Charming Cover Art
The June 11 cover art and the accompanying artwork in the Montréal article is charming [“All Over the Map: From Foodie Adventures to ‘the Coolest Street in the World,’ Follow Our Guide to Montréal Neighborhoods Worth Exploring“].
Susanne Wetmore
Brandon
Never a ‘Trader Joe’s Guy’
Thank you for your article about City Market, Onion River Co-op and its challenges [“Market Forces: After Losing Money for Years, Burlington’s City Market Faces More Headwinds,” June 18]. The bottom line is that we are so lucky to have the co-op in our city. Having been a member since before the Archibald Street storefront, I remember the contentious debates about whether to offer nonorganic, cheaper bulk peanut butter (imagine: bulk peanut butter!), whether to expand and how to do it.
There have been many difficult times over the years, including overly contentious union negotiations, but look at what we have: two beautiful, functional stores with good food and good values. I say “Bravo!” to the Onion River Co-op. I will never be (shudder) a “Trader Joe’s guy.”
Andrew Simon
Burlington
Two Different Stores
The article on City Market reminded me of something I’ve been wondering about [“Market Forces: After Losing Money for Years, Burlington’s City Market Faces More Headwinds,” June 18]. Which location is your go-to these days? I was a loyal downtown shopper before the pandemic but found the larger, airier South End store easier to cope with during those days. Lately, for my weekly shop, I switch back and forth, because the stores are different.
Things I love about South End: a bigger produce section, wider aisles, and larger health and wellness section.
Things I love about downtown: The fish and meat section can’t be beat, and the fish guys are wonderful. It also carries some things the South End store doesn’t — like gluten-free rolls. And it continues to work proactively to address problems with challenged folks causing trouble.
Things I love about both stores: the people, the prevalence of real food, lots of local choices and interesting international items. The senior discount is great, too. Or you can do volunteer hours for a discount if you do not have the benefit of being older.
Downtown or South End? Which do you prefer?
Bridget Ahrens
Winooski
Downtown Is the ‘Worst’
[Re “Market Forces: After Losing Money for Years, Burlington’s City Market Faces More Headwinds,” June 18]: I’ve been in grocery store management for 20 years. Between 2020 and 2022, I worked for City Market in a management capacity for both the downtown and South End stores. The main reason I left was due to the high crime rate in the downtown store. I have worked in stores in Boston and Los Angeles, and, I must admit, the downtown City Market is the worst I’ve worked in regarding crime. The theft, the overdoses in the bathrooms, and the belligerent people daily coming in high or drunk were too much for me to take anymore. I witnessed another manager get spit on. We were called homophobic names, regardless of our sexual orientation, among other insults. Each day I felt like we were going to war, protecting our employees and the store itself. This was no way to live. Unfortunately, I have not set foot in that store since.
Mike Margolis
Middlesex
Proud of City Market
[Re “Market Forces: After Losing Money for Years, Burlington’s City Market Faces More Headwinds,” June 18]: I feel that your article about City Market prices is overlooking some huge positive changes the store has made. City Market now offers the amazing Field Day brand of mostly organic food staples at great prices. Bless the peanut butter without pesticides! City Market was even making donations to Indigenous groups when you purchased Field Day products. I feel proud of what City Market is doing!
You can get delicious organic frozen mango and pineapple at reasonable prices as well. Pair with coconut cream and drizzle with organic blackstrap molasses for a healthy summer treat!
Comparing prices against high-fructose products more likely to cause diabetes and other health problem seems disingenuous to me. High-fructose corn syrup is sponsored by government subsidies and very suspect.
There are also very many studies on proper nutrition and reduction of crime. I recommend looking into neurosurgeon Russell Blaylock’s lecture on nutrition and criminal behavior.
Pay for your health now or later.
Jonah Sprout
Burlington
Street Name Isn’t the Problem
[Re “Church Street Temporarily Renamed ‘Canada Street,’” June 16, online]: Let’s assume Canadians are as well read and invested in global politics as the rest of the world. Follow any Canadian news or social media posts, and you’ll soon discover they stand with most Americans in opposition to President Donald Trump’s reign of terror. Changing the name of Church Street — and investing $3,000 when the city is already so financially strapped — feels a bit patronizing. If Canadians want to deal with the border issues and come shop in Burlington, they will. Use the money to clean up the needles and excrement instead. Otherwise, you’ll just give rue Canada a bad name.
