https://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-burlington-city-sustainable-future/ "Bernie's Burlington: What Kind of Mayor Was Bernie Sanders?” Why this is important:
1. This article was written by 2 scholars and originally published in The Nation: "Peter Dreier teaches politics and chairs the Urban & Environmental Policy Department at Occidental College. His books include Place Matters: Metropolitics for the 21st Century, The Next Los Angeles: The Struggle for a Livable City, and The 100 Greatest Americans of the 20th Century: A Social Justice Hall of Fame." "Pierre Clavel is professor emeritus of city and regional planning at Cornell University, and author of The Progressive City, Activists in City Hall, and Reinventing Cities: Equity Planners Tell Their Stories." I apologize to the authors and the Nation and Huffington Post for quoting more than is considered customary. Thanks to the people who pointed this out to me and I have tried to correct my error. Please refer to the link to read the rest of the article. thank you.
2. Bernie gets it done!: When landlords tried to take advantage of a loophole to turn affordable housing into luxury condos.
"Bernie pounded his fist on the conference table in his office and told the owners, 'Over my dead body are you going to displace 336 working families. You are not going to convert Northgate into luxury housing,'" recalled Davis, who was Sanders's key housing aide.
Sanders succeeded in finding a way to enable the residents to buy their apartments.
3. Bernie’s approach is the only way average working people have a chance to survive the coming wave of increasing number of jobs performed by robots - namely for average people to have an ownership stake in the output of the economy.
4. Bernie succeeded in shifting the political culture in Burlington from resistance to progressive politics to respect from the movers and shakers who joined him to make things happen.
In his first two years in office, the City Council refused to allow Sanders to hire more than a handful of staff, while the entrenched bureaucrats in City Hall sought to thwart his initiatives......
But over time Bernie was able to win over political and business opponents. One of his biggest business opponents became a partner in his efforts to establish an egalitarian city:
Pomerleau wasn't happy when Sanders opposed his waterfront development plan, but he gradually got to know the mayor and came to admire his pragmatism, his bulldog tenacity to get things done, and his support for the local police. "Bernie and I worked very well together for the betterment of the town," Pomerleau said. "We were the odd couple."
Bernie was originally thought of as anti business but his dedication to a healthy working environment united business and workers. 6. Executive skill in running a town is meaningful. I wrote this diary in response to elesares’ comment that maybe serving as mayor of Burlington doesn’t “translate” into being accepted as presidential material.
Yep. The "mayor of Burlington" thing is really, really gonna translate well to the office of President of the United States. Got it.
http://www.dailykos.com/comments/1438948/58053156 My argument is that if Bernie failed as mayor, that would be a concern. However he gets an excellent grade, IMO, executing his duties as mayor, living up to his stated ideals, uniting the differing interests in Burlington and exerting power effectively to achieve community goals. IMO, our past efforts to successfully choose a qualified presidential candidate based on being a “successful” governor of a large state have failed abysmally - e.g. the catastrophic Governor George W Bush and the Iran Contra Governor Ronald Reagan. So why not examine Bernie's executive management skill while he was Mayor of Burlington to see whether he has shown skill dealing effectively with the challenges that are important to most Americans? BURLINGTON TODAY: courtesy wikipedia:
Burlington has a city council-mayor form of government.[48] Democrats and the Progressive Party make up the majority of the council. Miro Weinberger, the current mayor,[49] is a Democrat who was first elected in 2012.[50] The City Council has fourteen seats, which are currently occupied by seven Democrats (all Ward 5, 6, & 7, and one in Ward 4), five Progressives (all Ward 2 & 3 and one in Ward 1), one Independents (Ward 1) and one Republican (Ward 4).[51] Current U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders was the mayor of Burlington from 1981 to 1989. His election in 1981 unseated the longstanding Mayor, Gordon Paquette, drastically changing the political landscape of the city. The new Mayor Bernie Sanders created a government that was run by young Progressives, including Peter Clavelle, who was elected Mayor when Sanders stepped down to run for higher office. Peter Clavelle, Burlington's longest serving mayor, held that office from 1989 to 1993, and again from 1995 to 2006.[52] The large transient student population votes in local, as well as state and national elections, resulting in a considerable impact on local elections.[53] The city signed up 2,527 new voters in the six weeks from September 1, 2008, the highest number for that time frame in over nine years.[53] The city was ranked "average" nationally in political involvement in 2008. Criteria included percentage registered to vote, percentage participating in most recent elections and campaign contributions.[54] As a non-profit institution, The University of Vermont pays no real estate taxes, though like many other schools, it does make an annual payment in lieu of taxes. In 2007, the college agreed to raise this from $456,006 to $912,011 in 2010 plus a "public works" supplement rising from $180,040 to $191,004 over the same time frame.[55] The city maintains three parks on Lake Champlain. One is free, while the other two have parking fees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burlington,_Vermont ------------------------------------------------------------------ Thanks to The Nation and the authors of this article to help us examine the executive skills of one of our candidates for president. https://www.thenation.com/article/bernies-burlington-city-sustainable-future/