Anchorage Parks and Recreation is moving forward with plans to upgrade Peratrovich Park, at 4th and E Street in front of the Old City Hall building, aiming to turn it into a vibrant downtown destination. With taxpayer dollars, city officials are crafting a design to improve user experience, address “existing problems,” and make the small park a focal point for the community.
But the vision of a revitalized park contrasts sharply with the reality on the ground. On Monday morning, Aug. 25, Peratrovich Park is the site of a sprawling urban encampment. Several individuals, some asleep on benches or sprawled across the grass, others gathered in groups with shopping carts and piles of belongings, occupy the space, even though the sign says the park is closed from 11 pm to 6 am.
While planners draft blueprints for a more welcoming civic hub, the downtown core continues to struggle with vagrancy, drug abuse, public intoxication, and safety concerns that deter visitors and local businesses alike.
In our series on the decline of Anchorage, here’s our photo gallery from Monday morning in downtown Anchorage — photos you won’t see in the visitor brochures:
Glamping in the greenbelts: Anchorage’s luxury lawlessness, with free tents for vagrants
Video: Drone footage reveals sprawling vagrant occupation expanding in S. Anchorage greenbelt
Photo tour of a vagrant TarpMart, where everything must go (because it’s probably stolen)
Gunfire in vagrant encampment brings in large police response near Mulcahy Stadium
Parks-and-Wreck photo tour: LaFrance celebrates Davis Park cleanup, as vagrants relocate downtown
Video: As Anchorage begins to abate vagrant encampments, the squatters set protest fires
Anchorage Assembly’s Tuesday agenda has millions to deal with vagrancy and homelessness
Trump executive order targets vagrancy, lawlessness, and urban decay in America
Man arrested for sexual assault within yards of Anchorage City Hall — in broad daylight
They can’t even maintain the park sign…
Maybe society should address the elephant in the room and admit alcohol is destroying communities for hundreds of years in America…how many homeless in Alaska are veterans as well?
Aww the good ol Alcohol tax. I’ve noticed it get worse since that. So it is not the alcohol alone but the mis handling of said funds to help. Money may not be the answer.
Howdy Milo. Kind of like funding Public Education in Alaska.
Let’s try drugs, both prescribed and controlled.
We tried banning alcohol back in the 1920’s and it was a disaster. Criminals made out like bandits. 10x worse than the War on drugs is today.
Hey maybe we should try prohibition of alcohol!!! Oh, wait…. Never mind.
Steve, be part of the solution. Do you have any ideas? Or just opinion. It is time to take action. Step up. You can’t do worse than the past. Right? NO ONE SHOULD BE HOMELESS AND SLEEPING ON THE STREET!
Maybe a great question would be transparent accounting ( the books ) to see where the $150 million dollars the city of Anchorage has received in the last five years for the homeless issue/problem . Someone needs to shine a bright light on the fund allocation to start with as this appears to be part of the problem as the homeless population has double in 60 months !
This town is disgusting. Don’t spend your money there. Don’t stay there Don’t go there. Right now downtown is not safe for anyone. Yet they let it continue to occur.
Is this what you voted for Anchorage???? To have homeless bums destroying the city? We have to drive thru to go to Kenai every year, all you see is garbage. Human garbage. Funny, other big cities that actually care about their people that pay taxes don’t allow this crap. Yet here we have Anchorage slipping into what Portland and Seattle look like. Hmmmmm coincidence? I think not!
Is this what we voted for?
No.
Is it what 100% mail in voting and overall voter apathy gets us? Yes. No doubt about it.
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Ask your friends/coworkers if they know who their representative on the Muni Assembly is. I bet most cannot say. Ask them if they voted in the last Muni election, I bet more will say no than yes.
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If you are not already doing so, get involved. Talk to your friends and neighbors and encourage them to pay attention to what the local government is doing. Yes, the President and Congress is important and their decisions can impact you. But, to really screw up your quality of life on a day to day basis, that is your local government.
There are a lot of things human beings suffer but I can’t think of anything worse to be afflicted with than the profound ignorance it takes to refer to other human beings as garbage.
Except when “human beings” are garbage.
OK…Acting like garbage. You’re welcome.
Garbage: “a thing that is considered worthless or meaningless.”
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What worth do the vagrants bring to society? What meaning do they bring to the human race as a whole? None.
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How does the Muni benefit from the vagrants? It does not, in fact, they are a burden on the taxpayers. Their overall impact to the city is negative.
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Is there some better term to use for something that brings no value, that provides no benefit? If there is, I cannot think of it.
The muni greatly benefits from the administration of the $150 million they wasted in downtown Anchorage on the homeless . The homeless population has doubled . Bigger the city government , the bigger the homeless population . City of Anchorage is a prime example of this . Goes hand and hand . City of SF received $2 billion dollars for the homeless problem in 2020 from the Feds . No one has a clue where the money was spent
What a welcome surprise for our visitors this summer. VERY, VERY SAD. As usual our assembly and mayor don’t care.
Anchorage now looks just like Seattle and Portland.
Alaska is just another crime infested red state like Tennessee and Louisiana. Welcome to Donald Trump’s America James. Guy has to start owning it at this point. 2nd term already amirite?