Abby Emerson
St. Albans
Voice From Vancouver
I think it is fair to say most Canadians sympathize with our friends to the south [“Church Street Temporarily Renamed ‘Canada Street,'” June 16, online]. But your press persists in the blinkered idea that we are most angry about tariffs. Here are the things, in priority order, keeping us from traveling to your beautiful country:
1. Crossing the border is undignified at best and potentially a terrifying ordeal of being strip-searched and detained, possibly for weeks.
2. Your president, backed by his sycophantic toadies, constantly threatens our sovereignty.
3. Yes, we are mad about the tariff thing.
Changing some street signs will fix none of this and frankly comes off as insulting and pandering in this grim context.
This is trust destroyed and will take generational time to repair.
JB Bell
Vancouver, British Columbia
‘What Is Keeping Canadians Away’
Read in your Seven Days newspaper that you will be changing the name of Church Street to Canada Street [“Church Street Temporarily Renamed ‘Canada Street,'” June 16, online]. Not sure who came up with that idea, but from a Montréal resident’s point of view, I think it’s ridiculous.
That’s certainly not what will bring Canadians to Vermont, and I would not want the street name changed if I were a Vermonter.
My husband and I have owned a cottage in Colchester for the past 45 years. The state of the economy and the feeling of betrayal from our U.S. neighbor are what is keeping Canadians away.
This is my humble opinion.
Claire Murphy
LaSalle, Québec
‘You’re on Your Own’
[Re “Church Street Temporarily Renamed ‘Canada Street,'” June 16, online]: A street name just for us, and $3,000 to do it! That should change everything. We’ll just forget that we have largely been ignored for years — you don’t take Canadian money; you don’t speak French; you have not bothered to learn anything about us or our country. Sorry, you’re on your own.
S.C. Enright
Essex Junction
Enright is French Canadian.
A Case for Urban Rest Stops
[Re “Food Fight: Plans to Relocate a Free Lunch Program in Burlington Just Got Messier,” May 28]: Eliminating or moving place-based services is detrimental for everyone, including those of us who are housed, because it is punitive in nature and will neither address the fact that a record number of people are unhoused nor reckon with the multiple crises Burlington is experiencing. Many Burlingtonians love to support local and/or organic food systems, yet when it comes to an organically created hyperlocal food system like free food, we are not sold on the idea. Now there is an opportunity to buy in and even expand.
I used to work at the Low Income Housing Institute in Seattle, a city that over a decade ago declared a state of housing emergency. One of the programs that the institute — an affordable housing developer and housing nonprofit — built was its Urban Rest Stop scheme: These are designated sites around the city with laundry, showers and other services. A person can take a shower or borrow a pair of overalls while waiting for their clothes to wash and dry. Critical to personal — and public — health, these sites provide places where people can commune and connect rather than push them deeper into isolation.
The URS model seems like one that the City of Burlington and its community partners might consider, especially given the number of abandoned buildings around town. Housing for all, with wraparound services such as counseling and universal basic services, is of course the ultimate goal, though such a vision should not block our view of the short-term needs we face now.
Emily O’Hara
South Burlington
Invest in Rural Schools
[Re “Ahead of Ed Reform Vote, School Leaders Urge Lawmakers to Just Say No,” June 15]: I am watching this school consolidation play out, and I have to ask: What is our strategy, Vermont? What is our long-term goal, our ideal outcome, and how are we getting there from here?
For me, my goal would be to revitalize these small towns with declining school populations. But if I were a parent considering moving to a small Vermont town, this constant dance of school closures and consolidations would be a deal-breaker: I would never even consider moving to a charming rural town if I had any suspicion that my kid’s school would be closed and, for the same tax price, my kids would be forced to commute an extra 30 to 45 minutes each way, every day. Wouldn’t matter if the threat were a year away, or five, or even 10.
