Burlington "Progressive" dealt a blow ...
After long-time "Progressive" Burlington City Council member Jane Knodell loses her caucus's endorsement to a young, visionary challenger, the concern trolls emerge en masse:
It also has some older Progressives, and other members of the city’s political establishment, concerned that Knodell’s loss represents a blow to pragmatism in the state’s largest city, and a loss of an experienced councilor willing to reach across the aisle without sticking to a rigid political ideology.
And:
Progressive councilor Brian Pine endorsed Knodell at the caucus. He argued that Knodell had served the district well as a councilor and that the the party needed a big tent in order to amass political power and eventually win back the mayor’s office.
While he said seeing new, younger faces at the caucus was encouraging and exciting, Pine said later that he was concerned about the precedent Knodell’s loss set for the party .
And:
Former Progressive mayor Peter Clavelle, who served from 1989-93 and 1995-2006, said he respected Knodell’s status as a pragmatic Progressive who is willing to cross party lines for the good of the city.
...
“I do think that if the Progressive Party is going to continue to be a political force in this community that they need to temper their idealism with pragmatism,” he said.
Ah, that good old pragmatism: the defining strategy of Mr. Hope and Change Himself. As a certain oft-intoxicated former governor of our 50th state might say, "How's that been working out for ya, Burlington?"
I can answer that. It hasn't. Under our current Mayor, a third-term Democrat, gentrification runs rampant. If I have some time later, I'll come back with links to speficic articles that illustrate his ongoing legacy of screwing over his constituents in favor of his proudly-flaunted agenda (an agenda his City Council flunkies, with the exception of two, are only too happy to endorse despite hearing directly from their constituents not to). In the meantime, suffice it to say that our little city, perceived as a Progressive bastion among much of the rest of the country, suffers the same political plight as the country did under Obama.
This article goes on to quote old "Progressives" gleefully concern-trolling fresh, new, activist candidates with the same predictable, whiny tripe we've all heard over and over: "They won't know how to govern!" "They need to be willing to reach across the aisle!" "They're making the tent too narrow!"
All of which, despite my latent bitternes (see above) about the powerlessness of Burlington's everyday citizens, gives me hope that true change is in the air. And if we can make it happen in Burlington, and other cities can make it happen, then maybe it can happen everywhere!
(Yeah, I know ... just indulge me for a few, will you?)
Comments
ha! big tent? ha again!
we must include and cater to conservatives and wingnuts because we have a big tent but lefties should shut up.
Recently I've been reading that we can't even discuss the issues or reasons why we might disagree with any of the Democratic candidates for Prez in '20 because "it will help Trump".
But then David Nir wrote a scathing diary
about all the reasons why Tulsi shouldn't get any support from the site. I love how they are selective about misogyny, sexist and racist there. Warren and Harris are facing lots of misogyny early in the campaign season, but not Tulsi.
Scientists are concerned that conspiracy theories may die out if they keep coming true at the current alarming rate.
Lefties
Yep:
Few things drive me as b@tsh!t insane as this mentality.
Lefty issues are like a noxious fart in the big tent
Of politics and need to be shut out for the good of those sensitive neoliberal nostrils.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Ha!
True. And thanks for the laugh!
Indeed, "And if we can make
it happen in Burlington, and other cities... "
is the Only way it's going to happen.
the little things you can do are more valuable than the giant things you can't! - @thanatokephaloides. On Twitter @wink1radio. (-2.1) All about building progressive media.
Theoretically.
Honestly, in my opinion, we -- as a species and a planet -- don't have time for that approach.
Jane Knodell
stopped being a progressive before she became the University of Vermont's provost. She's willing to cross party lines all right. The problem is she's never crossed back.
The next mayor of Burlington is going to sell out to the real estate developers. (The current mayor doesn't have to sell out. He is a real estate developer.) Why not let the honor go to a Democrat?
Well, Miro *is* a Democrat.
Cast proudly in the neo-liberal mold. The fact that he's a real-estate developer, and favors any project that benefits his industry cronies, is icing on the cake.
The thing is, anecdotally, Burlingtonians are sick of him. And he was totally vulnerable in the last election, but his two challengers (including Bernie's step-daughter) split the vote. (I wish they could have found a way to work together, but understand why neither was fully interested). So ... Miro "won" with less than half the vote and likes to tell people he has a "clear mandate" from the people.
It's true when they say you can't fight City Hall.
Their contempt for us is gobsmacking
For the "good" of the city, eh? Good for who?
Reminds me of a conversation I had with a neighbor of mine. She was talking about the future of driverless cars, saying that this is where cars were going. When I pointed out how expensive these cars would be, and that a future would leave out the working class from having their own transportation, her response was "well, there would be an adjustment period".
Adjustment period? As in adjusting to riding the bus?
Yeah, I guess being priced out of your own neighborhood and living in a cardboard box is another one of those "adjustment" periods.
Glad to hear that there are actual progressives out there who care enough to fight against the adjustments the rest of us have to make. Thanks for the essay.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Adjustment periods
Ah, but those in the "meritocracy" need not fear -- they'll always be able to afford driverless cars, and thousand-dollar iPhones, because they've worked hard and deserve it!
