The amount of people and activities that have been seen around the waterfront lately can only mean one thing… summer is almost here! If you haven’t had a chance to see what is new, get the scoop by attending our Waterfront “FAM” Tour on June 6. In the meantime, here is an update on some of the fun and interesting happenings around Burlington’s greatest natural resource.
The Keybank Vermont City...
That big empty retail space across from the bus station on Church Street? Filled. City Sports, a retailer of athletic gear that originated in Boston, held their Grand Opening Event May 6.
“This is exciting for Burlington,” said Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the BBA. “When BBA Board Member Jeff Nick broke the news at our Holiday Social in December, there were cheers throughout the room. Over the past two years, vacancy on Church Street has dropped to near 0. When Church Street is vibrant, it helps all of our downtown businesses."
The Grand...
Prescription Drug Take Back Day Returns
1,000,000 pound mark to be eclipsed
Join Burlington and the rest of the nation work towards emptying our homes of unneeded medications. This Saturday, April 28, the Burlington Police Department (BPD) will participate in the 4th Annual Prescription Drug Take Back Day.
Residents of Burlington can drop off their extra medications at the police department from 10:00 AM to 1:30 PM, which helps to keep the drugs off the street. Brooke Hadwen, Coordinator of the Community Support Program with (BPD), noted that “there has been strong...
It may have taken a few years to lay the ground work for the Burlington Electric Department's "ConnectCity Burlington," but the first "smart meter" was installed on April 23 in just 5 minutes. According to the Burlington Free Press, the ConnectCity program will cost about 6.8 million dollars and offer B.E.D. customers better ways to monitor their own electric usage. Half of the cost will come from federal grants, with the other half matched by tax payers.
Beginning with this first home, the electric department plans to replace all of Burlington's old meters by...
City Hall was alive on the night of April 2, 2012, as Miro Weinberger was sworn in as the new Mayor of Burlington to many cheers in an electric atmosphere.
Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the Burlington Business Association, noted "the City Council meeting was extremely positive and had a feeling of hope and excitement."
Weinberger began his first statement as Mayor with a tribute to fellow former mayoral candidate Kurt Wright, thanking him for his service to the city and his role in the mayoral election.
He went on to discuss what he...
On Monday, April 3, the Uncommon Alliance in conjunction with the police departments from Burlington, South Burlington, Winooski and the University of Vermont presented the results of a two year analysis of race-data collected from motor vehicle stops.
The result? According the Burlington Free Press, who attended the press conference, “police are almost twice as likely to stop black drivers than white drivers in Burlington and South Burlington.” Also addressed in the report was the fact that minority drivers are also at a higher risk of being ticketed, arrested or searched.
Burlington...
On Monday, March 27, several BBA members and Marketplace business owners testified during the "Public Forum" time slot at the City Council meeting. In addition to Ron Redmond, Executive Director of the Church Street Marketplace, and Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the Burlington Business Association, 8 other key stakeholders either spoke on behalf of the ordinance or joined the cause in solidarity.
After hearing public comment, City Council agreed to consider the first reading of the proposed Trespass Ordinance for the Church Street Marketplace District and voted to pass it onto the Ordinance Committee. A common practice, the Ordinance...
On the evening of Tuesday, March 20, several business and community members attended the Public Safety Committee (PSC) meeting to support proposed changes to the City’s Panhandling Ordinance.
Despite numerous testimonies from those in attendance about increasingly aggressive panhandling tactics on the Church Street Marketplace, the PSC did not agree with the proposed changes. By a two to one vote, with only Norm Blais in support, the proposed changes to the ordinance were voted down. Councilor Bram Kranichfeld and outgoing Councilor Emma Mulvaney-Stanek.
Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the BBA, noted that...
Kelly Devine, Executive Director of the Burlington Business Association, discussed economic development on WCAX on Thursday, March 16. Specifically, Devine discussed the benefits of tourisism brings to the area, in addition to hotel revenue. See the video here.
On Tuesday, March 13, Executive Director was featured in the Comment and Debate Section of the Burlington Free Press. As a Burlington stakeholder, Devine was invited to discuss her "hopes for the future under teh Weinberger administration."
Here is what Kelly had to say...
