Landlords & the Vermont Housing Crisis: A Response from TUB to Brandie Starr’s “Be Part of the Movement Towards a Sustainable Brattleboro”

Brandie Starr of the Brattleboro selectboard recently wrote an article titled, “Be part of the movement towards a sustainable Brattleboro” in which she directly addresses community members and, more specifically, landlords. The article is in reaction to and support of a, now notorious, proposal written by the Tenants’ Union of Brattleboro (TUB) which limits security deposits to an amount of one month’s rent or less.

Since the proposal was added to the last selectboard meeting agenda and since Starr has voiced her support, there have been rumblings of discontent from the landlord community. From voices of opposition at the selectboard meetings, to local landlord Deedee Jones’s rebuttal piece, to emails sent directly to the tenant’s union.

I am a member of TUB and a tenant who has rented four apartments in Brattleboro. On behalf of myself and the tenant’s union, I would like to elaborate on Starr’s points and examine the conditions that make a proposal like this reasonable, necessary and, quite honestly, not very radical. I would also like to address some of the voiced and rumored concerns from our local landlords.


October Surprise?

The polls so-far don’t look too good for Trump’s re-election.

His ego will not accept a defeat. He WILL go to extreme measures to prevent this.

One extreme measure might be a war.


Imagine Trump or Biden In Church Praying For Yemeni Children Facing Starvation and US Missiles?

Noting the history of the child genocide in Yemen as only one example of America’s genocidal foreign policy and cruel criminal media managed political distraction away from compassionate public interest, article seeks to awaken enough of a feeling of outrage to promote public demand for a halt of what is the ongoing murder of a massive amount of children.


Brattleboro Representative Town Meeting Team Effort

Since August most town representatives, like myself,  started refamiliarising ourselves with the town articles that still needed to be voted on . Due to Covid  19  town meeting ,for the most part, was all put on hold last March.  Zoom was the method of this rescheduled  9/12  meeting, a whole new frontier for many, a true labor of love and team effort .

I want to thank and praise my fellow TM members that managed to keep the quorum for over 13 1/2 hours with all articles voted on , this also included the 3 hour test run on the 5th.


A View From The Undecided Left

Our voting choices this year are many or few depending on who you ask. For those who’ve already decided, there’s really only one choice — their candidate. Some will vote Trump. Some will vote Biden. But for the unlucky few who haven’t sorted out their vote yet, it’s not that simple.


Americans Can Imagine How Non-Nazi Germans Felt As Their Soldiers Murderously Invaded 22 Nations

Germans witnessed their radio and newspapers hail the Nazi invasion and occupation of most of Europe while praising fallen German soldiers for their service to the fatherland; a fatherland representing the world’s most wondrously superior people. Sounds similar to the indiscriminate praise monolithic US corporate media heaps upon exceptionally marvelous and righteous USA and her many proud invasions and occupations.


David Zuckerman and Brenda Siegel

David Zuckerman and Brenda Siegel would make the team Vermont needs to move the state forward with vision, compassion, and commitment.

Most of us know what Zuckerman stands for. He has been a longtime surrogate and worker for Bernie Sanders and represents those ideals – economic and social justice, respect for the environment and the urgency of consequences of climate change.

Brenda Siegel is a less known figure, but is increasingly having an impact on what goes on in Montpelier. She’s been working tirelessly to find compassionate solutions to the opioid crisis, which we are still grappling with; and is firmly on the side of a livable wage, and Medicare for all. She is a passionate voice for the struggling, the marginalized in our society.


Affordable Housing in Brattleboro

It is very revealing that in all the comments of sympathy and advice about one family’s difficulties in finding affordable housing, a post and thread appearing very recently on fbook, not one asks if it is possible for us, as a community, to house ourselves.

The population of Brattleboro has decreased slightly from what it was in 1960. Although there is a relatively small number of new units built every year there is a very large number over that span. As far as I know not one Selectboard in all these years has tried to deal with affordable housing other than approving federally funded projects when one happened to be brought before them. Most of that money dried up long ago. Sixty years have passed and we have more people struggling with housing than ever before.


