Letters to the Editor (11/26/24)

Nothing ‘Safe’ About It

[Re “Burlington City Council to Study Needle-Exchange Program,” October 28, online]: Howard Center provides great value to the Burlington community. However, its irresponsible management of the Safe Recovery program on Clarke Street is a disgrace. The staff admits it hands out 20,000 needles a month without requiring an exchange and therefore is responsible for 15,000 needles discarded in Burlington every month.

Additionally, the staff condones open drug use and loitering on its property, which has turned the center into a de facto injection site. Livability on Clarke Street has declined dramatically, with more frequent break-ins, discarded needles, verbal abuse of residents and even human defecation on neighboring properties. Howard Center is no longer operating a needle exchange program; it is a drug paraphernalia distribution facility. Howard Center should be embarrassed to be violating its own code of ethics with the harm it is doing to the neighborhood and the city. Instead, it places the perceived needs of the drug abusers over its neighbors and the city. While other Howard Center programs work well, the Safe Recovery center is a blight on its otherwise positive reputation.

Robert Perry

Warren

Cue the Savoy

[Re “Merrill’s Roxy Cinemas in Burlington to Close,” November 8, online]: I thought it might be helpful to remind Chittenden County that there is a great art-house theater in Montpelier, on Main Street, that is quite a gem. The Savoy Theater routinely hosts unique events and has incredible titles you won’t find elsewhere. All flood renovations are complete. To quote James O’Hanlon, the kind and thoughtful owner, “the Savoy Theater is Vermont’s coziest 2-screen cinema offering art-house films in a historic building. Our mission remains to provide Vermont with the most thought-provoking documentaries, independent features, and international offerings.”

While in central Vermont, enjoy the shops around Main Street, most of which have reopened since the floods. See you at the movies in Montpeculiar, Vt.! Support local business!

Anne MacLeod

Calais

Doctored Photo?

This is not something I would consider a big deal, and I hesitate to put this out as criticism, but I am quite curious about a photo shown on your “Contents” page in the past two issues [November 13 and 20]. The photo shows Joseph Pell Lombardi on a village green. Last week I noticed something strange about the photo and, upon closer inspection, we can see that while the subject’s face is clearly illuminated from the right side of the photo, the shadows in the background indicate the sun is definitely on the left side.

I would guess that this photo is doctored and respect the difficulty a graphics person might experience in putting content like this together. I have to wonder if a detail like this is commonly overlooked in this kind of graphics manipulation. Or am I missing something and seeing this wrong?

I would love to know if anyone else noticed this.

Nate Goldman

Underhill

Editor’s note: In the age of AI, you’re right to wonder and ask the question. The image was a photo illustration that combined a photo of the Parsonage in Peru taken by Eva Sollberger and a photo of preservation architect Joseph Pell Lombardi taken by Mark Seliger. Lombardi lives in New York and was interviewed via Zoom and the phone for this “Stuck in Vermont” video. The photos were combined to preview the content of the video, which focused on Lombardi and his restoration work in Vermont. We typically mark photo illustrations as such in our editorial content but overlooked doing so for this video teaser; apologies for the confusion.

Cry for Help

In [“No Phone Zones: To Limit Distractions and Encourage Student Interaction, More Vermont Schools Are Restricting the Use of Digital Devices,” September 4], Harwood Union High School junior Cashel Higgins says: “I think that every student in the school does know they’re addicted to their phone.”

I agree with this part of the article a lot, because I myself am addicted to my phone. I use it constantly for class and outside of class. It’s really hard not to get attached to it, and I get it: We are growing up in this generation in which technology is used most of the time. I don’t want to be addicted to the phone but can’t help it.

I am a shy person, and when I don’t have my phone with me, I don’t know what to do, because I don’t talk to people much. But when I have my phone with me, I can just be on my phone. I know it’s not just me; it’s every single person in my class who does this.

I know I am not the only one addicted to my phone.

Neeha Rai

Essex Junction

Great Ideas in Feedback

Lori Barg’s idea of converting climate-controlled storage units to provide at least short-term shelter for those who need it sounds great [Feedback: “‘Out-of-the-Box’ Housing,” October 30]. I’ve thought of this myself. Some storage businesses do a great job landscaping, and it makes these units look very livable.

I’ve seen many great ideas in Seven Days‘ Feedback over the years. Where can they be directed to be taken seriously? I’ve had lots of ideas myself and have sent them to the mayor’s office but never heard back. I know that’s a busy place, but where else should they go? In at least one of my emails, I asked where I should send my ideas. No answer.

There are a lot of smart, motivated people here with great ideas, and some even have time to research and take action. It’s all wasted, just down the drain, useless. And that’s wrong. Does anyone have a solution to this? Can’t we have someplace to send ideas for them to be evaluated and at least added to a database for future action, perhaps passed on to an appropriate action group?

Tree Spaulding

Burlington

After Tuesday

The election was a nightmare.Then I awokeTo find out, it was all very real.Although here in Vermont…We will always have Bernie!

David Przepioski

Montpelier

Define ‘Reduce’

I must say the headline “Weakened Senate Dems Say Property Taxes are ‘No. 1 Priority’” [November 16] brought an audible chortle to my lips.

This line in particular: Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Baruth “reminded colleagues, including three new ones, that last year they ‘worked like dogs’ to reduce the possible property tax burden by a combined $70 million compared to what it could have been.”

