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Central District Progressive Perri Freeman Discusses Campaign For Burlington City Council

Perri Freeman
perriforcitycouncil/Facebook
Perri Freeman

Town Meeting Day is coming up soon in Vermont, and it will mean changes for the Burlington City Council. During the January 6th Burlington Progressive caucus, candidates were chosen to run in the four ward races.  For 19 years incumbent, Jane Knodell has been the Central District’s Progressive city councilor.  But at the caucus, party members opted to instead endorse Perri Freeman on an 85 to 55 vote. Freeman tells WAMC’s North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley her grassroots environmental and labor rights organizing would cross over to work on the city council.“I want to bring a sense of urgency to act on climate policy right here locally. And beyond that you know I just really have some concerns about how the city is managing its public space and city assets. We need fair development that benefits everyday residents and not just a handful of developers. And so I’m very opposed to the privatization as well as city departments and public utilities. And think this is really where the rubber meets the road because you know as a community we need to support working people and working families. You know as a city when we’re damaging the environment or making bad deals with developers or selling off city assets or doing nothing to really truly regulate an out of control rental market that’s just not sustainable for the majority of residents who live and work here every day. And so you know just have been really wanting to use that lens and the grassroots organizing that I’ve been doing and the community work to bring those values and those priorities to the council and to local policy.”

Burlington Central District Progressive candidate Perri Freeman faces Independent incumbent Jane Knodell and Democrat Jared Carter in the Town Meeting Day vote March 5th. Interviews with other city council candidates are at wamc.org.
 

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