Voices from the Flats – Without Vision, A City Dies
Without Vision a City Dies – The Campbell Creek Estuary Story
By Dianne Holmes
In the 1890s, Tanana was a bustling town with a military post that was destined to be the center of commerce for interior Alaska—forever—according to a newspaper article of that era. That was a good bet then, given that Tanana was situated at the confluence of two major rivers and water was the main method of commerce.
A few years later gold was discovered up the Tanana River; in another decade or so, the Alaska Railroad helped secure Fairbanks as the commercial center of the interior. Tanana declined. While Anchorage is Alaska’s economic capital today, realities of our global business environment make that claim tenuous. Like Tanana, that will change. Nothing is forever, but we can get there a lot faster with help from those who lack vision.
The mayor’s lack of vision for what truly makes a city livable and economically competitive has quickened Anchorage’s descent into becoming just another chilly, unattractive town of T-shirt shops. What a shame, because our people are warm and our scenery is spectacular.
Several years ago a news article revealed that Anchorage’s engineering firms were having trouble hiring young engineers for our sub-Arctic locale. One reason was the lack of recreational facilities.
Today’s educated population wants more than just a job, especially if they are considering relocating to Anchorage. They want–as many of us who are already living here want–a city that’s livable. That means visually pleasing, walkable/bikable, well-planned, landscaped, pollution free, with cultural amenities and lots of year-round places to recreate, close to town.
It has taken the Great Land Trust years to put together the Campbell Creek Estuary purchase. They partnered with the city in good faith. The mayor’s refusal to honor prior commitments of a prior administration is mean-spirited and shows disdain for the public process that placed that estuary’s acquisition in the our Comprehensive Land Use Plan. Every city in the US is struggling economically and the mayor’s action shows he does not understand how to protect us from a similar fate.
Businesses today can operate from nearly any place on earth—warm, active, beautiful, green, culturally-rich places. Technology and a global economy have expanded our choices. Why then would any business or family elect to locate in Anchorage, given the options? Aside from the fact that we get paid to live here and our tax burden is a pittance compared to elsewhere, Anchorage was on the right track to becoming a livable city. Our citizen-derived comprehensive plan is a blueprint for developing a good northern-city; it highlights the need for public/private partnerships to keep costs down. Given the realities of our tax cap, the Great Land Trust’s gift of the Campbell Creek Estuary meshes perfectly with the comprehensive plan’s goals.
The public should be outraged at the mayor’s half-truths and downright lies as to why he rejected the 60 acres. A few of these fabrications are:
• Anchorage can’t afford to maintain park land?
Fact—the mayor cut the city park’s budget by at least 23% and chose instead to lower the tax cap, which in the long term keeps the city operating in the red and without the ability to handle basic services. A bare bones city does not compete in the market place.
Fact–Anchorage is not in a fiscal crisis—except that created by the mayor’s lowering of the tax cap.
Fact—Anchorage has one of the lowest tax rates in the US, but further lowering the tax cap eventually causes a decline in property values as the city is forced to cut more and more services.
Fact—the Great Land Trust negotiated nearly $7 million to pay for the estuary and intended to set up a fund to develop it; little maintenance by the city would be needed.
• More revenue will result from high-end houses than a park?
Fact—the city needs more affordable housing, not high-end.
Fact—more housing will not result in increased revenue because the economic study that accompanied the Comprehensive Plan (Tishler Report, 2000) confirmed that each house that is built actually costs more in services than it brings in taxes. Only condos and another type of housing pay their own way in Anchorage.
Fact—property values increase the closer they are to park lands, trails or water bodies.
• Too much park land already?
Fact—the recently revised Parks Plan identified needs for our growing city. Currently, there is a deficit in many park classifications, in comparison with other cities our size.
Fact—the Parks Plan recommended acquiring missing greenbelt pieces. The Campbell Creek Estuary is on that list.
Fact—good planning helps a city maintain the level of services that residents want and that includes acquiring park land as the population grows.
• Build a Ship Creek boardwalk instead?
Fact—the mayor asserts that his part of the wetlands mitigation funds could go towards a boardwalk in Ship Creek. Actually, the Corps of Engineers is the agency who decides projects best suited for the mitigation funds.
The Ship Creek connection seems to be a low priority (#13) according to the last Capital Improvement List (CIP) that the Downtown Community Council prioritized. And where is this Ship Creek boardwalk listed on any of the Parks Department’s construction plans?Fact—we have adopted plans that go through a public process to accommodate orderly growth and development. Why should one politician be allowed to trash citizens’ input and disregard projects residents have deemed are important?
• Honoring commitments?
Fact—the city has been working with the Great Land Trust for a long time to acquire this land. They stand to lose $150K in earnest money should the mayor succeed in rejecting the offer.
