Dear Editor,
As a former three-term progressive Burlington city councilor who spent the last 12 years of my career working in the recovery field — as the executive director of both the Turning Point Center and Recovery Partners of Vermont — I feel compelled to write about the state of our city.
I’m opposed to opening a safe injection site in Burlington. Our city is in trouble, and our viability as a destination for vacations and regional leisure activities like dining and shopping is in jeopardy.
Instead of investing millions of dollars in supporting active addiction, I suggest we invest that money in building a treatment and recovery system that provides treatment on demand. If someone is ready to go to a treatment program, that request should be met with an open door for treatment at the point of request. Today, people must wait up to two weeks before a treatment bed is available. That is a huge barrier for someone who is ready to go and a delay that could — and has — cost many people their lives.
We lost a 41-bed treatment program, Maple Leaf, about 10 years ago. The state has never made up that loss. It was not only a loss to the state but a huge Chittenden County resource lost.
I drive by City Hall Park every day on my way to the YMCA. It is absolutely shameful that we have let things get this bad. The park that was redesigned for families is frightening and out of control. When I recently ran a booth as part of celebrating the nation’s 250th birthday, I was presented with a woman who pulled her pants down and urinated right in front of me on the grass.
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Battery Park is going in the same direction. Recently, I was giving a Burlington history tour, and we were confronted with a mob on the walkway at the front of the park. There was fighting, drinking and loud music. I could not get close enough to show my customers a special view of the beautiful lake and mountains. I was embarrassed. We stopped and turned away.
Adding a safe injection site where people can continue their active addiction will only bring us further down in a spiral that breaks my heart. Some say that if we have any compassion, we will open this injection center. I say building a more comprehensive treatment and recovery system is our way of showing compassion and putting the emphasis on recovery, not active addiction.
People in recovery will tell you that they want to be held accountable for their actions. For some reason here in Burlington, we have decided accountability is not all that important. It seems to me it’s the bedrock of a civil society. We do no favor to people by bending and breaking the law. I hope that, as the guardians of this city, Burlington City Council will steer us to a better future. I’m certainly available for any discussions on this matter.
Gary De Carolis,
Burlington, Vt.
