Fritz Mondale, Some New Hampshire Politics, and Start with Dwight Eisenhower

4/20/2021 Some Personal History of Fritz Mondale, Presidential Politics, and New Hampshire Walter “Fritz” Mondale and his family represented the kind of caring and community committed politics we see (for many including myself surprisingly) embodied in Joe Biden this year. First saw Mondale at a Democratic state convention about 1968 in Maine a the “Democratic” noontime reception in the downtown hotel, the Sheraton Eastland, owned by the Dunfey family which would also would own the Sheraton in Bedford, NH which for many years also was the home of all would be presidential contenders from the 1970s through the end of the century—you would even see at lunch the likes of Pat Robertson who ran in the Republican primaries once. At the Sheraton in Bedford, NH experienced locals would shun the presidential parade which always seems a sideshow except, of course, for the candidate you and your family supported! Fritz was a young looking 40ish at that point with a crewcut and relaxed manner (did Mondale every have a different look?) as moved around with fellow and far more senior Senator Ed Muskie of Maine who was moving towards a presidential candidacy of his own. This immediate post-Great Society period had shifted to the Vietnam War as an increasingly dominant issue—and Muskie’s campaign lost the anti-Vietnam college fuel ultimately causing his campaign to hit the rocks. Muskie’s plan for the 1972 presidential nomination was derailed, a victim of the anti-Vietnam insurgency and Democratic Party structure upheaval which hit the simultaneous ceiling and rock bottom with Nixon landsliding into re-election followed by a first ever resignation of the presidency from massive personal and White House staffers lawbreaking. Senator George McGovern, the 1972 Democratic candidate, was as honest and forthright as Nixon was the opposite. Mondale went on to be vice-president under Carter who lost to Reagan in 1980. During the 1980-1984 period my encounter with Mondale shifted to my home state of New Hampshire. I saw Mondale, by then a former vice-president, in a noontime speech to a social service event in Washington, DC while on a conference. Living in Concord, NH then 7 miles away in Allenstown from 1976-1988, was active in Democratic politics. Allenstown located mid-way between Manchester and Concord was a mix of the two communities, half with roots from Concord’s English population heritage and the half Franco-Canadian which dominates Manchester. Not only was Allenstown the poorest in the state in terms of property valuation per student in the schools, it was considered a bellwether in politics, as Allenstown went in elections so would the State of New Hampshire as it contained a cross section of the State’s population—particularly that of the Democratic Party! My one elective office, a ten-year term representing Allenstown in the mandated NH Constitutional Convention was of note for my initiative on behalf of Allenstown to have the Constitution require the State to fund half of all local public education and half of the cost of state colleges. It lost, of course, but garnered a significant vote of about 40%. It would be years after that the NH Supreme Court required equal funding for each public school student—still a difficult task to carry out by the legislature. In the 1984 primary campaign I was involved in what was then a questionable role in unions from several states providing funds aiding the election of Mondale delegates—it is chronicled in the Germond and Witcover book “Wake Us When It’s Over.” Even as a life-long union person, it is my least proud actions in politics before or since. At the Democratic State Convention in 1982 to the best of my recollection Mondale was in full steam ahead mode for the 1984 nomination. I distinctly recall approaching him on behalf of a petition group seeking support for a state issue. To my surprise, Mondale took the petition placed on the adjacent table and carefully read it in its entirety leaving me quite nervous thinking it meant I would fail my appointed task. At that time I certainly was naive to think a former vice-president would simply sign any ordinary petition! Suffice to say the petition language satisfied the vice-president and he added his John Hancock. To say in those days seeing dozens of candidates for the Democratic nomination in the proverbial living room chats at the home of Mary Louise Hancock in Concord, former state planning director and state senator from Merrimack County, candidates for president were considered ordinary acquaintances and approachable and wanting to be approached like a super friendly young dog. New Hampshire voters were the candy they sought—everyone had their presidential candidate run in and story to tell. My Mom would often relate the time when she was a teacher in Colebrook, NH—she was as lifelong Republican—meeting as she was walking along Main Street Ronald Reagan and saying that she was not very much impressed by him. In fact my first in-person presidential contact came when during Boys State in 1955 we were bused to Concord from UNH to see President Eisenhower. We know now that was a campaign visit in preparation for the primary election election in early 1956. Eisenhower won the New Hampshire Republican Primary—the first ever— beating the party leader Robert Taft, himself the son of President William Howard Taft. That Eisenhower victory was crucial in his getting the Republican nomination in a process still strongly controlled by party leaders in most states. Of course I was only 17 at the time and would not be voting in the 1956 elections—21 was the voting age at that time. As an aside, I did receive an autograph on a Norwich University commencement luncheon program about 1950—my Grandfather George Lovell got it, perhaps I was there I do not recall—the General wrote, “Good Luck Tony, Dwight Eisenhower.” Must admit his autograph may have been clairvoyant. But, of course, Mondale did not win the New Hampshire primary—but he did carry Allenstown by about seven votes including two from my household. Supporting Mondale also meant phone banking in Allenstown and that brought both Mondale’s wonderful wife Joan and her daughter Eleanor to a long time community leader for a weekend of calling. I met them and their commitment to him helped energize us all. And on election day it was driving snow and sleet which by late afternoon was 2-3 inches deep as our volunteer crew went door to door in the February dark to pull voters who had not been tallied out to vote by our “poll watchers.” And, of course, some of us had gone to the speech by Gary Hart on the Friday night before the election in Concord, outside across from the State House on an unusually warm evening. We saw first hand the charisma and strength of Hart and could feel the momentum sufficient to carry over the finish line—he would likely and did upset Mondale. Even in those days the last weekend of a presidential primary were well known to result in shifts of 20-30 points and more from poll predictions. So, while I was on the Mondale slate of delegates to the national convention I would have gone only if he won by a large margin. Then came 1988 with work for Michael Dukakis in Allenstown and Jerry Brown in Montpelier, VT—but that is a story for another time, and Ted Kennedy, and Jimmy Carter and being key in winning a Maine governorship. All in all, Walter Mondale contributed a sense that one could be for all that is good, all that can benefit all of society and also do so with integrity and honesty.

Bringing Renewal to the Historic Burlington-Winooski Axis, Now Vermont's Povertyville Section

