Brookfield Asset Management wants to abandon the long-stalled CityPlace Burlington project, prompting the city to threaten the international company with legal action for repeatedly failing to make good on its promises to redevelop the downtown plot.

In announcing the news on Wednesday, Mayor Miro Weinberger told reporters that the city had sent Brookfield a notice of default outlining various breaches of an agreement to develop the site. He said he'll give Brookfield, the majority owner of the site, "a short window of time" to prove it's committed to the project before the city files suit.

"Brookfield should keep its commitment to the people of Burlington and see the project through to completion, as it has repeatedly promised," the mayor said during the Zoom press conference. "If not, the city will do everything in our power to see that Brookfield suffers consequences for this breach."

The city sent the default letter on Saturday after learning late last week that Brookfield, in an effort to settle a partnership dispute with project minority owner Don Sinex, would be walking away from the project. Brookfield indicated that Sinex's firm, Devonwood Investors, would take over.

"It appears to the City that Brookfield has been contemplating this action
for some time, and that its earlier assurances and reassurances were knowingly false when made and designed to induce the City's continued support of the Project," the city's default letter reads.

The 90-degree heat didn’t stop more than 100 volunteers from painting the words "Black Lives Matter" along Burlington's Main Street on Sunday. Clad in masks and armed with rollers, they spread traffic-cone-orange paint in a message for racial justice in front of courthouses and alongside city hall.

“I think it’s important to show the support and to show the allies that we have in the community,” said Adam Carnes. He and Tia Marosy brought their young son, Felix, to the event. They moved to Burlington from Brooklyn two years ago. Being Black in Vermont, Carnes said, can be isolating.

“I feel like taking [Felix] to stuff like this is really important to see that you might find your community and feel like you’re at home here,” Marosy said. “I also hope that it’s not just a show. I hope there’s actually some substance behind it.”
The Burlington City Council voted unanimously in favor of the street painting in a July 13 meeting. The resolution, drafted by Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6), Councilor Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1) and city racial equity director Tyeastia Green, says the mural will be maintained through October 2023.

Volunteers stood in lines at the end of Church Street awaiting name tags and painting assignments that routed them to an assigned letter, already outlined on the roadway. Organizers poured paint and guided them in filling in the letters. Drummers from Jeh Kulu Dance and Drum Theater kept the mood lively.

Elijah Hines awaited his turn to paint with Piper Turosak. Hines recalled some of his own experiences as a Black man living in South Burlington. His brother, Isaiah, led a push as a student at South Burlington High School to change its mascot from the Rebels. Isaiah was harassed for his advocacy, and a South Burlington man was convicted of a misdemeanor stalking charge against him.
“We have both faced a lot of racist name-calling,” Elijah said. “There’s been a lot of shit that’s gone down, and our family hasn’t been protected in the same way that a white family most likely would have.”

But Elijah said events such as this could engage the wider community in conversations about race. “There’ve been things that have kind of made me ashamed to live in Burlington, and live in Vermont, and this is one of the things that helps to change that,” Hines said. 
Turosak agreed and said art can be powerful by starting conversations and reminding people of the racial justice work still to be done in Vermont.

“I’m an art student myself, and I’ve done murals and posters, and it genuinely changes people’s minds,” Turosak said. “Public art — it’s the most impactful thing, because it’s there for everybody to see and it evokes an emotional response.”

The City of Montpelier took similar action in June. The Black Lives Matter sign painted on State Street was almost immediately defaced with dirt, oil and graffiti. A muralist for the nonprofit Arts So Wonderful, Jamie Bedard, told Seven Days that her own Black Lives Matter mural, on Burlington’s old YMCA building, was also targeted with graffiti. In both cases, the artwork was quickly restored.

Mayor Miro Weinberger, who took a turn with a roller, said that the city will take a “hardline” approach to any vandalism, prosecuting anyone who tries to deface the Main Street mural. Weinberger said he views the painting as a reminder of the city’s commitment to racial justice, which he said was solidified by the recent declaration of racism as a public health emergency.

“This is something that is symbolism of the work we’ve started together as a community and we intend to do,” Weinberger said. “I hope it’s a reminder to everyone that’s committed to that work.”

Standing near the newly raised Black Lives Matter flag, the mayor said the city and its partners — which include the Howard Center, Burlington Housing Authority, Champlain College and more — have committed to root out racist practices in their organizations.

"We have with us the broad array of stakeholders necessary to take on the massive challenge of eradicating systemic racism and the profound health disparities that racism creates," Weinberger said. "This work will be difficult and will need sustained focus and energy from our full community to meet the aspiration of being better anti-racist organizations."