Support for Brenda Siegel as Our Next Lt Governor

I’m sharing why I am supporting Brenda Siegel to become our next Lieutenant Governor of Vermont: a decision I came to after researching Brenda’s stand on policies and noting that she embraces similar progressive values as my own.  What I believe distinguishes her from other candidates are her valuable insight and wisdom: qualifications gained through her advocacy background, business ownership and life experiences as a single Mom.

During this global health and economic crisis, Vermonters need representatives who possess a strong moral character and the guts to demand action now.  Representatives who:


The Brattleboro Charter Blues

Indeed, Ms Starr, the flaws are built into the documents. The social contracts we are obliged to accept wherever we live. A close look at how they work will show how they are designed to limit power, the ability to act, to a very small number and force the vast majority to simply react to what they do. For instance, the people are told that they are limited to participating at just certain times and places. Those times and places are then placed under tight control of that very small elite. The elites write the agenda, maintain total control of the meeting process, have one sided comment periods that excuses themselves from accountability and almost never share the full range of information and what little there is rarely appears in a timely manner.


Department of Fireworks

The explosive substance we know as gunpowder was originally developed in China. The bright displays to expel evil spirits and bring good luck, we learned, could also be aimed at enemies and used to blow things up.

But what if we had never thought using it as a weapon?

I pondered this as we launched our illegal fireworks last night and listened as explosions from neighboring illegal fireworks shows reverberated off the hills.

What if we only used gunpowder for fireworks displays? 


Not All Americans Celebrate the Birth of a Racist Slave Owning USA Homicidal at Home Genocidal Abroad

Prominently placed statues of famous racists are no longer acceptable, just as policemen shooting African Americans has finally become unacceptable. Why not dispense with the far out illusion of a racist colonial capitalist USA being worth celebrating. Meanwhile left undone is the protecting of non-American Black lives from killer American GIs invading and bombing their beloved countries.


WSESD Public Ballot Information Meeting on Boycotting the Budget

My understanding of President of the WSESD Board David Shoales response at the Public Ballot Information Meeting about boycotting passing the budget was that recovering from COVID was his exclusive priority, separate from and against this opportunity to motion with prison abolition, labor union empowerment, and enslavement reparations.


Where Are We Going? Does It Matter?

Spoon Agave: There are no obvious signs of leadership in Brattleboro so I can only conclude that the collective vision in the Municipal building is that the pandemic will end someday and everything will be OK. If anyone reading this has seen something different please share what it is. At the moment it feels like the town is simply marking time (just filling potholes) until whatever happens happens and we’ll deal with it then. That is one strategy, anyway.

Dot Lenhart: Do you have any suggestions?


Reparations of People Enslaved in Prisons and the Military

Earlier this month I released a public statement addressed to People in government organizing slavery reparation movements’ legislation to recognize that People incarcerated and People employed in the military have both been and are currently treated as property denied both constitutional and life protections of freedoms, rights, and liberties. We can and will change such insanely brutal conditions with prison abolition and labor union empowerment. The newspapers have not published my letters and I have not been allowed access to participate at official reparations meetings which say no one is denied entry.


Re: George Floyd

Recently, the Chief of Police wrote a letter to the people of Brattleboro, referencing the death of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

He mentioned that the police have a professional duty to protect and serve everyone in the community with dignity and respect. He also related that “We have made de-escalation tactics a priority in use of force trainings. Once the resistance stops or the situation is under control, the tactics need to evolve with the situation.”

Sounds good,

It was not always that way here in Brattleboro.


Surveillance Cameras

The attached image illustrates surveillance cameras installed in a street in Communist China. Fortunately we live in a free country where such things don’t exist (except on Main Street in Brattleboro).


“The Stand At Paxton County”

I always thought very highly about Humane Societies and animal rights people in general. It’s not always the case.

In the film “The Stand At Paxton County”, I got an entirely different view of the whole situation. (It’s currently available on Netflix)

Though the film is fiction, it’s based on reality.