Born and raised Vermonter, now living in Alabama, about an hour away from Atlanta.

Thank you for supporting us and adding your voices to the opposition of ruining communities and militarizing police. I can’t tell you what it means to us.

Please care about us.

True.

I mean, yeah actually I do think that people who buy homes where they’re born deserve homes in that state at an incentivized rate, or be given first refusal on property. If it’s cheaper to go to college in-state, why shouldn’t it be cheaper to buy a home in-state? It’s really incredibly sad to me that so many of us are priced out of the counties we grew up in.

Vermont has the 2nd highest homeless population per capita after California, where they’ve declared it a state of emergency. Something’s gotta give. Homes gotta get built!

Locals are pricing out locals. Both in the rental market and in buying markets. Scarcity of housing drives up cost, and refusing to build is what creates the scarcity. There are definitely NIMBY Vermonters who don’t want housing options to decrease their property value. A development of 10 homes across road from their home could mean they only get a 100k profit rather than 200k when (if?) they eventually sell.

Yeah well what about the Vermonters who were born here? Don’t we deserve to live near our families? Or should we just be expected to force our elderly parents out of their (paid off) homes and ship them to the cheap states we were forced to move to for our own convenience? What about the 6th generation Vermonters who can afford a 300k home but not a 600k home? We really should just go kick rocks?

Building homes will not “ruin” Vermont. In my lifetime, I’ve heard that solar farms, wind farms, houses, businesses would ruin the state and turn it into New Jersey. Yet somehow, Vermont is still beautiful. I’m so sick of this “tough titty” attitude. Not enough housing is tearing apart families, and it’s destructive to the culture and heritage of Vermont. Housing is a human right. Hey guess what? If you don’t like neighbors, then you should be able to afford 40 acres so you can pretend you live in 18th Century Vermont. Oh, too expensive? Well, move somewhere cheaper.

Are you saying I’m a young, rich, white kid? I’m a 40 year old tradeswoman from a middle class family, and I have a high school education. Park Rangers are alerted to the presence of POC on trails pretty often, particularly black men because “they looked out of place” or other nonsense. The lecturing isn’t coming from me. It’s coming from non white people. Like, for example, the person who wrote the article that was posted. If you’re tired of hearing it, imagine how tired they are of living it.

I think it’s safe to assume that prioritizing people’s comfort includes not calling police on POC who are in parks, using your white privilege to address racism if you see it happening rather than turning a blind eye, not leaving racist notes in trail books, giving excellent customer service to POC shopping in outdoor gear stores, and in general, not getting angry and defensive when hundreds of POC produce thoughtful content about the problems they face when being outdoors. The line of thinking that people’s comfort needs to be as involved as approaching them on a trail and saying “how can I, a White make you, a black, more comfortable today?” is obviously stupid and misses the point entirely.

The layers of racism in this comment 🤦🤦🤦

I’m cringing SO hard at these comments. If you really and truly feel like Black and POC people are given equal opportunities to exist outdoors, but are open to changing your mind, PLEASE check out Alexis Nikole Nelson aka The Black Forrager. She’s done lots of podcasts and interviews about the risks involved in being Black in the outdoors, and about the history of white people intentionally preventing POC from having access to natural resources in order to aid racial oppression. There’s another great podcast called Ologies that has an epic episode about Black bird watchers, who started on online community after a black man who was watching birds in a public park got the cops called on him by a white woman.

Do NOT tell me that white hikers on the AT haven’t refused to share a lean-to because a black camper was “sketchy” when really, he was just a regular dude who was black. I’ve seen it happen. Do NOT tell me that the 2nd whitest state in the country has never excluded POC from many activities, including outdoor ones, especially when I was standing right there when a white Vermonter said “I thought you guys didn’t like the cold” to my black friend while out snowshoeing.

Racism takes many forms. Passive aggressive exclusion is one of them. A lot of white people participate in this particular form of racism without even realizing it. Northern racism feels different from Southern racism, but is still very much alive and well. Believe black people when they say they’re not welcome. Advocate for them and prioritize their comfort. It’s a no-brainer.

Ohhh, buddy, have I ever been exactly where you are! I had a stretch of many years of spending Christmas alone.