4/9/2021 Draft Burlington-Winooski, the Two Centuries Old Historic Economic Axis Engine Declines to Vermont’s Povertyville Section—Ready for Renewal from the 1980-to-Date Devolution towards a String of Urban Pearls for the 21st Century? …A future Burlington-Winooski as a Shining 15-Minute Shangri-La Urban Corridor “The gods of the valleys are not the gods of the hills” Ethan Allen 1770 “There must be a radical redistribution of political and economic power in this nation and in this town” Mark Hughes, director of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance speaks as Burlington officials and 30 organizations declare “Racism a Public Health Emergency” July 2020 The Current Burlington-Winooski Axis Decline Extends Back Decades Since the early 1980s about every Vermont major economic indicator save the education export economy crept slowly down or stagnated in Vermont. This mirrored the trends of loss of good paying manufacturing jobs which spurred the post-World Ward II economy upward ending about 1980 then moving to decline—what significant real growth incomes occurred in the last four decades in the slow-growth states of the northeast and mid-west rust belts tilted to the well-to-do. This recent trend impact on the historic economic centuries old engine of Vermont represented by the Burlington waterfront to Winooski City riverside “axis” has been most pronounced and profound. During both the post-World War economic boom ending about 1980, subsequent decline population and wealth shifted away from built-up Burlington and Winooski to the suburbs and rural Chittenden County towns. For almost two centuries the two cities remained the economic engine of Vermont but since the 1980s their role faded. For Vermont, the 1960s investments by then Governor Hoff in being the first state in the nation to buy their critical major rail operator (the Rutland Railroad) and literally birthing the ski industry with two unprecedented major speculative public ski road investments—helped the state avoid the empty storefronts and dominating skeletons of former manufacturing facilities as the 1980s and 1990s progressed. Springfield in 1960 was the home of a major portion of the machine tool industry of the nation! A critical player in the manufacturing industry of the day. The Springfield incomes of a unionized workforce were the highest in the state and the slow but sure economic decline as the industry atrophied left the community begging a state prison to rescue its depressed economy. Compared to northeastern New York and all Maine except for the area a two hour drive from the Boston metro, Vermont faired relatively fairly well only because of the ski/tourism and educational economic sectors growth until the plateau of the ski economy in the 1990s followed by education plateau in student numbers beginning in 2010. For Vermont that buffering of economic and social stagnation arose from the baby boom education bulge in its colleges during the 1990s and first decade of this century which plateaued in 2010 and now succumbs to the demographic collapse of college age population. And yes that boomers boomers were the first ski generation. The education industry future seems even more murky as record lows in birth rates in the northeast and nationally continue. Not even mentioning distance learning and the competitive disadvantage of norther New England state universities with the highest tuitions in the nation. Private St. Michael’s College, for example, planned ahead for the student bust and carefully with full participation of the college community managed the 16% decline from 1,900 students a decade ago to the 1,600 today. UVM and the State colleges systems did not plan—as is obvious now—as educational bankruptcy measures are in place for the state colleges and UVM’s modest 3% drop in students in fall 2020 signals the first statistical slight downtrend dating back to the peak year 2010. UVM’s current approach to the future appears unplanned and undirected. The drop of direct employment by IBM in Essex Junction of about 8,000 at its peak in the 1980s to now about 2,300 at successor Global Foundries—still the State’s largest private employer—gives the best evidence of the past and continued manufacturing decline. UVM rates as the largest Vermont employer excepting state government itself. The pandemic has given all a pause to reflect on our economic and social history, and ask the question where do we in Burlington Winooski “axis” go from here in a predominantly rural state where among many challenges is the requirement to sharply reduce non-renewable resources to stop global warming? Of course, Vermont never really possessed non-renewable energy resources in the first place. Note that over half the Vermont non-renewable resource consumption centers on petroleum fuels used to power the motor vehicle dominated transport sector. Longer History View and Recent Arrival of “Povertyville” To ask the question where do we go from here, consider Vermont and most important the driving engine throughout our history being primarily the story of the economy of Burlington and Winooski. Those two communities began with transportation centered along the Burlington waterfront accessing markets by water and Winooski riverside manufacturing production driven by the Winooski River waterpower. The Burlington waterfront where transportation to markets occurred was centered—first just to the lake and northward to Canada, then with the Erie and Champlain Canals accessing markets south the New York City and the west in the 1820s, then amplified by the arrival of the railroads in the mid-1800s, finally redirected into the “modern” highway oriented economy with the completed interstates here in 1982. That original economic engine spread from the Burlington waterfront to the Winooski falls area—more or less defined today by the King Maple neighborhood and Old North End (ONE) in Burlington onto really the entire geographically small Winooski City itself, where former manufacturing along the riverside drew from the immediate residential areas fanning outward to that City’s borders. It is fair to say that Burlington/Winooski with its waterfront as a harbor for exchange and movement of goods along the the manufacturing along its own and adjoining Winooski mills not only became the “economic spine” of the Vermont economy during Ethan Allen era ending about 1800, but also became a permanent dominant economic fixture of the state. First, reflecting the changing economy during the era of waterborne traffic until the railroads came into prominence, then the auto age emergence early last century followed by the interstate. Ironically, the completion of the interstate coincided with the overall crest and shortly thereafter relative stagnation of the Vermont economy which endures today—the Burlington Winooski axis being the primary victim. From the beginning of the interstate era the historical “spine of the Vermont economy,” Burlington and Winooski population and influence declined. Once the majority of Chittenden County population, Burlington now amounts to less than a quarter—both Winooski and Burlington populations outside of Burlington’s New North End have been in decline for decades. Again, a surge of students population growth from 1990 to the present day helped to mask this population downtrend trend. From 2000 to 2010, the Burlington population small population growth was entirely attributable to the increase in the college age numbers along with a small but important immigrant population of New Americans. The slow deterioration in Vermont through suburban carcentricity was mirrored by the decline of historic built-up Burlington and Winooski into a poverty belt. Today Census data shows King Maple/Old North End/Winooski City feature poverty rates of residents of 26-29% compared to under 12% for Chittenden County and Vermont. This poverty belt seems an unlikely candidate for a caterpillar to butterfly transformation—but that is the very opportunity which appears to exist through undertaking some key public investments today. These investments do not differ a great deal from the kind of investments which led to the successful transitions in the past, including those of Ethan and Ira Allen period themselves. And one must not forget the native American population which Ethan himself engaged with in his full lonely winters near Salisbury trapping furs to take back each spring to sell in order to support his family back home in Massachusetts. (Little wonder Allen stood up for his Indian allies when all were captured in the ill-fated foray to capture Montreal and his subsequent imprisonment as an enemy combatant by the British.) Housing The renewal of the historic Burlington-Winooski corridor remains central to this thesis in order to repair, remediate and expedite a natural economic and community potential ignored for decades. That both transportation and housing elements are key to this process can no longer be ignored. The decision to expand bike lanes and shift road space away from parking has been well underway now for years. Those changes are significant and show a change in community viewpoints but still incremental—in the right direction but only point to the larger issue of community renewal requiring a far more extensive change in transportation infrastructure combined with changes in housing. Housing programming must address the low and moderate income. Housing is not a subject here but the raising of the issue nationally and in Vermont to a priority is a clear indicator that transportation change must also be matched by making safe and sanitary housing available to all regardless of income. That President Biden and Vice-President Harris who proposed universal housing vouchers (30% income rent max) is an encouraging sign of kind of movement critical in the housing area. Enter the 15-Minute City Approach to Urban Design, Urban Life Transportation and land use go together—it was the lake as a transportation mode and waterpower of the Winooski River as a power source for manufacture that created with the presence of developable land adjacent the Burlington-Winooski axis in the first place. Consider for a moment past compact community design thinking in town and city planning. Creating complete new towns and idealized city designs became a cottage industry in the late 1800s in England with “Garden Cities of Tomorrow” by UKer Ebenezer Howard the leading proponent and movement leader who actually built more than one “new town.” Several more have been built since in a practice that can be found now scattered across the globe in one form or another. Reston, VA near Washington was one such American “new town” experimental community developed in the 1960s. Howard ’s base design involved a circular community with a one-mile radius featuring a public “white palace” and park in the center with rings outward of retail/commercial, housing, and heavy industry with rail—passenger and freight—at the periphery. All told 30,000 residents would live within the “garden city”—slice off the New North End, compact the rest around the waterfront here in Burlington and that is not so far off from the “garden city” concept and population. What is important is the garden city was accessible to just about everyone on foot, easily accessible when you add provision today for light rail and bicycles. Cars which consume about 25% of urban lands today in satisfying parking and road street needs prevented compact development worldwide. Just the opposite, particularly in America. The car age and pro-car policies and subsidies for homeownership jointly produced American sprawl since World War II. Canada is a perfect counterpoint as their urban areas are at least half again more dense, explained in great part because Canada does not subsidize either homeownership or cars. Canada levies a $1 Cdn per gallon of gasoline, a national tax used for general fund purposes—it has no federal highway program. It has no significant homeownership help. The U.S. has used its under 50 cent gas tax to support the highway system! The U.S. sprawl was created by intentional public policies and expenditures! The garden city from an urban planner perspective really is the pre-cursor to the “15 minute city” ideas advocated by urban planners today—to the extent feasible meet as many human needs within a 15 minute walk/bike/transit trip within a small geographic area (see https://www.15minutecity.com ) Burlington-Winooski: Pedestrians, Environmental Justice, Remediation and Structural Redesign There exists a confluence of forces making the Burlington-Winooski poverty corridor, Povertyville, ripe for a hoped for community transformation and renewal. The corridor already has in place a significant density, an historic rail network radiating in three directions from the Burlington waterfront. Except for re-establishing light rail in a configuration not that dissimilar to that of a past trolley history, a safe walkable/bikable/transitable area is easily installed. The major barriers to transportation the in Burlington and Winooski “poverty corridor” remain like most older urban center lack of walkability, about century removed from trolley service, and presence of