Business owners near Tuesday's stabbing had been asking city for help

Business owners near the Church and Main street intersection where a near-fatal stabbing occurred this week have long been concerned about the behaviors of some rowdy panhandlers and transients who crowd the busy corner. 

Mark Mackillop, who owns Muddy Waters Cafe, went to the Burlington City Council in early June to ask the city's help in dealing with some of the people who hang out just off the Church Street Marketplace. He described harassment, threats, vulgarity and public drunkenness. 

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"This panhandling has turned into more of a form of debauchery," he said. He said he understood the issue of panhandlers' rights, but that the scene outside his coffee shop was about partying, not mental illness and panhandling. 

"We're all starting to worry," Mackillop said. He told the City Council that he had spoken to other business owners on the block. 

"Every owner of those businesses has told me they're behind me," he said. "This is a collective message." 

Mackillop said that he had received threats on his life while asking people to move away from the doorstep. He added that he does not take the threats seriously, "but you don’t know which one might snap."

On Tuesday evening, Conner Lucas, who police said is homeless, allegedly cut the throat of another man at the intersection after a dispute spilled out from nearby City Hall Park. Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo said Lucas, the man he allegedly stabbed and a third individual who sustained non-life-threatening injuries knew each other. 

As of Thursday evening, the victim was in "serious" condition, said a representative from UVM Medical Center.

City Council President Jane Knodell said on Thursday that the City Council has not taken any action in the weeks since Mackillop's plea, but that it was an issue she believed needs more attention from the city government.

"Public safety is a core function of local government," she said.

She added that she agreed with many points that del Pozo made in an interview on Wednesday with the Burlington Free Press. Del Pozo had expressed frustration that "quality of life" offenses such as public drunkenness, fighting, public urination and "smoking dope" are decriminalized in Vermont.  

Officers can write civil tickets, but del Pozo said the fines often go unpaid. While the chief said the civil system works well for many, some repeat offenders are unconcerned about the financial repercussions of not paying the fines. Even if they rack up several tickets and the police are unable to take them off the street. 

"I agree with much of what he was saying in terms of creating consequences for repeat offenders," Knodell said. She added that she believed the city should explore whether to change the rules for repeat offenders and whether action can be taken on the local level or if it would have to come from the state. 

Knodell said the city should also be concerned about a lack of safety for the homeless population of the city. This week's incident is the second high-profile stabbing in the downtown core. In late March, a longtime member of the transient community, Richard Medina, was fatally stabbed in the middle of the afternoon at the corner of Church and Cherry streets. Louis Fortier, also described by police as transient, has pleaded not guilty to first-degree, or premeditated, murder.

In his comments to the City Council, Mackillop praised the police and the Howard Center's Street Outreach Team but said they couldn't be there all the time. 

The Street Outreach Team, which works with homeless and at-risk populations, recently went from six members to four after the Howard Center decided not to hire replacements for the program's founder Matt Young and longtime member Justin Verette. 

A $200,000 budget shortfall caused the reduction.

The team is partially funded by the Church Street Marketplace, a city department dedicated to the maintaining the downtown shopping district.

Church Street Marketplace Executive Director Ron Redmond said the partnership that oversees the team has been meeting and plans to have a long-term sustainability plan in place by late fall or early 2018.

Redmond said he has also been meeting with some of the businesses on Main Street, even though they're outside the Marketplace district. He said his "heart goes out" to the people who work on that stretch. 

The Marketplace's goal, he said, is to create a downtown where everybody is welcome. 

"When one group is severely intoxicated and swearing — it’s hard to make it good for everyone," he said. 

Daniel Caudle, who closed the restaurant, Church and Main, that he co-owned this spring after several years in business, said he had been frustrated with the city's response to a problem on the corner.

"We have a City Council that I believe is turning a blind eye to the issues the city has with the homeless," he said.

In 2015, while trying to get a permit to expand his restaurant's outdoor seating to Main Street, he had received pushback from a City Council subcommittee that raised concerns that the tables would displace the homeless.

Caudle said he had gotten the support of Redmond and the city's Department of Public Works. In a 2015 email signing off on the plan, Redmond wrote that the "outdoor cafe space will be a tremendous boost of our efforts to bring more positive behavior to this particular corner in our downtown."

Caudle said some displacement would be an added benefit, but was not the reason why he wanted to expand. 

Councilor Max Tracy, who Caudle said was the primary official who raised concerns, could not be reached for comment on Thursday. But Councilor Adam Roof, who also served on the committee that heard Caudle's permit request, said he had concerns about the city using outdoor seating permits to push transients away.

"That's not what the role of the city is," Roof said. 

Redmond said that his organization's goal was not to displace panhandlers, but to create space that was vibrant for everyone, and that everybody has a right to be downtown.

"This is a downtown, it’s complicated," he said. 

Contact Jess Aloe at 802-660-1874 or jaloe@freepressmedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @jess_aloe