Hello, my name is Stu.

I’m the owner of Battery Street Jeans Exchange thrift shop, located at 115 College St. in downtown Burlington, Vermont.

For almost 6 years in our current downtown location, the Free Clothing Bin has provided countless houseless and low income individuals with clothing and other resources to help them feel presentable and warm.

While that is its primary use, the free bin also:

- provides clean linens for bedding and insulation (many still sleeping outside). We work with organizations like Food Not Bombs to address this growing issue.

- decreases shoplifting and general theft, which is at a record high on church street and is a major concern for the city agenda, as stated by our Mayor.

- alleviates the financial burden of having to buy new clothes. The ever-rising rent costs and retail prices keep many on a fixed budget.

- cuts consumption of fast fashion, one of the leading causes of world pollution today. Simply view the clothing dumps in the Atacama Desert of Chile or the beaches of Ghana. A decrease of consumption also benefits our local landfills.

- helps residents declutter: dumping clothes is unethical and the city dump charges you a fee. The local Goodwills and other nonprofits are often not accepting clothing due to short staffing and over-abundance.

- helps nonprofit thrift shops manage inventory. We already work with several nonprofits who would either have to throw away their unsellable clothing or send it to be scrapped for the raw material.

- provides free material for local artists. You def know someone who likes to make their own clothes!

-inspires a general feeling of hope, conservation, caring, and generosity in the community.

It is for these reasons and more that the free bin should be allowed to continue without question. In the 8+ years I have been with the business (Battery Street Jeans opened on Battery St. in 1991, over 30 years ago!), countless members of the community have expressed their deep gratitude for the bags and bags of clothing they hand-selected from the bin. On average, we distribute a minimum of 1,000 clothing items a week (as described in a recent Seven Days news article). Frequenters of the free bin include the houseless, refugees, low income families, children, single parents, celebrities, college students, and just about any type of person you can think of!

I have even had individuals comment on my facebook posts that the clothes they found saved them from frostbite and freezing to death when sleeping outside. At the time of writing this, there have been many days and nights with below freezing temperatures this season, and still the city’s warming shelters and pod housing are not open.

Despite all this praise from thousands of locals and tourists, I have been met with heavy criticism recently from a handful of new neighbors who expressed concern over “curb appeal” and general dissatisfaction with the behavior of a select few visitors of the free bin. I have responded with compromises such as:

-limiting the free bin to exactly one bin in a designated area closely pressed up against my business’s front window so it can be monitored.

-working tirelessly to communicate with neighbors, property mgmt, and the city of burlington to ensure the bin meets their expectations.

-limiting the hours of the bin to only when I am present and working.

-spending hundreds of my own dollars on construction of a more presentable wooden bin. I also extended my business’s liability insurance policy to be responsible for the bin area as well.

-frequently checking the bin for any problems such as littered clothing or obnoxious behavior from visitors. (As often as once every 15 minutes). Despite being just a block away from city hall park, a hot spot for record-high violent and drug-related crime in our city, I take it upon myself to keep my free bin safe, secure, and welcoming.

-communicating with Street Outreach and undergoing the court process to obtain a 200ft restraining order against one problem person in particular that caused much of the mess and chaos that people have complained about. This person is known to cause serious trouble all over town, and I made the necessary steps to keep her off our block.

Despite all of these compromises from my end, I have been offered very little direct communication or concern/ comprise from those who oppose the free bin. They instead take pictures without my consent, report me to my property mgmt, attempt to throw away the bin and its contents (again, without my consent), report me to the city officials, and disrupt the process of attaining this permit!

Yes, although I am now seeking official city support and guidance for the bin, one opposing individual attended the last meeting and spoke against it, resulting in a postponement. 
All of this opposition often without ever speaking with me directly.

The narrative that this individual (one of my new neighbors) gives is that the free bin “does more harm than good”. That sentence was actually used as their closing argument at the last committee meeting.

I cannot disagree more.

Please sign this petition and share it. Help spread what I believe is the true narrative:

the Battery Street Jeans Free Clothing Bin does infinite good for the community.

PS: please reach out if you are a public official or have any ties to other public/ legal officials who would be willing to support this cause. I really do need the support. So far, I have received no support or recognition from the city for clothing their citizens. None ever.

also please write to:

DPW Inspector Caleb Manna - cmanna@burlingtonvt.gov   **Caleb has been a huge supporter of this cause!

and also send what you wrote to me on instagram or facebook @batterystreetjeans

with a short explanation of your personal connection to the free bin and why you think it should be protected. These testimonies will be shared at the next committee meeting and would help immensely.

thanks so much for reading!!

love,

Stu & BSJ

Watch this recent WCAX story about the bin!