numerous, dangerous/delaying new fangled traffic signals. Until this century with the late in the game U.S. use of the modern roundabout technology using stone age materials, little was done to repair the car-ravaged urban environment of modern America. Simply for decades to accommodate the car we wiped out existing urban space, much of it to park cars and build parking garages. Older urban space increasingly became the home of low income and BIPOC populations—symbolized by the traffic signal which when compared to a modern roundabout, especially kills, injures, delays pedestrians and overall pollutes, uglifies and heats the planet. The forces today at work include emergency demands for reductions of non-renewable resources both because they are unavailable in states like Vermont and because of commitments at all governmental levels to reduce consumption of them in order to stop the increasing world temperatures rising with just the continuation of status quo. That half Vermont use of non-renewables sits in the transport sector dominated by the car and clearly reigning in car subsidies—particularly parking and general government funds—means transportation will be a continuing dominant element of public policy in regard to global warming. Cutting car subsidies and homeownership subsidies which promulgated sprawl are not enough. There must also be a commitment to safe, energy efficient transportation—read transit, walking and bicycling which only thrive in relatively dense corridors and communities. The old urban areas and corridors have all the ingredients to respond to the demands and opportunities for a reduced carbon life—in a word the densities already exist there. High densities, transit services such as they are, and potential for walkabilitating through use of roundabouts are obvious. Except for the Church Street Marketplace neither Burlington or Winooski score particularly well on walkability—the 20 high crash state intersections mostly in the Old North and downtown alone testify to that. It was the very threat of cutting King Maple in two with the Champlain Parkway which led to our understanding of how the traffic signal in built up areas becomes a weapon of economic, social, and racial injustice—and the converse principle—how to reverse the historic destruction of livability forced onto the urban fabric by accommodation of the car through traffic signals which in turn literally injures the low income/BIPOC residents at higher rates than whites and embodies the context of both unlivable urban space as well as heightened incentives for use of motor fuels on most to move to lower density areas. In a word transportation inefficiency—read poor walking, biking and transit conditions—worked and works now directly opposite to efficient density and energy/resource use reduction which only density can provide! So the now two-year process of Environmental Justice discussion of the Champlain Parkway leads to an understanding of both the opportunity to renew Povertyville, but also its absolute necessity. That absolute necessity does mean a makeover of transit too, primarily in the form of light rail infrastructure! Without light rail combined with density there can be no successful economic renewal and only a continued shift of population to other northeastern metro areas who will have solved the transportation/energy equation. Nationally in a slow but sure fashion light rail has begun to return to major urban areas. It is the arch enemy of the car! Nearby, when Vermonters are allowed in Montreal again they will see nearly completed light rail line ready for use next year, the current $6 billion project already is set for a $10 billion expansion! Beginning in 2022 one no longer will have to drive onto Montreal island, no longer have to braves the wilds of to get to Trudeau International Airport. Just jump on the automatic light rail line at the large retail complex the Vermont side of the Champlain Bridge and safely, quickly, and comfortably travel to downtown, Trudeau Airport and a dozen other locations. See map and schedule—Brossard southern terminus to downtown set to open in 2022: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%C3%A9seau_express_m%C3%A9tropolitain Base information: https://rem.info/en/light-rail Already being expanded: https://www.rtands.com/rail-news/extended-light-rail-line-in-montreal-will-be-one-of-the-longest-in-the-world/ Burlington along with adjoining towns went through a light rail study in the 1990s with an agreed on first step a line between the waterfront and UVM/UVMMC via the Marketplace. Extensions to the airport and University Mall and even to Essex Jct. via Winooski were examined. The base cost of the first section from waterfront to UVM/UVMCC was about $80 million—not much different than the current $109 million planned investment in the Champlain Parkway. So, initial studies were undertaken and preferred routes determined for light rail in the 1990s. Has anything changed in the City since? Economically, socially, population, etc. Other than the trends outlined here what have been the changes—(1) increase, plateau then declines in college students; (2) stagnant “povertyville corridor” population and incomes; (3) regular decline in primary tech jobs reflected in transition from IBM to Global Foundries; and (4) Chittenden County population growth almost entirely outside Burlington and Winooski cities boundaries. One other trend is important to note. While senior population remained about 12% of the Vermont population through 2010, the major change in demographics—senior population doubling to 1 in 4 residents by 2030 and non-senior population declines (only in Chittenden County does non-senior population remain relatively constant). The statewide population rapidly slowing growth turned shifted into a slight decline 2010-2020. The implication is quite clear, only bringing in a significant change in direction of public investment can one expect these trends to suddenly change—particularly as far as the historic Burlington-Winooski corridor. Systemic change was demanded at inflection points the 200-plus years of the Burlington/Winooski axis and systemic change is required today. There must be a working with neighboring towns, a collaborative effort to change the economic and community structure of the still dominant economic driver of Vermont, the Burlington-Winooski axis. Some Thoughts on Light Rail Routes A complete background on Burlington trolley services history, the 1990s study and future potential along with exploration of the “bus rapid transit” (BRT) fad, can be found here in a paper prepared at the time of the last City Transportation Plan (dated 2011). https://www.burlingtonvt.gov/sites/default/files/Burlington_Streetcar_Briefing_Report_FINAL.pdf (BRT is notoriously expensive, energy inefficient and consumes wide swaths of urban land.) The original trolley routes were, first, Burlington waterfront to Winooski along North Winooski and Riverside which for the first few years in the 1880s were horse drawn then electrified. A line was added out along North Avenue to Ethan Allen Park, a Main Street line to UVM, and the Winooski line eventually extended to the rail connection at Essex Junction. The 1990s study included a connection to the airport as an important potential line. The study was very much in isolation without consideration of economic trends, demographics or the faintest hint of a non-carcentric community design—the idea of light rail was an add-on, a very expensive extravagance. Discussions during both the Railroad Enterprise District, recent Pine Street Coalition outreach on Champlain Parkway design and the North Avenue Corridor Plan process found significant support for a north-south light rail line, something not considered in the 1990s plan. In purely historical and community development, the prime high rail line would repeat the Burlington waterfront to downtown Winooski. That would directly address the Burlington-Winooski axis, i.e., Vermont Povertyville. The “Winooski line” would move through the Marketplace via College, then along North Winooski Ave, Riverside Ave and at Colcheter turn left to Winooski downtown. The natural waterfront to UVM-UVMMC also starts for a block or so with the Winooski line then ascends. The question is whether this line is shifted over to Main Street (a 1990s route suggested) and onto University Mall and new South Burlington “downtown.” The third line would follow the suggested north-south route from Flynn School at the north end to the South Burlington border at Pine street then very likely along Perimeter Road southward through KMart Plaza, Palace Theater, etc. Walkability, Racism and Remediation of ONE, King Maple and Winooski Downtown Light rail for the Burlington-Winooski axis is not an add-on but part of a larger multi-modal redesign starting on walkability and safety on the streets. The pedestrian mode remains the apartheid mode when it comes to street engineering and the task of remediation of this in Povertyille remains very much both a transportation undertaking and one to repair decades of transportation racism still a daily experience for the BIPOC and low income who comprise a large segment of this and other older Vermont urban spaces. Weekly in Burlington a pedestrian or cyclist suffers an injury in a car crash in addition to two crash injuries to car occupants. Nationally the U.S. road fatality pandemic amounts to 21,000 excess deaths in a nation once first, now 18th in highway safety—Burlington experiences one fatality on its streets every three years, the majority since 1998 pedestrians (3) and cyclists (1). Discussed elsewhere, the 20 high crash Burlington intersections, all but one signalized and concentrated in Povertyville each average 1.5 injuries yearly and account for 28 injuries a year while five downtown Vermont roundabouts, the new standard intersection, record about one injury a decade, all non serious in the first 52 years recorded. The point is the renewal of the Burlngton-Winooski corridor depends on both integration of a light rail network but also reparations and remediation to the area which has suffered decades of pollution and high rates of pedestrian, bike and vehicle injuries. And the victims in Povertyville of discrimination in the apartheid mode, walking, continue to be disproportionately people with black and brown skins. Tony Redington TonyRVT99@gmail.com @TonyRVT60 TonyRVT.blogspot.com A walk safety advocate, Redington is a policy development specialist with 20 years experience with the NH and VT state transportation agencies, author of several transportation research papers including some on the subject of modern roundabouts, and five years as a statewide housing planner and director of the New Hampshire Housing Commission. Since moving to Burlington in 2011 has lived car free. An Aside—Mostly Living the 15-Minute City 1976 to Date Except for about four years 1980-1984 when residing in suburb 6 miles from Concord, NH, have lived the 15-Minute City life in Concord, NH, Montpelier, VT, San Francisco (North Beach), Montreal (adjacent Atwater Metro, cycle track network) and now Burlington (within a block of the Marketplace). In all locations shopped within two-three blocks from just about all basic needs ranging from food stores, shopping, schools, employment, etc. In all that time generally never used a car to travel to work, most all vacations from 1990s on via Amtrak and extended public transit (mostly in Canada’s metro areas), and mostly (like today) within a few feet of a bus stop, a few blocks to a transit center. In Burlington, Montpelier, San Francisco and Montreal presence of a major supermarket or two was critical to the 15-minute life along with a job. In all four cities a car was not only no needed, it was relatively useless and not cost effective. Yes, the bicycle fills in the “mobility” need year round except in 0 degree weather. And as important our family learned the 15 minute life experience in Montpelier, how to use public transit, and how to live carless. Living and modeling the 15-minute City life can be inherited! So to me, the 15-minute City has been most of my adult life—it certainly was the bulk of my life growing up in Keene, NH where most years I lived within a few blocks downtown and all schools including high school. My favorite grades 1-2-3 were spent about 2 blocks from two doors north of Union Street to Court Street to School Street. Home to middle school was about six blocks and to high school varied from a couple of blocks to a half mile. All Keene home addresses were less than six blocks from the central shopping district on Main Street. Until college except for one year in the suburbs, the 15-minute life! Interestingly Keene is now home to five going onto seven roundabouts likely the highest concentration of any New England city. The historic traffic circle there—Central Square—is now bounded at the other end of the commercial/retail Main Street by a neat two-lane roundabout which acts as a gateway to the downtown and Keene State College with a the post office on one corner and the College on another—downtown three north south Main Street sidewalks on its way to renewed walkability. Tony Redington

