygiene, or Racial Hygiene, for which der Fuehrer thanked American legislators for teaching the Third Reich, including Vermont, which passed – unanimously – its own state sanctioned sterilization law in 1931 – two years before Herr Adolph declared his own sterilization law as Dicktater of Germany in July 1933 – two months after the first documented executions were perpetrated at Dachau in May of that year.
Perhaps if Vermont returned to its eugenical ways — which began in Burlington — Vermont could simply reverse the process and instead of sterilizing and segregating the marginalized, let those “lives unworthy of living” apply sterilization and segregation to those in positions of power, authority and influence.
Perhaps then things would actually change in Vermont for the better.
When a friend of mine posted that Mayor Weinberger was not going to run for reelection, someone commented, “I don’t blame him! Who wants that job?” To which someone else responded, “Agreed. This City is headed to the toilet. So sad…” I found myself wondering who has been presiding over this decline for the past twelve years. Thank you for your insights and your voice.
Must be a pretty unhealthy editorial room if no one can tell her that she is making a fool of herself. I mean, other than Joan Shannon and Miro Weinberger, who would not suggest that these regular screeds are a very bad look?
“I found myself wondering who has been presiding over this decline for the past twelve years.”
I have not yet read Routy’s commentary so will not say anything about it. What is happening in Burlington, however, is happening everywhere across the land. Burlington is not unique here.
It is also not a new thing either. It began during the Reagan era. I remember going out west during the early Reagan years and seeing whole tent cities sprouting up underneath highway overpasses, families living out of cars underneath bridges. It reminded me of the “Hoovervilles” of the Great Depression.
This is a direct result of deliberate policies by the federal and state administrations and legislatures of all fifty states, financed lavishly by billionaires and corporations, and supported by our business, cultural, and political elite in a society that treats the poor and working people as moochers and parasites. This is American exceptionalism.
Blame lies squarely w the dominant classes who control the wealth and resources of the nation and no else. No one else. It’s not a case of ‘personal responsibility’ or ‘bad choices’. I personally don’t mind bike thieves or homeless people breaking into empty million dollar second homes, yachts or looting stores in Phila. All of that pales in comparison to the violence and criminality of this countries ruling class but because they drive Teslas, live in upscale neighborhoods, bs us w TedTalks and are brainwashed to aspire to their social status, we blind ourselves to the reality of their rule.
And it should be pointed out that the press and media are totally complicit in creating these conditions.