To a lot of readers, I may seem an odd one to be writing about the state of America's urban areas. I'm a rural dweller myself, and have little time for cities; I find them crowded, noisy, and, to be honest, they smell bad. I like the clean country air of the Susitna Valley, and if that means I have to move small mountains of snow now and then in the winter, then I do, that's all. But the state of our nation's cities still troubles me.
Why am I still worried about America's cities? Because our cities are the beating hearts of our nation. Much of the country's economic activity happens there. Urban areas contain a lot of the country's industry and academia. What's more, our cities used to be the pride of the nation, but that's not so much the case anymore. Rampant open-air drug use, huge homeless encampments, and rampant crime are taking their toll.
Case in point: Anchorage, Alaska, America's northernmost major city, which is inexplicably stricken with something all too common in our cities: Homeless encampments.
The Anchorage Assembly will hold a special meeting Friday, July 11, to take public commentary on a new ordinance that would criminalize unauthorized camping on public property.
This comes just weeks after city crews completed an extraordinary cleanup effort at Davis Park that removed the equivalent weight of a fully loaded Boeing 747.
According to officials, the city hauled out a staggering 744,000 pounds of debris from a long-standing encampment at Davis Park in East Anchorage. The cleanup required 1,914 man-hours of municipal labor, a time and resource investment that has galvanized support among some Assembly members to bring back criminal enforcement tools to address illegal encampments.
There's a reason Alaskans frequently refer to this city as "Los Anchorage," and this is only part of it.
Consider this one issue, though. City workers, at taxpayers' expense, hauled the equivalent of a fully loaded 747 cargo jet out of just one of Anchorage's expansive homeless encampments. This has been estimated to have cost between $76,000 and $96,000. One of the photos illustrating the Must Read Alaska story linked here shows Davis Park on fire, noting that the fire was set in protest by the homeless encampment's population, and it's not known how long it took to put those fires out. And this encampment, while expansive, is only part of the problem. The homeless in Anchorage are scattered about the city, and when pushed out of one area, they move along. And when they move along, they take their own little environment with them - the open-air drug and alcohol abuse, the trash, the cobbled-together structures that, were a farmer to use them to house livestock, he would find himself facing criminal animal-cruelty charges.
Here's the kicker: In Anchorage, the trash-strewn encampments have the added feature of attracting bears. Both black bears and grizzlies are known to frequent the region, and this entails problems that don't apply in most other cities. These homeless encampments, to a bear, are the equivalent of a buffet table.
The Anchorage city assembly is considering an ordinance to prohibit the plague of urban camping. But the usual suspects are already organizing in opposition, which makes one wonder if the opposition has enough brains to pound sand.
The Assembly will hold its special session designed for public comment on the ordinance on Friday, July 11, from 1-4 pm in the Loussac Library Assembly Chambers, located at 3600 Denali Street, Room 108. Public testimony will be taken on the ordinance, listed as Item 4.A. on the agenda.
It is anticipated that the Party for Socialism and Liberation will have a strong protest presence.
Meanwhile, that same city's parks and recreation department is trying to paper over the issue. How? By trying to draw Anchorage families to let their kiddies play in a park that is in one of the city's worst areas.
The “Biker Buddies” program is aimed at children ages 3 to 5, and is being held every Tuesday in July from 10 am to 1 pm. Parks and Rec. officials are urging parents to “bring your 3–5-year-old downtown” to participate in what they describe as a fun and confidence-building experience, complete with strider bikes and free helmets courtesy of the Anchorage Health Department.
But Town Square Park, located at 544 W 5th Ave, is not known for tricycle races or family picnics. It’s known for crime, trash, human waste, and open drug use. Families avoid it, not roll into it with toddlers on training wheels.
Last year, city crews responding to complaints about the park found discarded needles, human waste, and violent confrontations on a near-daily basis. Even during broad daylight, park-goers report witnessing stabbings, drug deals, overdoses, and mentally unstable individuals shouting at passersby.
There's not enough lipstick in the world for that pig, and all this does is make the city's government look feckless and ineffective, which is what it is.
See Also: Are Our Cities Now Past the Point of No Return?
The Downfall of America's Cities: The Broadway of the Bronx
Anchorage was once a fine city, like so many other American cities. But now, it has fallen into the same trap as many of our major cities: Years of predominantly Democrat rule, which have transformed a clean, prosperous town into another, well, Los Angeles. Anchorage does have one advantage: It hasn't sunk as far into the morass as some other places. It's salvageable. Anchorage could once more be a city that makes Alaskans proud.
But not until Anchorage voters change their voting habits.
