Green Mountain Meandering Missives

Updated 3x (view updates below, updated press coverage & informational resources; + another VPO blog post link; last updated on 9/19/2024 at 12:15 AM): Archived Video: Municipal Leaders Call for Immediate Action To Address the Homelessness Crisis (held on 9/18/2024 at 10:00 AM; length: 45:33 minutes/seconds; via ORCA Media): Related Press Release: For Immediate Release Tuesday, September 17, 2024 Municipal Leaders Call on the State to Take Immediate Action to Address Homelessness Crisis  WHERE/WHEN: Wednesday, September 18 th , 10:00am, City Council Chambers, Montpelier City Hall, 39 Main Street, Montpelier, VT 05602 Contact: William Fraser, Montpelier City Manager 39 Main Street Montpelier, Vermont 802-223-9502 WFraser@montpelier-vt.org MONTPELIER, VT—Municipal leaders from across Vermont to call on all three branches of State government to take charge of the growing homelessness crisis and assume their legal responsibilities for the un-housed.  “We stand together representing a

Humor Break:  Over the years, after searching high and low, I have never come across anyone who had square feet, which leaves me somewhat perplexed about how, in terms of measurement, there could be such a thing as "square feet" or a "square foot". 🦶🤪

Image: Screenshot of Green Mountain Transit bus (via Seven Days article). Seven Days recently reported about potential cuts to routes and service by Green Mountain Transit  (GMT), a public transportation company, here . According to the article, the potential cuts include the Montpelier Link Express (route #86), providing bus service between the cities of Montpelier  (the Capital of Vermont ) and Burlington : [...]  The plan could potentially eliminate some of the Montpelier LINK times and the weekday airport route. This is the bus route that I would have needed to take to Burlington and back home if I had to show up for jury duty  at the US District Court building during a scheduled four week long trial that was supposed to begin later this month. Fortunately, the case had gotten cancelled. Someone had posted on the subject of the proposed bus route and service cuts to Montpelier's Front Porch Forum today (Wednesday), writing in part: "[...] GMT is not (and I don't kn

Over the years I have often read or heard about a so-called personal or societal syndrome termed as compassion fatigue . While wondering to myself about whether it were actually a thing or merely something used as an excuse or convenient rationalization by society to help explain away why people or a society cease caring as well as doing something meaningful on behalf of those most in need and, on a personal or societal level, who are otherwise deliberately indifferent to the plight and needs of others, it came to mind about how in reality there are actually different types of compassion, empathy and love that people or a society might exercise when it comes to others. There is the unconditional variety and then there is the conditional or contractual variety.  The former has few if any limits imposed other than what a person or society might selectively set for themselves or itself under the category of setting personal or societal boundaries .  The latter has certain expectations as

Photo: Selfie, taken in front of Montpelier City Hall (circa: 10/6/2022). During the most recent regular Montpelier City Council meeting, held on the evening of Wednesday, August 28, 2024, the potential sale and development of the 12 - 16 Main Street lot came up for discussion ( agenda item 11 ). This had previously been the site of the former Guertin Parklet structure , which the city had removed over two years ago, amidst the height of controversy and NIMBYism (Not In My Back Yard) or, rather, NOPE (Not On Planet Earth) concerning people living unhoused outdoors who were often occupying the small gazebo because they had nowhere else to go. My personal dream, hope and vision for the currently vacant property would be to have a four and possibly up to six story structure designed, developed and built that would house a bottle and can redemption center as well as a community center located on a lower floor, an emergency shelter with single rooms for people living unhoused outdoors above

  According to a recent Seven Days article, here , the City of Montpelier is currently seeking to have the lot, which formerly hosted the Guertin Parklet structure (before the city had it removed in early May of 2022), developed; ironically, potentially, for housing: The Montpelier City Council is seeking developers’ proposals for a half-acre downtown lot that drew locals' complaints and repeated visits from police in recent years after its gazebo became a gathering place for people experiencing homelessness. [...] “It’s one of the pieces of the housing puzzle that the city can help with,” said Josh Jerome, Montpelier’s community and economic development specialist. The gazebo that previously occupied the city-owned lot had become a shelter of sorts, and bad behavior there promoted complaints to the city and calls for emergency services. People who lived in apartments next door reported finding syringes and   sleeping strangers in their halls and stairways; merchants said they wor

Last month I had received a summons from the US District Court to appear for jury duty in Burlington later this month for what, if selected to serve, would have been a four week long court trial. It would have been a rough commute utilizing public transit bus service back and forth between Montpelier and Burlington as well as a rather long day for just the first -- of what would have been jury selection -- day, forget for seventeen (17) days during the entire length of the trial held over the four weeks as had been scheduled (there were three days during the month of October when the trial was not scheduled to be held). Although I was hoping to either be excused or not be selected, if selected to serve, I would have attempted to do my best. Had not known what the trial was about and, wanting to remain fair and impartial in case I had been among the jurors selected to serve on the jury during the Voir Dire process, did not want to know (until and unless informed on the first day of the