I do not think that word “reduce” means what you think it means, Senator. My property taxes soared 12 percent in 2024.

No wonder Democrats lost their supermajority. Their ruinous tax-and-spend policies have put tremendous hardship on working families. Vermonters have had enough.

Chris Harvey

Essex Town

New Deal-Making

[Re “Democrats Lose Supermajority in Vermont House, Senate,” November 6]: Vermont voters in outlying districts beyond Burlington blockade the ultra-left’s ability to unilaterally navigate a disputed agenda. With accruing crises, the legislature and administration might be wise to practice the diplomatic art of compromise.

Though, even with both factions working harmoniously, will voters’ concern for affordability in education and health care be met without causing citizen unease over deleted services, and, also, can the assignment be completed during the initial session of the upcoming biennium?

The beaten can no longer be kicked down the dusty road.

Stephen A. Jarvis

Swanton

Trading Places

In his November 13 cartoon, Tim Newcomb got it wrong. He had the donkeys drinking beer and the elephant with a martini in front of him. Nowadays it’s the other way around.

Bill Scheller

Randolph

Every Vote Counts

[Re “Prison Appeal: With a First-Ever Candidate Forum Inside a Correctional Facility, the State Looks to Improve Voting Access for Inmates,” October 30]: The recent article on improving inmate voting access failed to mention the League of Women Voters of Vermont, which has been registering incarcerated Vermonters to vote since 2018.

Collaborating with the Department of Corrections’ volunteer services, the league works with DOC volunteer coordinators to register inmates. As of October 11, 2024, 149 inmates were assisted in filling out voter registration and absentee ballot request forms.

During COVID-19, when prisons were closed to visitors, the league produced a professional video for inmates, showing them how to complete voter registration forms. The league sent this video, together with voter registration forms and our “Voting in Vermont” brochure, to each DOC volunteer coordinator. The videos could be viewed on closed-circuit television as inmates completed voter registration forms.

Through the years, league volunteers have reported that voter registration drives at correctional facilities have been very positive, with inmates and staff who are welcoming and ready to help.

In 2026, the League of Women Voters of Vermont will hold voter registration drives at correctional centers for statewide and county elections and will be recruiting volunteers. Contact league@lwvofvt.org.

Sue Racanelli

East Montpelier

Racanelli is president of the League of Women Voters of Vermont’s board of directors.

What’s Her Name?

I was so heartened by the article “The Lost Ladies of Lakeview Cemetery” [October 30], as I have come across that perplexing and irritating “tradition” myself. As a retired librarian, I volunteer at the Vermont Historical Society’s Leahy Library as a cataloger, and on occasion material will come through crediting women authors/contributors, but only under their husbands’ names, unless unmarried.

If the woman is to be included in the catalog record as an entity unto herself, I try to find out her name, as she was the one who did all the work — not her husband! Recently I was writing the history of the Northfield News for the newsletter of the Northfield Historical Society. For three years, from 1913 to 1916, a woman ran the paper, under her recently deceased husband’s name. Argh!

I was able to use the Ancestry website to discover her real name, Erval Whitney. If she was running a newspaper, she had every right to be known by her own name.

All this to say: Kudos to Holli Bushnell for trying to right this wrong. I appreciate all the work she has done and continues to do. Not an easy task, but very rewarding. History and genealogy will be forever grateful!

Kay Schlueter

Northfield Falls

The Cost of College

[Re “UVM to Raise Tuition for Undergraduates Next Year,” October 25, online]: The University of Vermont is one of two colleges I’m considering. The only thing that has made me cautious about it is the cost. I know that all colleges are expensive, especially if you live on campus. As UVM continues to raise the cost, it makes me worried about how much I would be paying. I’m sure I am not the only one who is concerned about the rising cost of tuition.

“UVM has long been one of the more expensive public colleges in the nation,” Anne Wallace Allen wrote in your story. So many UVM students are from out of state and make up about 77 percent of the college population. The cost of living has been increasing everywhere — even here in Vermont. Many UVM students graduate with a ton of debt to pay, as well as paying for living here or anywhere else.

The article also mentioned that the UVM board of trustees is keeping in mind how much the costs are on students but that it is necessary to increase the tuition to keep the college running. It blows my mind how expensive college has become, and tuition continues to become even more expensive.

Katelyn Fontaine

South Burlington

Trans-gression

[Re “Sticky Situation: A Proposed Burlington Ordinance Would Let People Sue Over Hateful Graffiti and Stickers. First Amendment Lawyers Have Concerns,” November 6]: There is a crucial distinction, of which Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak and Burlington resident Olivia Taylor seem unaware, between wishing someone harm and disagreeing with their own self-conception. It is entirely consistent to support transgender individuals’ civil rights and human dignity while disagreeing that they were literally born in the wrong body — a perspective that is controversial even among trans people!

Such differences of metaphysical opinion are fundamental to a truly inclusive society. Many transgender people do indeed feel very strongly that they were born in the wrong body, and many Christians feel equally strongly that they are saved by Jesus Christ. I should be just as free to state that no one is born in the wrong body, even to write it on a sticker if I wish, as I am to say that heaven isn’t real. There is a difference between being uncomfortable or offended and being unsafe.

Edie Quinn

Fletcher