Dear editor,
Regarding “Suresh Garimella: UVM and Burlington, collaborating for a brighter future”…
I have a marketing agency in Burlington, and this cheery note bears little resemblance to the reality of the city where I live and have my business.
One of the rules of getting people to believe your message is to be truthful. One way to do that is to share the bad along with the rainbows and kittens good.
Respectfully, this president is maybe the fifth University of Vermont president I have heard utter this exact same rose-colored speech — culminating in the exact same (lack of) results.
Yes, there’s a long list of “not much has changed,” but at the top has always been housing, more accurately the lack of student housing, putting neverending exorbitant rental prices on people who want to live and work in Burlington.
We don’t have a lack of housing. You, UVM, have a multi-decade lack of housing for your students.
Burlington landlords love you, as without rent control, there is no ceiling to rental prices in Burlington.
Art Bell
Burlington