How in the heck did Donald Trump cause the Anchorage blight? Man, you leftists are deranged and desperate to blame everyone but yourselves. So transparent and childish.
I have been hearing this for over a year about this park.
Of interest is that Mayor Suzanne LeFrance does not publish her email address on the MOA website. Neither does her chief of staff. From this I know that LaFrance does not wish to interact directly with residents (most of us are property tax payers) and chooses to addresses public concerns *only* when she has a prepared speech from which she reads. Who knows what is going on with the chief of staff.
Also too, LaFrance often looks like she is delivering a prescribed “hostage video” during interviews with Channel 2 when she repeats memorized talking points. If you would like to see this clearly, take a look at what she said during the recent Trump/Putin coverage. Listen to her repeat the same sentences over and over again. Count how many times does she repeats the same slogans?
A good Democrat learns the instructed talking points word for word and isolates themselves from the public. They’re mere puppets on a string.
LaFrance’s social media feeds read like they were written out of the Ship Creek Group boiler room. Even though Katie Scovic was replaced by a retread from the Berkowitz administration earlier this year, don’t take it to mean SCG doesn’t have undue influence over her.
Well, the Muni will just move them to… where, I guess to be decided, but not actually address the problem.
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I say we move them to LaFrance’s neighborhood. If the vagrants are so spectacular and deserving of kindness and handouts, let’s let her neighbors enjoy them first.
“I say we move them to LaFrance’s neighborhood”. That’s only the hundredteenth time I’ve read that in the past month. Do you have any original thoughts to contribute to this discussion? You make comments here constantly, so I would hope you’re capable of such. Ironic that this appears directly below a comment critical of talking points.
Reality:
Leftists will never learn until they have to suffer the consequences of their actions.
No, funding the homeless industrial complex is not going to make a difference.
No, giving Mark Begich $500+ a night to house the homeless will not help.
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Leftists are like addicts that have to hit rock bottom before seeking help. I am only suggesting that we speed that process along. It will have a much higher likelihood of success than playing along with them.
1,200 of them could be sent back to their villages . 40 percent of the homeless left are criminals breaking the law everyday . And probably the rest need to be institutionalized
It’s past time for the Native Corporations to step up publicly to assist. What are they doing with all their money if they can’t invest in real solutions for their people?
I have to agree with you. It is despicable that they do not look after their own and give them a helping hand. All they care about is making money and making sure their leaders get paid huge bucks. They don’t want to dirty their hands with this sad portion of their population.
They build one building after another at the ANS Health Park, there must be room somewhere for them to house those that are on the streets and get them the help they really need!
It will take a few decades to erase alcohol from Alaskas native populations! The white man introduced it to the natives to weaken them they are learning from this lesson
You get the government you vote for
You know that every one of these folks mailed in a vote in the last Muni election. Some surely saw to it.
This should be a hard no as the only result would be another park that inebriates and other degenerates trash.
LaFrance has been terrible at managing any of drug addict and drunk scourge but it would be worse if she were to spend public money on a project known to end in a disappointing outcome. Fix the key element first and pretty up parks later.
The elephant in the room as addressed at a Federal level:
‘https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtY50S2SvqY
Thank you. homelessness is a crime, we should bow our collective heads in shame and stop with our self deluded pretense that we are so called Christians with a guaranteed housing in Heaven.
Christians help those in need who want the help and who are willing to work for it. There was, before the Assembly put a stop to it, several religious run shelters that helped those who wanted to get clean and get off the streets.
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And, it is not your place to judge whether or not someone is Christian enough.
So where was your outrage when the council torpedoed that last mayor’s transition center which just might have given some of that dignity back to the people you are so passionately defending? You know…by actually helping them with their addiction IF they truly wanted out of their situation. Oh yah, that’s right…throw more money at the homeless industrial complex. Keep the junkies and alcoholics sick and fleece the taxpayers for more money. Build them tiny huts that cost more than the average home, let them continue to be junkies and alcoholics, just so long as its behind closed doors. Thats not treating ANYONE with dignity Alex!
I’m sickened by the sick comments left here by so many even as they don’t realize how quickly they could end up homeless as well, ESPECIALLY, with this president driving the economy.
You are totally clueless. The economy has improved dramatically over the last six months. I cannot imagine where it would be if the woman of the San Francisco evening had have won. On top of that we would have had to learn Chinese to deal with our new leaders.
I cannot speak for anyone else, but it does not take a lot of financial planning to ensure you never end up homeless. I have well over a year’s living expenses available, and if needed, I could refinance my home to get some additional cash. If you do not, why not? Too much spending on luxuries? It is OK to tell the kids they can only participate in one sport a year. My parents did, and I survived just fine.
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Now, I want to meet the homeless person that was just fine until suddenly they were broke and homeless. Who is this person? I do not know them, but I can make some educated guesses about them.