Fact—the city manager wrote a letter to the Trust confirming the city’s intent to partner with them for this acquisition. Reneging on a commitment of this magnitude shows bad faith by the city and reduces the likelihood that other groups will want to work with the city. Park land that is needed to fulfill the city’s development plans should be accepted.
Fact—a mayor who says, “No,” to nearly everything is not a man of vision for our city. Anchorage deserves better.
Sully seems a slippery sort…
sincere sympathies.
I didn’t vote for him. Why did this man ever get elected!? shheesh…
Not sure how he picks his issues………attacking the MDA and fireman, going after the Great Land Trust! He seems to want to stir up trouble where there hasn’t been any controversy. He’s an idiot.
He’s a friend of Sarah’s… so that may explain it!
I recently met someone who serves on the Anchorage Urban Design Commission, so I emailed him this article.
Funny how Mayor Sullivan didn’t want to honor this long-term commitment, but insisted that the one (with no written commitment or contract) be honored….. Another case of pick-and-choose as we please with no rhyme or reason.
Sorry “the one (with no written commitment or contract)” TO HIS FATHER be honored
Well done, AKM. A beautifully constructed piece that uses facts to undermine the Mayor’s position.
Sullivan is sad piece of work intent upon destroying a community that once showed great promise. The only things sadder are those who voted him in and who continue to support him. They share the tragic results of his lack of vision and basic economic development principles.
When is his term up? Could someone please tell us when the next election for Mayor of Anchorage is to be held?
“Fact—we have adopted plans that go through a public process to accommodate orderly growth and development. Why should one politician be allowed to trash citizens’ input and disregard projects residents have deemed are important?”
I say, follow the money trail. Betcha it leads back to his pockets!
Impeach the sucker for malfeasance of office.
Great article Dianne!
Thanks for all the information! Speaking for myself, I’m thinking of leaving Anchorage and heading back down to the lower 48. Mass transit here is abysmal, bicycling here is really dangerous and midtown and other environs around Anchorage are really, really ugly and not pedestrian friendly. I’m sure everybody knows that Sears/Carrs, for example, is built where there used to be a lake. I know a guy who used to fish there when he was a kid. Now the Sears/Carr block is solid concrete and black-top end to end.
that lake, and blueberry lake near N Lts and C St were emptied and filled in decades ago. anchorage didn’t exactly corner the market on insensitive development and habitat destruction, either. all over the country, you will find pavement where forests and/or farm land once stood; sprawl; creeks, brooks, tidelands and marshes drained and/or ducted; toxins; mountaintops removed for mining; and all kinds of other catastrophes.
i suppose it’s all in what we’ve learned from it, and how we plan better. part of that will be trying to avoid installing leaders who are stuck in the 1950s…
Okay, Anchorageites – Time to Do Something. We’ve seen that Danny Junior is susceptible to constituent pressure – witness his reversal on the traffic calming measures. Call the Mayor’s Office (907-343-7100) to leave a message or E-mail the same (mayor@muni.org) and simply tell them that you disagree with the Mayor and you want to City to complete the Great Land Trust donation of the Campbell Creek Estuary property. Be polite. Don’t use big words. Guys like Danny Junior don’t think things through. They react. Make some noise. Make him react.
Great article and wonderful comment Simple mind. (I don’t think you are so simple). The reason this Mayor and other pols at ALL levels are free to ruin neighborhoods, cities, States and our Country is because “we the people” sit on our behinds and don’t make our feelings known. Case in point the small town in CA who paid their officials more than POTUS while their people had nothing. This went on for years. WHERE were they? Ah right-I remember, only 800 voted out of 40,000. I heard more noise about IM testing than I do about how out of touch this Mayor is with the people. FIRST call and email your Assembly person-let them know how you feel-and that if they don’t listen there will be another Election. Then call, email and make all the noise you can to remind Sullivan that your ASSEMBLY person speaks for the folks in their District-and when a majority of them decide and vote on what matters to them, he should LISTEN to the people! The people have the POWER-unless you decide to yawn, say “my, my, such a shame-then go back to sleep. Remember we get the Government we deserve. Thank Goodness we have forums like this one to inform and rally-but they can only beat their heads against the wall without YOUR suppport.
Palin doesn’t think our President has “cojones.”
Mujer estúpida!!!
Deport her to grizzly land!!!
I have it: Dan Sullivan for Troll of the Year!
He has certainly shown that mayoral chaos is his forte, and “NO” is his only answer. There is no such thing as ethos or simple good behavior for him, no siree. Money should only be spent to his advantage certainly, and through his actions the city appears to be about to lose $150K more. What a maroon!
Please Anchorage, do something about this clown, he’s taking your civil government to a new low!
