The Burlington City Council voted to remove the controversial “Everyone Loves a Parade” mural in the Church Street Marketplace this summer, accelerating a planned takedown of the mural “by 2022.”Â
The council voted 11-1 to remove the mural, just before midnight Monday night, with Councilor Joan Shannon, D-South District, voting no.
The mural has been criticized as racist for its lack of inclusion of the Abenaki tribe and people of color. The mural, completed in 2012, was intended to commemorate French explorer Samuel de Champlain’s arrival in the region more than 400 years ago.
The mural was vandalized a couple of times, most recently in November 2018. The council set the “by August 2022” deadline in October 2018.
The resolution states that the council found it in the public interest to remove the mural before the 2022 deadline “due to the continuing hurt that the mural is causing members of the community.”
The city will cover the mural or remove it to a suitable site for storage until a plan is developed by Aug. 31. The council’s Parks, Arts and Culture committee and city departments will develop a recommendation for the relocation or permanent disposition of the mural by the end of September.
Councilor Zoraya Hightower, P-Ward 1, said she had been frustrated about the mural and the rhetoric surrounding it. She said while the mural overwhelmingly features white people and isn’t representative of the whole community, Hightower feels the response to the mural is also misguided.Â
“It bothers me that this is the win we’re fighting for, and who seems to be fighting for it,” she said. “People of color are losing in Burlington in all kinds of ways, but instead of looking at that, and looking at the hard issues, the systemic issues that people of color are finding, we’re finding ways to make Burlington look less problematic.”
Hightower said she had received racist, threatening emails from people who support leaving the mural up and problematic emails from those who want it to come down saying she would be racist if she voted to leave it in place.Â
She said she was concerned that this was the only race issue brought up to her by white residents, and that only white residents had discussed it with her before yesterday.
“It feels like we’ve doubled-down with what I think honestly is some white privilege on removing this symbol of white guilt,” Hightower said. “If I were getting a flood of emails from white folks also talking disaggregated data, pay gaps and police training, I wouldn’t be as worried about this.”Â
Hightower said she agreed with the heart of the resolution but hoped that the activists who had been pushing for the removal of the mural would work with affected communities on issues that matter to them.Â
Councilor Sarah Carpenter, D-Ward 4, said she supported the mural coming down now as she felt like it was time to move on.
“Art should not be hurtful, and we’ve got to move on and get the systemic issues worked on,” she said.
Shannon said she was not defending the mural with her no vote, but believes this is the wrong time for the council to prioritize the mural.Â
“To the extent that we have funds to address racial issues and inequities, I think we should spend those funds at this point in time, in ways that meet a very real need in our community that go beyond symbolic gestures that maybe make us feel good,” she said.
Councilor Brian Pine, P-Ward 3, said the mural was “deeply problematic” and didn’t accurately reflect Burlington’s history.Â
“It’s ultimately an exclusionary piece of work that essentially erases entire groups and races of people, and essentially implies we are here in a great state, in a great community, almost entirely due to the work of people of European descent, and I think that causes great pain and great harm,” he said.