Campaign signs in Burlington With just four weeks until the election, Tracy would typically be upping his ground game about now. He d be packing his Surly bicycle with lawn signs and flyers and hitting the city streets to drum up votes. In each of his other campaigns, meeting people has been his favorite part, he said. But the pandemic has forced him to campaign differently. Instead of house parties, Tracy has hosted online listening sessions with business owners and residents. Every mayoral debate is virtual, and dropping off campaign literature is a much less personal affair. Many residents will avail themselves of the mail-in ballots the city will provide to every registered, active voter.
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The Burlington, Vermont City Council met this week and delayed action on one item regarding police department restructuring and voted down another related item.
Last June the Burlington City Council passed a resolution requiring the city police department reduce staffing levels 30% through attrition and set a maximum staffing level of 74 uniformed officers. The acting police chief and the union representing police officers have been telling the community that when the staff reaches 76 sworn officers the department will be unable to cover the midnight shift. They warn that between 3 and 7:30 in the morning they will only be able to respond to the most violent calls.
Tiki Archambeau Tiki Archambeau was working from home last June when a man having a mental health crisis wandered into his driveway in Burlington s Old North End. Archambeau called the police, who arrived quickly and helped peacefully resolve the situation. That evening, Archambeau used Front Porch Forum to thank the officers for their work. He didn t expect the backlash that came next. A neighbor charged that Archambeau s words of gratitude were tone-deaf amid a nationwide reckoning over policing. The person accused Archambeau of diminishing the racial justice efforts in Burlington, where activists had demanded cuts to the police force a call the six Progressive members of the city council had embraced.
Black With a Capital B Why do you capitalize Black when you refer to Black people, but not white when you refer to white people? Is this something new? I notice Bob Woodward did the same thing in his most recent book,
Rage. I really don t get it. Eric Johnson Editor s note:
Seven Days began capitalizing Black when it refers to racial, cultural and ethnic identity last June, shortly before the Associated Press Stylebook formalized the same recommendation, stating that doing so conveys an essential and shared sense of history, identity and community among people who identify as Black . The lowercase black is a color, not a person. Why treat white differently? As the AP writes, White people generally do not share the same history of culture, or the experience of being discriminated against because of skin color. Additionally, Capitalizing the term white, as is done by white supremacists, risks subtly conveying legitimacy to s
The planned corner of Bank and St. Paul streets For years, Burlington residents have been pushing the city to make progress on two important goals: improved walkability, which will reduce its carbon footprint; and a healthy mix of locally owned businesses, to serve not just tourists but the people who actually live downtown. The new CityPlace Burlington project has the potential to solve both problems, according to University of Vermont economics professor Jane Knodell, a former Burlington city councilor. In the decades she served the city, Knodell says she heard from many Burlingtonians who wanted to see more stores selling the daily essentials of life. And she listened to shop owners complain about sporadic foot traffic heavy in the summer and fall, and on snowy winter weekends, but too light the rest of the time.