ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Alaska’s News Source hosted a conversation Friday between incumbent Mayor Dave Bronson and former Anchorage Assembly Chair Suzanne LaFrance.
The answers weren’t timed, but the candidates were redirected if one person dominated the talks.
The first fiery exchange began with the topic of homelessness.
Bronson was questioned about why he allowed the living conditions at the homeless camp near Cuddy Family Midtown Park to continue.
He was also quick to point a finger at the Anchorage Assembly, which did not allow his mass shelter in East Anchorage to be built.
The Assembly in May 2022 set aside $6.2 million for its construction, but Assembly members stopped construction a few months later after learning that Bronson officials skirted city code, pushing ahead with millions in work without first getting the required contract approvals from the Assembly.
“We caught the mistake,” Bronson said. “We went to the Assembly and said we made a mistake. Let’s reappropriate. John Weddleton … former Assembly member at that time, says, ‘That’s happened before in the city several times. So let’s just keep going.’”
LaFrance said “maybe” similar mistakes happened in the past.
“But the fact of the matter is that the costs ballooned by millions of dollars,” LaFrance said.
She went on to say the estimated costs didn’t look right.
“There is, you know, certainly a cost to homelessness, and the crisis response that we’ve seen over and over — again, it just wasn’t good stewardship of taxpayer dollars to say yes to something that didn’t have a viable plan and that had already failed,” LaFrance said.
Later, Bronson said the former Northway Mall could be used as a shelter. He also pointed out how difficult it is to truly solve the problem.
“If people drove around town and didn’t see any homeless on the street, they would think this problem would be solved. But I said it wouldn’t be solved,” Bronson said.
LaFrance’s homeless strategy has been criticized with critics saying her call for more meetings on the topic is not a solution.
“The action plan now is to actually have a plan,” LaFrance said.
In a follow-up question, LaFrance said she’d have a shelter plan in place within 100 days of her becoming mayor.
“I do not support 1,000-person shelters in East Anchorage, or ,anywhere in the community,” LaFrance said.
Bronson said the city has put smaller shelters out to bid, but no one has shown interest.
Bronson has called LaFrance “woke,” and LaFrance has called him “incompetent.”
“I bring up the word incompetent because it applies,” LaFrance said.
Bronson said being “woke,” among other things, meant men wearing “tutus.”
But then he shifted his criticism.
“I’ll call it this: tax and spend liberal,” he said. “She’s a tax and spend liberal.”
Inadequate snow plowing for two years that has led to schools being closed also resulted in a heated conversation.
“At the end of the day, Miss LaFrance has to remember — when you criticize snowplowing, you’re criticizing the people that do it,” Bronson said. “Am I responsible for snow plowing? I’m responsible for everything in the city.”
“When I am criticizing the snow removal — or lack of — the last two winters, I am criticizing Mr. Bronson as the CEO of our city,” LaFrance replied. “I’m not criticizing the employees who have worked hard.”
Ballots were mailed to voters April 30. Runoff election day is Tuesday, May 14, and ballots must be postmarked on or before that date to be counted.
Voters may also return completed ballots to secure drop boxes around the municipality, or vote in person at one of the city’s voting centers starting May 7.
After the main debate, we asked the candidates to answer some of the questions from the local Community Councils. Hear their answers on Alaska’s Political Pipeline.
Copyright 2024 KTUU. All rights reserved.
The Anchorage Hillside is at high risk of wildfires, and between the abundance of flammable materials and the low number of roads, residents of the area could be in danger if a large fire breaks out. On this episode of Alaska Insight, host Lori Townsend and her guests discuss the ways researchers and the local fire department are working to help inform and prepare for wildfires in Anchorage.
This week’s headlines:
The U.S. Forest Service is planning to build a few dozen new cabins in the Tongass and Chugach National Forests in the coming years. The agency is proposing higher fees – $75 a night – to help keep up with the increased cost of maintenance.
