Letters to the Editor (5/15/24)

Inflation Figures

I found [“‘We’re Leaving’: Winooski’s Bargain Real Estate Attracted a Diverse Group of Residents for Years. Now They’re Being Squeezed Out,” May 8] to be well written and in-depth. However, the one thing you did not cover was the impact of inflation on this housing crisis. Although the housing crisis existed long before this inflationary cycle, landlords still have to set prices in an uncertain economy.

This is where a proactive municipal government can offer price discovery guidance by publishing the prior year’s tax return rates of change. That way, landlords don’t have to do arbitrary price discovery. Governments have the data; they should package it so that it is useful to the residents they serve. A rebate for low-income renters is the carrot. The stick would be a tax on rate increases of landlords.

Winooski is a gem, and its diversity should be preserved. Governments need to learn that in an inflationary economic cycle, they hold the most prescient data. As institutions, they need to function with evolutionary tactics — not rigid principles.

Tracey McCowen

Colchester

A Lesson on Civil Disobedience

[Re “UVM, Middlebury College Students Set Up Encampments to Protest War in Gaza,” April 28, online; “UVM Cancels Commencement Speaker Amid Pro-Palestinian Protest,” May 3, online; “Pro-Palestinian Encampment at UVM Has Disbanded After 10 Days,” May 8, online]: The encampments on college campuses and, in particular, the arrests at Dartmouth College have caused me to reflect on civil disobedience. I was involved in both the Civil Rights Movement and the anti-war movement in the 1960s and early ’70s and took part in civil disobedience actions in both, including being arrested in Hanover, N.H., some 52 years ago.

While it is imperative to speak, act and live lives that address the profound problems in our world, it is also important to recognize that civil disobedience as a tool can easily damage one’s cause if not properly used. There are those who eagerly focus attention on the protest itself rather than the issue and try to spin things for their own political advantage. Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. recognized this, and those engaged in their civil disobedience campaigns were trained to accept beatings and arrests without fighting back. They were willing to go to jail for the cause. Actions were taken strategically, and people were reminded to “keep your eye on the prize.” Both campaigns, albeit with a great deal of sacrifice, were ultimately successful.

There is a natural revulsion against deliberate law breaking — and violence in particular. There are those on both the right and left who would make excuses for unacceptable actions such as attacking police officers, storming the Capitol, destruction of property and endangering others. These actions have to be vigorously opposed no matter how passionate one feels. At the same time, those who engage in civil disobedience need to be extremely careful in how they proceed, keep the focus on the issue and be willing to accept the consequences lest the message they wish to send not only gets lost but becomes counterproductive to all they wish to achieve.

John Freitag

South Strafford

‘Jay Wahl Has to Go’

Whatever Flynn executive director Jay Wahl may say, several facts stand out about this year’s Burlington Discover Jazz Festival [“Adi Oasis and the Flynn Announce the 2024 Burlington Discover Jazz Festival Lineup,” May 3]. The lineup is completely devoid of jazz elders of the stature of past artists such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock and Dizzy Gillespie, and brilliant younger festival alumni like Dezron Douglas, Dianne Reeves and Luis Perdomo. Cécile McLorin Salvant is certainly a major figure in today’s music. But having looked at Adi Oasis’ Facebook page, I struggle to understand what qualifications she has to be curator. Of the few Vermont performers on the schedule, more than a couple don’t even play jazz.

Since he arrived, Wahl has shown nothing but disrespect and hostility to Vermont artists and the community. Wahl strongly dislikes jazz, knows nothing about it and has no respect for jazz musicians. Speaking solely from my experience: Former Flynn artistic director Steve MacQueen asked me to do a concert — with world-class players Stacy Dillard and Josh Roseman — and Wahl canceled it without even telling me; I found out by accident.

Other players have equally disturbing stories. I’ve also recently learned about some of Wahl’s shocking behavior toward longtime volunteers, Flynn Arts instructors, major donors and staff. Having played clubs and festivals from Monterey, Calif., to Berlin, Germany, I’ve never seen such unprofessional behavior — even from a hot dog vendor.

Seven Days does excellent investigations. Many of us in Burlington feel that an investigation of Wahl’s tenure is overdue. If the festival and the Flynn are ever to regain trust, credibility and integrity, Jay Wahl has to go.

James Harvey

Burlington

Stop ‘Penalizing Students’

Thank you for your coverage of the education funding crisis in our state. I am a teacher in the Harwood Unified Union School District, and we are facing issues similar to those in Roxbury.

