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by John Klar
A controversial Burlington, Vermont, food distribution center run by self-avowed Marxist anarchists is set to be relocated due to business complaints of increasing crime and declining commerce. The City Council voted to relocate the free meal facility, sparking outrage and pushback from the same progressive voices that have been criticized for their role in the destruction of Burlington. Tuesday, Progressive Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak averted further controversy with a resolution to contribute $10,000 toward a site relocation.
Progressive Petri Dish Gone Foul
As Vermont’s progressive mecca and largest city, Burlington has long declared itself a sanctuary city for illegals. It permits voting for thousands of non-citizens, drastically chopped its police in the post-Floyd defund the police fiasco, embraces soft prosecutors and decriminalization, calls Vermont police racist using skewed statistics, permits public nudity and “safe” injection sites, and is currently trying to ban private citizens from bearing arms in city limits.
The consequences of this progressive extravaganza of lawlessness are increasingly evident. Burlington crime (including gang violence), homelessness, drug use, and graffiti have all skyrocketed. Some business owners claim that customer traffic has dropped by 40 percent, prompting closures.
Over 100 city businesses submitted a May 9 letter to the Burlington City Council in a desperate petition for relief. The letter cited problems including needles strewn widely, college students avoiding the city, elementary and high school student safety, a growing public perception that the city is unsafe, business closures, rampant graffiti, and lack of employee safety (“particularly young women and students”). The letter begged the city to help reverse the scourge its progressive policies have sown:
We have reached a critical point where we must voice a serious alarm: our downtown is facing a crisis …. Businesses are closing their doors, valued long-term employees are leaving, and residents are increasingly choosing to avoid the downtown area. Those of us who remain feel neglected and increasingly unsafe.
Downtown businesses continue to shoulder the burden of managing overdoses, confronting shoplifting, and responding to mental health crises without adequate support. This is not our role — we need trained professionals and a responsive system in place. The administration must address the lack of meaningful consequences for repeat offenders, which has led to emboldened behavior and a troubling escalation in both frequency and severity.
Crime Spigot Relocation
As part of the requested solution, businesses requested that a free lunch program called “Food Not Cops” be relocated:
The free lunch program operating out of our main parking garage has had a negative impact on the area. Some attendees have repeatedly stolen from businesses or caused harm. We respectfully ask that this program be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting — not eliminated.
Burlington’s City Council subsequently voted to compel Food Not Cops to relocate by July 14th, supported with city funds. Progressives launched a public outcry on behalf of the non-taxpaying, cop-hating, Food Not Cops:
On Monday, nearly 100 supporters of Food Not Cops gathered in City Hall Park to protest the proposal and serve a free meal. Organizers led chants and waved signs, prompting honks from passing cars and cheers from the crowd.
“Who keeps us safe? Who keeps us fed?” they yelled. “Food Not Cops! Food Not Cops!”
Ignorance Is Bliss?
The putative leader of the resistance to relocate the free food facility is a University of Vermont professor named Sam Bliss, who claimed, “the service actually makes Burlington safer because fed people are better behaved than those who are hungry.” Bliss, a transplant from Seattle, went further, stating: “I’ve done bad things, we all have. And [businesses] are also concerned about f—–g shoplifting, and first of all, what I’m going to say there is, everybody f—–g shoplifts!” (RELATED: Tesla Terror Attacks Show Americans Aren’t Buying the Left’s Fake ‘Grassroots’ Game Anymore)
In an editorial attacking Burlington businesses striving to survive, Bliss wrote:
Last September, the City of Burlington started paying $1,500 every week to station a rent-a-sheriff in the garage on weekdays from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., a shift that is centered on our hour-long pop-up buffet. Friends now tell me they avoid Food Not Cops, and the assistance on offer, because of the sheriff’s presence. You wouldn’t want to hang out next to a sheriff, either, if you were homeless.
So, why are local business owners blaming us for their downtown woes?
In response to the meager protest, Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak called for the City Council to reconsider the proposed relocation, and “criticized the resolution’s ‘polarizing’ effect.” This prompted pushback by Burlington’s City Council President, Democrat Ben Traverse, who accused the Mayor of “unnecessarily divisive” rhetoric. Council members reemphasized that over 150 businesses, residents, and visitors have demanded action. (RELATED: The Democrats Have Normalized Political Violence)
Similar progressive experiments across America have destroyed businesses and hollowed out once safe, vibrant cities. It is unclear where Food Not Cops will move to, but progressive policies that feed homelessness, violence, and drug addiction appear destined to remain in Vermont’s once-lovely Burlington.
The author is a Brookfield best-selling author, lawyer, farmer and pastor.
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Categories: Burlington, Commentary
It’s hard to understand how Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanek thought this would land well with the public. A $10,000 donation of taxpayer dollars to a controversial group called “Food Not Cops”? At best, it’s tone-deaf. At worst, it’s a political stunt that alienates business owners who signed the petition letter and those who believe in real equity — not just performative gestures.
If this administration were truly committed to balance and inclusion, perhaps the Mayor might have considered a matching donation to the police union or another group committed to public safety. That would send a message of unity, not division.
But what really makes this hard to swallow is the context: just weeks after the Mayor greenlights an $16,000 raise for her wife, Megan Moir, as head of the water department, she asks city employees to give up their cost-of-living increases due to an egregious budget shortfall. And that same shortfall is now being used as the excuse to delay hiring two much-needed police officers — directly impacting public safety.
Residents deserve transparency, fairness, and leadership that reflects all of Burlington — not selective generosity and backroom favoritism.
This isn’t just bad optics — it’s a glaring example of priorities gone wrong. From budget holes to selective raises to politically charged donations and a willingness to sacrifice public safety, this administration has shown itself to be out of touch, unserious, and alarmingly incompetent. At this point, the only thing being equitably distributed in Burlington is frustration.
UVM missed a real opportunity here by not elevating this professor to university president or at least provost, to enhance their marxist credentials. I wonder why he left Seattle? Did the fruits of his twisted ideology become too much to bear or did he just want to spread the misery? His promotion of alternative food sources is commendable, especially in pushing gardening, but putting a shine on the consumption of roadkill and dumpter diving is a tougher sell. He has to realize that urban food giveaway programs do attract negative elements and accept the idea of a relocation. City Hall Park or City Hall itself seems to be the place to host it as it already has the street people population hanging out there. Hosting that program in the parking garage was never a good idea other than it being out of the rain. It has resulted in many potential shopping and dining patrons refusing to use that garage for it’s intended purpose. Since the city of Burlington is offering to kick in some relocation money, they are already invested, so go the extra mile and offer up the basement of city hall or put up a tent or shelter in the park.
Incivility is a path toward anarchy.
Leave it to the churches, “Marxist anarchists”
This group, food not cops, is supported by a New Hampshire based Inc. look at their website – then follow the parent company thru Bizapedia. What does it mean – .. IDK but it looks to me that it is not a grassroots Vermont based operation
For $10,000 a lot of relief might have gone to people in real need.