The City of Burlington is applying for a $1.3 million grant to use 20 shipping containers as a 47-bed, low-barrier shelter on Sears Lane, the site of an existing homeless campground.

More than 50 people gathered at Lakeside Park in the city's South End on Wednesday evening to hear about the plan. The new homeless shelter would take the place of the seasonal low-barrier shelter currently on South Winooski Avenue.

Built by South Burlington startup Beta Technologies, the shipping containers would be converted into micro sleeping units and outfitted with running water, electricity, heat and air conditioning. The facility would be managed by ANEW Place, a homeless organization that operated the low-barrier shelter last winter and the temporary shelter at Burlington's North Beach during the height of the coronavirus pandemic.

"It's kind of outside the box," ANEW Place executive director Kevin Pounds said. "Basically, like taking the tiny home concept and applying it to a homeless shelter."

Volunteers can help paint a "Black Lives Matter" mural on Burlington's Main Street this Sunday, July 19, after the city council voted unanimously on Monday to allow the project to go forward.

Introduced by Councilor Karen Paul (D-Ward 6), the resolution says the artwork will likely be painted on Main Street between South Winooski Avenue and Church Street. Volunteers and the city's Department of Public Works will maintain the mural through October 2023, "at which point the City Council will determine next steps," according to the resolution.

The painting event, which is open to all, is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. on Sunday.

Paul said the project will show that Burlingtonians "are no longer bystanders in a crisis that we can actually solve." Councilor Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1) and Tyeastia Green, the city's racial equity director, both helped write the resolution, Paul said.

Less than two hours before the new fiscal year was set to begin, the Burlington City Council approved a $78 million general fund budget that allocates $1.25 million toward racial justice and police reform initiatives.

Fueled by recent community pushback on police spending, the council debated the budget for more than five hours Tuesday as the July 1 deadline drew closer. A majority eventually approved the spending measure by a 9-3 tally, with councilors Jack Hanson (P-East District), Perri Freeman (P-Central District) and Jane Stromberg (P-Ward 8) voting no.

"In a time of a pandemic, to be able to pass a budget that has no layoffs, no furloughs of permanent employees and no tax increase, and largely keeps intact most of the city services is actually pretty remarkable," Councilor Brian Pine (P-Ward 3) said. "I think it's really important for us to ... put aside our own personal issues or grievances we may have and look at what in totality is being accomplished here."

Councilors traded barbs during Tuesday's debate, with some accusing others of being unprepared and of micromanaging the budget process. Councilor Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1) called many of the exchanges "petty."

Before the roll call, Mayor Miro Weinberger chided the councilors who had announced they'd vote against the spending plan.

"A no vote is a vote for government shutdown," the mayor said. "A no vote is a vote to put everybody out of work tomorrow."

The budget vote came less than 24 hours after a bipartisan council majority voted to reduce through attrition the police force to 74 sworn officers, a 30 percent cut from the Burlington Police Department's maximum roster of 105. There are currently 90 cops on the force.

The Burlington City Council voted early on Tuesday to reduce the police force through attrition to 74 sworn officers and reallocate the money for those positions to programs that support people of color.

The resolution, which also includes a wide range of police reforms, was sponsored by nine councilors, all of whom voted to approve it; only councilors Ali Dieng (I-Ward 7), Chip Mason (D-Ward 5) and Joan Shannon (D-South District) voted no.

It's unclear what impact, if any, the resolution will have on the budget for the next fiscal year, which begins Wednesday. During a Board of Finance meeting on Monday, Mayor Miro Weinberger said the city doesn't know when officers will leave or retire, which makes it difficult to calculate how much the police budget would be reduced in the next year.

"It is possible there will be savings beyond the cuts already assumed in the budget, but I don't believe those cuts are bankable as of tonight," he said.


The vote is the culmination of weeks of activism calling for police reform. Hundreds of people had called in to recent public meetings to demand that the city cut police spending in favor of social services. The Burlington protests and speak-outs were sparked by the death of George Floyd — a Black man who was killed by Minneapolis police in May — and by Queen City cops' own violent interactions with young Black men.
Introduced by Councilor Zoraya Hightower (P-Ward 1), the resolution was driven by the advocacy of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, a group led by people of color who have demanded that the city cut the department's maximum police force by about 30 percent, or about 30 officers. The alliance had asked for an immediate cut, whereas the resolution passed early Tuesday achieves the goal over time.

"The past few weeks have reminded, or in some cases taught us, to reexamine our own biases and privilege and be as brave as this moment calls for," Hightower said. "The resolution has flaws — one of them being that we are still overfocused on police reform rather than holistically addressing systemic racism ... but I think we have a solid plan for moving forward."

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