Friday, November 6, 2020
Weinberger said he'll ask the city council on Monday to approve a resolution to keep indoor social gatherings to 10 people and outdoor events to 25, an emergency order that the city has had in place since August.
"Over the past eight months, our community has come together, made sacrifices, followed public health guidance and assessed risk, and it's worked," the mayor said. "We now need to double down on those successes. We know that this virus is opportunistic. It will seize any gap that we give it, and it will grow very rapidly if we let it."
Tags: coronavirus , COVID-19 , Burlington , Miro Weinberger , social gatherings , Web Only , Image
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Vermont Gas Systems will kick in $550,000 for Burlington International Airport’s noise mitigation program in fiscal year 2021. The amount covers the required 10 percent local match for a $4.5 million annual federal grant sought by Burlington, South Burlington and Winooski.
“When it appeared that our general funds … might be on the hook in some way for that half a million dollars or more a year, that was a real obstacle to moving forward with this program,” Mayor Miro Weinberger said at a press conference in Winooski, where he was joined by that city's mayor, Kristine Lott, and South Burlington City Council chair Helen Riehle.
“The hope is that this pilot [program] lays the groundwork for that local match to be the way this works going forward,” Weinberger said.
Tags: F-35 , Burlington , South Burlington , Winooski , federal grant , noise monitoring , soundproofing , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 26, 2020
ANEW Place, the nonprofit that operates the city’s only low-barrier shelter, purchased the property at 165 Shelburne Road using a $2.5 million grant from the federal CARES Act. The sale closed last Friday.
“This is a big deal,” ANEW Place executive director Kevin Pounds said at a press conference Monday. A year-round shelter “is a very practical way of saying to some of our most vulnerable neighbors … that you matter to us.”
The facility will be converted into a 33-unit, 50-bed shelter by December 1 and run all year. Previously, the low-barrier shelter on South Winooski Avenue was open only from November until April. The space closed this March when the coronavirus pandemic hit because it was impossible to physically distance in its cramped quarters.
Since then, guests have stayed in rented trailers at the North Beach Campground and in tents there when the lease ran out. For Mayor Miro Weinberger, the pandemic highlighted the need for a year-round shelter, a goal he’s championed since his State of the City address in 2017.
“Often, projects like this die because these are often not popular facilities,” he said on Monday. “I am so thankful that the community here in the South End understood that this was a critical community need.”
Tags: ANEW Place , Burlington , low-barrier shelter , homeless shelter , Champlain Inn , Miro Weinberger , Kevin Pounds , Web Only , Image
The political parties were required to report campaign spending for the Town Meeting Day races on February 2 and 22 and March 17, but neither organization did, according to a settlement the Vermont Attorney General's Office announced late last week.
The Vermont Progressive Party filed a complaint with the AG's office in April after unsuccessfully trying to resolve the issue directly with the city committee, according to Progressive Party executive director Josh Wronski.
Progs took notice when the state Democrats announced they had hired a full-time staffer to boost the party's chances in the local elections — an effort that was ultimately unsuccessful — and started circulating a variety of campaign mailers that couldn't be traced back to campaign reports.
"This wasn't a political stunt," Wronski said, adding, "We've maintained the whole time that this is really about transparency. People have the right to know who's funding the flyers and the canvassers and the phone-bankers that are coming into their neighborhood."
Tags: campaign finance , Burlington City Council , politics , Town Meeting Day , elections , Vermont Democratic Party , Burlington Democratic Committee , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 19, 2020
Plans submitted by the developers — a new partnership that includes Don Sinex and local businessmen Scott Ireland, Dave Farrington and Al Senecal — call for even more housing than those championed by former majority owner Brookfield Asset Management.
Drawings submitted to the Wards 2 & 3 Neighborhood Planning Assembly show more than 420 units of housing, including at least 84 affordable units. Previous plans had 357 apartments. The project would also include 45,000 square feet of ground-level retail shops, a rooftop restaurant and observation deck, 422 parking spots and a community meeting space. Renderings show a 10-story tall south tower and a north tower of nine floors.
The developers also say they intend to make good on their promise to reconnect Pine and St. Paul streets. The city had planned to use $21.8 million in tax increment financing dollars to pay for those and other street improvements, but project delays had put that funding in jeopardy. Glassberg told councilors, however, that the state legislature extended the borrowing deadline for another year.
