I own Butch + Babe's at 258 North Winooski & lived at 38 Crombie Street just two doors off of North Winooski for close to a decade. I have attended countless meetings on the proposed changes to North Winooski Avenue.

From the start of the process, the language in the materials for the project have had a clear bias towards cars - villainizing drivers & victimizing cyclists. Many of the PAC members that voted on this issue do not live in this part of the city and were not familiar with the parking demands on North Winooski from Pearl Street to Riverside. Business owners & non-profits along this corridor were NOT approached directly by PAC members or city councilors for feedback despite suggestions to the contrary. It was only after the project was well underway that a few of us got word of what was happening through the grapevine, never with any direct contact from the City, DPW, CEDO, Councilors, PAC Members, RSG, CCRPC or anyone else involved in engineering this "process". Meanwhile, the bike lobby was fully engaged from the start of this process through DPW, Local Motion, CCRPC, and others involved. We quickly organized & started voicing our concerns, in fact, once the powers that be understood that we were getting organized, a planned meeting was canceled out of fear that our voices might actually be heard. The largest meeting held on this topic at the ONE Community Center (former St Joseph's School) drew a massive crowd of business people, non-profit leaders and residents that were overwhelmingly concerned about the potential loss of public parking in the NWA corridor.

I am in full support of bike lanes & I am in full support of retaining all of the parking. There were win-win alternatives presented & they were quickly dismissed due to cost. The alternative that was selected feels short sighted. We are not going to bike our way out of the climate crisis on a 5 block, 0.7 mile long stretch of North Winooski Avenue. We are a very small city in a predominantly rural state with cold snowy short daylight winters and rainy summers. The majority of Vermonters get around by car the majority of the time. It is a very privileged few that have been able to set their lives up in a way that they live a bike-able distance to their job, are healthy & can afford year round bicycle equipment & gear to contend with VT's elements. In this tiny footprint of a small city, finding a way to encourage the purchase of electric automobiles will be much more impactful on slowing climate change than 5 blocks of bike lanes. Wiping out parking on one side of the street will leave less space for potential charging stations for electric vehicles.

The social services offered on this section of North Winooski are life & death. The Food Shelf serves 500 meals a day, the Community Health Center serves the most vulnerable in our community, Outright VT councils young queer people, a group with a frighteningly high suicide rate. Two North Winooski non-profits have moved out in recent years due to lack of parking.

I am not in social services, but I can tell you that my small, but mighty business has not only added to the vibrancy of North Winooski, it has positively impacted the local economy.

Since we opened in December of 2014, we have purchased roughly $600,000 in goods from VT farms, VT breweries, VT distilleries, VT cideries & other VT food purveyors.

We have made cash & in-kind donations of $18,000 + to local non-profits, many our North Winooski neighbors.

We have employed 50 + folks over the years, many Old North End residents. We have paid out around $835,000 in staff compensation (including tips) & supplied them with around 11,000 staff meals. Many of our part-time employees work in social services or as teachers full time & need the supplementary income to make ends meet.

In a recent survey, we found that 70% of our customers arrive by car. We cannot rely on BTV'ers within walking and biking distance to make ends meet at Butch + Babe's. Sorting out auxiliary parking options would be wonderful. However, while Burlingtonians will likely stay abreast of information on parking issues, the suburban/rural folks and tourists that we also depend on to keep the lights on will likely not. One trip to the Old North End & a struggle to find parking, with no parking garage, will literally drive them out of the neighborhood for the foreseeable future. We already hear from existing customers that struggle to find parking with current conditions.

The business owners & folks that run the non-profits work their tails off to stay alive. We are a talented bunch and could all likely work less hours for more money elsewhere. We choose our work because it is our livelihood. We believe in the neighborhood & the work that we do. Unfortunately, through this process, I have lost trust in the city's public process.

If this matters to you, PLEASE SHOW UP AT CITY HALL ON MONDAY AT 7PM & SPEAK UP!