At tonight’s meeting of the Anchorage Assembly, the Assembly leadership has placed the reapportionment public hearing at the end of the agenda, when most of the public will have left the meeting.
Reapportionment is the redrawing of the Assembly districts, a process that takes place every 10 years. A public hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, March 1, but the item is 14I on the agenda. There are eight other public hearings in front of it. Assemblyman Chris Constant, who serves as the chairman of the reapportionment committee, is also vice chair of the Assembly, and is pushing forward his maps, as he tries to take the military community away from Eagle River.
At the Feb. 25 meeting of the reapportionment committee, Constant said that the Hillside of Anchorage was full of privileged people who were bound and determined to get their way on the redistricting maps.
“We’re going to allow the people of privilege to get their way for the next 10 years,” he said, objecting to the map that many feel is appropriate, allowing Eagle River to retain its ties to the military neighborhoods of JBER.
Listen to Constant talking about the Hillside residents here.
The meeting starts at 5:15 pm on the ground floor at the Loussac Library, at the corner of 36th Ave. and Denali Street in Midtown.
The Assembly agenda can be found at this link.
Hopefully the public will be smarter than the assembly gives them credit for.
And it appears excessively privileged Mr. Constant seems to feel his wishes are far more important than all the other ‘privileged’ people. What exactly is ‘privileged’ anyway? Is it anyone who disagrees with Mr. Constant?
Pray that the assembly does not “run out of time” and “be forced” to postpone the public hearing until – perhaps – February 29, 2023?
Well! I guess since the members have to be there until midnight at its latest. Public can be there too. Saddle up with a c shape neck pillow and soft travel blanket in a bag while waiting your turn. Bring a book. Bring knitting needles. Bring a sodoku. Bring a crossword puzzle. Bring whatever can be done quietly coming prepared if its assembly mind-games night.
Constant insults job-working, property-tax paying, middle-class residents of “Hillside” as “privileged” and not only do their representatives not defend them against the misrepresentation but also fail to point out the absurd number of power-politic-players who live in his own district? Check your privilege at the door Chris.
Meanwhile up in Fairbanks, Representative Grier Hopkin’s crazy-ass Uncle, Assemblyman David Guttenberg’s resolution to redistrict Hopkin’s House seat……..failed to pass. The Newsminer reported………….crickets. A woman Assembly member broke rank with the Democrats. Poor little Hopkins.
Why do they even bother? We and they both know the Assembly doesn’t give a damn what the public thinks.
Just declare themselves infallible gods above the concerns of petty voters and get it over with.
Calling the kettle black Chris needs to look in the mirror and see a privileged piece of work. He a little person in a big world.
You know what! Furthermore Calling hillside residents privilaged (a nicer word for snob) only continues digging their pit deeper, and there are a lot of important democrats and moderate republicans that call hillside home.
Despite having moved across the country a year ago, it’s obvious I’m paying a lot more attention to this issue than many Anchorage residents. Unfortunately, the four-hour time difference means I can’t always stay with Assembly meetings when it’s 2 or 3 in the morning. I don’t know what transpired last night. I do know that what’s presented in this piece about the Hillside lacks context. The Hillside Community Council organized opposition to one of the maps, which combines Chugiak and Eagle River with the conservative-leaning eastern and southern portions of the Hillside in a single district. The intent is to solidify the voting strength of liberal-leaning neighborhoods in the other five districts.
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Military installations are a curious case. Because their turnout in state and municipal elections is insignificant, and because census blocks are tabulated differently than everywhere else, they are traditionally treated in redistricting proceedings as a population cluster meant to shore up a district. From watching the video, Constant heard the argument about JBER kids attending Eagle River High School and now wants to use school attendance boundaries to greater extent in this process. Kids from the then-separate installations traditionally attended Bartlett and West. When ERHS opened, Chugiak was overcrowded but two high schools were more than enough for the area. To justify the substantial cost of building a high school, kids were bussed in to fill the gap.
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I’ve also looked at Jamie Allard’s map. The existing biases among certain Assembly colleagues make it obvious that it won’t go far. Still, I find it strange that little has been said of the particulars. It puts Constant, Dunbar and Zaletel together in a single district. It puts Rivera directly on the border between two districts. Since the Assembly contact sheet listed him as living in an apartment, this is important in case he decides to move to another apartment or purchase a house in the same part of town.
Sometimes I still think about Anchorage in the mid 80s. It was easily the best place in America to live. Good quality of life, safe (for Alaska), no homeless camps.
Problem was, it was such a great place to live the Berkeley/SanFrancisco/Seattle crowd begin its infestation. City fathers were warned what was gonna happen if they didn’t quit encouraging them.
Guess what: it happened.
One of Americas next great cities is now the next San Francisco.
#FliptheAssembly
There needs to be forensic audits.
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