The Burlington mayoral election resulted in a strong show of support for Miro Weinberger and for the “Fresh Start” he promises. Burlington is ripe for change. The members of the Burlington
[ READ MORE ]
About 1/3 of the Farmer's Market will move out of the and park on onto Saint Paul Street this coming spring, opening up a large section of the northern part of the park for repairs. Since striking a preliminary agreement on the last day of February, the BBA has continued to work with downtown businesses, the city and the Farmer's Market to create and implement a plan to allow some market vendors to set up on Saint Paul, instead of in the park. Most recently, about 15 representatives of the groups met on March 13 to discuss some of...
On Monday, February 20, Burlington City Council's Public Safety Committee sent a proposed Panhandling Ordinance back for further review and passed along a Church Street Marketplace Trespassing Ordinance to City Council for approval.
The Panhandling Ordinance was sent back to the Marketplace Commission, who submitted the ordinance, for further work and review. For it to move forward, revisions will have to be made, then the Public Safety Committee would review it again before deciding whether or not to approve it to be sent to City Council. The idea behind the ordinance is to have panhandlers go through...
We are less than 30 days out from the March 6th Burlington mayoral election. Based on news headlines such as "Wright would replace CEDO head" in the Burlington Free Press, it looks like a new mayor won't be the only change in the city this spring. The BBA is continuing to follow the key issues that are a...
Did you know that there nearly 9,000 parking spaces in Burlington?
A recent study showed that of those spaces, 3,650 of those are public parking spaces that open for use at all times. Even more interesting, the study showed during the peak hours of the week, Friday afternoons from 1-3 PM, over 32% of those spaces are unoccupied. This means that when Burlington is at its busiest, there are still over 1180 available spaces downtown!
Many of the available spaces in Burlington, over 1,000 in fact, are metered spots. At red and blue meters you can park for...
Last week, over 300 people stopped into 1 Cherry Street to visit the home base of and participate in the planBTV Charrette. Throughout the week, citizens weighed in on the changes they would like to see occur in the Queen City. The Charrette was the culminating effort to finish Phase II of planBTV – Downtown and Waterfront. The comprehensive planning project, which began last winter, strived “to identify, understand, and address current barriers to the creation of new infill development.”
According to the Seven Days,...
This coming May, Citizens Bank, The Burlington Business Association, The Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce, and the Church Street Marketplace are at it again.
Many remember the 2010 tourist season when visitors to the Burlington area enjoyed a creative outdoor art exhibit featuring nearly 40 painted cows dotting the region.This time around though, organizers won't be putting cows on display, but bears. Each bear is sponsored by a local business or organization who can choose its own...
BBA Holds Mayoral Debate
Mayoral candidates Miro Weinberger and Kurt Wright kicked off the campaign season at the 10th Annual BBA Business Summit at Champlain College on January 5, 2012.Nearly 200 people registered for the event which featured the first debate between the two candidates and a networking breakfast, which the candidates also attended.
During the debate, Wright and Weinberger faced questions related to economic development, sustainability and vitality in Burlington as the city moves forward. They sat on stools at the front of the stadium seated auditorium...
Four days after City Council narrowly voted in favor of implementing a Downtown Smoking Ordinance, Mayor Bob Kiss vetoed the ordinance, calling to it "bad public policy."
City Council passed the ordinance, with an 8-6 vote, during their 7:00 PM meeting in the Contois Auditorium on January 9.
City Council decided not to revisit the issue on January 23, accepting the veto. Council would have needed 10 votes to overturn the mayoral veto.
According to the Burlington Free Press<...
Burlington businesses are always looking for different ways to spread the word out about the great things this region offers to residents, students and/or visitors. With that in mind, eighty businesses recently donated items to the BBA’s Best of Burlington on-line auction.
The auction, which ran from November 11 to December 12 on biddingforgood.com, generated quite a buzz, due in part to the promotion efforts of the BBA, who ran ads for the auction on the WCAX and Burlington Free Press websites and sent out over 5000 auction emails.
All...
In October, Porter Airlines announced they would offer twice weekly flights between Toronto and Burlington. They named December 15 as the first day the shuttle service would begin and they held true to that commitment as the first flight landed on its scheduled day and time in Burlington on Thursday.
The Burlington Free Press reported that four different ski resorts have helped pay to market the flights and are offering special packages for passengers. Porter has committed to run...
