A protest in City Hall Park in Burlington prior to the City Council meeting Monday, May 19, 2025. Photo by Corey McDonald/VTDiggerTensions emerging in the Burlington business community came to a head Monday night when the City Council, after hours of deliberation, voted to direct the mayor to relocate a free lunch program located in a downtown parking garage.
The mutual aid program, Food Not Cops — the local chapter of Food Not Bombs — has operated out of the Marketplace Garage off Cherry Street for five years. There, volunteers and organizers distribute home-cooked meals to people struggling to find shelter or anyone in need of a meal.
Burlington Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak on Monday said she has been in discussions with the group for months about a potential relocation. But earlier this month, a letter signed by more than 100 city businesses asked city officials to find a new location for the program.
Its operation out of the parking garage “has had a negative impact on the area,” and the signatories suggested that “some attendees have repeatedly stolen from businesses or caused harm,” the letter reads. “We respectfully ask that this program be relocated to a more appropriate and secure setting—not eliminated.”
The letter, sent directly to Mulvaney-Stanak, came days after Nectar’s, the famed bar and music venue, announced it would be closing for the summer.
Signed by dozens of local businesses, restaurants and other property owners, the letter underscored feelings of uncertainty many community members have about the future of downtown. Business owners have said the downtown core has been beset by drug use and petty theft, which has contributed to a deterioration of foot traffic and business.
Meanwhile, ongoing construction on Main Street has further compounded the issue. City officials say gross receipts tax revenues are down by about 10% over the past year as a result.
“Businesses are closing their doors, valued long-term employees are leaving, and residents are increasingly choosing to avoid the downtown area. Those of us who remain feel neglected and increasingly unsafe,” the letter reads. “Our expectations are not for an unattainable ideal, but for effective leadership, genuine support, and the fundamental resources necessary to operate businesses that are safe, welcoming and sustainable.”
A resolution, written and sponsored by Democratic Councilor Becca Brown McKnight and presented to the council on Monday, offered a boost to the business community by tackling these issues head on.
The resolution called on the city Department of Public Works to conduct a feasibility assessment and timeline for reopening Main Street to one-way traffic, and urged the city’s Business and Workforce Development agency to conduct “more effective coordinated marketing and PR efforts that promote downtown and re-establish it as a vibrant, safe, and inclusive space.”
But the resolution’s provision to find a new permanent location for the meal program prompted some backlash.
A counter letter, signed by dozens of organizations and businesses, expressed support for the meal exchange program, while dozens of people protested outside of City Hall on Monday before the council meeting began.
During the council’s public forum, Burlington resident Gabriel Nelson called the resolution “baseless scapegoating.” Leif Taranta, an Old North End resident, said the program was meeting the survival needs for many in the community.
Sam Bliss, an organizer and spokesperson for Food Not Cops, contested that there was a safety issue at the garage.
“Business owners want to move our lunch so that Church Street shoppers don’t have to look at poor, suffering people on their walk from their vehicles to the stores they’ll shop at,” Bliss said. “And I get it, I don’t like seeing my neighbors and friends unhoused or desperate either, but that’s not a safety issue, that’s a discomfort issue. Is the solution to avert our gaze? To push poor and suffering people out of sight, out of mind, so that business as usual can just go on?”
Others who spoke at the meeting, however, supported the resolution.
“Being pro-downtown and pro-business does not mean that we are against those that are unhoused,” said Megan Meinen, a downtown Burlington resident who works at Home and Garden Vermont on College Street. “We are not against those people. It also does not mean that we want mutual aid to stop or food distribution programs to stop. What businesses are against is behavior that is illegal. We want those behaviors to have consequences.”
Progressive and Democratic city councilors on Monday deliberated into the night over the provisions addressing the meal exchange program, with Progressive Councilor Marek Broderick making a motion to strike its relocation from the resolution.
Progressive councilors said the mayor needed more time to discuss the relocation with the group. Councilor Gene Bergman at one point asked Democratic colleagues to join them in removing the language, so they “could get as close to a unanimous vote on this as absolutely possible, because there are a number of good things in here that we should all be united on.”
The two parties ultimately reached an agreement, with some Democratic councilors joining Progressives in an 8-4 vote to strip a provision that would have required the program to find a new location by June 14.
It appeared at first to be a rare compromise between the city’s Progressive and Democratic councilors. But later in the meeting, Democratic Councilor Allie Schachter introduced an amendment to the resolution establishing a later deadline — July 14 instead of June 14 — for the mayor to find an alternative long-term location for the program.
Progressive councilors accused Democrats of backing out of a compromise, while Mulvaney-Stanak accused Democrats of “legislating on the fly.”
Schachter said the amendment “sets an intentionality” around the conversation, while McKnight later added that “the public deserves to know that the choice to allow it to continue is a policy choice and an enforcement choice.”
“We need to be honest about the choices that we’re making here,” she said.
The resolution eventually passed, with Councilor Carter Neubieser joining the Democratic majority to pass the resolution in an 8-4 vote. Mulvaney-Stanak now has a July 14 deadline to find a long-term location for the lunch service.