Outsider in the White House by Bernie Sanders, Huck Gutman Page B

sources of funding, we managed to convert that development into a cooperatively owned housing project—and saved 336 units for people with modest incomes. Through a variety of mechanisms, we were also able to build a number of units of affordable housing.
    We also improved life for low-income people in Burlington’s public housing. Every year I was able to appoint one new member to the Burlington Housing Authority. At the end of three years we finally had a majority, at which point we brought in an outstanding new director, Mike McNamara, who made major improvements in city-run low-income and senior citizen housing.
    While we were able to pass the most sweeping tenants’ rights legislation in the state, we were not successful in our major pro-tenant initiative, rent control. In 1982, the landlord organization defeated us decisively in a citywide vote on that issue. They raised a substantial sum of money, hired a consultant, and outpoliticked us.
    In 1983, working with a citizen’s committee led by local businessman Tom Racine, we managed to bring minor league baseball to Burlington. After interminable discussions with the owner of an AA Eastern League franchise and the Cincinnati Reds, minor league baseball returned to Burlington after a hiatus of thirty years. We worked out a deal with the University of Vermont to use their field, and the Vermont Reds became a huge success. In their first year, they drew over 120,000 fans. The team won three straight Eastern League championships and, amazingly, were one of the great minor league teams of their time. At least a half dozen players on the Vermont Reds became major leaguers, including such stars as Kal Daniels, Paul O’Neill, Chris Sabo, Jeff Montgomery, and Jeff Treadway.
    I happen to think that Burlington is one of the most beautiful cities in America. But the truth is that a number of cities have nice waterfronts, good streets, honest police departments, and even minor league baseball. But how many cities of 40,000 have a foreign policy? Well, we did.
    As you may recall, I was not the only elected official in America during the 1980s. There was that other fellow, Ronald Reagan. Many Burlingtonians, including myself, supported the Sandinista government in Nicaragua. President Reagan did not. We disagreed with him. We expressed our displeasure.
    Somewhere in the Reagan archives, or wherever these things are kept, is a letter from the mayor of Burlington on this subject. There are also official proclamations from the Burlington Board of Aldermen, made after long and emotional public hearings. “Stop the war against the people of Nicaragua! Use our tax dollars to feed the hungry and house the homeless. Stop killing the innocent people of Nicaragua.”
    This was an issue that many of us in the progressive movement felt very strongly about. Not only was the war against Nicaragua illegal and immoral, it was an outrageous waste of taxpayer money. As a mayor, I wanted more federal funds for affordable housing and economic development. I did not want to see taxpayer dollars going to the CIA for an appalling war. While most of the Democrats and Republicans on the Board of Aldermen disagreed, to us this was very much a municipal issue.
    In 1985, I was invited by the Nicaraguan government to visit Managua for the seventh anniversary of the Sandinista Revolution. I was—believe it or not—the highest-ranking American official present. The competition wasn’t too keen. I think the only other elected American official was a school board member from Berkeley, California.
    The trip to Nicaragua was a profoundly emotional experience. Along with other “foreign dignitaries,” I was introduced to a crowd of hundreds of thousands who gathered for the anniversary celebration. I will never forget that in the front row of the huge crowd were dozens and dozens of amputees in wheelchairs—young soldiers, many of them in their teens, who had lost their