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by Guy Page
A downtown business owner is sounding the alarm about what she describes as a steep decline in Burlington’s business climate, urging city leaders to act swiftly to address public safety and livability concerns.
In a letter presented Monday, August 25 to Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and the Burlington City Council, Mimi Buttenheim, president of Mad River Distillers, said her business has seen revenue drop by 50% since the start of 2025.
The letter was part of a longer discussion held by the community, the mayor and the City Council Monday night about a plan to tighten security and public safety in City Hall Park, in light of both ongoing violence and public disorder and homelessness, and the recent nearby beating death of a man by three juveniles.
“This is not due to market trends, weather, or competition,” Buttenheim wrote. “It is due to the declining business environment in downtown Burlington.”
Buttenheim, whose company operates a tasting room and retail store at 137 St. Paul Street, said longtime customers are avoiding the area and tourists are increasingly unsettled by visible drug use, loitering, and disorder in City Hall Park.
“What would previously have been a day that easily would have seen 75-100 customers visit our tasting room capped out at 16,” she said of a recent Saturday in August. “Our neighbors reported the same disappointing results.”
The letter describes an atmosphere of declining safety for employees and patrons alike. Buttenheim said she has lost three long-term employees in the past six months, each citing the environment around City Hall Park as a reason for leaving.
She criticized the city for prioritizing “task forces, studies, or theoretical five-year plans” instead of immediate interventions.
“This is a business crisis, and it requires urgent action,” she wrote. “Our downtown core cannot sustain itself if the message it sends to visitors and residents alike is: ‘You’re not welcome here, you’re not safe here, and we don’t care.’”
Buttenheim argued that Burlington must balance compassion for vulnerable populations with policies that ensure the city’s downtown remains welcoming for tourists and residents. She questioned why City Hall Park has become “the epicenter of this crisis” and called for support services to be moved elsewhere in the city.
“The police know them by name, the workers know them by sight,” she wrote of individuals struggling with homelessness and addiction. “Why are they allowed to continue to hold an entire city for ransom?”
The letter concludes with a stark warning: if Burlington fails to act, the city risks losing its reputation as a cultural and economic hub.
“Burlington is at the precipice of losing its reputation as a livable, welcoming, and economically vibrant city,” Buttenheim wrote. “It will not come back easily. Or possibly, at all.”
Cover photo screenshot of Burlington street scene from Wayne Savage Facebook video
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Categories: Burlington
Compare the reports of the Washington, DC turn-around in a mere week with concerted effort to address these same issues. Do the people of Burlington have the will to convince their government leaders to take action or elect a new government?
Demo-Progs are scared to death of a DC crime reduction success story, and are using their media partners to counter it. To a democrat, crime reduction equals fascism, authoritarianism and, of course, RACISM.
Headline fixed:
Progressivism holding Burlington for ransom, Society must act, cultural-Marxism ideology says
Maybe the business owners in Burlington should get together and sue the City to motivate them.
The smart ones have realized the inevitable dystopia of Progressive governance and moved to South Burlington, Essex, Colchester, Shelburne…where the vagrancy and crime are slightly lower…
“The city risks losing its reputation as a cultural and economic hub.”… that’s being optimistic, since most people i talk to think that ship has already sailed. WCAX did a story about the latest City Council “resolution” meant to specifically address problems associated with City Hall Park…the epicenter of the deterioration. Apparently the letter by business owners to Mayor Emma-Hyphen from a couple of months ago fell on deaf Progressive ears. There were 2 Progressive counselors who couldn’t even go along with the latest proposal for simple law and order in the park. They are demanding that the city first do more for those with mental issues and provide more shelter beds, before addressing the actual lawless behavior. “Root causes” are a real sticking point for Progressives in Burlington, who fail to grasp the sometimes-sad realities of human nature. The root causes at play here are the massive influx of federal COVID cash (that has since ceased to flow) and the post-George Floyd “defund and disrespect” the police movement. Those factors combined by Burlington Progressives to create a welcoming haven for lawless street people from all over the country, as the word got out about Vermont’s free motel rooms and Burlington’s tolerance for tent sites on public land with lake views. Progressives need to realize that businesses and tourism are the only substantial golden goose left to fund their rainbow and unicorn utopia. Even Bernie Sanders, the founding father of their progressive garden of Eden managed to keep the general lawlessness to a tolerable level. The voting majority who put that radical City Council in place is no longer made up of decent, productive citizens and what they voted for they are getting good and hard. What a shame.
This is the absolute best and most truthful reply! There is no one or nothing to blame other than covid money and defunding the police. It’s simple. My 13 year old even knows this – he concluded it on his own. He has been going downtown with me his whole life. I never spoke about what we saw – he saw it on his own, he watched a drug deal in front of our car at the skate park, he asked why people were camping at Battery Park back in 2020 (defund police “protest”), he says he has “weird vibes” when we go downtown and he instinctively carries a pocket knife with him when we go downtown to support local businesses…this is not hard to figure out. My child is also not in the public indoctrination system, so that, apparently has been very beneficial in his ability to think critically. Enough is enough.
Perhaps the mayor would have been more receptive if you had brought her a casserole.
WESTWARD HO!
Those were the days my friend!!
This article from the Burlington Daily News re crime in the Queen City reinforces Guy’s commentary. Read the comments by the fed up citizens and business owners. Mayor Stanak is reaping her own whirlwind…
https://burlingtondailynews.net/2025/08/27/inaction-is-not-compassion-12-public-comments-from-burlington-every-community-should-heed/