Burlington prospered with Sanders as mayor

http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bernie-Sanders-The-Mayor-by-Elizabeth-Balcar-Bernie-Sanders_Bernie-Sanders-2016-Presidential-Candidate_Prosperity-150907-934.html


How would a Bernie Sanders presidency revitalize America?

His mayoral legacy in Burlington, VT, offers a host of clues. In the 1980's, Bernie's visionary leadership transformed that city from a stagnant economic and cultural backwater into an economically vibrant and culturally dynamic community.

I watched him do it.

When I moved there in 1979, Vermont's Queen City seemed more like a downtrodden chambermaid.

The urban renewal craze struck Burlington in the 1960's. By the time the bulldozers finished leveling a 27-acre ethnic neighborhood between the downtown and the waterfront, the homes for 157 families, 67 individuals and 47 businesses were gone. The void left by the loss of this neighborhood contributed to a stagnant aura that enveloped the city and bore silent witness to the empty promises of affordable housing made by the city fathers and their developer-accomplices.