Editor’s note: This two-part story is accompanied by a four-segment video, “Assessing Burlington’s Fresh Start.” Segments Three and Four are embedded below. Read Part 1.
http://youtu.be/6U1dh95Zn78
Part Three – Development: Changing how people experience City Hall Park; talking with the Pecors, changing waterfront attitudes, and unfinished business; maintaining affordability and how limiting growth can become a route to gentrification. (6:23)
http://youtu.be/Y9_axrHsroY
Part Four – Race, F-35s and Favorite Things: Reducing noise, uncertainty about the Air Guard’s future; support for Superintendent Collins’ equity plan – but no comment on her contract; intriguing replies to Actor’s Studio questions. (9:56)
“When people think of gentrification they think of an area of town that’s inexpensive to live and developers come in and they build luxury condos, and all of a sudden it becomes expensive and people get forced out,” said Mayor Miro Weinberger during an interview last week.
But in Burlington the route may be different, what he called “the Chestnut Hill way in Boston of getting to gentrification.” That former village less than 10 miles from Boston has become a posh, expensive preserve filled with historic sites.
“If you have a place that is desirable to live and where people want to live, and you don’t allow for any growth, or limited growth, what happens is the existing housing stock becomes more expensive and it forces people out that way,” he argued. “And I think that’s a far greater risk for Burlington now.”
Weinberger was talking about development, a favorite topic, in response to a question on whether he thinks Burlington can remain an affordable place to live. In discussing housing he had said that the cost was being driven largely by an unpredictable zoning and building system, but proposed occupancy limits could make the problem worse unless accompanied by other more systemic changes.
On the other hand, “we have some built-in protections,” he said, and described inclusionary zoning as “our ordinance against gentrification.” Any new housing development must provide some affordable housing. “That’s a good protection,” he agreed.
But he suggested that attitudes about growth and development may be changing, and related that to one of the most exciting development projects on his horizon — the prospect of a new public-private waterfront partnership to develop a key parcel between the Echo Center and the ferry dock, Lake Champlain Transportation Co. land owned by the Pecor family.
“To me that piece of property is the heart of the waterfront, it is the most accessible part of our waterfront,” he said. “It has the greatest potential for expansion. What I often said in the campaign is that we have unfinished business there, and that we have not fully reclaimed the waterfront from its industrial past.”
According to a 2011 city progress report on waterfront revitalization, the land is filled and restricted somewhat by the Public Trust Doctrine. But it is in a section where more uses are potentially allowable. The report says the private owner is open to providing services and facilities for the public, and lists multiple potential commercial uses including a restaurant, a ships store, hotel and conference center, and expanded marina.
“I’m excited that they are open to talking about what the potential is with their site, whether there could be some accommodation or expansion of what I talked about during the campaign,” he said. That means some expansion of public uses and public access to the waterfront, “coupled with some private development – since it is their land.”
Asked about limits to that type of growth he replied, “Absolutely. We’re not going to start putting up buildings on Waterfront Park. Anything that happens on the Pecor property needs to maintain public access along the water itself.” He mentioned an extension of the boardwalk and, if the plan included a hotel and conference center, “meaningful public space on that site,” plus “I would hope more than just a setback. We need to see how the plans develop.”
He knows that how the waterfront – the city’s premier natural area, but also a key economic resource – should be used has long been controversial. But he suggested that “something has a little bit shifted and there is a greater openness now. It has been 10 years since we’ve had much evolution of the waterfront, and I sense a greater desire about people wanting to see more there, more opportunities to enjoy the waterfront.”
He is also excited about a plan to re-imagine City Hall Park. He recently visited an exhibit at Burlington City Arts that shows how the park might look, and came away impressed. The concept includes a permanent stage, removal bandstand, snackbar/café, sculptural lighting, demonstration rain garden, and new fountains. BCA began soliciting ideas last July with a $50,000 National Endowment for the Arts challenge grant.
“If that got built the way the city used and enjoyed City Hall Park would change dramatically,” Weinberger predicted. “And I’d like to see that happen.”
The F-35s: Obvious benefits vs. uncertain costs
As mayor, Weinberger felt he owed the public a statement of how he felt about basing F-35s at the Burlington International Airport. As a former Airport Commissioner before his election, he had also heard more than most locals about various aircraft and their local noise impacts.
By the time the Air Force held a public hearing he felt he already knew enough and quietly issued a brief statement in support a few days later. Basically, he realizes that many of his liberal supporters don’t want the planes and won’t like this decision. But he feels that significant benefits outweigh the known costs, in particular potential neighborhood noise impacts.
When asked about the economic benefits, he had the numbers in mind: an estimated $55 million in direct wages, $3 million in emergency response services provided by the National Guard, plus the commercial bonuses ripple effect when weekend exercises are held. “It’s a very substantial number,” he said.
