Opinion — Geoffrey Battista: Raze the cathedral

Dear Editor,

I am brimming with giggles after having read Sally Giddings Smith’s recent commentary on the imminent demolition of Burlington’s Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. To compare that lifeless monstrosity to Notre Dame de Paris — for half the piece, for God’s sake — is a level of absurd that I could not beat out of Samuel Beckett.

Burlington’s cathedral had decades to turn downtown into an architectural mecca. Indeed, one would have hoped that the demolition of dozens of historic homes for an urban renewal project like the cathedral would generate an indisputable benefit to the downtown: busloads of tourists, shoppers and devotees. Mexico City’s Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe is not the sexiest structure, for example — concrete here, concrete there, on concrete grounds — but it rises to the challenge! Burlington? Not so much.

Let us not let a small cabal of historic preservation fundamentalists derail the demolition. Whatever takes the place of the cathedral, and I hope it is housing, will be worth far more to the city than whatever the status quo has provided.

Sally Giddings Smith: The imminent demolition of the cathedral in Burlington

A plan by Gov. Phil Scott’s administration to make all of the state’s lottery games, including scratch-off tickets, available on a person’s phone never got off the ground at the Statehouse this year.

Lottery Commissioner Wendy Knight told lawmakers in January that the plan was a way to modernize the lottery “because you need to keep pace with technology — you need to meet your players where they are.”

Fifteen states have created a “digital” lottery system, and many have discovered there’s a distinct market of people who don’t buy lottery tickets at retail outlets but will do so on their phones, according to Knight. “We’re trying to ensure the future of the Vermont Lottery, ” the commissioner said.

But state lawmakers have not been persuaded.

Vergennes Rep. Matt Birong, the Democratic chair of the House government operations committee, said members of the panel felt this year was not the time to move forward with this plan, especially given the recent legalization of sports betting.

“It is digitizing a current system and after moving forward with the sports wagering — people just wanted to take their time with it — so my committee decided to tap the brakes on further testimony.”

The administration estimated that the plan would have raised roughly $5 million a year for the state’s education fund after two years of implementation.

The prospect of that additional revenue is appealing to lawmakers, and Birong said they may reconsider the plan next year.