Vermonters Pay $166 Million More for U.S. Base Defense Share This Year

  Update of the Defense Department Numbers published in last post...

Our Congressional Delegation—Leahy, Sanders and Welch--do an absolutely lousy job educating Vermonters on the federal budget and how we all get fleeced by Trump and the Republicans. The Defense budget is the most obvious, the 2017 federal budget, part-year President Obama compared to the two Trump budgets, the one we operate under right now, federal fiscal year 2019, and the “base” budget Congress has agreed to started October 1, 2018 for 2019, total defense increase is $83.1 billion. Based on Vermont's per capita share of $2 million per billion of federal expenditure we undertake an additional $166 million share of Defense expenditures, fiscal year 2019 over fiscal year 2017. This truly is “huge.” For example, the 13,000 Vermont renter households (about one in seven statewide) receiving federal “affordable housing assistance” (30% of income max for rent) consumes about $106 million federal funds. The defense department increase equals over 1 ½ times total federal affordable housing assistance in Vermont helping 13,000 renters, one in seven rental households ! Which do you prefer, serving the needs of 1,800 households on housing assistance waiting lists alone here in Chittenden County or $166 million more for defense? Likely and correctly Leahy, Sanders, and Welch will say if they did not support the $83.1 billion defense increase, the Republican Scrooge Brigade would have gutted housing assistance and most other discretionary social support programs like our community health centers and child services. Fine, Congressional delegation, but tell the truth every day how this year Vermonters anti-up $166 million to support more F 35s, the Afghanistan War, etc. Each breath of criticizing a Supreme Court nominee, single payer health, or farmer subsidies, tell us Vermonters where our program increases tax money goes to—more F 35s and military drones. The lack of honesty from our Vermont political leaders helps explains frustration building up since about 1980 over the accelerating maldistribution of economic benefits which mostly accrue to the top 1%. Sad comment on the so-called leaders of Vermont with its town meeting government where town budgets get screened down the the last penny.

Base defense budget numbers used here does not include “Overseas Contingency Operations” ($71.7 billion FFY 2017) or other related expenditures which includes VA, and other defense support $228.2 billion budget enacted FFY 2017.

Roundabouts to the Rescue--Creative Traffic Control Officer in Wilmington, NC

How roundabouts in hurricane/floods in the Carolinas came to the rescue in Wilmington, NC when the the electricity went out. How a creative traffic control officer—not an engineer--became a roundabout designer and cut one queue from five miles to about a half mile (about 1250 cars to 125 cars).

Note this video seems to work on some but not all browsers:

https://www.coastalreview.org/2018/09/parts-of-nc-coast-remain-isolated-flooded/

Text from North Carolina roundabout engineer Jim Dunlop, P.E., North Carolina Department of Transportation writing in the Roundabout Research listserv this week:

I thought it was the Wilmington traffic engineer.  Turns out it was a traffic enforcement officer from Wilmington.  He set up his patrol car in the middle of the intersection, to warn drivers to that the signal was out.  He then put a circle of cones around his vehicle to hopefully protect it.  After a while, he realized that drivers were treating it essentially as a roundabout.  So he set up lane closures to bring it to a single lane (with a right turn bypass!)  The aforementioned traffic engineer then took the idea and modified it a few times to make it work better.  They implemented it at two other intersections.  One of those had about a five mile backup which became about a ½ mile queue after the temp roundabout was implemented.

Road to Nowhere Walk and Bike Tours -- Saturday, September 15 10 a.m.

A FUN WAY TO LEARN FIRST HAND ABOUT THE FIGHT FOR A NEW CHAMPLAIN PARKWAY COMMUNITY DRIVEN DESIGN! 

TAKE THE

ROAD TO NOWHERE WALK TOUR

OR

ROAD TO NOWHERE BIKE TOUR

    

Both 10 a.m. Saturday, September 15 (September 22 rain date) start at bottom of Pine Street at the unfinished Parkway – unlimited free parking at adjacent park-and-ride. The roundtrip 1.5 mile has a halfway stop for refreshments at City Market South End and ends back at Pine Street about noon. Walk or bike, choose your group!

