”Mom, there’s homeless people all around this park. Can we please go somewhere else?”
Asked my six year old as we drove past Pioneer Park downtown around 3 p.m. this past Wednesday afternoon.
He’s not heartless, but justifiably wary after a few years of running away from local parks due to disturbing circumstances: we’ve run into vagrants sleeping on the backside of the hill at Pioneer Park in late morning when we’ve come to play. One Sunday afternoon, after piling out of the van to spend a few minutes there before Mass, we left quickly after a fight erupted among drunkards on the Park Strip close to E Street.
This spring we stopped by Valley of the Moon park to play for a bit. The kids gleefully ran off toward the rocket ship only to be called back by mom when she realized there was a tent set up in the bushes by the parking lot, and a loud, violent fight was breaking out inside it.
When our local government refuses to enforce the laws on the books, then vagrants, public inebriates, and drug addicts rule the city.
Last summer, upon arriving at the Cuddy Family Park – you know, the one near the Loussac Library, which holds the Assembly Chambers – the same kid ran immediately to the volcanic-shaped climbing wall, only to be stopped dead in his tracks by the emergence of a half-naked, young Native man who had taken up residence inside the park structure.
“I’d like to take you somewhere else, son…maybe we should head to Elderberry Park,” I responded, but then recalled a warm spring afternoon when we arrived at that park only to find the play structure vandalized with sexually explicit graffiti (Kudos to Parks and Rec: they responded immediately and cleaned up the mess in less than 24 hours).
I now do a drive by before stopping at any park in town, to make sure it looks safe for myself and my kids before stopping to play. But looks can be deceiving, which is why we’ve ended up in the above scenarios.
My tax dollars provide for the upkeep of all these parks, and my family is no longer free to use them because of the abject lawlessness that’s been fostered by our local government.
ALASKA WATCHMAN DIRECT TO YOUR INBOX
I loved Anchorage when I moved up here 24 years ago. Summer in the city was beautiful and inviting. The City of Flowers initiative spruced things up considerably, and I was happy to see smiling tourists walking around downtown, catching a glimpse of the city and state I sought out as my home.
But each day I drive downtown, I wonder what the tourists think of our dying city where the Town Square has been transformed into a barren hill covered in sleeping bags, trash, and rudderless inebriates. I’m embarrassed to admit I live here, when I see visitors walking through as quickly as possible to avoid the squatting drinking parties that litter downtown sidewalks.
Businesses are hurting, families are hurting, and there’s no willpower in the local executive branch to prosecute the usurpers who are content to live off the public dole, driving our city deeper into chaos and destitution.
When our local government refuses to enforce the laws on the books, then vagrants, public inebriates, and drug addicts rule the city.
It’s time to recall LaFrance, as well as every Marxist member of the Assembly who’s voted time and again to sell out our city to anarchists rather than (simply!) promoting the common good.
If we don’t step up to save Anchorage, who will?
The views expressed here are those of the author.
38 Comments
In the Anchorage Assembly’s defense, they have far too many mental health issues to deal with which restricts their bandwidth for addressing societal issues. With all their progressive identity disorders, there is no way they can focus on any issues outside of their bubble. With that being said, it is time to oust these political parasites and take back our city!
The republicans in Anchorage didn’t show up to vote, that’s why you have this crazy woman in office and not a second term for Bronson.
Plus there mail in-voting system.
Exactly! ^^^
It seems conservatives in Anchorage could pull together a ballot measure to try and get rid of their cheat by mail? Are there not enough conservatives left?
Correction: There is mail in voter fraud and no one in a leadership position that will ensure the integrity of the election process. They keep changing laws to give them selves more power and they place people in positions of power who are in their pocket. Unless we get help from the state (also corrupt) or the Feds we are pretty much cooked.
You are so correct so they need to stop complaining. They obviously don’t care.
Good lord, you must be kidding. The current assembly has been ib charge for years now and the situation has only gotten worse. Do you know they have spent almost 300 million in the last 5 years on homelessness? Guess it isn’t working and they should try actually enforcing the law.
SOUNDS LIKE FREE ENTERTAINMENT! FREE UNTIL IT COST YOU OR YOUR LOVED ONES THEIR LIVES!
Thank you for writing this. You are absolutely correct. When the mayor and assembly are employed by nonprofits that get paid by having the homeless and others they won’t do anything. They tried to blame this on Dave Bronson, but guess what? They are in power and all they do is NOTHING!