Tags: CityPlace Burlington , Burlington City Council , development , Board of Health , coronavirus , Stephanie Seguino , police , Burlington Police Department , Burlington Police Commission , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 12, 2020
The downtown green space will host a two-day reopening ceremony on Friday and Saturday with live music, tours, film screenings and more. The showcase event celebrates the end of a park planning process that began back in 2011.
"It's been a remarkable city project from the beginning," said Cindi Wight, the city's Parks, Recreation & Waterfront director. "The park looks fantastic."
The city started construction in July 2019 when it gated off the park and cut down a number of trees — a move that angered a group of project opponents known as Keep the Park Green, which had tried and failed to get a court order to stop the tree removal. Many of the trees have been replaced with younger, hardier ones, according to Wight.
The new park also features wider pathways, a water fountain with customizable colored lights — think: orange for Halloween, red, white and blue for July 4th — and a new public bathroom. The standalone unit, called a Portland Loo, will be open every day the temperature stays above -20 degrees, meeting a longtime demand for accessible bathrooms downtown.
Tags: City Hall Park , Burlington , development , Burlington Farmers Market , downtown , Web Only , Image
Tuesday, October 6, 2020
The council initially voted in August to end alcohol sales early each evening in an attempt to prevent returning college students from spreading the coronavirus around town. The order did not apply to retail alcohol sales.
But in the subsequent weeks, Burlington has seen no spike in cases tied to kids on campus. And city staff recommended the council reevaluate the order this month given the negative impacts on local businesses. The Church Street Marketplace has recently seen a significant dip in visitors, according to a memo from Chief Innovation Officer Brian Lowe.
"We've all heard from the bar owners and restaurant owners who are legitimately expressing frustration about lost business," Councilor Chip Mason (D-Ward 5) said. "We've also heard from the science that says ... the COVID numbers are not there to justify these continued [hours]."
Limits on crowd sizes — approved as part of the original order — remain in place. Indoor crowds are limited to 10 people and outdoor gatherings to 25. The council will consider extending or repealing those provisions on November 9 — after Halloween, which presents "a continued elevated risk from large group activity," Lowe wrote.
Tags: Burlington , Burlington City Council , ANEW Place , homeless shelter , low-barrier shelter , backyard fires , alcohol , Church Street Marketplace , Web Only , Image
Monday, October 5, 2020
Starting in August, racial justice activists had occupied the park for 35 days to demand the firing of three Burlington cops accused of using excessive force. One of those officers, Sgt. Jason Bellavance, was offered a $300,000 buyout on September 22. The protesters ended their 24-7 park encampment on September 30, but about a dozen tents, garbage and other items remained five days later.
Some tents appeared to belong to homeless folks who were drawn to the encampment during the protests. One young woman, who said she had participated in the protests but otherwise declined to comment, wore a mask and vinyl gloves as she cleaned up Monday.
Tags: Burlington , Black Lives Matter , protest , homelessness , Battery Park , police , Web Only , Image
Friday, October 2, 2020
A new Queen City proposal would allow backyard blazes in “fire safe receptacles” from November through April of next year. The resolution, which the Burlington City Council will consider on Monday, would temporarily change an effective ban on outdoor fires that’s been on the books since 1977.
This is the year for such a change, said Councilor Joan Shannon (D-South District), who wrote and introduced the resolution, which is cosponsored by three Democratic colleagues.
She referred to them as “COVID fires” and noted that a warm outdoor gathering place would encourage healthy socialization habits during the cold winter months of the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is not going to endorse every existing fire pit out there,” Shannon said. “But it creates a legitimate process for you to go through and get an approved outdoor fire.”
Tags: Burlington , fire pits , Joan Shannon , Web Only , Image
Thursday, October 1, 2020
The occupation of Burlington’s Battery Park is over.
After approximately 35 days camped out in the green space, racial justice protesters called it quits on Wednesday evening. They spent hours taking down a tent city that had sprouted toward the end of a summer filled with national incidents of police violence against people of color.
But leaders vowed that their fight against racism and other inequities isn’t over.
“We are not fucking done, people,” organizer Zanevia Wilcox told a crowd of about 60 protesters during a break for dinner. “There’s a lot of work that needs to be done. And we may not be sleeping here 24/7, but just know, this will be our beacon. This will be the space we come to when we call for events, the space we come to when we want to inform folks of what’s happening.
“But the one thing you have to promise you are going to do,” Wilcox continued, “is that you’ll continue to keep yourselves informed.”
Tags: Burlington , protest , racial justice , Battery Park , Burlington Police Department , Web Only , Image , Slideshow