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Comment by Mary K.

October 10, 2007 @ 11:58 am

I am glad that someone is pointing this out. You don’t hear about it on the news, etc. but this is an issue that many of us are concerned about. As a working mother of 2, my husband and I have all we can do to make ends meet. We rent a low-income apartment because we can’t afford a house, even though we were both born and raised in the Burlington area. My husband makes $10.50 per hour and installs garage doors. My job pays only $9 per hour in retail. We have both tried for better paying jobs but they are very hard to come by without college degrees. We have friends who lost jobs when local plants shut down and now they have to work for a lot less pay than before. Some have moved out of Vermont because they couldn’t make a go of it.
I feel sad when I see fancy sports cars and hear about mothers on the news hiring nannys while they go shopping and spend the day at spas. I’m not against people with money but it just seems that we are being pushed out of her homes and enduring hardship while others are coming here to enjoy the good life.
I just want to be able to buy a decent home and pay my bills without assistance. I guess that doesn’t mean much to anyone but me but I’m glad to see that others are aware of this situation.
God bless!

Comment by Peter Wheeler

October 12, 2007 @ 6:27 am

Yeah, I’m one of the ones who moved out of Vermont to find work elsewhere. I’m working in Pennsylvania now. I do miss my home state but I don’t miss all the BS going on up there now. When I left there was a big push to be a tourist state. Now the tourists own Vermont. They can have it.

Comment by Missy Taylor

October 15, 2007 @ 1:07 pm

Did you see this in the Sunday Burlington Free Press?

My Turn: The fading Oasis

Published: Sunday, October 14, 2007
By Pete Garivaltis

I used to view Burlington as an oasis. A place where white collar, blue collar, hicks, hippies, students, intellectuals, yuppies, and all combinations could co-exist and have fun together within the group consciousness that envelops Burlington. It was a place to seek refuge from Boston, or New York, or any other metro area. A place where you could let your heart lead you to your job, and if that meant earning a modest income doing what you love, so be it. You could live in Burlington on a modest income, with a light heart and a strong sense of community. The culture, the night life, the plethora of outdoor activities and, of course, the beauty of it all make it a place that draws people in, and make it hard to leave once you get here.

I love Burlington and Vermont in general because it is unique, and it loves to be so. Or so it seemed. There is a trend making its way through Burlington and Chittenden County. It has culminated with the sale of the Oasis Diner. I began thinking about how when Oasis closes there will be no place in Burlington to get an old-fashioned, blue collar breakfast. No place where the waitresses still call you “sweetheart,” or “dear” no matter how old you are or how well they know you. I have nothing against biscuits and herb gravy for breakfast, but there should be a suitable “Vermont,” alternative shouldn’t there? In less than a month the Oasis Diner will begin being transformed into a “New York-style deli.”

The problem is, Burlington itself is undergoing the same transformation. Burlington is being sold to the highest bidders and being turned into a New York-style city. From the palatial homes popping up all over South Burlington to the Boston-area condo prices in Burlington itself, the city is transforming into a pale version of what it was.

It is becoming more and more difficult to live here on a modest salary. The diversity of people that made Burlington so unique and captivating is quickly thinning. High housing costs are pushing many people to the outskirts of Chittenden County. This is all fine if you don’t mind Burlington becoming another Boston suburb like Andover, or like White Plains in New York.

It strikes me that people move to Vermont from larger cities and claim to fall in love with Vermont, and then proceed to want to change it into wherever it was they came from. Burlington was an oasis in the Northeast. With the closing of the Oasis Diner, Burlington is losing a piece of history. The oasis that is Burlington will fade a little more, as well, with the closing of the diner’s doors.

Pete Garivaltis lives in Burlington.

Comment by info

October 15, 2007 @ 1:39 pm

Thanks for adding this!
Peter hit the nail right on the head and I’m glad it was published in the Free Press. This is an issue that you always hear working class Vermonters talking or griping about. Unfortunately, not many dare to step up and put it out for the public to consider.

In one of my recent blog posts I was publicly attacked by someone in Jericho who incorrectly took my article entirely out of context and chose to rip me apart on their blog. They didn’t even have the courage to post my rebuttal. The comments were to the effect that blogs like Vermonter.com with “glib language have no place on a local website”. This was from someone who obviously felt a bit more elite than the average Vermonter yet was lacking in basic skills such as reading comprehension. Go figure.

Comment by Charles

October 18, 2007 @ 3:16 pm

I’m not exactly your typical Vermonter, but I do have a passion and love for the state and I understand exactly what you’re going through. I grew up in Montreal and spent every summer at our small cottage in Alburg (Alburgh) VT. We sold that cottage in 1979 for $10,000. They are now selling for $250K.

While you are quite right that Vermont is becoming no longer affordable for Vermonters, please realize that the same thing is happening EVERYWHERE. Rich people from every city in America have discovered that small-town living is the best in the world. They are buying it all up, taking it over, and destroying the very reason they liked it in the first place.

I currently live near Niagara Falls Canada. 25 years ago you could purchase a lake-front home in the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake for under $50K. Those same homes today cost $800K.

Unfortunately for Vermont, the state is just too beautiful and quaint for it’s own good. I’m surprised Disney hasn’t already bought it up and turned it into an amusement park.

Best of luck.

Comment by Katie

October 19, 2007 @ 11:20 pm

I really feel for all of you. We’re going through the exact same thing here in Boulder, Co. We want to leave and find someplace we can afford and still like, for that matter. People with lots of money have moved in because it’s such a great place but start to change it as soon as they get here. It’s becoming so “swanky”, middle income people (including natives) can’t afford to shop anywhere in town anymore let alone buy a house. Housing has gotten outrageously priced. One of the few places we’ve wanted to relocate to is Burlington, Vt. We’ve been through a couple of times years ago and really liked it. We like the idea of a smaller, less expensive town in which to live. Less pretentious. Someplace like Boulder used to be. But it sounds like you’re going through the same thing there, and we could no longer afford it. I remember when Vermont was a place you could still go and get someplace inexpensive to live and have a good quality of life. It seems as if anyplace of that type all around the country has been “discovered” by the wealthy (and for 2nd. homes, no less), and people like us can no longer afford to get even close to it. It’s very sad and seems to leave us with no options. We’d like to sell our house (in one of the few areas around here that isn’t going to make us rich when we sell) and move out in the country somewhere. But even places in rural areas are the sites of huge country estates these days. What’s a middle-class family to do?

Comment by silvia

October 25, 2007 @ 11:47 am

I studied tourism, and it is sometimes a necessary evil, but I think perhaps maybe we should look to our lovely real estate agents and have them also learn a little bit about preserving the local communities they are in. I think there should be a class that all flatlanders are required to take once buying a home on how to respect and not completely change your local community. A great class for CCV to offer… They should also have to look at the VT Liveable Wage Campaign, and realize people working in their towns are living below a liveable wage. Then maybe, a lightbulb will go off. And I don’t really like Burlington too much. Maybe I would have long ago.

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