Walkability Commentary Series--Addressing Unwalkable Burlington (VT)

A Burlington Walk Bike Council Walking Mode Commentary Series —Addressing Unwalkable Burlington The following Walking Mode Commentary Series (Commentary) of six parts was placed over the last several weeks on the Burlington Walk Bike Council (VT) listserv. The commentary arose as a necessary exploration of what is safety for those who walk and what does a safe walkability comprise of in a basic urban neighborhood? The necessary exploration ties directly to the approximately two year Environmental Justice process undertaken in regard to Burlington’s Champlain Parkway focused on the King Maple neighborhood which is identified as a minority neighborhood by the Parkway project administrators, the Federal Highway Administration, Vermont Agency of Transportation (VTrans) and City of Burlington. The black and brown skin residents of King Maple neighborhood which is over 20% minority, according governmental assessment, is part of a City where 26% of all residents live in households who have below poverty level incomes (Census) and where about 30 percent of King Maple and adjacent Old North End overall households lack access to an automobile. Lack of a car mean mobility is highly dependent on walking and transit which in turn is accessed by foot. So the question is what is walkability, how do you measure it and what makes for a safe walkability environment? As one can guess those who are walking dependent—generally those in poverty and/or Black and Hispanic—also experience high rates of pedestrian injury fatality, exactly the case based on national figures. Rates of Blacks population pedestrian deaths per 100,000 population are almost twice the rate of whites, Hispanics 50% higher than for white, and the Native American rate several times that of white. The concluding section 6, “Burlington Neighborhood Renewal—Attaining True Walkability and the Centrality of Conversions of Signalized Intersections to All-way-Stops and/or Roundabouts in that Endeavor” takes the lessons learned from the walkability series and applies them to North Street in the Old North End, the historic shopping and institutional center of the neighborhood—which just happens to have four intersections on the high crash VTrans current listing of 111 statewide. The series attempts to stay away from complicated research and analysis and tries to translate new findings of pedestrian safety and treatments in a non-technical manner. 1. Walkability 2. The Centrality of the Sidewalk—Safety 3. Speed—the Major Determinant of Pedestrian Injury 4. The Fourth Factor of Street/Neighborhood Walkability: Ease of Crossing Intersections 5. Walkability: Reach Principle, Transportation Racism and Low Income Discrimination 6. Burlington Neighborhood Renewal—Attaining True Walkability and the Centrality of Conversions of Signalized Intersections to All-way-Stops and/or Roundabouts in that Endeavor 1. Walkability This commentary will address “walkability” and how each of us can measure the walkability of our street and neighborhood whether you live on the flats of the Addition or the sharp grades of the Hill Section. Let’s first consider what a “walkable” street or built up area is and how to measure basic walkability. BTV has been rated fairly low on walkability scores compared to other American cities. Except for the Church Street Marketplace—clearly walkable and the ideal—our streets have not been rated highly, 59 overall in this difficult to interpret scheme https://www.walkscore.com/VT/ . San Francisco is ranked highest in walkability, second only to New York, but also has a quite high pedestrian fatality rate. (this site provides a list of scores and how they are determined— https://www.walkscore.com/cities-and-neighborhoods/ https://www.walkscore.com/VT/ ) My view is San Francisco hills are about was walkable as Mount Everest while the flatlands along the Embarcadero from Giants stadium to Fisherman’s Wharf onto the Golden Gate Bridge are marginally pedestrian friendly because of signalized intersections and pedestrian congestion. My preferred rating of walkability employs the 1000 Friends of Oregon study in Portland, OR as a basic approach for determining/scoring walkability: Score Each Factor 0 to 3 Presence of sidewalks Presence of interconnected sidewalk network Ease of crossing intersections Degree of grades A score of at least 9 gets a rating of “walkable.” Walkable means from a land use perspective existing and proposed development can assume an attractive and efficient pedestrian mode thereby moderating if not reducing vehicle travel demand. As important the only one of these four factors in obtaining an acceptable walkability score which we cannot correct with public investment and management is physical grades—we cannot flatten our city! Regarding sidewalks we are most of the way to a score of 6 already. Presence of sidewalks and a network of sidewalks is almost universal in Burlington and so a score of 3 is likely for each in the majority of cases—already two-thirds of the way to a “walkability” score of 9. If there is a sidewalk on only one side of the street or if maintenance level is poor a lower score might be considered. Certainly practically all streets get a “3” for presence of a sidewalk network and a 2 or 3 depending mostly on the sidewalk condition. We can apply this formula to any street in town including those in our neighborhoods. Church Street from Pearl to Main Street gets a perfect 12 in my book—sidewalks in the form of a dedicated pedestrian space, no significant grades, and intersections easiest/safest in town to cross. One notes overall downgrade from Pearl to Main is highest in the College to Main block and perhaps tests the 3 rating. For examples: Depot Street ranks 0 on grade in my book, College Street between South Champlain and Battery a 1 and College between South Champlain and Saint Paul a 2. This scheme can be turned in degrees of grade and then applied citywide with streets, neighborhoods, etc., getting ratings for this factor. So, except for hilly sections of the City much of Burlington achieves a score of 9 without consideration of the “ease of crossing” intersections. Intersections do present a challenge. Next, ease of crossing intersections and consideration of a Walking Level of Service (WLS) and Walking Mode Safety. 2. The Centrality of the Sidewalk—Safety Why the Sidewalk, the Major Key to the Walk Mode? Clearly the common sidewalk along with degree of grade comprise three of the four factors which best describe walkability of a street, area or neighborhood—the fourth factor is ease of crossing intersections. The standard sidewalk is set on a different plane than the roadway, generally about six inches above the roadway and most importantly separated by a six inch barrier, mostly the typical curb. Historically city sidewalks were built to prevent the invasion of the daily deposit of horse drawn exhaust which in turn was cleaned up overnight by public works crews—road slop in rain storms and snow were not something which enable pleasant walking along City canyons. With the advent of the car the sidewalk and curb barrier took on a more important role: safety. The curbed sidewalk reduces pedestrian crashes about 88%. The Burlington policy of installing sidewalks on the few streets lacking them is, essentially, a safety program. But differential between the quality of the street surfaces and sidewalks grew-and continues unabated—to mark why the pedestrian gets second class treatment in most everywhere including Burlington. I term this bias in treatment of pedestrians on their most important facility, transportation apartheid. It is rare if not impossible to find a pock marked, broken paved road in the City. Sidewalks? Just go outside anywhere and one can on average find some cracked, humped, potholed sidewalk. In a word transportation discrimination, particularly for those who travel by scooter, with a cane or walker, or the large proportion of the population who bicycle on the sidewalks because of the lack of cycle tracked (protected bike lanes) busy streets. Add to poor quality sidewalks the winter water and ice-pooling and inadequate snow dispersal and you have a picture total opposite to the smooth, groomed and snow cleared road travel ways and in most cases parking spaces too. There are places where grade separation of pedestrian space is not necessary. One obvious example is the Church Street Marketplace. Along the Marketplace there is no need for curbing and is fully dedicated to the pedestrian—the very definition of a pedestrian street. Also check out a similar, spectacularly beautiful, pedestrian way from Main Street to Maple Street that winds through the Champlain College campus. City Market is unique in Burlington for having a form of “shared space” at the Cherry, Bank and College Streets intersections where cars and pedestrians mingle. Not perfect as cars are given stop signs instead of yields and do not get the message that once stopped at the sign does not mean then “go” to full 25 mph speed, though the presence of pedestrians and experience means minimal conflicts with pedestrians—watching the set of buses of Green Mountain Transit handle the intersections gives one a sense of how shared space can work quite nicely. One UK City center with 20,000+ daily traffic numbers (think Pearl-Winooski intersection) and lots of trucks works quite nicely every day with shared space. In sum, the sidewalk is first and foremost a safety device and the sidewalk and sidewalk network which comprise half of a walkability score represent a dominant factor in a systematic scheme of pedestrian safety. Now onto the fourth factor—in addition to sidewalks, a sidewalk network and degree of grades: ease of crossing intersections. 3. Speed—the Major Determinant of Pedestrian Injury While a sidewalk, network of sidewalks and degree of grade represent three of the four determining factors of a walkable street or neighborhood, a short diversion to speed and pedestrians must be made before dealing with ease of crossing intersections. The sidewalk reasonably protects pedestrians from injury—an 88% reduction of streets with sidewalks versus those without—injuries and fatalities do occur on sidewalks, some from cars which for whatever reason jump curbs and hit, mostly pedestrians who are unable to avoid injury in such circumstances. Speed and pedestrian injury are a basic element at pedestrian crossings from one sidewalk to another either at or between intersections. All pedestrian safety research finds one common element in pedestrian crash rates and injury severity: the speed at which crashes occur. Second, older crash victims are far more likely to die than young individuals in a given pedestrian crash. In Burlington in the most recent five year tabulation there is a pedestrian injury every two weeks, about 25 yearly. Pedestrian deaths occur once a decade with the last three, two on signalize pedestrian crossing and one at an unmarked crossing (Poirier Court on North Avenue) site of a similar fatality in the past. Nationally, the pandemic of 21,000 excess highway fatalities as the U.S. fell from first in highway safety in 1990 to its present slot, 15th, includes since 2010 a 50% increase in ped deaths (2 in Burlington), now about 6,000 yearly similar to the number in 1990. Most pedestrian deaths of adults 25-45 involve WUI (walking under the influence of drugs). 