1. They are not the addicts
2. They are likely working
3. They are not sleeping on the sidewalks
4. If they are holding a sign asking for work, they will actually do the work.
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On the other hand, the vagrants that are destroying the quality of life in our city are not, nor were they ever “one paycheck away from homelessness.” They are addicts, abusers, and wastrels. If their life does not matter to them (and as soon as a drug user decides taking that next hit is more important than their family, they are choosing drugs over their life.), why should I care about their life?
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Stop making excuses for the addicts, the sex abusers, the criminals. They are not deserving of sympathy.
Alex, you are talking about a small minority of the homeless, the economically homeless. You know it, I know, we all know it. The last part of sentence tells me this is more political. Thats cool, hate Trump, hell I don’t think he’s all that great either, but stop peeing on my leg trying to tell me its raining. The majority of these people have problems with drugs, alcohol and mental illness. Solve the drug and alcohol problems and a lot of the homeless issues go away once they stop treating themselves like and acting like human trash. The mentally ill is a whole different ball of wax and much more complex, and for the most part kind of futile. But for a starter, how about expanding API?
It has nothing to do with the President; for goodness sake if it rains do blame the Republicans and Donald Trump? There is a solution but you first have to have honest dialogue.
The problem is not drugs or alcohol, its lack of personal responsibility and mental illness, in other words, Democrats.
The city of Anchorage has become so riddled with drug and alcohol abuse. It disgust me as a resident of 30 years. I have worked a lot with these vagrants on the street. There was is no hope for them period. Most of them do not wish to get better. They mistreat the people and the services trying to help them.
Simple. Cut off the services.
Seriously, the more we subsidize bad behavior, the more of it we will get.
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Other changes have to happen as well. Dry shelters have to be created, and entry will be restricted to only those that want to get clean and get off the streets. No more wet shelters. It is what Bronson wanted to do with his navigation center, but he was blocked at every turn by the leftists trying to feed the homeless industrial complex.
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Stop putting them up in Mark Begich owned hotels over the winter. If they care so little about themselves they are willing to live outside in AK in the winter, then freezing to death is their choice.
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Concentrate the funds to those that want to get clean, who want to get off the streets, and you might find homelessness in Anchorage dropping, quickly.
This could have all been taken care of and prevented 20 years ago by having cops walk the park every day for most of the day and tell the bums to move along. No, we couldn’t deprive them of their constitutional rights to crap and piss on everything, leave their garbage everywhere and make the area uninhabitable for the taxpayers. And the Alaska ACLU, led by the Anchorage Daily News that couldn’t deify Homeless Jesus enough, sued to make it so. Boot them out, throw away what they leave behind, spruce up the place for people who want to live in a decent society and keep pushing them out until they’re gone for good.
in March 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing the National Park Service to clear homeless encampments from federal lands in Washington, D.C., and proposed relocating homeless individuals to “tent cities” on large parcels of inexpensive federal land outside cities, where they could access medical professionals, mental health treatment, and addiction services.
Why can’t the our City Government reach out to the Federal Government and take them up on this plan in Alaska?
Is it an alcohol problem or is it an indigenous problem? Or is it a democrat problem? Or a character problem? Mental health maybe? Is it even a problem at all? This supposed ‘problem’ has been with us goin on 50 years now, if it was such a ‘ problem’ why haven’t the brilliant democrats solved it yet? After all, they caused it, they wont accept reasonable solutions or even listen to them. The monkey is on your backs democrats. Or should we call it the ‘tar baby’?
Unmentioned in the torrent of repetitive talking points: the pandemic provided both Bean’s Cafe and Catholic Social Services a means to get out of having to directly serve this population. In my experience working with the homeless, the initial Dunleavy budget proposal gave them the excuse they needed to move in that direction. I returned to Anchorage in January 2019, so I don’t know what similar moves were made prior to that point. It’s not unreasonable to ask why this audience continues to avoid placing any blame on them.
Bigger plans are in play here. If the ACTUAL goal is to defund the police it is not difficult to see that a component of that effort is to NORMALIZE vagrancy and lawlessness. If Anchorageites see squalor, crime and drug use all the time and everywhere, they will eventually give up objecting to it. The Mayor and the Assembly WANT Anchorage to be a s****ole. If they can get residents to accept the new dystopian reality, it will make insignificant acts of improvement seem like major accomplishments. All of this will allow the Mayor and Assembly to siphon off even more money to benefit the favored and fashionable. And the flight of productive people from the city, leaving only the hollowed-out core, will allow the Left to retain political power. The plan is working perfectly.
How about building some genuinely affordable housing for lower income folks in a halfway decent area? All of the illegal deportations should open a lot of lower level jobs for these folks to help them afford housing if it were available!
Pretty optimistic there, Gayle.
I really do not think the majority of the vagrants are on the street because they cannot afford to rent/own a home. I do not think they are choosing to live on the streets because they cannot afford a halfway decent area.
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And, the people who are homeless because of that reason, ARE seeking out the help they need, they are not wasting money on drugs/booze, and they are doing everything they can to improve their situation. They are not squatting in Peratrovich Park.
Because slums are known to be such a good solution…
Looks like Anchorage Parks and Recreation could use some high pressure Fire department pumper trucks to water the flowers in this and other Anchorage parks twice a day, say at noon and midnight even when it’s below 32 degrees.