The Anchorage Assembly unanimously voted down Mayor Bronson’s plan to erect a temporary homeless shelter/navigation center on Tudor Road near the Alaska Native Medical Center.
Mayor Dave Bronson’s plan was to erect a large fabric structure at the cost of $15 million; but wrapped into the plan was the former mayor’s plan to purchase the old Alaska Club on Tudor Road for $5.4 million, which would take $2 million to remodel. The two plans were intertwined in a last-minute revision on the plan by Assembly members Meg Zaletel and Forrest Dunbar, and the plan included limiting a facility to 150-beds.
It was a plan by the two on the Assembly to hold the mayor’s plan hostage by tying the two projects together.
Several members of the public testified against the plan; they appeared to be Dunbar supporters. Dunbar lost his bid for mayor this spring to Bronson.
Now, by killing the project, there is no place for the 380 homeless people living in the Sullivan Arena to go, and the city can’t, by law, abate and clear the homeless camps in the greenbelts unless it has a place to house people safely.
There are hockey games scheduled as early as Oct. 5 at the Sullivan Arena, but it appears the Assembly wants to keep the homeless there; this could infuriate the hockey community, which represents a powerful voice in Anchorage.
Marxist Assembly buffoons need to go!
Agreed Caterina !!
Yea, verily, … and soon.
So, what interest do they own in the derelict Alaska Club building. Who is gonna cash in on the purchase, if it occurs??
think anymore money to the homeless and addiction crisis wouldn’t do anything better than what is already being done for adults repeating dysfunctional behavior. They already have everything they need, they just need to take initiative changing themselves. Doesnt matter whose plan is followed whether its Bronson’s or Dunbar’s.
If parents of this city can recognize if THEY themselves can pass a little less of their own dysfunctional patterns on to their children; while taking ownership over how their child recieves their education, the children of Anchorage will grow up less dysfunctional and less likely being homeless and am addict. Unlike the current homeless adults, we are looking at an adult fighting back demons and decades long of patterned behaviors differcult changing; while the child has less than 18 years of learned dysfunctional patterned behavior, change is easier when you have less years of trauma and drama.
If The city’s (including the state’s) parents don’t correct their own behavior and parenting styles, the city will continue increasing its homeless, addictions, crime, and depression and mental health disorders from children growing up doing what their patents repeating their behavior.
You know Alaskan parents never put their kids wellness first. Just a few ten thousand parents do in raising the next generation better than the parents own painful childhood.
Jen, Is your article focusing on the homeless or Anchorage dysfunctional parenting? Are you saying one causes the other?
Costing the Municipality more revenue. These ID 10 Ts need to be tarred and feathered
The “Resistance” won, the homeless lost. Can anyone investigate that gym on Tudor? Who were the investors, members of the board of directors, benefactors of its sale? Something smells funny.
To be clear, this is America and you can support any candidate you want. I just want to know if anyone involved with a possible homeless shelter within eyesight of the largest liquor warehouse in Anchorage, supported Dunbar, and stand to benefit from the sale. Would that be illegal, of course not. It would just smell.
You are Right On. Great comment
Where in the city charter does it provide for the assembly to take a public builidng from the taxpayers that paid for the maintenance and management of the building for a use other than the intended use of the building.
The communists that are up for re-election are going to be in for a surprise. Not all, but a few will fall the way of Dunbar. We must keep chipping away at this infection that is destroying our city.
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Is there a way Bronson can institute an Emergency Order of some type that allows him to move forward with his plan? Seems we had an EO around every corner with AQD and Berk were in office. The homeless situation is no doubt an emergency. Winter is nipping at our heels and something needs to get done.
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There is SOME reason that Rivera et. al. want that old Alaska Club building. Follow that money.
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In the meantime, they are going to do anything they can to screw Bronson. Why? Just because they are sore losers. Doesn’t matter if he has good ideas or not.