So, if we collectively want to strengthen our small communities, I propose we do the opposite: We stand by the small schools, even if it means spending a bit more per student to give them a good education within their communities. Then we think bigger, asking questions like “What would it take to incentivize more parents to move to these communities and bail out these sinking schools?” Then we do it. Like adults, we realize that we have to invest in our future and stand behind the communities that make Vermont what it is.
Brian Chick
Montpelier
Root of Homelessness
The state is having difficulty deciding what measures to take to reduce homelessness [“Scott Vetoes Bill That Would Have Revamped Hotel Program,” June 11, online]. As a former Salvation Army board member, I have seen the direct tie between substance abuse and homelessness. Regardless of how the state tries to combat homelessness, it actually encourages substance abuse by its liberal policies on drug possession.
I’ve lived in Vermont for only five years, but I am always amazed by how open and permissive the state is toward drugs. As long as the citizens of Vermont and their legislators continue to endorse the use of harmful drugs, there will be more homelessness. And no matter how much money is spent and where, the results will be ineffective.
Peter Rinaldi
Moretown
‘No Kings’ Requires Action
[Re “‘No Kings’ Protests Draw Thousands Across Vermont,” June 14]: While it was wonderful to see so many people turn out for the “No Kings” rally, I left with the impression that nobody had really thought about how to use all that energy to actually accomplish its purpose. From my experience, that energy has to be focused on changing Republican control of the House of Representatives in Washington, D.C., which can be done by defeating only a net of five Republicans in 2026.
We here in Vermont, however, don’t have a Republican congressperson to defeat. So the only effective way we can participate in the “No Kings” movement is to financially support viable non-Republican candidates in either “blue” or “swing” states.
California and New York, the “Big Blues,” could achieve the upset goal, but their well-known vulnerable Congressional elections will be hard fought, and there are a few vulnerable Democratic congresspeople who could lose. Another option is to financially support strong candidates in competitive “swing state” races. Arizona, Iowa, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin have a number of potential “pickup” seats that are well worth considering.
The House of Representatives controls the budget, has oversight of and can conduct investigations into government activities, and initiates impeachment. Eliminating Republican control in the House would really hobble Donald Trump’s agenda and make him a lame-duck president for the last two years of his term. It would also send a message to wavering Republican senators running for reelection in 2028.
Feel free to contact me if you would like to learn more about supporting any of these House races in 2026.
Paul L. Kendall
Braintree
‘Disgusted With the Diocese’
I read [“Courtroom Confessional: Amid a Tangled Bankruptcy Case, Sex Abuse Survivors Tell a Judge — and the Bishop of Burlington — How Catholic Priests Betrayed Them,” May 21]. I was struck by the dramatic setup, like the opening of a movie. It seemed inappropriate to me.
At the end of the piece, there is a statement mailed out to news outlets by John McDermott. It didn’t even contain an apology. I found myself feeling more disgusted with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington than I was when I started reading.
I’m a psychotherapist, and I have had clients who were abused by priests in Vermont, priests who got away with it because the Diocese first covered up their crimes and then paid pittances to survivors.
Are priests in Vermont still molesting children? I’d like to hear what the Diocese has to say about that.
Baruch Zeichner
Ocean View, HI
Ed Reform Rap
They’ve done this before:
Rushed out of the door
A bill few have read,
With aspects unsaid.
Soon come to repeal
Their last-minute deal
When they see what it does
To the Vermont that was
Once well-schooled.
But now these fools
With unqualified staff
Have made quite a gaffe
That will cause us much pain
With little to gain.
It’s what they do best:
Conflicts of interest
Hidden inside
An unfathomable tide
Of words convoluted
And rarely disputed.
While Hogwarts and Neck
Say, “Hey, what the heck?
Let’s grab from these fools
For our own private schools
More money to float us
Before they will notice.”
But really, don’t worry:
The bill’s such a flurry:
Task Forces and Boards;
Of Consultants there’s hoards;
Not much will happen
Because there’s a gap in
The implementation
Of this abomination.
There’s time to replace
Those folks voted “Yes”:
When election time comes,
We’ll throw out the bums.
Jim Lengel
Duxbury
Lengel is a former Vermont deputy commissioner of education.
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This article appears in Jun 25 – Jul 1, 2025.
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