Lifelong Petersburg resident Brian Richards and his wife stay at Forest Service cabins every summer. The 40-year-old said they reserve several cabins that they travel to by boat.
“It’s like a bucket list,” Richards said. “We want to use them all. I’d say we prefer cabins by lakes or rivers, you know, water, it just kind of adds another element.”
The couple sees their cabin stays as good for their mental health. Richards calls it “natural therapy” that helps them reconnect.
“The more we get out there and walk around and look at the trees and listen to the birds and just, you know, disconnect from civilization, I think it’s just incredibly beneficial,” he said.
Richards is excited to see more cabins coming to the area. The Forest Service plans two new cabins in the Tongass this year at El Capitan Interpretive Site and Mendenhall Campground, and four next year at Herbert Glacier in Juneau, Woodpecker Cove near Petersburg, Little Lake near Wrangell and Perseverance Lake near Ketchikan – they’re mostly on the road system for increased accessibility.
Similarly, there are six new cabins scheduled for the Chugach, with half built this year at Porcupine Campground in Hope, Meridian Lake near Seward and McKinley Lake near Cordova, and half next year at Granite Creek and Turnagain Pass. That means the Forest Service needs to set the nightly fees for the cabins soon. The agency is required to have fees set six months before they charge them.
“It can be tricky,” said John Suomala, the recreation program manager for the Tongass.
Suomala helps set the cabin fees. He uses a cost analysis that looks at several factors such as local economies and what similar cabins are going for.
“Part of it too is just, you know, local expertise, from the districts, people that live in these communities,” said Suomala. “Just kind of thinking about, you know, what are the prices within these communities now and what do you think your neighbors are willing to pay.”
The nightly fees for staying at a Forest Service cabin in Alaska mostly range from $35 to $75. All of the new cabins are proposed for $75 a night except for two – one near Ketchikan is $65 and one at Juneau’s Mendenhall campground is $125 because it has electricity and nearby showers.
The new cabins are just a fraction of what’s available to the public. The Tongass has 142 cabins just in Southeast. Most are remote and get visitors less than 10 nights a year. Last year, it cost the Forest Service $700,000 to maintain them. The nightly fees covered about $500,000.
Suomala said the popular, more accessible cabins help subsidize the remote ones – and that’s their hope with the new cabins coming on board. But ultimately, he said, the public will help set the price.
“We want feedback to, you know, to get an idea, like are we way off here?” Suomala said. “Do you think it should be higher? Do you think it should be lower? We can’t raise the fee based on feedback from the public but we can lower it.”
As for Richards, he said $75 a night won’t be a deal-breaker for him and his wife, Ola.
“Because, it’s worth it for us,” he said. “I guess my concern is for a lower-income family. I would hate to think that someone wouldn’t stay at a cabin because they can’t afford it. I think that’s a real shame.”
The deadline for public comments on the proposed cabin fees is July 2. People can comment in person, online, by phone, email or snail mail.
Rural Alaskans who face worsening climate conditions — from sea-level rise to melting permafrost — often don’t leave their homes for safer, more urbanized areas, according to newly published research from Pennsylvania State University.
Rather, such communities are more likely to adapt in place. For a handful, that means making hard choices about physically moving homes, buildings and infrastructure to secure ground nearby. But that costly option may not be available to many small, indigenous Arctic communities, which are among the most climate vulnerable in the world.
“Community relocation from climate-related environmental changes is a possible option in Alaska, but it is an unpopular and expensive process,” said Guangqing Chi, a professor of rural sociology, demography and public health sciences at Penn State and lead author of the paper published in the journal Regional Environmental Change.
The issue is not unique to Alaska. It is playing out in climate-threatened communities around the United States, from the Sea Islands of South Carolina, the ancestral home to the Gullah/Geechee Nation, to Isle de Jean Charles in Louisiana, where members of the Biloxi-Chitimacha-Choctaw tribe lived for two centuries before their island succumbed to storm surges and rising seas. Today, most former Isle de Jean Charles residents have moved to a new community 40 miles inland.
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