Burlington officials are installing a mobile surveillance camera, playing ambient music and scheduling coordinated cleanups at City Hall Park in an effort to curb illegal activity in the downtown green space — and make it more welcoming for all.
The state of the park, where homeless people often congregate and use drugs, has been a focal point of the debate around housing and public safety. The city council is expected on Monday to revisit a “Burlington Forward” resolution that outlined suggestions for cracking down on bad behavior in public spaces.
The new changes to City Hall Park appear intended to do just that. It’s the goal of a city “hot spot” program recently restarted under the leadership of Fletcher Free Library director Mary Danko. She’s taken lessons learned from a troubling stretch at the library in 2024. Things improved after the library brought in a security guard and Howard Center social worker.
“We’re trying all different kinds of things,” Danko said. “We’re trying to be flexible and see what works, what we can elevate and what we can let go of.”
Two portable toilets, to replace a permanent one undergoing repairs, have been installed in the park. And several parking spots along College Street have been blocked off to “hopefully slow down or decrease drug related sales and activity,” Burlington City Councilor Laura Sanchez-Parkinson (P-Ward 3) wrote in a text message to Seven Days.
Sanchez-Parkinson explained more of the changes in a statement she published on Front Porch Forum. The city’s public works and parks departments will coordinate cleanings of the College Street sidewalk, which fills each day with people and piles of belongings. Any makeshift campsites will be cleared out “in accordance with city policies and applicable legal requirements,” Sanchez-Parkinson wrote. That section of the park has also been the site of a daily free food service provided by mutual aid group Food Not Cops, which was pushed out of a city-owned parking garage last year.
A new mobile, 360-degree security camera will be installed in the park within the next few weeks. The camera is made by LiveView Technologies and is not equipped with artificial intelligence-powered technology such as that used by the controversial Flock cameras, according to Sanchez-Parkinson.
The camera is meant to “provide an added sense of security for those who spend significant time in the park and additional situational awareness for [the Burlington Police Department] when incidents occur,” Sanchez-Parkinson wrote.
Burlington City Arts will also begin playing ambient music in the park. The org’s festival and events director, Zach Williamson, will be in charge of programming. The intent is to emphasize a peaceful mood within the park while maintaining some quiet spots, Danko said — not push homeless people out. In Montpelier, Gov. Phil Scott’s administration recently installed bird-noise devices at the Pavilion Building amid concerns that homeless people were congregating and sleeping on the porch there after business hours.
Danko said she was inspired by a similar music program at the Wild Center, a natural history museum in the Adirondacks, and musician Brian Eno’s compositions for airports.
She emphasized that unattended belongings in the park will be treated with care. City rules require officials to store belongings for a certain period before disposing of them.
“We’re equitable about this throughout the city in how we deal with those things that either are seemingly abandoned or in the right of way,” Danko said.
The Burlington Police Department has also turned its attention to the park. Officers arrested 11 people there over the past month for various low-level drug crimes.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
