Cindi Krug works downtown at her family's store, Twice Upon a Time. "I wrote this a while ago but was nervous to [say] it aloud... now I think it's time," she writes. "I speak for myself and no one else."
BRATTLEBORO-I write this with a very heavy heart.
In one night, we found a stash of needles. The day before, I took a video of the trash and litter strewn around our private property, and that pile was not there.
But "drugs aren't the problem," I am told. This looks like a problem to me.
This is not the first time we have seen this, but we have stayed silent in fear of alienating what customers we might have. Most businesses downtown are in the same position. When business is already so precarious, how can we chance standing up for ourselves and, in doing so, being made into money-grubbing heartless monsters who don't care about human beings? Speaking our truth is now something we have to worry about getting boycotted for.
That is simply not the case.
* * *
My mother worked seven days a week through our entire childhood. We lived in tiny apartments on Elliot Street and Organ Street for years.
Wealthy? I think not. I struggle to keep my head above water daily. Our family business of 38 years is mostly a group shop and consignment shop where we get income from renting spaces, so our merchants keep most of what they sell.
My sister and I are simply trying to make a living, bring our longstanding local customers back, keep our mom's legacy alive, keep Brattleboro the fun, artistic, quirky town we grew up in, and feel safe again.
We're not alone. Most businesses on Main Street in Brattleboro struggle through the year as customers dwindle and costs increase exponentially. We pay for parking. We fight to find spots after snowstorms like everyone else. We participate in community events. We give to charities and donate to local nonprofits.
We all fight to find employees who are willing to work on Main Street with expensive parking, community issues, and low wages. Our kids work at the store.
We all work so hard to keep our customers and employees.
* * *
Let me paint you a picture of what it's like to live, work, and shop downtown.
• There is a woman who lives on Main Street with her kids - I see her all the time. The access to her laundry is outside her building. She has to walk her children to the laundry room as people go down there to shoot up and leave their needles, pass out, urinate, and stash their stuff. She can't let her kids go to to the Co-op for milk a block away alone. Those kids will never have the freedom we all had as children.
• People sitting at a nice local restaurant are sitting having a nice anniversary dinner they waited months to go to and saved up for. They go to their reservation and they look out the window and watch someone at the bus stop get drugs and shoot up. They see a prostitute get picked up. They don't come back.
• A 12-year-old girl gets dropped off at the Harmony Lot lot with her friends to go to the Works and shop around town. She starts getting catcalled by a man who is drunk at 1 in the afternoon. As he follows the kids to Boomerang, the man continues to make comments. He waits outside. The girl calls her mom, and they get picked up. They don't come back. (The mother told me this story.)
• As I clean our store's windows, I see a little girl, around 4 years old. She exits Mocha Joe's with her parents, who are struggling with a stroller and an infant. The little girl walks ahead of the family a few feet in front of Sam's and then picks up a needle and holds it high above her head as she runs it back to show her parents the treasure she found. They don't come back.
• A 78-year-old woman and her 85-year-old husband park on Main Street, pay for parking, and start looking to buy a present from a small business. They struggle to get up the steps of the old building that is not handicapped accessible. There is no restroom in this store.
They go to the next store. Again - no handicapped access and no bathroom. They go to Mocha Joe's to get coffee, struggle down the stairs, get a treat, and use the restroom. They go to cross the street and give money to a homeless person at the crosswalk and then try to hurry across the street before the time is up.
By the time they struggle back to their car, they find a ticket, yet they didn't even get to shop. Instead of walking back uphill a block to the parking kiosk, they leave and don't come back. (This lady was a regular customer who no longer comes in.)
This is our town now. These are the stories we hear now. How long before the businesses here leave, too, and don't come back?
* * *
We can all help each other. A thriving downtown will help fund the resources that people need.
I believe I deserve to go to work without stepping on dirty needles or have to walk through violent fights just to park in the only eight-hour parking available.
I believe I deserve the right to go to work and not worry about being attacked by someone so high they don't know what's going on.
I believe that when I call 911, police should get there soon - not four hours later, because they are so overwhelmed and understaffed.
What about my rights? Other groups do not speak for our intentions or thoughts as they have not spoken to us at all.
Please, we need the locals to go back downtown and see the positive change that has already happened from having extra patrols. We need you to support local businesses and to participate in Selectboard meetings - go in person or Zoom in. Write letters to the Selectboard. Run to become a Representative Town Meeting member.
We need your voices to help us show our town officials what the majority opinion is - not just who is the loudest and participates more.
There are a lot of locals who no longer go downtown. Are we going to let this happen to our town?
I'm not. I'm fighting back.
Will you?
This Voices Viewpoint was submitted to The Commons.
This piece, published in print in the Voices section or as a column in the news sections, represents the opinion of the writer. In the newspaper and on this website, we strive to ensure that opinions are based on fair expression of established fact. In the spirit of transparency and accountability, The Commons is reviewing and developing more precise policies about editing of opinions and our role and our responsibility and standards in fact-checking our own work and the contributions to the newspaper. In the meantime, we heartily encourage civil and productive responses at [email protected].