There is also the uncertainty surrounding the future of the Air Guard to consider, if the F-35 is not based in South Burlington. “Maybe somewhere within the military someone knows what the answer is,” he said. “But the local people have said they don’t know what will happen if there is no F-35.”
He says the conventional wisdom is that F-16s are being phased out, although he is also aware of some “suggestion which, I will admit I don’t fully understand, that maybe there will be an additional generation of F-16s that can replace these. Certainly the National Guard, in meetings I’ve had with them, has suggested real uncertainty.”
As he understands the timeline, the airframe for the current F-16 lasts 8,000 hours and the planes based locally have around 6,000. Each plane flies about 400 to 500 hundred hours a year per. “The implications are that the life of the planes are five to six years,” said. “I have a lot of numbers – maybe five to eight years.”
Asked about the downside, he brought up an “apples to apples comparison that there is some noise impact.” Beyond that, he made no points about budget priorities, boondoggles, creating jobs, or the need for the plane.
He does believe that the Guard can minimize the sound impact by the manipulating way they operate the afterburners and the pitch used when they take off and land. “I believe them when they say they would do that with the F-35 in a way that may well mean that the actual sound impact is different than the contours that have been generated,” he said.
Racism: Cautious words from a newcomer
During the campaign Weinberger spoke about visiting neighborhoods and realizing that the city was at the crucial point where cultural and racial tensions could clearly be felt. He also said that the next mayor would have to lead in this area and promised “as the only citywide elected official, to move that conversation forward.”
Last week he released a statement saying that he intends to be “a partner” in the effort to address racism and harassment in the public school system. He also praised Superintendent Collins for “making good on her commitment to release a plan.”
When asked whether this signaled support for her contract extension, however, he declined to comment. “That was not the intention of that statement,” he said. He was simply welcoming her apology for being slow to address racism in the schools.
“It’s obviously a tense and difficult time,” he said.
Weinberger said Collins’ recent proposals are a “potential way forward,” but he offered no comment on the criticism of her inaction, the general climate or the strong feelings, in part on display at a recent City Council meeting. Instead, he posed a question to those calling for rapid change or Collins’ replacement.
Basically, he asked the superintendent’s critics whether her plan, “which in many ways echoes things that have been called for by organized groups and the community more broadly, is a platform from which we can move forward and address racism in the schools?”
As a leader, he knows that people expect him to speak out, “in part because of what I said during the campaign. I don’t think I could be quiet or completely inactive on this issue. I do feel responsible.” But he has been cautious and has said little about what a “fresh start” would look like in addressing racism.
He described himself more than once as “new to the discussion,” as “someone who has not been intimately involved in the debate and who is a new part to this.” As a result, he professed the desire to be careful “about finding my right role here. I’m very conscious that I’m new to the discussion.”
Beyond that he didn’t want to get into details, “out of sensitivity for the moment we’re in.” School Board Chair Keith Pillsbury recently called it a teachable moment. But Weinberger passed on the opportunity to offer insights about Collins’ handling of the Task Force Report or teacher David Rome’s critique, two of the main reasons why Councilor Vince Brennan and others want her replaced. Discussions of her contract extension by the Board of School Commissioners begin on June 12.
On camera Weinberger sufficed to suggest that making public statements has not been the limit of his work “on this issue in these sensitive weeks. And I’d like to leave it at that for now.”
Hard work, no regrets
Despite all the deadlines and serious matters at hand, Weinberger had a few minutes left, at the close of an interview lasting more than an hour, near the end of a long day, to be a good sport about a well-known quiz. Developed by the French editor Bernard Pivot the questions became a rapid fire, wind up questionnaire for performers on the TV Show, “Inside the Actors Studio.”
Asking for immediate positive and negative preferences – in words, activities, sounds and employment – they amount to a brief word association exercise that can provide a window into some of what motivates people. In Weinberger’s case the answers to several questions offered clues.
For his least favorite word the mayor chose “regret.” Moments later, when the topic was what turns him off, he used the same word again, after two first choices – “indecision” and “paralysis.” He also has no use for “do-overs,” he said. Weinberger was describing someone who wants to be decisive and forward looking, hopefully with a number of options.
What turns him on, in addition to being in the outdoors, is “being engaged in challenging fast-paced decisions.”
But somewhere inside may lurk a part of him that is not as excited about dealing with numbers and money. Asked what profession he would definitely not like to do Weinberger quickly chose “banker.” And the road not travelled, the job other than his own he would like to attempt?
For that he easily returned to a childhood dream – “baseball player.”
The last question on the list is different. “If heaven exists,” it gently suggests, “what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?”
Weinberger, who sometimes stumbles and edits himself mid-sentence when fielding delicate questions or those with uncertain political implications, did not hesitate much before offering the reply of a determined competitor. “You worked hard,” he hoped God would say, “you gave it everything you had, and you didn’t leave anything on the field.”