                    Tour features Include

See first hand how Pine Street corridor gets severed by the Parkway

Find why walk and bike groups oppose the Parkway from lack of separate and safe walk and bike facilities

Learn how a single highly safe roundabout can serve as a safe-for-all City Market and Petra Cliffs gateway

Discover one street instead one from Home to Flynn Avenue just common sense

Learn the potential $8 million (of $43.5 million) project cost savings

Savor the view of the world's tallest file case sculpture opposite City Market South End

Ask your questions about the Parkway, latest status of several challenges, etc.

News Release on Appeals at Chittenden Superior Court Aug. 8 -- Important Step Towards New Design!

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AUGUST 11, 2018 - Pine Street Coalition

BURLINGTON--An important step towards a possible Champlain Parkway public redesign

process occurred at Chittenden Superior Court Wednesday, August 8. Pine Street Coalition

and Burlington Fortieth, LLC, owner of Innovation Center, undertook separate appeals of the

legalities of the City's May project land takings and the Necessity Hearing, likely to stall

the $43 million South End project advance nine months.

Judge Robert A. Mello ordered legal arguments submitted by November 8 followed by

a reply period leading to a mid-winter Court proceeding. Meanwhile further project right-of-

way actions cannot proceed.

The Coalition stated purpose is to stop what it terms the obsolete and unsafe Parkway

current design and start a new public design and environmental document, an Environmental

Impact Statement (E.I.S.), process.

In April the grassroots Pine Street Coalition challenged the City, VTrans, and Federal

Highway Administration (FHWA) to stop the out-of-date $43 million Champlain Parkway.

The Coalition detailed numerous changes in laws and policies, traffic and demographics,

and on-the-ground development since the 2009 environmental document. The

Coalition's challenge documents totaled over 240 pages. The Coalition calls for a “cheaper,

greener, quicker, and highly safe roadway with savings of up to $8 million!”

The Parkway purpose now, speeding cars between I 189 and downtown, belongs to the car

centric 1960s not the multi-modal world of today, the Coalition states.

The Coalition will likely challenge the project in federal courts should a new design process

and Environmental Impact Statement (E.I.S.) process is not begun by the VTrans, FHWA

and the City. The last Parkway public hearing dates from 2006 and official environmental document 2009. FHWA and VTrans in response the Coalition April filing communicated they will take the Coalition submission into consideration when

making the next required decision on whether the current design goes forward.

The Coalition condemns the Parkway project for among other reasons: (1) the

six new unsafe traffic signals causing an estimated eight additional injuries a year to

residents and visitors over current best practice, roundabouts; (2) permanently

severing the Pine Street corridor short of Queen City Park Road, one of only two

South End north-south routes; (3) interfering with or blocking current GMT transit

vehicle routings and central facility access; (4) negative impacts on the low income

Maple/King Streets neighborhood in violation of environmental justice regulations; (5) lack of safe and separate walk and bike facilities in the corridor; (6) building an

excess 1.5 lane miles of asphalt roadway consuming about eight acres of land better employed for economic development, open space and protecting stressed Englesby Brook; (7) wasting tens of thousands of gallons of gasoline and excessive climate change pollutants annually; (8) wasting up to $8 million in scarce transportation funds; (9) serious water related issues involving undetected wetlands and expired wetland permits; and (10) inconsistencies or violations of the Parkway design and documents with new laws, policies and plans at federal, state, region and City levels since the 2009 ruling project documents.

Pine Street Coalition Court Appeal August 8, VT Digger Commentary

Pine Street Coalition appeal of lack of notification of some property owners and those affected in Parkway land takings by the City of Burlington in a May 21 Necessity Hearing and site visits.  Both the Coalition and Burlington Fortieth, LLC, owner of Innovation Center, filed separate appeals and first status hearing occurs Wednesday, August 8 at 10:30 a.m. at Chittenden Superior Court, 175 Main St., Burlington 

VERMONT DIGGER COMMENTARY

https://vtdigger.org/2018/07/22/tony-redington-champlain-parkway-design-needs-new-approach/?utm_source=VTDigger+Subscribers+and+Donors&utm_campaign=5cce1d8b3a-Weekly+Update&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_dc3c5486db-5cce1d8b3a-405527829

Editor’s note: This commentary is by Tony Redington, of Burlington, for the Pine Street Coalition LC3. He is a transportation policy development and research specialist.
Turns out the Champlain Parkway goes back to court Aug. 8 with two opposition groups — the Pine Street Coalition and Burlington Fortieth LLC, which owns Innovation Center — appealing property takings by the city of Burlington over claiming lack of notification of some property owners and others affected.