Thanks for the comment. This is a close-to-home issue that chaps my @ss.
A follow-up story in Seven Days further exposes the old guard "Progressives" for who they really are:
Say what? The Progressive Party was founded on pragmatism and incrementalism?
Emphasis mine. And: STFU, Peter.
Gee, sounds like someone else we all know and loathe. ::cough:: HRC ::cough::
I can't say how happy I am to have actual, Progressive, candidates to vote for this year. The good news here in Burlington is that Progressives are a separate party, so that's one small thing we have going for us. I won't vote for any Ds or Rs.
Amazing, isn't it?
Sometimes I like to fantasize that each of these assholes gets a "reckoning" in a very Dickensian way. But unlike taking them through their past, present & future on Christmas Eve, I propose making each of them experience a different income bracket.
Maybe for the first 3 years, they'll be white collar home owners who see their income take a hit. As they scramble each month to make their mortgage payments in time, tuition for their children's school goes up, repairs on the house and the car vanquish their savings and they find themselves one emergency away from financial disaster. Consequently, they develop an ulcer and an anxiety disorder worrying about losing their home.
Then they'll go down the ladder a bit and spend the next 6 years as a blue collar worker who is trying to save money to buy a house for their growing family. But just as they saved enough for a down payment, they lose their job. They spend the next 2 years looking for another job. They suffer a deep depression, they gain weight, and then their wife leaves them for a hedge fund manager down on Wall Street.
The final descent will find them for the next 9 years as a minimum wage earner who has recently been priced out of the neighborhood they've been living in and is desperately trying to find a place that is safe for their young family. When they finally do it's an hours commute from their lousy job each way. They have a college degree but can't find a better paying job. The car needs a new transmission, their medical insurance just went up, their boss is an asshole, and their congressman on the TeeVee is talking about Russians and Donald Trump.
That's as far as I got in my imagination, but I suppose I could make them eventually homeless as they descend lower and lower on the economic scale.
Hmmm...I wonder what else will befall them?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
This is a solid foundation for a movie script.
And it's one that should be made.
Hahahaha!
Who do you think should play the part of the reprehensible oligarch?
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Great question!
Tom Cruise? No: Rachel Maddow!
Awesome choice!
Maybe she could experience her reckoning as a child in a war zone in payment for her special brand of war mongering agit-prop.
There is always Music amongst the trees in the Garden, but our hearts must be very quiet to hear it. ~ Minnie Aumonier
Jeez
I know Burlington. It is controlled by UVM. THat's why all the housing from the University to Church St is a wasteland of run down properties and overpriced rents. That's why the city is tearing down the shopping center for more $. It's why you can't park at City Market. It's why the Parking Center's elevators don't work and it smells like piss. It is not a Progressive wonder zone. It is the same old capitalist shit pretending to be "for the people".
Where did I put my Birkenstocks?
Prof: Nancy! I’m going to Greece!
Nancy: And swim the English Channel?
Prof: No. No. To ancient Greece where burning Sapho stood beside the wine dark sea. Wa de do da! Nancy, I’ve invented a time machine!
Firesign Theater
Stop the War!
UVM
UVM is part of the problem, certainly, in that they haven't prioritized housing students on their own campus. And so, these students flood the limited rental housing inventory every year, and the
slumlandlords are only too happy to accommodate: by charging astronomically high rents that only six or eight people('s parents) can afford to pay.Weinberger loves to 'splain that CityPlace is going to solve the affordable housing crisis in Burlington. Sure. "Market-rate" luxury condos with their own gym and swimming pool are going to help struggling families live near where they work. The entire project has been a boondoggle from the get-go, and a topic worthy of its own essay. But I can't write it, because I'd likely stroke out while doing it. Right now, we're in a situation where there's a giant hole in the ground where the mall used to be, because Miro's developer buddy didn't actually have the financing he swore he had to build his 14-story monstrosity. The same monstrosity that Miro and his darlings on the City Council pretzeled themselves to approve, even when it meant ignoring local ordinances and spot-zoning against their constituents' will.
(Sorry, I'm ranting).
You're right that we don't have an adequate tax base. There are a lot of reasons for that, but I'm pointing my finger at UVM, UVM Medical Center, and Champlain College for starters. The latter, in particular, has been buying up buildings and land at breakneck pace, which further removes property from the tax rolls. Bernie has negotiated "payments in lieu of taxes" from the hospital (I'd have to look up whether he's done it for the other two), and there's been an effort to levy property tax on the Greek houses around town, but it's simply not enough. And my experiences as a
patientconsumer at UVMMC exposes their nonprofit status as a joke.FWIW, UVM has recently agreed to a plan to move more students back on campus, so that's a promising first start. If real Progressives get elected, there may be movement toward incentives to rehab former student rentals into affordable homes. There's a proposal out there that I'd have to go find to refresh my memory on the details. So, we'll see.
If something doesn't change soon, Miro will continue his quest to transform Burlington into his pet boutique city, and more and more people will priced out, and more and more farmland will be turned into suburban hell.