A proposed ordinance being reviewed by Burlington City Councilors could ban people from sitting on the sidewalks of five key downtown streets that feed onto the Church Street Marketplace.
The ban would also extend to sandwich board signs or other types of advertising, though it would allow any existing licensed “encumbrances” to continue until their license expires.
The Burlington City Council Monday night agreed to send the proposed ordinance to its Ordinance Committee for review. The three-member committee is chaired by Councilor Joan Shannon (D-Ward 5), and includes Councilors Sharon Bushor (I-Ward 1) and Bram Kranichfeld (D-Ward 2).
The ordinance would create a “right of way” extending six feet from the edge of buildings, and would mirror existing bans on the Church Street Marketplace. The Marketplace “right-of-way” extends nine feet from the edge of buildings.
The affected streets would be Pearl, Cherry, Bank, College and Main Streets between South Winooski Avenue and St. Paul Street.
The proposed ordinance was crafted “in response to a variety of complaints and concerns about persons seated, laying down, and in a host of other stationary positions on the sidewalks in the downtown,” wrote Police Chief Michael Schirling in a memo to councilors.
Hmm, I wonder what “other stationary positions” look like.
The proposal, according to Schirling, would be a “pilot project” to keep the sidewalks free for all pedestrians, including the elderly and disabled.
The intent of the ordinance, as drafted, reads, in part: “This section is enacted to protect the public safety and to provide for unencumbered passage for pedestrians and disabled citizens … and to promote the economic vitality of the downtown area.”
It would also likely curb the kind of panhandling downtown pedestrians pass by on several downtown routes. Seven Days staffer Andy Bromage tackled the subject in this week’s Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, asking: “Why do panhandlers hang out in that spot on Main Street?”
The answer? According to those Bromage talked to it’s either a good spot to ask for spare change or its simply the sunnier side of the street.
The ordinance is just another in a series of efforts aimed at “cleaning up” downtown Burlington. Earlier this year, the council adopted a smoking ban for the city’s parks and beaches. Church Street was spared from the ban this time, but a previous effort to ban smoking on the Marketplace failed, too. Who knows? Maybe the third time is the charm.
On Monday, too, the council voted 10-4 to oppose the issuance of an Act 250 permit to Phoenix House to operate a 20-bed transitional house on Elmwood Avenue, just a half block from the top of Church Street. The opposition to the proposal was fueled, in part, by downtown business concerns that it would add more “undesirable people” onto the Marketplace and detract shoppers from coming to the pedestrian mall.
Wonder if we’ll see a renewed interest in Westward Ho!, a privately-funded effort in the 1980s that gave certain folks a one-way bus ticket out of town. And, not just Shelburne or Charlotte out of town, but waaayyy out of town.
Photo credit: Andy Bromage.
This article appears in May 12-18, 2010.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Sounds like a fine idea to me. I work downtown and I get asked for change all the time just walking between the co-op and the mall. My break is 15 minutes during which I usually run and buy food. It sucks to get panhandled twice in the span of that 15 minutes. Sometimes I’ll ask these folks “have you been to the department for children and families?” It’s RIGHT THERE like 50 feet away on Cherry Street. Go there and get food stamps or apply for cash assistancee.You might have noticed they put black fencing in the bench-like inset at the base of the municipal parking garage recently to prevent people from sitting there. Now that actually was a nice place to sit and catch some sun sometimes. Now the darn beggers have runined that for everybody.I was in Armenia for a week last year and spent most of my time in Yerevan, a city of maybe a half million. This is a country with a per capita income of less than $5000 and there are virtually no beggers at all. I saw one guy in traffic in the middle of the city asking drivers for money-and my nephew said this one man was a rarity- known by the much of the city to be mentally ill and accepted.Actually come to think of it, in the days just following that eye opening trip to Armenia, where everyone is well dressed and well groomed- I remember feeling culture shocked returning home and remembering how dirty and unkempt so many people are downtown in my city.We could do with a bit more personal dignity around here. In the meantime, the council should pass the loitering ban so at least the cops could shoe people away if they are just sitting around bothering people for money.Oh boo hoo. What business do they have to sit there and bother people? I’m sick of it.
Deb, other people made the assumption that the folks sitting on the sidewalk are homeless. I challenged that assumption. Should people be allowed to sit on the sidewalk? In the same spot all day? Should they be allowed to sleep there? What if these people are begging others for money? What if they are insulting people who refuse to give them a handout? There are plenty of parks and benches in the city. City sidewalks are not constructed so that people can loiter and harass others. They are constructed to encourage and promote pedestrian traffic.
Who says they are all homeless? This shouldn’t about *who* they are. It’s about whether people, homeless or not, should be allowed to sit on a sidewalk.
“Let’s house them instead of hiding them!”Yeah, then when word gets out that Burlington houses its homeless, I’m sure no more of them will show up. Clavelle already made a jackass of himself with this one, you’re too late.
“Very disappointed Burlington. Perhaps if we helped to house people they wouldn’t have to sit on the street. While no one loves dealing with people asking for money, hiding the problem that people are in need won’t make it go away.”Blah, blah, blah. Bleeding heart mush. Why don’t you let them live with you.
This is typical behavior of a moribund city. It can’t grow and everything it does only exacerbates the problem.
Maybe the Disney corporation will buy Burlington and then we can only let shiny happy people in! What’s next? An ordinance on how many times we have to bathe in a week? Other groups in history have tried to cleanse their own little worlds from “unsociable behavior”. It hasn’t worked out that well. Such heinous crimes – smoking, sitting, playing music, riding a bike, skateboarding. What a Nanny state. Exodus to the Adirondacks is my advice.
What a WONDERFUL idea! We could move them to the city line and pay them to hand out plastic flowers to paying customers entering Disneyworld North.
We have trouble enforcing the laws and ordinances already in place. Whatever the reason is we simply have trouble enforcing existing laws, so lets make some more laws and ordinances and effect them in an educational way. Plenty of laws already in place to insure public safety and the like no need for more. Enforce what we have and life will be as ok as ok gets.Whether it be loitering, transients, murder or jaywalking, plenty of laws already on the books. Just enforce them and persuade the Chittenden county attorney to prosecute them. No new laws.
Outrageous! Let’s house them instead of hiding them!