The city of Burlington, Vermont is dealing with a number of issues from crime to redistricting to redevelopment.
This week the city council approved new agreements allowing CityPlace, a long-delayed downtown development, to move forward. Immediately after the meeting Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger spoke with WAMC North Country Bureau Chief Pat Bradley about the significance of the new development agreement.
This is a public-private partnership that involves the creation primarily of new shops and hundreds of new homes, but also involves the creation of new public infrastructure, reconnection of streets. You know, this is the rebuilding of an entire city block. And ultimately something in the neighborhood of $200 million is going to be invested in the city to make this all happen in three different buildings plus this parking garage. CityPlace Partners can now move forward and the value of the property will begin to rise again. We are guaranteed through this agreement to get the reconnected streets. For the first time in 60 years, since urban renewal, Pine Street and St. Paul Street will be connected once again. That is guaranteed by this agreement. It's been a long wait since construction stopped in 2018. It was not supposed to happen that way. And frankly, I think something that people don't fully understand about what happened is that was a failure on the part of the past developer, that a commitment to the city to continue construction and we had an agreement in place, like this one that was approved tonight, that said there would be consequences if the developer stopped moving forward. And that's why we in 2020, when Brookfield backed out of the project, that's why we had the ability to successfully sue the developers and essentially get new concessions and commitments out of the then owners. The city now owns the land for these new streets to be built and has these guarantees that are in place. Yeah, I mean, I would not say, I certainly don't feel like we have reached the end zone, if you will. But this is an important moment tonight and I think it's going to be even more exciting to see work start to happen on the site in the weeks ahead.
The CityPlace is not the only issue downtown. You've had a lot of crime occurring downtown, made some progress with arrests, but there still seems to be recurring crime. Do you feel like you're taking one step forward, two steps back? I mean, what's the situation going on with making progress there?
So you know like just about every city in the country we faced an increase in crime since the pandemic. This is a national phenomenon. We have certainly some unique aspects of it here. We all know that there was a big debate over policing that I think did make our challenges even bigger here. That said, I do think we are making progress. There have been now arrests in all of the homicides that have taken place this year. In eight of the 13 shootings this year that have resulted in injuries or homicides, the shooters have now been arrested. This group of individuals that was been repeatedly involved in these interactions that really seem to be one of the main drivers of this big spike in gun violence, many of the most aggressive members of that group are now off the streets. They've been arrested. And we have not had another kind of retaliatory event within this group for over two months now. Certainly, that's not long enough. But we are hopeful we've made some real progress there. With respect to the kind of broader issues of public safety and property crime we’re facing, it is challenging, frustrating. What we're facing now we're working on it on a whole number of areas from both the enforcement to additional drug treatment and other services. The creation of the these new pods, the new Elmwood Avenue shelters I do think is going to help the overall situation.
Going beyond the downtown area to encompass the entire city. The city is working on redistricting. They were talking about the potential of either seven wards or eight ward districts. You have to sign off on whatever comes up. What would you prefer in the city?
You know I'm open, Pat, to a really a variety of maps, almost all the maps that have been talked about one way or another I'd be fine with. When I was first elected we had seven wards, 14 counselors and if we wanted to go back to that system I wouldn't stand in the way of that. I thought that was unlikely because the way this city has grown and evolved there's no way to do a seven ward map without kind of combining the Old North End and the New North End and there's been a lot of discomfort with that for years. So I think an eight ward map is the most likely map to come forward and I am hopeful that we're getting towards the end of that process and the final boundaries are being drawn and that there will be a map before voters to vote on by Town Meeting Day.
One other thing I saw in a recent city council meeting was a Railyard Enterprise Project. But from what I saw in the presentation, it doesn't really redo a rail yard?
So, Railyard Enterprise Project, yes, is the name of this project that we've been working on for years. And you're right it doesn't, it's not directly about the rail yard. It does, it would be a new road that for most of the length a new road would be adjacent to the rail yard. I think that's how we came up with that that title. We needed a different title than the Champlain Parkway because some of the concepts in this project were initially part of that. But these are now separate federal projects. And the big thing about for the public know about this project is it would connect Pine Street and Battery Street. That's what the purpose and need of this project is. And in doing that, it would address some of the concerns that have been raised that the Champlain Parkway will change the way in which traffic circulates in that part of town. And there's been concern that there could be some negative impacts on a couple of neighborhoods in the King Street and the Pine Street, King and Maple Street neighborhoods. And this would result in a lot of the traffic going around those neighborhoods and not having the same kind of impact. So it's a major priority. And you know, the Council recently approved going to the next stages. That's a big, complicated hard project as well. Hopefully it won't take 34 years like the Champlain Parkway, but it is one that is requiring extended work. There'll be updates coming soon.
And Election Day is coming up but there's also a special election coming up in December.
That's right.
Is there early voting on that or do people have to go to the polls on that special election date?
No. The ballots have been set for that. There are three candidates that are on the ballot and voters will be mailed a ballot if you are a regular voter.
Is there any overlap between the special election early ballots and the general election?
There's overlap in terms of days, certainly, but it's a different election, different pieces of paper that you fill out to vote, you know, and there's a lot of focus on this special election. It's important city council seats. So I'm pretty hopeful the voters are pretty clear on what's before them.
And just so the voters know because of the timeframe of when he quit you couldn't put the special election on the same day as the general election.
Yeah, that's a great point Pat. That's exactly right. The current special election is for the East District seat which was held by Jack Hanson for last three plus years. And yes his resignation took place later than it was possible for us to put this special election on the same day and on the same ballot as the general election that's taking place on November 8. The other special election for the Ward 8 seat that is currently vacant, that election will be on Town Meeting Day and will be coordinated.
Miro Weinberger is a Democrat serving his fourth term as mayor of Burlington.
