BRATTLEBORO — The group held signs asking for kindness, respect, and their right to feel safe while using the sidewalk to get to Main Street.
Near the Central Fire Station and McNeill's Brewery, drivers looking to enter and exit Church Street at its intersection with Elliot found themselves waiting as the trail of approximately 50 people - on foot, with walkers, and in motorized chairs - crossed the wide street on a sunny and warm late-August afternoon.
The Aug. 27 walk, organized by Brattleboro Housing Parnerships, aimed to raise awareness about the discomfort faced by many elders and those with mobility issues when they use the downtown sidewalks.
Residents at the Samuel Elliot Apartments - the “Elliot high-rise” - who participated in the walk shared daily experiences that made them feel uncomfortable at best and unsafe at worst: people yelling at one another on the streets, strangers trying to get into the building at night.
And, multiple times this summer, hearing gunfire.
For the marchers, the final straw, however, came after a resident who uses a walker was, in the words of BHP Executive Director Chris Hart, “accosted by a group blocking the sidewalk.”
According to Hart, when the resident told the group she planned to call the police, they smashed the woman's phone.
“The residents are now fearful of walking out to Main Street,” said Hart.
Lorelei Morrissette, who organized the walk, said that encounter has amplified other residents' unease.
“That spreads to everybody,” said Morrissette, who serves as BHP's resident opportunity and self sufficiency (ROSS) coordinator and its support and services at home (SASH) coordinator.
The walk started in the courtyard of the Elliot apartments, a complex for seniors and disabled adults. It followed Elliot Street to where it met Main Street, and then circled back to the Elliot.
Community member Doug Cox, a member of Street People in Service to a Better Brattleboro, handed out fliers before the event.
“We all need to feel safe,” the flier said. “The way we share and experience the streets, parks and public spaces of Brattleboro is our shared responsibility to each other, an opportunity to be in community, our opportunity to experience caring, our legacy to those who will live in our place today, tomorrow, after.”
When asked why she decided to participate in the awareness walk, Carolyn Melillo answered, “To make people safe and not scared.”
Melillo, who has lived in the high-rise for seven years, believes that the atmosphere on Elliot Street is “getting worse.” In her experience, most people don't like leaving the high-rise after 4 p.m.
“That's when all the bad people come out,” she said.
She wished the high-rise had a security patrol. Failing that, she wishes the police department would patrol the area more often.
A Samuel Elliot resident for 14 years, Gary Snyder sat in his motorized chair holding a sign that read, “Making noise for small acts of kindness”
“Crime is really getting out of hand,” he said as he mentally reviewed his past 14 years on Elliot Street.
Snyder worries about going out at night because he “could get mugged.” Yet, he said that he has not experienced any threats from other people in downtown.
Morrissette said many of the people who choose to live at the high-rise do so because of the building's proximity to Main Street. She hoped the awareness walk would help residents “build some empowerment” and “rebuild their sense of safety.”
“We're so happy to do this and so happy to have so many people from the community to come and join us,” Morrissette added.