Church Street fixture Lippa’s moving to Colchester

By Ted Cohen 

A day after the mayor of Vermont’s largest city held a press conference in which she proclaimed “Burlington is back,” a local videographer featured footage of an apparent daytime drug overdose in the park behind City Hall. 

The video, shot on Saturday, June 20 by Todd DeLuca on his ‘Beautiful Scenic Burlington’ Facebook page,shows EMTs responding to an overdose victim, who later stands up and walks off with assistance.

Independent journalist Aryeh Moscowitz, who likeDeLuca has been trespasssed from City Hall, commented on the Facebook page video: “Beyond sad. This is what our progressive politicians have allowed our once beautiful city to become.”

First-term Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak at a Monday, June 22 Church Street press conferences cited economic and public safety improvements during her tenure. “Over the last several months, I’ve heard it from residents, business owners, and visitors alike,” said Mulvaney-Stanak. “There is a growing sense that Burlington is turning a corner. The energy is back. Confidence is returning. This city is moving forward.”

The very same day, the oldest downtown jewelry store announced it was picking up stakes and moving to Colchester.

Aggressive panhandling and open drug use have deterred tourists as well as local shoppers, who told Lippa’s Jewelry owner Michael Berger that they are literally afraid of coming downtown.

“I hear that all the time,” Berger, whose business is leaving the city after 93 years, told Seven Days newspaper.

“People are feeling the energy downtown again,” the mayor said. “That energy matters – not just for our businesses, but for our sense of community.”

While the mayor was joined by downtown business leaders at her press conference, some skeptics clearly aren’t buying Mulvaney-Stanak’s statements.

“Rose-colored glasses,” remarked Craig Ladabouche on Facebook.

“The old Burlington is gone,” said longtime native Andrew J. Beasette.

Even Building Burlington’s Future, a nonprofit formed to sell dimpled cheeks, stopped short of claiming victory over crime and drugs.

“It’s not going to sustain itself, and it’s going to take a community-wide effort to keep that momentum going,” said the group’s Sam Donnelly.

It wasn’t exactly clear what momentum Donnelly was talking about. Almost as he spoke, the Burlington Free Press published news about vagrants sifting through items in wheelbarrows and tarp-covered piles in City Hall park.

“One person sat on a bench nearly concealed, their head between handles of a walker,” the paper’s Corey Atwood wrote. “Nearby, sleeping bags lay along walls and in crevices.”

After the mayor said “the city is back,” Gene Ral Patton facetiously commented online, “I thought she said crack.”

“She stands on the corner with her eyes closed,” a commenter posted on Facebook.

“Back … to unfinished projects with ballooning budgets?” asked another commenter. “Back to empty storefronts and weekly store closing announcements? Back to uncontrolled homelessness and public drug use?  If that’s the case then Burlington is back baby!”

The author is a Burlington native and resident, and a lifelong journalist who contributes to the Maine Wire, VDC, and the Burlington Daily News and other publications.