I do have a quibble with [“The Deepest Cut: Rising Costs and Property Tax Hikes Again Threaten the Survival of Small Schools,” March 27]. Alison Novak’s article noted: “Huge property tax hikes, prompted by rising education costs and tweaks to the state’s education funding formula, led voters around the state to reject dozens of school budgets on Town Meeting Day.”

We are not just dealing with a “tweak.” We have a broken funding formula that puts all the burden on property owners. Property is only one form of wealth.

Our first school budget was also rejected, and it already included cutting 12 people. The second one included more cuts and another 3.5 positions gone.

Yes, costs are up because … costs are up. Health care: 16 percent; supplies, as much as 80 percent. But school districts are being asked to take it out on our students. Every lost teacher or support person means a decline in the quality of a child’s education. Today’s students need more, not less, personalized education, due in part to the challenges posed by the mental health crisis and what I’d call the “device crisis.”

Why are we penalizing students? Why aren’t we all marching in Montpelier to demand a different funding formula? And why not in Washington, D.C.? Why do so few federal dollars go to the future of our country — our youth?

Jane Regan

Waitsfield

Editor’s note: Seven Days has been covering the school budget situation in Roxbury. First the Town of Roxbury filed a lawsuit asking for an injunction to stop that vote, which was denied in an emergency hearing [“Court Rejects Roxbury’s Request to Block School Budget Vote,” April 24, online]. Then, on April 30, voters approved Montpelier Roxbury Public Schools’ revised budget, effectively green-lighting the closure of Roxbury Village School.

‘Status Quo Has Failed’

[Re “Ed Secretary Saunders Fields Questions at Confirmation Hearing,” April 23, online]: Vermont is poised to spend more on public school education than any other state. Yet for the past 20 years, student test scores have been declining. U.S. News & World Report recently published an article ranking the performance of high schools across the country, with Massachusetts at No. 1, Florida at No. 5 and Vermont at No. 14.

The key rationale behind the opposition to Zoie Saunders as our next secretary of education is that she does not possess the same qualifications as the last two individuals who served as secretary. It seems their unique qualifications failed to achieve the primary goal of the position: ensuring that Vermont’s public-school children can meet basic educational standards. What’s the wisdom in not trying a new approach when the status quo has failed?

However, this is the approach of the Democrats, who oppose Saunders and lack the political will to fix our disastrous school funding system. Dems managed to kick the can down the road yet again by setting up a commission to study the issue. As a result, there will be no real solution for taxpayers — or, more importantly, students — until at least 2026 or 2027!

Instead of tackling the issue head-on, they just added a series of new taxes to the already-growing list to temporarily blunt the double-digit property tax increases coming this year. It’s sleight of hand. They hope you won’t notice, especially when you go to the ballot box, that you’re still paying more in taxes — just not property taxes.

Kim Paquette

Brattleboro

Yes to Safe-Injection Sites

Last week the Vermont Senate passed H.72, an act providing for the implementation of an overdose-prevention center in Burlington [“Overdose-Prevention Site Bill Heads to Gov. Scott’s Desk,” May 7]. Chittenden County has led Vermont in accidental drug-overdose deaths consistently, with the majority of these deaths occurring in downtown Burlington, where the center would likely be located.

The current situation is nothing short of a public health emergency, with our past and present mayors, the Burlington City Council, our state’s attorney, and many local business owners, Burlingtonians and health care providers all calling for an overdose-prevention center in Burlington. The community of people using drugs in Burlington has expressed its support and motivation to engage with such a center.

Twenty-one of the 29 senators voted yes on H.72. Yes to compassion. Yes to protecting Vermont’s most vulnerable. Yes to a nonpunitive approach to a population in need of safety and health care.

The vote represents the culmination of many years of advocacy and commitment to providing quality health care to Vermonters suffering from severe drug-use disorder, a medically diagnosable disease. This effort has progressed very slowly, costing lives, because of stigma and entrenched opposition to controversial innovation.

This changed on May 1, when over two-thirds of our state Senate, following this bill’s passing through the House, expressed the will of the people of Vermont clearly, with confidence and conviction.

We Vermonters choose to stand with our family members and neighbors at risk for accidental drug overdose. We choose to embrace science and research and to provide easy access to life-saving interventions.

Ed Baker

Burlington

‘We’re Leaving’: Winooski’s Bargain Real Estate Attracted a Diverse Group of Residents for Years. Now They’re Being Squeezed Out.

Many Winooski residents and city leaders worry that a rapidly transforming housing market is spurring gentrification and undermining the city’s inclusivity.