As Anchorage grapples with a worsening vagrancy crisis and growing outlaw encampments spreading through public spaces, Mayor Suzanne LaFrance has unveiled her latest initiative: a taxpayer-funded public arts campaign called “Beyond the Beige.”
The $100,000 program, a joint venture between the Municipality of Anchorage and the Anchorage Community Development Authority, has funded five projects designed to make the city’s public spaces more visually engaging. The mayor’s announcement comes at a time when residents are voicing increasing concerns about crime, encampments, and deteriorating infrastructure.
“This program is about pride of place,” LaFrance said in a press release. “Public art connects our community, creates joy in everyday places, and reflects who we are to each other.”
But for many residents, LaFrance’s pride and joy is harder to locate.
A drive through Anchorage today reveals sprawling tent camps, discarded needles, and boarded-up businesses, especially in areas once considered safe and vibrant. Downtown sidewalks are now flanked not just by murals and “functional animal sculptures,” but by visible signs of human dysfunction and defecation. Trails are “no go” zones, and parks are public safety hazards.
It’s a tale of two Anchorages. On one side, there will be bike racks shaped like animals and more and more murals of ravens. On the other, broken glass, human waste, and people living in tarps on public land.
Among the publicly funded art projects:
- A $30,000 “Open-Air Art Project” that will bring “cultural pop-ups” to city parks like Tikishla Park and Kiwanis Fish Creek — parks, where vandalism and safety concerns prevail.
- A $25,000 mural by artist Crystal Worl covering the side of the historic McKinley Tower with a massive image of a raven dreaming about salmon. A previous contract to Worl allowed her to paint over an existing mural that brought to life the history of Anchorage. That old mural is now gone, replaced with native images — including a raven, totem creatures, wolves, and deer.
- A $23,000 “Welcome to Anchorage” mural downtown, where fewer and fewer people willingly visit.
- A $12,000 installment of animal-shaped bike racks in Northeast Anchorage parks, where no one feels safe to visit.
- A $10,000 “Cabin Fever” outdoor gallery on a downtown construction fence, likely temporary, but maybe permanent.
While the ACDA touts these projects as “fueling partnerships that turn creativity into community growth,” the timing raises questions about the LaFrance Administration priorities, in which murals that are of questionable value take precedence over basic public health and safety.
LaFrance and her supporters declared former Mayor Dave Bronson incompetent. They convinced voters that LaFrance would make Anchorage better. Competence in LaFrance’s Anchorage is putting up visual distractions to make residents and visitors feel better after witnessing the breakdown of the social fabric of a once-vibrant city.
You can put lipstick on a pig,but, it’s still a pig
No amount of lipstick could help Mayor LaFrance.
That phony clown smile of hers is already bad enough.
All along Suzanne was right:
Incompetence does indeed have a price tag.
We see what the so called “traffic calming “ brings with it. Drive the road in Mountain View to the BassPro shop.
Mountain View Dr. to Glen Square.
Shuttered businesses to the left and to the right. The businesses that are still there are all incentivized through Mark baggage and his freedom with our tax money.
Everything the liberals touch goes to crap, on the backs of the working class.
Good God, is this what anchorage has deteriorated to.
Yes
Taking on a real issue is not what liberals do. I mean look at the morons on the assembly. They haven’t met a tax dollar they could spend foolishly. Until voters wake up and get off the couch to vote, we are stuck with what we deserve.
Anchorage fatigue.
Truly a shxthole city.
Put the money towards police or better yet, funds to the prosecutor’s office to convict instead of letting go thieves.
Cases of spray paint would be cheaper and give the homeless something to do. And keep them buzzed.
lol …. a three-fer!
Why we left our beloved Alaska….
I like this blue art.
But isn’t Rasmuson supposed to pay for this?
Anchorage Mayor would’ve been an appropriate goal for Bernadette Wilson. She should’ve run against what became our current incompetent pseudo-Mayor and been able to show us her leadership abilities in that role before trying to access the Whitehouse through the Governor’s house.
The Mayor needs a map of Alaska. The interpretive art work she is showing us belongs to the indigenous people of southeast Alaska.
Please tell non-T/H tribes this. It’s really a slap in their face.
Someone send this article to David Pruhs in Fairbanks.
He keeps trying to put lipstick on a pig!
WE HAVE HUNDREDS OF HOMELESS DOWNTOWN, NO NEW SIGNS ARE GOING TO HELP YOU MORON.
WE HAVE NEEDLES AND BROKEN GLASS AND DRUG BAGGIES IN THE PARK, NO ONE WANTS TO BRING THEIR KIDS TO A MARKET THERE.
Fix/maintain our roads… how bout that.
It looks like this grant took tens of thousands of dollars away from legacy Anchorage art groups and actual Anchorage artists. Did any member of the general public give input into this grant? Doesn’t this money come from Anchorage taxpayers?
And can anyone help me understand why Worl, a non-Denaina indigenous artist, is chosen to represent Anchorage? Tlingits enslaved Yupik and Denaina people at one point, ado some consideration should be given for more local tribal artists.
Cookie cutter art is what we got from her last mural. It would not even be allowed to be displayed in her hometown, the formline is that bad and cartoonish. Did any educated Alaska artist approve her design?
This is happening in real time before our eyes. If you stayed home last election, this is part of the result. Actual Anchorage artists are getting tossed aside for political reasons. This will actually hurt Anchorage’s art reputation in the world, since all signs point to pretty bad art being out up.