Absolutely!
Recall the worthless mayor? Recall ASSembly members? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH. Don’t you know they are above the law? Just ask them.
In the late ’50s and early ’60’s, Russian Jack was a prison farm. Public drunks would get busted, spend a week or two working at the farm, and then be released when they sobered up. In the ’70s, Anchorage built the bike path system through the woods. It was awesome as kids could ride anywhere without worrying about crossing busy streets. Now, I wouldn’t ride those paths without being armed to the teeth for protection. Nobody arrests anybody for being a public nuisance, anyone can pitch a tent anywhere (except, I suspect, normal folks) or park a decrepit vehicle anywhere and stay as long as they like. They foul the land with human excrement, they spread trash and disease, and they threaten law-abiding citizens and scare heck out of kids. There is not even a hint of public safety or order in Anchorage, which is why, after these many years, I no longer live there. Anchorage is a sewer, and it used to be awesome. Suzanne LaFrance and her cohorts on the Assembly should be ashamed.
Agree 100%
Yes, Anchorage use to be an awesome city. Now it’s a cesspool of a city, Anchorage/ Portland 2.0
“………..In the late ’50s and early ’60’s, Russian Jack was a prison farm. Public drunks would get busted, spend a week or two working at the farm, and then be released when they sobered up……..”
The State of Alaska currently has an operating prison farm in the Point MacKenzie area. All government needs to do is (1) change its attitude about the right to degrade oneself to the point of destroying the society around them, (2) build barracks at the DOC farm at Point MacKenzie, and (3) hire DOC guards at a rate of one per ten homeless guest.
look lady you’re wrong you coming from a very Christian Catholic liars that suck money from the people that pay taxes because I don’t think you pay taxes and you are part of the people that invade Mexico and try to take the land wherever they go you live in a city that is multi racial you have two choices you like Anchorage or you going to the park or fix it and you trying to fix the rent system for the apartment or take your airplane and get out of here you get money from the government homeschooling then you live in a fantasy that doesn’t exist you don’t like Alaska you don’t like angry stick you right airplane and go back to where you come from because that’s you the freedom you freedom is no make health to people that live in the city you going to do something do something not only open the mouth with the article that doesn’t make sense my name is in the bottom because I don’t hide
Wow what an incredibly easy to read and understand rebuttal you have written to T’s article, which, as you say, “doesn’t make sense.” I guess you’re the exception that proves the proverb true: it really does take one to know one.
Pablo, please tell me you don’t vote.
I’m guessing he is an illegal alien, he certainly can’t write English properly.
“……. you are part of the people that invade Mexico………”
Looks to me like we need many more like her to invade Mexico again.
A good percentage of our drug problems are coming from there, and Mexico is currently the #1 murder capitol of planet Earth. The casualties just in Mexico since the beginning of the Mexican Drug War are 41,034 dead in war conflicts between identified parties, total 350,000–400,000 dead from organized crime homicides from 2006–2022, and 60,000+ missing. Where’s Winfield Scott when you need him the most?
Hmmmm. Perhaps a little punctuation? Are you even here legally? Are you from Mexico but own property here in Alaska USA? A little psychological projection? It seems the author is pointing out what has been going on, in an effort to inform hence help.
Pablo is obviously unhinged and deserves pity. He doesn’t blame the homeless inebriates or the communists on the city council, but a Mom who wants to allow her kids some play time in a city that has become obviously unsafe. Our culture has allowed this to happen. Someday soon, vigilantes will take care of these problems, and THEY will be the ones arrested, punished and sent away to prison. This is what happens when elected officials themselves become anarchists.
Hey ICE, check out Pablo here.
Someone needs to get back on their meds pronto.
No where is safe: a woman got stabbed in the back by homeless man (Corey Ahkivgak) with a knife while waiting in line at the Loussac Library. The woman’s spinal cord was injured resulting in her being unable to walk (February 2022). The same man was accused of another random attack against two women in December (2021).