The grassroots Pine Street Coalition and Fortieth Burlington filed separate appeals.
The Pine Street Coalition appeal follows its challenge a few weeks ago to the city, the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and the Federal Highway Administration to stop the shoddy project now because of changes in laws and policies since the 2009 now stale and invalid environmental document. The coalition backs its challenge with 240+ page documents set. The coalition seeks a cheaper, new generation approach that meets the business and community needs of the South End neighborhoods. The stated purpose of speeding cars between I-189 and downtown belongs to the car-centric 1960s, not the multi-modal world of today.

The 2.3 mile project’s fatal flaws stem from laws, policies and new technology adopted since the last public hearing in 2006 and an environmental document filing in 2009. This decade, the South End emerged as the most exciting and vibrant area of Burlington, bursting with new development, generator spaces, eateries, a technology enclave, small businesses, an expanding artist and artisan neighborhood, and major anchor installations led by the City Market Co-op South End with 100+ jobs and Champlain College’s Miller Center education and cybersecurity venture with 70 jobs.
The surge this decade in highway fatalities, led by pedestrians and bicyclists, compares to the absence of any safety consideration in the parkway, counter to the 2012 Vermont Complete Streets Law and federal statutes as well as several city plans since. The coalition predicts increased intersections injuries. Other major areas dismissed or ignored in the parkway runup: climate change emissions, impacts on the low income Maple-King street neighborhood, gasoline use, separate and safe pedestrian and bicycle travelways and encroachment on open space and the stressed Englesby Brook, and blocking transit terminal facilities access and routes.

The two most obvious wasteful and hurtful parkway elements: two streets between Home and Flynn avenues instead of one quality and the severing of one of the only two north-south corridors in the South End by dead ending Pine Street short of Queen City Park Road, which forces South Enders onto Shelburne Road to travel to Hannaford, Lowe’s or the Palace theater. The Burlington Walk Bike Council in detailed letters to the city cited unsatisfactory walk and bike facilities and in 2016 endorsed the coalition’s parkway Redesign Guidelines.

Yes, technology and best practices for street design changed radically this decade on busy streets which now include roundabout intersections (90 percent reduction in serious or fatal injuries – advocated by AARP, Geico, AAA, the Federal Highway Administration and VTrans draft development guidelines) and cycle track (protected bike lanes). Bicycles and pedestrians now require separate and safe travelways — a parkway defect easily remedied in a new design.
The coalition calls for a cheaper (about $8 million cheaper), greener, quicker and (much) safer parkway design done through a democratic process. After four decades of studies and still invalid design, “let’s do it right the first time” by shaping a parkway the city can love!

Sign the Petition! Donate! To Stop the Parkway and Start a New Safe, Community Driven Design!

You can help stop the Champlain Parkway and ensure starting a Community Re-design!

Two steps you can take to make a difference!


Join together and take action for safe streets in our South End, save
up to $8 million, reduce delay for all, help the environment and
business!! (Cheaper, greener, quicker and much safer!) The Pine
Street Coalition needs both community support and the dollars to carry
forward legal efforts.
1. Please sign the petition to join the grassroots Pine Street
Coalition fight to stop the Parkway and start a new citizen-driven
design:

https://petitions.moveon.org/sign/governor-scott-federal

2. If you are able, please donate to sustain the legal challenge
(even a $6 suggested donation representing 2006 when last public
hearing on the Parkway ended can make a difference!)

https://fundly.com/stop-re-design-champlain-parkway#gallery/2

or mail your contribution made out to the Pine Street Coalition, Post Office Box 8726, Burlington, VT  05402

The News, the News Conference, and the Documents--Parkway Challenge on the Move!

Making the move to demand a new public design process for the Champlain Parkway the Pine Street Coalition filing of a package of over 200+ pages April 3 to City, State and Federal Highway officials along with the news conference can be found here

https://app.box.com/s/x4dyzky9jl5qjb3bbr9sy17sbqxy991m

The news conference on You Tube here:

https://youtu.be/Woq3jrk3ByQ

And Channel 5 Burlington news story and nightly news clip here:

http://www.mynbc5.com/article/citizen-group-seeks-new-design-for-champlain-parkway/19677645