WOW! What a read! "Without Bernie, you’d see people in a lot worse shape than they are today."

[snagglepuss]

snip

“When Bernie became mayor,” ...“it was a shock to the local establishment that he won. At that point, I’m not sure that Bernie even knew himself what he was aspiring to, except he knew that poor people in town weren’t getting anywhere, and he wanted to help them.

... Whatever Bernie’s vision was on a higher level, he wanted this stuff fixed. Without Bernie, this city would be so far behind where it is today,” says Bailey.



snip


...as mayor, Sanders never shifted his focus away from the lower- and middle-class citizens of Burlington. ...“My administration never lost sight of the fact that, while broadening the scope of city government and developing new policies were important and satisfying, we could never forget about taking care of the basics. And in this area, we out-Republicaned the Republicans.”

“Bernie’s prime objective was to try to fight against the displacement of poor people,” ... such Sanders-era initiatives as an inclusionary zoning ordinance that required developers to offer a percentage of affordable units, and the non-profit Burlington Community Land Trust, as concrete relics of the mayor’s power-to-the-people rhetoric.


snip


De Carolis is the executive director of the Turning Point Center, a non-profit, peer-run recovery agency that serves 3,000 people every month. “When he would have town meetings,I was taken aback by the reception he got from people who were so far down on the totem pole that they couldn’t believe that a politician would actually listen to them and care what they had to say. We all wanted a different America, that’s for sure.


snip


Three decades after Sanders voluntarily gave up the mayoralty to run for the U.S. Congress, the Old North End of Burlington is still no Beverly Hills. But the stringent regime of renovation and inspection that Sanders enforced as mayor has been so successful, Norman says, that the fire department complains it cannot train its new recruits because there aren’t enough real blazes to practise on.

“You can see Bernie’s legacy in the houses of the Old North End,” says Jane Knodell, president of the current Burlington city council, who has known Sanders for more than 25 years. “Without Bernie, you’d see people in a lot worse shape than they are today. When people have a secure, affordable roof over their heads, they can get better jobs, keep their cars running, and get a better education. It all starts with housing, and Bernie understood that.”




http://www.macleans.ca/politics/washington/where-sanders-was-king-heading-to-the-heart-of-bernie-land/

[KoKo]

1. K&R!

[passiveporcupine]

2. Secure affordable and safe housing is essential

The gentrification of cities often drives lower income people out and leaves them without secure and safe housing. And then we wonder how these slums spring up and why there is gang violence and drug use.

We need jobs, but like the article says, without secure adequate housing, it's hard to get and keep a decent job. And transportation is also essential. If the jobs are all in the city, but the people who need them are pushed out, they need reliable transportation to get to those jobs. So they either need municipal transportation that reaches them, or they need a functioning car. And that can be expensive, especially if you have to commute long distances to get a menial job.

[klook]

3. Yes, great read - thanks! (n/t)