James "Jimmy" Leas running for City Council in South Burlington
Founder of CancelF35.substack.com is running: "The city council has the power to put a stop to the F-35 training in our city."
The following article appeared in South Burlington’s weekly newspaper, The Other Paper, on Thursday, January 26.
I am running for city council to serve you and our city. Key issues I will work on include: The economy. Jobs. Affordable housing. A healthy and safe environment for our children and their learning. Climate change. Protecting our remaining open space. Racial and class justice.
These are hard problems. Many solutions are needed for each. But all of them are made far worse and the solutions are all sabotaged by the 115-decibel F-35 training flights in our city.
Fortunately, our city council has the federal and state authority to act. Passage of ordinances by our city council can require Guard commanders to do what they were trained to do and what Department of Defense regulations require them to do: keep dangerous military operations, like the F-35 training, away from any city, town, or village. That’s military regulations 101. Even if not sufficient to fully solve each problem, halting F-35 training in our city is one of the necessary steps.
According to VTDigger, “housing is so tight in the Burlington area that some job applicants are turning down employment offers because they cannot find a place to live.” That’s not good for local businesses, workers, and the economy. But once the F-35 goes away FAA agreements with the airport require housing to be restored on the 44 acres where military jet noise caused hundreds of affordable homes to be demolished.
What’s more, our remaining housing stock near the airport is downright dangerous for habitation because of the F-35. The Air Force says nearly 3000 affordable homes in South Burlington and neighboring cities and towns are “unsuitable for residential use” because the military jets are so loud that repeated exposure can cause hearing loss and impair “reading, attention, problem solving, and memory” of the 1,300 children who live in those homes.
By keeping 44 acres of central-city land in South Burlington bereft of housing and by rendering 3000 existing homes dangerous for children, the F-35 forces sprawl—building houses away from the city center, in open fields. For example, the 32-house development proposed in the grassland bird habitat within the Wheeler Nature Park, the biggest park in South Burlington. Neighbors, including me, are fighting that development in court right now.
The Air Force admits that the noise burden falls disproportionately on working class and people of color families.
The F-35 is also a climate catastrophe: Each F-35 burns 22 gallons a minute. The F-35 training emits as much CO2 into the atmosphere as all the regularly scheduled civilian airliner flights at the airport combined.
This all means that training flights with the F-35 in our city location is a house destroyer, jobs eradicator, child abuser, climate and environment wrecker, and it discriminates based on race and class.
More solutions are certainly needed to fix each of these issues. But just one measure is essential to improve each of them: halting the F-35 training at the airport in our city.
The City Council has the power
Fortunately, our city council has the power. The constitution and federal law delegate to the states the authority to control the training of their own state national guards. Vermont law delegates to the cities, towns, and villages the power “to regulate the operation and use of vehicles of every kind” to promote “the public health, safety, welfare, and convenience” of the people. Including by adopting and enforcing ordinances.
So we’ve got the power. Our city can and must use that power. Doing so will ensure that the military’s own regulations are respected and enforced to protect our families and our children.
See the campaign website: Jimmyleas.com
If you would like to help with the campaign in any way please don’t hesitate to contact me at jimmy@jimmyleas.com.
Write or call your public servants and demand an immediate halt to F-35 training in cities.
Governor Phil Scott 802-828-3333 Chief of Staff <Jason.Gibbs@vermont.gov>
Vermont National Guard's Complaint Line: 802-660-5379 (Note: the Vermont Guard told a reporter that it received over 1400 noise complaints. But the Guard won’t release what people said).
Submit your report & complaint to the still active online F-35 Report & Complaint Form: https://tinyurl.com/5d89ckj9
See all the graphs and in-your-own words statements on the F-35 Spring-Summer 2021 Report & Complaint Form (513 responses): https://tinyurl.com/3svacfvx.
See links to the graphs and in-your-own words statements on all four versions of the F-35 Report & Complaint Form since Spring 2020, with a total of 1670 responses from 658 different people plus 77 more so far on the form that remains active now.
Senator Patrick Leahy 800-642-3193 Chief of Staff <john_tracy@leahy.senate.gov>
Senator Bernie Sanders 800-339-9834 <Senator@sanders.senate.gov>
Congressman Peter Welch 888-605-7270 Chief of Staff <patrick.satalin@mail.house.gov>
Burlington City Council <citycouncil@burlingtonvt.gov>
Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger <mayor@burlingtonvt.gov>
Winooski Mayor Kristine Lott <klott@winooskivt.org>
S. Burlington City Council Chair Helen Riehle <hriehle@sburl.com>
Williston Selectboard Chair Terry Macaig <macaig@msn.com>
VT Senate President Becca Balint <bbalint@leg.state.vt.us>
VT House Speaker Jill Krowinski <jkrowinski@leg.state.vt.us>
Attorney General TJ Donavan <DonovanTJ@gmail.com>
States Attorney Sarah George <Sarah.fair.george@gmail.com>
Vermont’s Federal Prosecutor <usavt.contactus1@usdoj.gov>
Adjutant General Brig Gen Gregory C Knight <gregory.c.knight.mil@mail.mil>
Major J Scott Detweiler <john.s.detweiler.mil@mail.mil>
Wing Commander Col David Shevchik david.w.shevchik@mail.mil
Vermont National Guard Inspector General Lt. Col. Edward J Soychak <edward.soychak@us.af.mil>
US Air Force Inspector General Lt. Col. Pamela D. Koppelmann <pamela.d.koppelmann.mil@mail.mil>
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall <Frank.Kendall@us.af.mil>