BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger is wrapping up 12 years in office and on Monday he will pass the torch to Mayor-Elect Emma Mulvaney-Stanak.
With just a few days until he leaves office, Mayor Miro Weinberger is taking stock, saying some things have remained the same since was first elected back in 2012, and others are vastly different.
“Certainly, I’ve got a lot more gray hair than then when this started,” he said “I’m having all the emotions honestly. This has been 12 great, intense years of my life and I’m gonna miss a lot about it.”
The Democrat points to his successes in bringing greater financial stability to the city in the wake of the Burlington Telecom fiasco. He also hangs his hat on major progress toward addressing the city’s housing shortage. The two largest housing projects in the state — Cambrian Rise and CityPlace are underway — and he says new zoning changes will likely clear the way for thousands more units of housing.
“We’ve also been focusing on changing what I believe is the crux of the problem, which is our current land use laws — or at least the land use laws that existed 12 years ago — they’re a lot better today than they were then, and I believe I’m confident we have changed the trajectory of housing,” Weinberger said.
His tenure also coincided with the pandemic and growing struggles with homelessness, the opioid crisis, and crime, issues that he says they’ve made strides on just recently. “I do hope that people remember this time as one in which we got through many crises as a community and got to a better place,” he said.
Weinberger also dealt with a Progressive-dominated City Council that he says resulted in the 2020 upheaval of the police department. “I’ll always regret that I could not prevail with my colleagues on stopping the terrible decision to reduce the size of the police department by 30%. I knew it was a problem. I strenuously objected to it. Everything I had learned in eight years being mayor up to that point was that if you want good policing, you need more resources, not less,” he said.
While the city has visibly changed, with upgrades to the waterfront, City Hall Park, and ongoing infrastructure projects, Weinberger says community civic mindedness has remained. “People show up, they care about this place. I feel like that’s something that is as strong today as it was 12 years ago,” he said.
As for what’s next, Weinberger says he’s excited to focus on different goals. He says that ongoing challenges like housing and the opioid crisis can best be addressed from a statewide level and he hopes he can have a role in those conversations. But he says he hasn’t decided if he’ll make a run for governor.
MULVANEY-STANAK PREPARES TO TAKE OFFICE
Mayor-elect Emma Mulvaney-Stanak is just three days from taking Burlington’s top job.
The Progressive took part in her first city press conference Friday alongside Mayor Weinberger ahead of Transgender Day of Visibility on Sunday. She says she had selected her leadership team and has been meeting with city departments over the past three weeks about the opportunities and challenges facing them.
“It’s been three weeks of not officially being in the job and being thrown a lot of information without officially having any authority to do much yet. So, I’m very eager to jump in and I have a really excited team who’s ready to really think big and boldly and work in a collaborative way in our community,” Mulvaney-Stanak said.
She will take the oath of office — along with new council members — at Monday’s City Council meeting and then will be giving an inaugural address. She is resigning from her seat in the Vermont House.