BRATTLEBORO-Stop making Brattleboro a dumping ground for all the greater region's criminal and drug population. Other towns need to share in the effort to combat these societal problems. It cannot all rest on Brattleboro's shoulders.
Otherwise, Brattleboro will eventually collapse under the weight and become a dystopian hellscape of crime, drugs, and homelessness, as Portland, Oregon has become and as Burlington, Vermont is becoming.
To be clear, homelessness does not always coincide with drug behavior and crime, but it is nonetheless a societal problem that the greater region is shouldering Brattleboro with disproportionately.
As a downtown business owner, I have front-row seats to what goes on down here every day. If you are not here often, please do not comment on that which you do not know about.
Brattleboro, like much of the United States, is all too often putting the subjective feelings of the individual ahead of the rights and health of the community. I have generally voted Democrat my entire adult life. However, in recent times, a frightening portion of the left has become so...
The police deserve support when they do a good job, and the Brattleboro Police Department overwhelmingly has done a good job for our community. However, our police need more staffing and resources. Downtown Brattleboro, especially the parking garage, needs a much greater police presence. The police need to be...
Hopefully more and more people will join the growing movement to have Brattleboro either step up or tear down the parking garage. A huge number of people no longer park there because the town has abdicated its basic duty to taxpayers and citizens to maintain the garage. Let's go through some basic undisputed facts about its current state: • Trash and stains punctuate the parking garage. Parking enforcement told me there used to be a full-time caretaker of the garage...
Further large scale wind development is completely incompatible with Vermont's landscape, resources, scenery, and overall economic drivers. I was elated to read about the proposed plan that says that large-scale wind turbines are unsuitable for the 27-town Windham County region. Wind farms destroy mountaintop environments forever. I think if the general public saw what kind of large-scale devastation the creation of a wind farm does to a mountain environment, they would be aghast. Typically, the wind company has to lop...
Forrest Gump ran across America multiple times, in less time than it has taken to get a skatepark in Brattleboro. NASA's Exploration Rover traveled all the way to Mars while this town has floundered on getting a skatepark. It has taken longer for Brattleboro to get a skatepark than World Wars I and II, combined. In fact, the Panama Canal, the Empire State Building, the Burj Khalifa, the Titanic, the White House, Michelangelo's statue of David, and the St. Louis...
If everyone donated $1 for every discussion about the Brattleboro Skate Park, we would have had enough money to build 73,242 skate parks by now. The time for superfluous discussion is over. The discussion topic of the skate park has been beaten to death. I sincerely think it has been discussed more than Vermont Yankee, the Middle East, and the Champlain Monster combined. It has gotten to the point of gross absurdity. It has become an embarrassment to our community's...
The network of trails in Wilmington and Marlboro has expanded dramatically. It has been so great to hike and mountain bike all over Hogback Mountain and down near Lake Raponda. Additionally, the Hoot, Toot, and Whistle Trail and Valley Trail in Wilmington have made huge strides towards completion this year. These trails are tremendous assets to the area, and all are encouraged to get out on their bikes, or to hike, especially with fall in full effect.