If you were out and about on December 4 and thought you saw several Santas run past you, you weren’t going crazy. Over 1,500 people registered and participated in the Inaugural RiRa’s Santa 5K Run and Walk, according the Burlington Free Press.
For $30, each participant was given a Santa suite, a medal, and admission to an authentic Irish breakfast prepared, donated and served by RiRa after the...
On December 6, 2011 America’s Health Rankings released their annual report which had Vermont at the top of their list as the healthiest state in America.
This is the fourth time in five years that Vermont has been ranked #1 on this list. The report noted that the number of smokers has decreased over the last 10 years and there is a high use of prenatal care services and a low incidence of infectious disease.
The report comes on the heels of some impressive honors...
“This woman makes the term ‘high-energy’ seem wimpy.” -BPV
Kelly Devine, Executive Director of Burlington Business Assocation, was featured in (and graced the cover of) the December issue of Business People Vermont. The feature article, which spans the first three pages of the publication, offers an history of the BBA, from how it started to...
On Oct. 19, the Public Works Commission held a public meeting to revisit the issue of lowering Burlington speed limits. The end result of the meeting was a vote to adopt a 25 mph city-wide speed limit, unless otherwise posted. Certain streets including major entry points to the city including Shelburne Road, the Beltway and North Ave - see the map. The commission also decided not to impose a "Slow Streets" proposal that would have instituted a 20 mph speedlimit, but did vote to return to that issue...
Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling discussed Burlington’s growing crime problem on a recent visit to Montpelier, noting that “we’ve had the worst year in history.” According to vtdigger.org, Schirling spoke about some of the issues at the Joint Corrections Oversight Committee at the Statehouse on November 28.
Schriling noted that two major problems are increased drug problems and lax penalties for minor crimes which lead to the same types of crimes being repeated over and over by the same people. These types...
The City of Burlington Police Department (BPD) announced yesterday, November 14, that it has recently received major recognition.
In October, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) awarded the BPD the 2011 IACP Cival Rights Award as well as the Excellence in Victim Services Award. Additionally, BPD announced that they, in partnership with the HowardCenter, were a semi-finalist for the Webber-Seavey Quality in Law Enforcement Award for the Street Outreach Interventionist Program.
The ...
Over the past few weeks, protesters have been camped out in City Hall Park in solidarity with the “Occupy” movements taking place in many cities and modeled after the New York City Occupy Wall Street protest. Tent numbers grew from few to more than a dozen since the occupation of the park began on Oct. 28th. At that time, the city announced that it would take a wait and see approach to enforcing the a law on the books that prohibits being in the park after midnight and camping in the park.
It...
Outside Today is in the midst of compiling and ranking their list of the country’s Best Towns. This week they discussed BTV on “Outside Television,” a program featured on their website.
It’s easy to see how Burlington is in the running for this ranking, as the criteria Outside Today is looking at includes the combination of culture, scenery and access to the outside.
During the brief show, which you can watch here<...
Help us improve City Hall Park!
For the past two years, the BBA has focused its attention on working with the city to make improvements to City Hall Park. Recently the BBA partnered with Burlington City Arts and others to procure a $50,000 “Our Town” grant from the National Endowment for the Arts.
Now, the first steps in utilizing those funds are underway. A Facebook page, Imagine City Hall Park, keeps people updated about park happenings and...
Over the past few weeks, the Burlington International has been in the news several times. As a key player in Burlington's economy and tourism industry, it's strength remains important.
The airport has announced that it is adding direct, seasonal flights to Toronto. Flights will be offered twice a week from December through April and are expected to provide major boosts to the city's tourism and economy. Burlington City Council has decided that it will take a “Wait and See” approach towards paying South Burlington $205,000 for airport services over the last...
The Burlington Business Association: The Voice of Business in Burlington
Several issues recently in the news or before the Burlington City Council have the potential for impacting our downtown business community. Over the past few days, I have been working to learn more about these issues so that I can help keep you informed. Here is the list of issues that I are currently on the top of the BBA's Advocacy list. Click on any of the issues to learn more about the background of the issue. A summary of the BBA's...
For the past two years, the BBA has focused its attention on working with the city to make improvements to City Hall Park.