Here’s what I thought about: Not everyone celebrates Christmas. There are tons of Jews, Quakers, Jehova Witnesses, Muslims, Seventh Day Adventists and many more. For them it’s just a day to either go to work like usual or just hang out at home. Especially since Christmas was on Sunday this year it’s kinda just another weekend.

Yes, they’ve been fully adjusted. Just super bright.

I have high quality, aftermarket headlights. They’re wicked bright, but I stay at least one or two car lengths between the car in front and mine.

Every day, someone angrily changes lanes, falls back, gets on my ass and high-beams me. 18 wheelers too. I try to flash my high beams to show them that my lights are not dimmer, just lower or higher.

YUP

So the minimum wage in Vermont has to double in order for full time workers to afford a 1 bedroom rental. Vermonters earn $2,700 less per year than the national average.

Get on that, Phil Scott!

I had the same question.

When I was in 5th grade, a new family moved to our side of town. Nice parents. Their daughter was in 6th grade, and they also had a little baby about 6 months old.

Their daughter was nice. Prone to outbursts of anger during school, but otherwise just a regular kid. She adored the baby. She talked about her little sister all the time, and how she wanted to be the best Big Sister ever.

Fast forward to High School Graduation. All of a sudden, she turns 18 and truth bombs the whole town. She was the baby’s mother. It wasn’t her sister at all, but her daughter. Her stepfather was the father. They moved to VT after she gave birth at age 11, and made up the story to give her a fresh start. She told everyone that her plan after graduation was to take custody of her daughter and be the best mom she could be.

I don’t know whatever happened to her, but I’ve often wondered. I’ve always sincerely wished she and her daughter the best.

Absolutely. I can and do tell other customers to keep themselves in check. I think people forget that these workers are children and that it’s completely inappropriate to verbally abuse a child. I once asked a woman how she would feel if someone spoke to her child the way she had spoken to the kid helping her.

Okay, so. I hear you, and I’m not saying you’re wrong. But…Vermonters do the same shit. When I complained to my brother that I would move back if it wasn’t so expensive, he just said you can cough up the dough to live in the best state ever, or live in a crappy state. He’s a 6th generation Vermonter.

My uncle has operated a small (extremely small, donation based) business on his property for 40 years. The Vermonters who bought the property next to his filed complaints with the county and town because of the “traffic” and noise on the weekends. He folded and closed off his property. My mother has walked her dogs off leash in the town forest for 40 years. A neighbor came running across his yard, into the woods, down the trail, harassed her and kicked the dogs for being off leash. They were 10 year old basset hounds who NEVER left the path and would sooner drive a car than run. My mum had done this walk with them since they were puppies, but the guy said his elderly mother “doesn’t like dogs”. Dude went to high school with my dad.

Also, Vermonters are the most ridiculously slow drivers I’ve ever had to deal with. Did you guys know that you can in fact go 5 miles over the speed limit in good driving conditions? Vermonters can’t decide if back roads are for speeding or for going extra slow, so that’s a fun mix.

I love Vermonters. I love Vermont. I understand feeling protective. But Vermonters also do dumb shit, Vermonters are also rude AF a lot of the time, and Vermonters definitely aren’t the nicest when visiting other states. Many, many times I’ve heard Vermonters openly talking shit about the places they’re visiting right in front of locals.

One time in Vermont I remember in particular was a Southern family who came into a local sandwich shop. The father politely asked “What’s a panini? I’ve never heard of that.” The owner replied “It’s a grilled sandwich.” The father said “okay well, I’m not picky but I love ham. Which ham sandwich do you recommend?” The owner scoffed and said “If you want a ham sandwich, go down to the gas station. I serve grilled, pressed paninis.” The man gathered his family, said “I’m sorry to have bothered you.” and left. After the door closed, the owner muttered “stupid fucking southerners” under her breath. I’ll never forget it. When my husband, who has a heavy southern accent, came to Vermont the first time, I warned his people might be mean to him because they have decided to hate the south.

Come on. We can all do better. Including Vermonters.

As if Vermonters don’t go on vacations and make asses out of themselves.

I know it sucks, but honestly, that’s just the service industry. Vermonters were a-holes to me when I worked in restaurants.