Certainly there is also a relationship between “exposure”—total pedestrians and total vehicles—in a given stretch of roadway or intersection and pedestrian crash rates. However, differentials in speeds have a major effect on actual pedestrian injury rates at a given exposure. When it comes to pedestrian injuries it is all about speed. Managing speeds along streets and at intersections mostly involves traffic calming techniques. The safest intersections for pedestrians are—no surprise—intersections where vehicles are required or forced to reduce speeds: all-way stops, roundabouts with median crossings, and shared space. Why are signal unsafe for pedestrians? In a word signalized intersections are a higher speed environment than all-way stops, roundabouts, and traffic calmed intersections (including shared space). Drivers at signalized intersection must give attention to signals, operate in many cases with jack rabbit starts or stops, and fact other distractions—all contributing to a higher pedestrian crash rate and more server injuries when crashes occur at 20-25 mph (above 25 mph the majority of pedestrian crashes are fatal). Walking guru Jeff Speck references the on-the-ground proof of signs versus signals pedestrian safety which occurred when Philadelphia converted a series of traffic signals in the build up areas with all-way-stops with a sharp drop in pedestrian injuries resulting. In fact, traffic signals are so dangerous for traffic management they are, in effect, a method of trading off injuries for operationally efficient, a process called “warrants.” Until the advent of the modern roundabout and use of traffic calming techniques dating from 1956 in the case of the roundabout (U.K.) and traffic calming practice emerging in the 1980s in Europe, the only traffic management techniques were signs and signals. Most nations which passed the United States in highway safety in 1990 employ traffic calming and roundabouts (they cut serious injuries by about 90% overall) to a far greater extent than do US cities. Now onto the fourth factor in walkability—ease of crossing intersections. 4. The Fourth Factor of Street/Neighborhood Walkability: Ease of Crossing Intersections Ease of crossing intersections seems innocuous to most people as a key walkability factor as it does not seem to pose the same threat to health and safety as the opioid crisis, climate change or the new Burlington “Racism as a Public Health Emergency.” Believe it or not, for the pedestrian, there is a direct connection between ease of crossing intersections and all three of these commonly held public concerns. A sidewalk on a street, a sidewalk network and grade plus ease of crossing intersections comprise the four factors used to measure the presence of a walkable street, area, or community. As outlined earlier, a built up community like Burlington already sports sidewalks on practically every street and therefore also meets the second factor without further consideration, a system or network of interconnected sidewalks. The third factor, presence of a significant grade while beyond our control is compensated for in an urban area like Burlington by public transit—think of the free College Street Shuttle (right now and perhaps ongoing, all Burlington transit is fare free). Thousands of tourists use the shuttle—now a regular larger route and until the pandemic free only between the waterfront and UVMMC—to go back and forth to the Marketplace and the waterfront. Transportation research tells us mid-block crossings, particularly on busy streets, are more problematic than intersections in terms of both safety and service (no pedestrian priority of any kind). Intersections remain a major safety problem and the location of almost 20% of all road fatalities, almost half in the case of senior driver fatalities. As discussed, all-way stops, shared use (think Marketplace) and roundabouts represent practically zero delay for pedestrians and the top level of pedestrian safety. A large number of research and studies confirms this. Burlington has commendably employed all-way stops in large numbers throughout the City and this makes some small areas safe and walkable. Still, our major intersections are mostly signalized. Traffic Signals and Un-Safety The traffic signal arrived in the 1930s and beginning in this century the traffic signal increasingly has been discarded as a useful technology. This is primarily because on average the traffic signal fails compared to the new standard, the modern roundabout, in every performance area, particularly in safety. On average the traffic signal increases serious/fatal crashes up to about 900% (a roundabout replacing a signal reduces serious/fatal injuries about 90% compared to alternatives). In the past all way-way stops and shared space also perform better in safety, but the most popular, the all-way-stop does cannot move traffic as efficiently. The now 30-year old North American experience with the modern roundabout is smaller and much safer than the outdated older predecessor, the rotary, i.e., the older roundabout dating from the start of the last century (think National Lampoon European Vacation). There is one not very well designed (but excellent safety record) modern roundabout in Chittenden County—the one on Maple Tree Place between Bed Bath and Beyond and Best Buy. Many are familiar with only a rotary or old style roundabout, not much different than the the traffic circulator in Winooski which is a high crash facility. Three of the first scheduled Burlington roundabout at the Shelburne Street “rotary” fits inside the Winooski traffic circulator with plenty of space left over. The Winooski oval is a quarter mile, equal to the Thunder Road raceway in Barre Town. Note race driver Governor Scott clearly has been aware of the safety and performance of the roundabout. Governor Scott was allied with the late Senator James Jeffords who placed the word “roundabout” in the U.S. statutes for the first time, inserted on a list of eligible safety treatments receiving 100% federal funding—exactly the provision where 100% funding comes from for Burlington’s Shelburne Street “rotary” roundabout! The first adoption of roundabouts in place of signals were the NY State Department of Transportation in 2005 followed by two Canadian provincial transport ministries, British Columbia followed by Alberta. Ease of Crossing So, what intersection traffic management system—signals, signs, roundabouts, traffic calming measures, or a combination—best meets the test of “ease” of crossing an intersection for pedestrian, an in doing so also responds to pedestrian comfort and safety? Which crossing meets a minimum acceptable level? What scores 0, 1, 2, or the maximum for the factor, 3? There are three types of intersections which feature 0 seconds of delay as well as a reasonable level of pedestrian comfort and safety—all-way stops, shared space (think of Marketplace) and roundabouts. All traffic signals delay pedestrians—about 20 seconds or more. All traffic signals cause pedestrian injuries—about 20% more than the equally safe roundabout and all-way stops, according to Federal Highway Administration. It is important to view the traffic signal from the standpoint of the pedestrian. From a pedestrian viewpoint the traffic signal kills, injuries and delays pedestrians. Here in Burlington which sports 18% or 20 of the high crash intersections in Vermont, all but one are signalized. In fact, because installing a signal knowingly involves a tradeoff of some user injuries for vehicle movement efficiency, there are engineering tests mostly related to traffic volume called “warrants” which must be met in order to install a signal. A signal is an injury generating technology! AAA calls for converting signals to roundabouts as 30% of its proposed set of six treatments reduction of tens of thousands of deaths and fatalities. Sweden signal to roundabouts efforts means more roundabouts there than signals and Sweden is now converting another 30% of remaining signals to roundabouts. The Burlington 75 signals would be about 40 roundabouts and 35 signals in Sweden today with another 12 signals scheduled for roundabout conversion. Even the rather meek and mild AARP promotes converting signals to roundabouts. For those who walk our Burlington streets and/or bicycle them for any significant time, a near serious injury or possibly fatal crash with a vehicle—or an actual one—is very likely. So, too, is the likelihood over time of observing a pedestrian or bicycle crash which occur on average once a week in normal times. Walking across traffic signal intersections is perhaps the most risky behavior one experiences in Burlington day to day. Normally, a planning process would evaluate existing busy intersections and prioritize conversions to roundabouts based on expected injury reductions and other benefits ranging from environmental, racial, and income equity as well as climate change. This will be discussed further. Data from Vermont urban roundabouts confirms the high level of performance of pedestrian safety. The five town center roundabouts—Montpelier, Middlebury and Manchester Center (3)—in a half century service recorded one bumped and bruised pedestrian and 0 bike injuries. (Four non-serious car occupants were also recorded.) In terms of scoring, a roundabout, shared space and all-way stop intersection would normally receive a score of 3. A two-way-stop-control and signals with a good safety record might score 0 or 1 in a few cases. Next a discussion of intersections relationship to the new City policies of the Climate Change Emergency and Racism as a Public Health Emergency. Spoiler alert—the traffic signal does not fare well and all-way stop, shared space and the roundabout come out on top. 5. Walkability: Reach Principle, Transportation Racism and Low Income Discrimination The context of walkability factors—sidewalks, sidewalk network, grade and ease of intersection crossing have been outlined. There are walkability principles along with newly discovered application of transportation justice and equity in the form of racism and low income discrimination placed on neighborhoods where walkability is sacrificed for the sake of vehicle priority treatment. Principle of Reach One tool to determine walkability of a location or neighborhood involves applying reach—that is, the distance a pedestrian can travel in a fixed amount of time measured in minutes. For example, how far can a pedestrian travel from the top the Marketplace in ten minutes at Pearl Street/Marketplace (Church Street) intersection starting at the Unitarian Church side of the street? Assume it takes an average of 20 seconds for a pedestrian to get a walk light at an intersection and the pedestrian travels at a speed of 3 miles per hour. One can draw a diagram showing the area the pedestrian can “reach” in all directions—north along Clarke or Elmwood Ave, south on Church, west toward to the Transit Center and Battery Park and east toward North/South Union, the Willards, etc. With a string of 20 second delays from signals along Pearl it is clear the “reach” of the pedestrian is further on Church toward Main Street and north along Elmwood Avenue, etc. Each signal cut reach about 60 feet. Suddenly the walkability of a street—like Church Street with shared use, no delay intersection to Main Street—enables a far longer trip in a given time span that east or west on Pearl Street. Also, easterly to reach Willard and Williams a slight but increasing grade will affect the reach number. So, reach for a pedestrian depends on streets and intersections with all-way stops/roundabouts/shared space will always provide greater reach than a street with signalized intersections. Plus signals cause more injuries at a 20% greater rate over all-way-stops and roundabouts. Obviously reach is reduced by hills and grades—think the aptly named Hill Section of the City. Or, consider the reach at the waterfront intersection of Lake and College Streets. The sharp grade to the Marketplace easterly reduces the distance a typical pedestrian can cover in ten minutes time versus a trip along the Bikepath or south on Buttery Street. Add to this equation an older pedestrian, a person with a cane or walker and delays at intersections loom an eagerness greater factor in their reach diagram. Racism as a Public Health Emergency and Walkability in Burlington The 2020 Burlington City adoption of Racism as a Public Health Emergency aimed at identifying and eliminating racial as well as its corollary low income discrimination connects quite directly with walkability. This is new territory for folks in transportation—racism language and application to projects is new. While I have always described the pedestrian mode the apartheid mode, that term was used to describe the relationship of policies and investments in our urban areas which clearly discriminate, i.e., segregate the pedestrian versus vehicle based travel and to a lesser extent, though still a factor, bicycling. When the US adopted Right Turn on Red (RTOR) late in the last century that policy (New York City and Montreal the exceptions in North America) kills about 35 pedestrians a year and seriously injures a far larger number. RTOR clearly discriminates against pedestrians. But also—we now come to understand largely through the new City policy on racism and the now two year Environmental Justice process instigated by the Pine Street Coalition. Pine Street documented in 2018 racism is part and parcel of the current Champlain Parkway design. As leaders of the Vermont racial justice community turned their attention to the Parkway and the King Maple minority black and brown skin residents, the specter of racism became evident to all. Yes, it was known that in the Old North End and certainly in King Maple about one third of the population has no car access, but it takes a second step to recognize that pedestrian and transit dependent population very much is both minority and low income with both traffic as well as added pedestrian injury rates and delay jumping in King Maple. Given the pedestrian downgrade with the current Parkway design one get sa grasp on the clear racial injustice harm. The harm comes directly from shifting from no-delay all-way-stops today on Pine in the King Maple neighborhood to high pedestrian injuring and delay imposed on pedestrians by the Parkway new traffic signals at King and Maple intersections. Even a member of the survey of top urbanists in recorded history told Mayor Weinberger to his face replacing the all way stop at Pine and Maple Streets would be a “huge mistake” (Dan Burden on a street audit at the 2014 AARP Pine Street Workshop). Burlington normally experiences a pedestrian or bicyclist injury weekly and a fatality every five years. To be clear, the VTrans forced the City against the opposition of two Progressive Mayors—Clavelle and Kiss—and City Council as well as the neighborhood to cut King Maple in two with the Parkway. Our incoming US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg explained last month his first priority is safety, then climate change then equity—racial justice—as he condemned the use in the past of road money to cut minority neighborhoods in two, exactly the way the current Parkway design does! Hopefully the tide is turning on this but it is important to stress that it is the hurt to low income and minority pedestrians the current