opinion

Editorial: Carina Driscoll for Burlington mayor

The Burlington Free Press Editorial Board recommends Carina Driscoll for Burlington mayor in the Town Meeting Day election.

Burlington is on the move with stable finances and major projects in both private development and public infrastructure. Now is the time to shift the city’s focus toward those residents who have benefited the least over the past six years.

Mayor Miro Weinberger deserves considerable credit for bringing the city to where it is now. Yet the next three years call for a different type of leader, in the words of Weinberger’s campaign literature, to “Protect Burlington as an equitable and inclusive City.”

Driscoll presents the best argument as the candidate who can make this critical pivot. She can bring fresh energy into making equity a critical part of the City Hall agenda. As a former School Board commissioner, city councilor and state representative, Driscoll has broad experience representing the city in elected office.

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Driscoll, an independent running with the endorsement of the city’s Progressive Party, and Weinberger, the two-term incumbent and Democrat, are joined by Infinite Culcleasure, also an independent, on the March 6 ballot.

Burlington faces unique challenges as Vermont’s largest and arguably most diverse community.

The city’s poverty rate stands at about 25 percent, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, higher than the 11.9 percent for the state and 12.7 percent for the country. While the overall poverty rate for the city has fallen in the past six years, the rate for those under 18 has increased, from 23.6 percent in the five-year period ending in 2012 to 25.3 percent for the 2016 period.

Burlington also is home to a diverse community, different from much of Vermont, and the first stop for many new Americans. At Burlington High School, 30 percent of students are people of color and more than 30 languages are spoken in the hallways.

Driscoll offers a vision that more directly serves all Burlingtonians, from working with developers to connect training programs to jobs to better leveraging public assets to ensure long-term say over the city’s development.

For Driscoll, meeting the needs of low- and moderate-income residents, as well as seniors, are more than a bullet point in the overall plan, but priorities that stand on their own.

Carina Driscoll is the right voice in City Hall for the next phase of Burlington’s evolution.

Contact Engagement Editor Aki Soga at asoga@freepressmedia.com. Join the conversation online at BurlingtonFreePress.com or send a letter to the editor to letters@freepressmedia.com.

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