In a split decision, the Anchorage Assembly narrowly voted to erase all historical references to the famous Captain James Cook from the city’s official seal.
The controversial 7-5 vote on Dec. 16 ditches the 50-year-old seal, which included a ship associated with Captain Cook’s 1778 exploration into Cook Inlet to search for the Northwest Passage, as well as an airplane honoring Anchorage’s long history as an aviation hub for Alaska.
The new logo is a stripped down version, which keeps the old image of an anchor and the sun, while adding a new Alaska Native-designed border that includes a Dena’ina quill-work pattern to honor indigenous peoples that inhabited the region.
Assemblyman Jared Goecker Blasted Assembly members who voted for the change, calling them out for misleading the public.
“They did a survey asking the public’s opinion on the options,” Goecker said in a Facebook video post. “Option C was to keep the current seal. That option overwhelmingly beat every other option by margins sometimes as big as 15 to one. So naturally, they added an additional option that wasn’t part of the survey and then picked that option.”
He said the last minute introduction of an option that wasn’t even included in the public survey undermines public trust.
“You just can’t make this up,” Goecker said. “I honestly don’t even understand why they even pretended to ask the public for their input. This sort of stunt undermines trust in our public process, and it was a complete waste of time. You know, we have a lot of real issues in this town and people expect us to be focused on that, not dog and pony shows about graphic design.”
During the Assembly meeting, Goecker criticized his colleagues for wasting time on the whole project at a moment in Anchorage’s history when residents want the governing body to focus on safety, taxes, affordable living, old infrastructure and struggling businesses.
“And were burning oxygen on a logo redesign that the public clearly rejected,” he said. “That’s not what our priorities should be on. That’s not where our focus should be at.”
5 Comments
Too bad the MOA is not like choosing to buy Bud Lite or not. Hmmm.. Maybe the MOA can hire Dylan Mulvaney as Anchorage’s new ambassador?
Well no surprise there. Most of elected and appointed muni officials represent the worst party of Anchorage.
Agreed!
Thank you Jared for representing Eagle River well. Sadly our assembly is determined to be as useless as possible.
More ideots trying to change history. This is really remarkable actually.