Parkway design entails only came to light through new federal laws, laws a grassroots group and racial justice leaders brought forcefully to the attention of City, State and Federal officials, including through a federal court lawsuit filed in 2019 by the Pine Street Coalition. The lesson here is walkability is especially critical to neighborhoods in our City, a City where 26% of it residents live below the poverty line, and a large number of low-income and minority (like the 24% minority in King Maple) lack a car and must travel by foot and transit. The next and last section of this commentary series will look at how we can apply walkability principles outlined in other sections of Burlington. __________________________________________________________________ An Aside from the Walkability Series: Burlington and America Walk and Bike Share of Transportation Trips Abnormally Low It fair to say, what difference does it make for a quality safe walkability environment in Burlington and urban America? Why should walkability be a concern if we are a typical nation where walking and bicycling are common. But that is not the case. Quite simply the share of walking and biking trips of all transportation in Burlington and rest of the nation is abnormally low—11% are walk and bike trips, 10% walk and 1% bike. The 10% of trips by foot in America is less than half the average of ten European nations. (Bike trips in America, 1% of all trips compares to the average of 9% in ten European nations surveyed where percentages ranged from 2% to 26%.) John Pucher of Rutgers University has authored individually or jointly with others the comparative walk and bike studies from the early 1990s to date. The paper “Walking and Cycling in Western Europe and the United States Trends, Policies, and Lessons” (2012) features a number of graphic pictures of how other modern nations have far higher walk and bike mode shares. http://onlinepubs.trb.org/onlinepubs/trnews/ So walkability—a context of safe, quality walking environment of our City —is a critical factor if we wish those who walk today, and hopefully more tomorrow, are provided that opportunity. With a Climate Emergency much less the potential health and air quality aspects, encouraging walking and bicycling cannot be overemphasized. And given that walking is disproportionately the choice by necessity of BIPOC and low income, the failure to provide a quality, safe context for walking now know is one of racial and income equality. So, the total United State walk share of all trips—11%—is about than half—21.3%—of average of 10 European nations ranging from 16% to 25%. (Bicycling is even worse—1% America, 2-26% 10 European nations with 9.3% average.) Yes, walking is the apartheid mode. Walkability of our City, i.e., a safe, quality walking environment remains a major transportation policy problem that has been left in the ditch for far too long. _________________________________________________________________ 6. Burlington Neighborhood Renewal—Attaining True Walkability and the Centrality of Conversions of Signalized Intersections to All-way-Stops and/or Roundabouts in that Endeavor With some of basics of walkability examined, the question must be asked, how can we bring walkability to the Burlington’s older downtown neighborhoods, namely the Old North End and King Maple where until the last decade or so workable engineering choices other than signal or sign control remained nonexistent. Besides much of pedestrian service and safety never came to the fore in the period of multi-modalism ushered in with federal highway funds pouring in starting in 1991 (Intermodal Safety Transportation Efficiency Act or ISTEA)—the other ignored mode, bicycling, received deserving attention but with its historic built in strong advocates kept walkability, the pedestrian mode, more or less in the background. One can argue bicycle advocacy delayed adoption of new and better technology for all modes, primarily the roundabout, from reaching critical mass as it has in other nations, in great part because other nations pursued safety for all transportation users. In a word while the car still retained its crown, however dulled and both transit and particularly the cycling modes received investment and attention the pedestrian mode remained as in the past, the “apartheid” mode here in the Untied States, segregated with the possible exception of support for a sidewalk network of often poor quality and surface condition to this day (number one complaint in the ONE study survey under way). Even many roundabout proponents and practitioners failed to give attention to the roundabout as central to walkability in North America. Enter the now two year outreach and analysis of Champlain Parkway, a re-examination under new federal rules for Environmental Justice. The re-examination was caused by the Pine Street Coalition filing a lawsuit in June 2019. City, VTrans and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) findings preliminarily identified the King Maple neighborhood of about 25% black and brown skinned residents (the highest such population in Vermont) in a City with the highest percentage of population living in poverty—26% according to Census. Add the characteristic that in both the Old North End and King Maple neighborhoods having about 30% of households have no access to a car. Both these neighborhoods therefore are strongly pedestrian and transit dependent, both have high numbers and proportions of residents living with poverty incomes—with the King Maple area residents not only poor and lacking car access, but also about a quarter with black and brown skin. In these neighborhoods safe routes to the bus stop, shopping and all services—to all destinations— are equally important to safe pedestrian routes for their children to school! What community advocates found in King Maple Environmental Justice was simply not only increased traffic—the obvious negative of the Parkway—also combined with the conversion of all-way-stop intersections to signals to constitute a major deterioration of the residential and transportation environment. In addition, this obvious blight and increased injury rate new context clearly disproportionately impacts on the predominately poor and pedestrian dependent BIPOC populations! One goes from of pedestrian no-delay/safe all-way-stops to higher pedestrian injury rates, substantial pedestrian delay where there is none today, and even higher levels of air pollution impacting on the health of pedestrians of all ages on the streets as well as all living in the adjacent and nearby housing. Based on the principle first “do no harm” then any shift from the current all-way-stops on the two central intersections (Pine/Maple and Pine King) to traffic signals would be, as Dan Burden said in a 2014 AARP street audit on Pine, a “huge mistake.” We must praise the efforts of former Mayors Clavelle and Kiss and their Department of Public Works and engineers for opposing the Parkway cutting the King Maple neighborhood in two and retaining any and all all-way-stops within King Maple neighborhood. FHWA and VTrans imposed the King Maple Parkway route in opposition to DPW, Mayors and Council by open threats to discard the project altogether unless the Pine Street connection to Main Street alternative was chosen. At the time there was no Environmental Justice regulation to intervene in the FHWA and VTrans demands. Dan Burden, 58th on a list of greatest urbanists of recorded history (Jane Jacobs tops the list), lead transcontinental bike tours as a young man from Alaska to Chile, but later placed first providing a safe walking environment, hence the name of his company for decades “Walkable Communities.” He was also the first State bicycle and pedestrian coordinator hired by the State of Florida to cut the more than thousand yearly pedestrian deaths there when he began. For Burden the priority has not vehicle communities, not bicycling communities—it has been walkable communities. His approach has been to address the needs of the pedestrian, if that is done he seems to imply all else can be resolved for other modes. For Burden it is pedestrians first! We know as a given Burlington records about one pedestrian injury every every two weeks, a pedestrian fatality every seven years, and 19 of 20 of its State high crash intersections are signalized. We also know applying roundabouts would reduce injuries for all modes per year per high crash intersection now 1.5 a year downward 72% to about 0.5 on average per high crash intersection. Historically, all-way-stops gave way to traffic signals in ONE and King Maple during the decades after World War 2 because all-way-stops could not and cannot handle the high traffic numbers without endless traffic jams (think of the 5 minute wait now experienced at Pine/Maple intersection in a afternoon normal times peak hour). The roundabout dating only from 1990 in North America provides not only the same two critical benefits of and all-way-stop—highest pedestrian safety and no pedestrian delay—but also about doubles the traffic capacity of signals, attains about a 30% reduction in traffic signal health harming pollutants as well as climate change emissions, about a 90% overall reduction in serious and fatal injuries across all modes, lower ongoing maintenance maintenance costs (the list of roundabout benefits goes on and on). Burlington’s first roundabout, Shelburne Rotary Roundabout also addresses a State high crash intersection termed the “intersection of death” by the neighborhood—it is 100% funded with FHWA safety monies at the intersection with an elementary school and church adjacent. In addition to the findings in King Maple in the Environmental Justice process, so too are there clear similarities in a current Chittenden County Regional Planning Commission funded study of grassroots community transportation needs of transit and pedestrian dependent being led by Laura Jacoby of Old Spokes Home. Preliminary findings identify similar Environmental Justice issues for those pedestrian dependent in ONE including high speed streets (North, Park, North Champlain Streets, etc.) as a problem of pedestrian safety and mobility, as barriers to shopping, accessing medical services, etc. Again, until the early 2000s Department of Public Works (DPW) engineering like all through North America had no choice but to shift to signals from all-way stops when traffic congestion reached unbearable levels, even though that choice inevitably increased pedestrian injuries and reduced pedestrian mobility. Yes, it was a necessary tradeoff between the car mobility increasing and decreased pedestrian safety and mobility. So today of the six busy intersections along ONE’s North Street between North Ave and North Union—the “shopping” street of ONE—four are on the State’s high crash list—North Ave, North Champlain St, North Winooski Ave, and North Union. The other two—signalized Elmwood/Intervale and Park Street—with high traffic numbers are not currently on the high crash list. Much of that traffic is north-south between the New North End and downtown areas. All major cross intersections mentioned except North Union, a 3-way all-way-stop, are signalized. Roundabout technology has been the standard in NY State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) since 2005 and in a nation like Sweden (actually slipped to fifth place in international highway safety, US once 1st, now 15th) where there are more roundabouts than signals 30% of the remaining signals there are slated for conversion to roundabouts. As newly minted US Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says of US transportation “…one of these areas where Americans have been expected to settle for less and we shouldn’t…” So, too, we can now study the North Street corridor—something suggested some years ago to the ONE Arts and Business Network (ABN) with the knowledge now there are truly effective and fairly low cost investments for transportation renewal along North Street. Already two DPW pilot roundabouts are planned for North and North Winooski intersection this year and a second intersection one block further north on North Winooski. Money is always an issue, but the likely roundabout design applicable to North Street intersections (Pine Street also) is the inexpensive mini-roundabout format which costs about a third of a signal and have no maintenance costs compared to a signal. Mini roundabouts cost at most about $50,000 while a standard signal system approaches the $200,000 level. (The Pine Street Coalition and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance are battling to stop the Champlain Parkway cutting King Maple in two, the current design. The two groups received one of five inaugural awards by the Vermont Sierra Club chapter on the first Transit Equity Day held February 4, 2021. In their thanks for the award Pine Street explained their grassroots work as a battle against “blatant environmental injustice” of the Parkway on the King Maple neighborhood.) So the Environmental Justice process on the Champlain Parkway has brought forth an approach to how we can today provide true walkability to North Street in ONE as well as applying the various elements outlined in this series throughout the neighborhoods of Burlington. The key starts as Dan Burden has often said with addressing pedestrians first! Tony Redington TonyRVT99@gmail.com February 15, 2021

