Chapter 1 · July 2026
Burlington, summer 2026: a 60-year road opens, rents ease
Infrastructure and downtown
On June 29 the final segment of the Champlain Parkway opened, linking I-189 to Lakeside Avenue as a two-lane, 25 mph road with bike and pedestrian paths — a dramatically scaled-down version of the four-lane waterfront expressway first proposed in 1965.
Downtown also marked Juneteenth with a festival of poetry, art and performance.The housing market turns
After years below 1% vacancy, Chittenden County's rental market cooled to 3.3% by June, nearing the 5% mark experts call healthy, on the back of 800-plus new apartments in 2024 and 500-plus in 2025.
Landlords now offer concessions, and rent inflation slowed from a 6.1% peak to about 3.5%. Demand for affordable units stays acute, with the Champlain Housing Trust reporting a 10-month waitlist downtown.City hall and the summer
Mayor Emma Mulvaney-Stanak's administration adopted an FY27 budget focused on core services and fiscal sustainability, and the city is preparing Independence-Day-250 celebrations through a hot early-July stretch.
A stalking case against the mayor this June also drew attention to rising harassment of local officials.