This isn’t just an assault on the hockey community. It is an assault on every single hunter and fisherman in Anchorage and the MatSu. Anyone else remember the Great Alaska Sportsman’s Show in the Sully and Ben Boeke in early April? Didn’t expect the 2020 show to go due to the lockdown. We should have had the show this year, but the facilities were full of homeless. Cheers –
Bronson will have a very hard time succeeding on anything with 9 of 11 assembly members motivated to have him fail. As the truck driver pointed out, all of the people now interested in fiscal conservatism and pedestrian safety for some reason didn’t have those concerns under the prior administration.
PLZ Bronson… don’t give in.. What they’re trying to do, is not to lose all “their” (our tax payer’s money) covid relief they invested in the 5 crappy rotten buildings which would cost more to renovate, then they’re worth. They know they bought these building using illegal appropriated money from the covid relief and just trying to atone by refusing to pass the best plan yet to take care of our homeless people.
Just some perspective on how fast a build can take that can hold over 300 people, from 1996:
The Denali Princess Lodge, just outside Alaska’s Denali National Park, reopened barely two months after fire ravaged the popular hotel.
…almost half of the hotel’s 280 rooms were destroyed, along with the lobby, gift shop and restaurant.
Construction crews … rebuilt 155 guest rooms and other facilities and re-landscaped the grounds.
First of many.
Expect the Assembly to block the Mayor at every turn.
Had anyone known back then, that the Sullivan Arena would end up housing the homeless, the bond would, more likely than not, have been voted down by a wide margin.
All this “repurposing” is certainly going to make the voters more leery of bond issues in the future.
The losers will do anything they can to thwart Bronson. I t will backfire. My message to them is this:
Do not tick off the Hockey Community you will live to regret it.
The assembly’s use of the Sullivan Arena is a terrible misuse of the facility and very expensive. It is nothing more than a sleep center. I lived across the street from it for over a year. I know what the area residents when through. Ask APD to report to the public why they responded to the Sullivan area and what the calls were for. A security force that would do nothing but observe and report what incident was happening. Never would they intervene to stop them. I would sit in my yard and watch the homeless line up for meals or stream out after they have eaten to go to the parks and street corners. The Sullivan needs to go back to its original purpose for hockey and concerts. The assembly is acting like 3 year olds who didn’t get their way. They wanted the former AK Club and then the would pay lip service to the Mayors plan but never support it. They will never do anything the Mayor wants so they can show he was a failure and Dumbar can be elected in the next election. Anchorage you get what you vote for, re-elect these socialist and see Anchorage turn into “San Francisco North”. You have seen what Socialism looks like so live with it or recall or vote them out.
We’re forgetting a class of homeless … couch surfers. They’re young, and willing to trade sex for R&B, and drugs. They talk getting a job, going to college, and etc. but never follow through. They don’t even bother to get a drivers license.
They’re just not as visible as the panhandler homeless. When they become less attractive though, or strung out on drugs or alcohol, they will become the next batch of panhandlers. They’re America’s “Gypsies, Tramps & Thieves”.
I was uneasy about so many of our homeless under one shelter as the demographics of our homeless should be considered just for safety reasons. Families should be apart from the addicted, chronically ill and addicted should be closer to health facilities such as ANSH and Clitheroe Center, mentally ill and and those in and out of jail in a separate area or facility. Any thoughts?
Hockey and all sports fans need to remember this nonsense at election time and vote these duds out.
“ ….and the city can’t, by law, abate and clear the homeless camps in the greenbelts unless it has a place to house people safely.” What law is that? I don’t recall a bill, a vote, and an executive signature. Can someone help me?
JA- Boise vs. Martin case.
The next three years will be a poo fest of epic proportions.
The Assembly isn’t going anywhere. Except further to the left. Once cites go left, they never go back.
This is what you voted for, Anchorage.
I certainly hope it is noteworthy that the usually stalwart MRA allies Jamie Allard and Crystal Kennedy were among the those Assembly members churning up that “poo fest.”
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