Pine Street Coalition and VT Racial Justice Alliance receive joint Transit Equity Day award by VT Sierra Club Chapter

***FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE*** 4 February 2021 FOR MORE INFORMATION: Tony Redington, Coordinator Steve Goodkind Pine Street Coalition bludriver@aol.com 802-343-6616 802-316-6045 tonyrvt99@gmail.com Pine Street Coalition and Vermont Racial Justice Alliance Receive Transit Equity Award for Champlain Parkway Environment Justice Fight Burlington. VT. -- The Vermont Chapter of the Sierra Club today issued its first Transit Equity Award to the Pine Street Coalition and the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance for their collaborative work fighting the Champlain Parkway highway project in Burlington on environmental justice grounds. The award is part of the Sierra Club’s Transit Equity Day taking place on Rosa Parks’ birthday to highlight the need to transition to more environmentally-sound transportation including increased public transit. The Pine Street Coalition is a grass-roots group advocating for safer, greener transportation, particularly for bicyclists and pedestrians, in Burlington’s vibrant South End. The Vermont Racial Justice Alliance is an advocacy organization focused on dismantling racism in Vermont with a priority on public policy regarding housing, education, employment, and criminal justice. The two groups intersected over the City of Burlington’s plan to run the Champlain Parkway highway project through the middle of the Maple-King neighborhood, increasing traffic volume and speed through this predominantly Black and immigrant community. “The City’s own numbers state that their project would decrease traffic in the predominantly white, more affluent neighborhoods further south, but at the expense of increasing traffic in the Maple King neighborhood by 37 percent. More traffic and higher speeds significantly increase the safety risk to people walking and biking in this neighborhood, especially children and elders,” says Tony Redington, coordinator of the Pine Street Coalition and a prior transportation planner and policy analyst in Vermont and New Hampshire. The Pine Street Coalition filed a federal lawsuit in 2018 to stop the Champlain Parkway. Among their challenges to the project was environmental justice. The Federal Highway Administration agreed with the Coalition’s contention that environmental review had not fulfilled requirements to analyze the project’s effects on non-White and lower-income residents. The federal court case was put on hold so that the City could evaluate environmental justice impacts. Coordinating with the Racial Justice Alliance as well as Fortieth Burlington, LLC, owner of Innovation Center office complex on Lakeside Avenue, the Pine Street Coalition engaged expert witnesses from Burlington’s academic community and submitted substantial comments detailing the racial harm inherent in the City’s highway design. “As a matter of public policy, undesirable public works are often shifted to low- income neighborhoods as the path to least resistance in overcoming public objection,” said Pine Street Coalition expert Lionel Beasley, professor of Race and Media at Champlain College. “The decision to extend the Champlain Parkway along Pine Street to the Maple-King neighborhood represents the continuation of long-standing patterns that trace their origins to Urban Renewal programs and the placement of highways beginning in the late 1940s.” The City’s highway design “smacks of racism” according to retired Burlington City Engineer Steve Goodkind. “If there is any doubt about this, just imagine if the situation was reversed and downtown and affluent neighborhoods were being asked to accept greater traffic volumes in order for traffic to be reduced in the King/Maple/Pine neighborhood. There’s not a chance in hell of that happening, and we all know why,” he said. Working with the Racial Justice Alliance and Fortieth Burlington, owner of the Innovation Center on the Parkway’s path, the Pine Street Coalition developed a solution called the Champlain RIGHTway, a re-routed alternative to the Parkway which would bring traffic relief to the Maple-King community as well as more affluent South End neighborhoods, while increasing safety, decreasing environmental impacts, and costing far less. The Racial Justice Alliance, with support from the Pine Street Coalition and Fortieth Burlington, presented the Champlain RIGHTway proposal to state and federal officials three weeks ago, who have as of yet failed to respond to their demands for environmental justice. The Sierra Club granted the award acknowledging the unique collaboration between Pine Street Coalition and the Racial Justice Alliance because it “believes that these types of partnerships are what is needed to challenge systemic racism and institutional poor transportation planning.” www.SafeStreetsBurlington.com https://www.facebook.com/SSBPineStreetNOW Stop Transportation Racism! Redesign the Champlain Parkway!