Corey Ahkivgak was let go by an Anchorage judge. Ahkivgak is walking the streets of Anchorage, free to attack again. His latest victim may be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
I’ve grown tired of seeing my tax dollars go to waste. Other areas are creating amenities with taxes. Here, our streets are crumbling and it seems like an endless stream of notices that more money is going to homeless. Stores are closing, or locking up goods since the city will not lock up thieves. Friends who live on the Park Strip report homeless are taking that over too. A recent picnic at Valley of the Moon Park resulted in homeless coming and joining in on the party—they even sat down at the tables with the hosts, and helped themselves to a second helping. It happens in south Anchorage too. I don’t feel safe going downtown. What worse, is that no money is dedicated to the municipal attorneys office so they just dismiss the few cases that actually come forward. Mayor LaFrance you were critical of the former administration. But I think you are worse.
I have to sadly agree. Just taking our family trip through the state, born and raised on the Kenai Peninsula, my heart breaks to see what Anchorage has become. Riddled with struggle, addiction, and not enough prayer and service. Please pray for these individuals, our children, our community as a whole and for those who can make the difference!
God bless our home state of ALASKA
I agree. I was just visiting famiky in Florida. No homeless camps, bathrooms not “locked”, We went to walmart and other shopping centers again no homeless camps Anchorage is pathetic.
The Anchorage mayor and assembly are the problem. Anchorage, you got what you voted for, deal with it
In the comments above I read a lot of complaining and finger-pointing, but very little in way of viable solutions. What would you do about the homeless and indigent if it was up to you? It’s easy to say, “Just round ’em up and ship ’em out!” But how would you go about doing this? Would you have them bussed out into the Alaskan wilderness and simply dropped off? Many churches provide meals for the homess out of Christian charity. Would you stop them from doing so? It’s easy to point people to homeless shelters and job placement programs, but taking advantage of such programs means following someone else’s rules. Do you like following someone else’s rules, especially in a country where personal freedom is prized above all else?
I would begin by prosecuting those who break the law (public drunkenness, vagrancy, littering, etc). There are plenty of opportunities and resources for these folks to better their condition, but it takes willpower to take those steps, and sometimes, being held accountable for your actions under the law is a great motivator to get up and get out of the situation you’ve gotten yourself into.
You are right on. Let’s at least start there, so the streets will be safer for the rest of the community!
It is one thing to be “down on your luck” through no fault of your own, but inebriates CHOOSE to be inebriates and when given a choice of a safe, clean place to live and gainful employment, they CHOOSE not to accept because they don’t want to follow rules. So yes…those are the people who need to be locked up for their own and society’s safety.
Karen: Source of you claims?
“Build it and they will come” Anchorage has been practicing this for decades now and they have, indeed come! Pull the plug on it all. As far as churches feeding them, thus too only exacerbates the problem. Which is why the Apostle Paul wrote: “ He does not work, shall not eat.”
Thank you for expressing this tragic reality with such clarity. Anchorage was a jewel when we were raising our young family there, too. Downtown was so pristine under Mayor Sullivan that a single guy who camped out demanding a meeting with him was such a public news spectacle, he made the headlines for weeks & months on end. Now it is indeed a sea of inebriates, shuttered cafes, and filthy encampments. The Chester Creek trail system felt like a sparkling labyrinth, welcoming families, visitors, cyclists, naturalists …. now it’s like Mad Max everywhere one looks.
Ironically, my father-in-law, visiting in 2005 while we lived in Valley of the Moon, noted that our local vibe felt like San Francisco in the 1970s. Bustling around city market, biking between playgrounds, he was thoroughly charmed. Mr. Carter was retired LAPD and had a keen eye ~ it now seems a prophetic one, too.
If you don’t care enough to vote in local elections you get this kind of fall out. Several attempts have been made to recall corrupt members of the assembly to no avail, as people’s short attention span moves to the next crisis and they don’t vote. Liberals bring crap to cities. Liberals have failed polices and while we can pray for help, we have to help ourselves and act. How has CA, OR and WA not been enough proof of what chaos liberal policies bring to cities and poor governance?
home:
Murphy Equine Blind with Hole by Feather-Weight
Product Details:
Attaches to the cheek piece of a bridle
Prevents the republican from seeing, behind, to the side and partially in front of him
Features a round cutout in center of blind, that can be covered completely if not needed
To be used only on one side at a time
Leather blind
When Walker was in the Governor office. My siater and I had to pick up the free needles the State was giving out to drug addicts. At ever play grounds, parks and public lake access the needles where eveuwhere. Before our kids could come out of the car to play. This has been a problem for a long time. Anchorage needs to bring back the drug tasks force to clean up the problem.