I feel for you, Anchorage. Here in NYC we, too, have a despotic mayor — our second in a row. The first, Rudy Giuliani, was effective when he was a prosecutor. However, as mayor, he failed our city miserably. One lasting piece of his legacy was stripping money from mass transit, and spending it on making the city more auto-friendly, which is plaguing us to this day. He spent a huge fortune on subway turnstiles that could “read” what kind of metal tokens were made of, because of occasional slugs. Meanwhile, we already had Metro Cards, and everyone knew tokens were going the way of the dinosaur. But, some friend of Rudy’s needed the contract, and we have DOD-level metal recognition despite having no more tokens for the turnstiles to recognize. The token is gone forever; the money was graft, period. Ditto the metal “corrals” that are barriers during parades. They’re great for turning a street into a makeshift prison, which they’ve been used for during protests. They’re great for cars, bad for pedestrians. They replaced blue wooden sawhorses, which were perfectly adequate for crowd control during parades. The difference? The metal fences hook together, so parade-goers can’t “escape” the sidewalk to join the paraders.
His successor, Nanny Bloomberg, outlaws anything he doesn’t approve of. Meanwhile, he utterly flouted the law himself. Twice, NYC voters went to the booth to insist on term limits for mayors, council members, etc. He was limited to two terms, and strongarmed the City Council — not that hard to do; they all need their pet projects funded– to allow him a third term. Meanwhile, as an ex-smoker, he hates cigarettes so much that our tobacco taxes are the highest in the nation, and we can no longer get mail order cigs from the reservations, who now have to collect taxes from everyone who isn’t a tribe member. The natives’ ONLY source of revenue is gone. Meanwhile, we who live in poor neighborhoods fear for our lives — some desperate smoker might mug us when he hasn’t got $11 for a pack!
He’d love to destroy rent stabilization laws to favor his real estate buddies, but thus far he can’t–politicians know their constituents can’t vote for them if they have to give up their apartments. I’ll give you an example from my own block. An unimproved tenement apartment (bathtub in the kitchen, toilet in a closet) is about $700 a month, for a tenant who has lived in it for over a quarter of a century. The apartment has uneven floors, cracks in the walls; a real lower east side tenement. In the same building, a renovated apartment, with electrical outlets that work and an actual bathroom is $3000 a month. The $700 apartment, by the way, is larger than its $3000 counterpart. Because the initial rent after renovation is $3000, this apartment does not — never will — qualify for rent stabilization; it’s “market rent” all the way.
One thing we do have: parks. Our newest two are both along the Hudson. Hudson River Park keeps growing northward, and it’s lovely, lovely, lovely. It incorporates several of our old, formerly-crumbling piers, there are huge rocks to sit or lie on, and the majesty of the River that Goes Both Ways. The High Line, built on a trestle that once upon a time was an in-city rail freight line, is the new favorite. It’s planted with native flora, built very attractively, and it, too, will keep expanding northward. I know much of the country’s natural beauty is in Alaska, and quite a bit of it close to or in Anchorage. But green spaces make a city habitable (along with public transportation, bike lanes, independently owned businesses, ethnic restaurants, and other advantages of city life). NYC is not just a great city, it’s a world-class city, one that can hold its own in company with Paris or Rio de Janeiro or Sydney. Anchorage is a small town by comparison, but it deserves to be taken seriously as Alaska’s largest city. I think maybe part of the problem is Republican elected officials resenting their Democratic constituents.
Perhaps we can deport Sully from Anchorage or Tar and Feathers.
zyxomma – I lived in NYC for 30 years. I do miss it sometimes. Road my bicycle to work on the “Upper Westside” from Brooklyn (about 25 miles RT) daily. Now, in Anchorage, I live about a mile from work and have almost died on several occasions when I’ve ridden my bike – so I take my car (never owned a car in New York – no need) or the bus (if I have an hour to spare).
One of the things that strikes me as similar in both NYC and Anchorage is the corruption, or at least the collusion, between the elites and our elected officials. Dagian suggested earlier that we “follow the money.” I wish I had time to pour over the land titles in the area around the proposed KNIK ARM BRIDGE (and Toll Authority). That project was slated to die, but was kept alive by our current Mayor Sullivan. In NYC I remember watching, over the course of a week, crews digging filling and re-digging the same hole on Amsterdam (at 116th) 3 times. But then of course there is the Boulevard running up Broadway which, it seems every Mayor feels the need to re-plant. When I left The City in 2004 The Broadway Blvd was on it’s 3rd makeover in 25 years; but of course the NYT reporter whose apartment overlooks Broadway and reports on city politics didn’t see anything odd about what was going on.
I things are really not that much different up here than they are in NYC, even though folks up here really like to rag about big cities.
Mayor never played Sim City – parks and amenities actually build cities and communities. Guess he’s spent all his life in bars.