Housing for All--Guns, No Rental Help for All Vermonters

Housing for All!

Housing Act of 1949  declares a need for establishing a national housing goal of “a decent home and suitable living environment for every American family.”   (Note “environment” held a meaning tied to slum housing rather than clean air and free from contamination of today.) From this beginning we now have 14,000 units “affordable housing assistance” comprised of Section 8/Public Housing/Housing Choice Vouchers/etc.,one in five renters here in Vermont today--all pegged at 30% household income rent max rents (Reagan raised it from 25% to 30% and we need to go back to 25%).  

Leahy has been able to get about 300 units yearly of affordable housing assistance in the Trump years and this should expand significantly in the Biden administration.  The one in five renters enjoy 30% income max rents today--about half the need.  VP Harris proposed bill last year (Rent Relief Act) would make 30% income rent max universal for low income through a monthly tax credit check like senior food benefit going directly into a checking account--homelessness erased overnight.  Can switch COTS to an urban youth hostel!

Cost of this is cheap, now about $100 million a year for 14,000 of the low income units now, so another $100 million a year would do it--about equal to the homeownership subsidies which have little justification.  

Still do coops, ADUs and other good things knowing all can avail themselves of such units--and avoid the ghastly specter we now see before us in City Place (current status), and the already built rich folks housing of Redstone, etc. 

Compared to the $336 million yearly Vermonters are shouldering in defense this year versus the last Obama year, $100 million to meet the needs of low income for affordable rental homes is really a piece of cake.  Military needs have significantly declined with withdrawals from Iraq and Afghanistan. 

US MILITARY BUDGET AND VERMONTERS ANNUAL SHARE 

    OF THE INCREASE UNDER PRESIDENT TRUMP 2020  

       COMPARED TO THE LAST YEAR OF THE OBAMA 

                           ADMINISTRATION IN

Federal Fiscal Year      Total Spending

2016     767.6  (Last Obama budget)

2017  818.9

2018   890.8

2019    904.3

2020          935.8  Appropriation

2021   933.8  Budgeted

Increase during Trump  2016 to 2020:  168.2 billion/year higher in 2020 than in last Obama expenditure in 2016.  VT per capita share of increase ($2 million/billion): $336 million/year additional per capita support versus 2016 last Obama budget.  Cost of 14,000 HUD 30% household income max per month rental program (about 40% of need) ~$104 million

Source:  The Balance https://www.thebalance.com/u-s-military-budget-components-challenges-growth-3306320

Burlington Senior Population Climbs Sharply 2010-2019, Now 12% of City Residents

Burlington Senior Population Jumps 2010-2019

While Burlington remains forever young with  some 15,000 college students from UVM, Champlain College and Saint Michael’s residing here, the greying of Vermont seeped into its population since 2010.  

If Census 11.7% of Burlington’s 2019 estimated population of 42,819 is 65-and-over gets confirmed by the Census this year, then the 5,010 senior population 2010-2019 growth jumped 1,024 or 25.7% from the 3,986 2010 number.  Burlington senior population actually declined 104 between 2000-2010.  

Still, while Census estimates the City gained 402 residents 2010-2019, the 1,024 senior growth more than doubles that number--this means 2010-2019 non-senior (under 65) population declined, about 622 residents!

So from 2010 to 2019, the percentage of senior population in the Queen City increased from 10.3% to 12.2% of all residents.

Meanwhile, statewide Vermont is in the process of a 2010-2030 senior growth leading its share of total population from 12% to 24% during the period.  Averaging the two official state projections, each year during the 2010-2030 period a town size of Stowe, about 4,000, senior population is added to the state population while a town the size of Johnson, 3,000, decline occurs in the under 65 age population.  

As far as overall population is concerned from 2010 to now statewide there has been a slight decline and little increase is expected as of now through 2030.  Early in this decade another set of 20 year projections can be expected to be commissioned by the State.

Chittenden County area is the only showing any population gain since 2010 but even here the entire growth, about 8,000, is composed of seniors 65-and-over with little change those below in age. 

No Affordable Shelter Provided by Vermont or Burlington for the Low-income and Homeless who Must go Wanting

 The mythology of non-profit “affordable” housing by the State of Vermont and organizations like Champlain Housing Trust and the Vermont Housing Finance Agency, is just that: a myth. Only federal “affordable housing assistance”, 30% income max rents, provide truly affordable housing through thick or thin, household income or no household income. Vermont “affordable” is middle class housing mostly with rents of $1,000 or more and no protection for downturns in income as has occurred for many in the pandemic. Burlington's “inclusionary zoning” requiring 10-25% of privately developed housing have a rent—now $1,200 monthly for a one-bedroom rent maximum—solidly a middle class housing type.

There is some modest good news statewide on the federal assistance for low income, now dominated by Housing Choice Vouchers in the hands of the low-income household or Section 8 units attached to a few or all of new construction projects with a 27-year contract to assure the units follow 30% income rent max and enable public and/or private financing.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities update recently numbers fed “affordable housing assistance” 30% income max rent units increased from 13,000 to 14,000 units, some of that increase occurring, apparently, during the Trump administration. https://www.cbpp.org/research/housing/federal-rental-assistance-fact-sheets#VT The 14,000 units equal 13% of the 2010 renters in Vermont, about one in five rental households. Based on the 75,100 rental households in the 2010 Census, 14,000 fed units now in place represent 18.6% of all renters, almost one in five. As Vermont has a substantial number of college students in private rental housing, particularly in the Burlington and surrounding towns, the estimate of one in five renters receiving “affordable housing assistance” is a fair one.

Still, while the number of federal units have increased by 1,000, during the same period the need estimated by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities increased from 15,000 to 16,800, an increase of 1,800, so Vermont fell another 800 units behind in “affordable housing assistance” units needed. As the Vermont non-senior population is in decline as the 2010-2030 senior population doubles, the priority must be tilted towards older Vermont rental housing assistance.

Taking these estimates one step further, the 2010 75,100 renters in Vermont less 15,000 federal rental assistance units leaves 61,100 households with 16,800 or 27% of the current non-assisted renters in need of fed rental assistance. The wait lists in Burlington area—1,000 at Burlington Housing Authority and an equal number at Cathedral Corporation which serves older and disabled Vermonters with age-restricted housing mostly, overall 2,000 on the wait lists—confirms the scale of need in the Center's estimates.

It must be kept in mind that there is not overall Vermont housing plan, and neither the State or Burlington provide a single unit of fed type assistance, i.e., rental units where a family or individual pays 30% of gross income max for shelter including all utilities. Still, the Coalition of Vermont Elders (COVE) the lobbyist group for older Vermonters seeks a state needs analysis for the first time for continuum of housing and housing assistance needs from rental, homeownership, in-home assistance, assisted living, etc.

Do the Vermont, City and non-profit programs help? Yes, they do help provide a needed housing supply and do directly subsidize mostly the middle income rental costs. Do State programs deal with housing assistance needs or alleviate increasing income inequality in the housing area? Likely just slightly opposite in net in the absence of low-income housing assistance programming.