Mayor Suzanne LaFrance recently celebrated a $100,000 “Beyond the Beige” public art initiative aimed at brightening up downtown Anchorage, which has fallen into an economic and social funk. The funding, provided by taxpayers through the Anchorage Community Development Authority, will pay artists to create murals and other installations meant to enhance the urban core.
But just a few blocks away from City Hall, at the corner of 4th Avenue and C Street, one of the most visible walls downtown tells a very different story.
In four-foot-high block letters, “NO FASCISM” greets passing vehicles. Nearby, “Free Palestine” is painted across the wall, alongside information for an upcoming anti-government protest scheduled for August 2 at City Hall, titled “Rage Against the Regime.” It even has a swastika on it, with a slash mark through it.
The messages span the entire wall of the building once home to the Big Ray’s logo at 320 W. 4th Ave., and they face directly into a municipal parking lot managed by the very agency awarding grants for beautification.
The owner of the building, Tommy Tomasi, is in an indeterminate dispute with the city, and this is his way of letting the powers that be know that he’s feeling abused.
He had an agreement with the municipality to use the parking lot to store road equipment in exchange for some improvements to the lot. But then the city decided to charge him for those improvements, sources say. We’ve reached out for his comment. This mural of political radical nonsense, which gets weirder by the day, is his revenge.
As visitors leave the nearby Wildbirch Hotel, owned by former US Sen. Mark Begich and former Department of Revenue Commissioner Sheldon Fischer, this is what they now see. Mark Begich cannot be happy about it after renovating the hotel into a boutique inn.
The stretch of 4th Avenue is a key artery for both tourists and commuters, steps away from Anchorage Market, the Performing Arts Center, and the heart of downtown government and commerce. What visitors now see isn’t part of any approved mural project, but instead a rolling canvas of radical messages that appear to be the work of hardline socialists. Not exactly great branding for the city.
The irony is not lost on passersby: While the mayor touts her administration’s commitment to activate public spaces with art, the city’s central intersection has a strange mural being painted by an Anchorage muralist known as Ziggy (Richard Zeigler).
For long-time locals, the wall is a familiar landmark, formerly home to a clean-cut outdoor gear ad for Big Ray’s.
The new official mural grants are part of a broader effort by LaFrance to revitalize the downtown area through cultural engagement. But in this case, the city’s investment in curated art is competing with unsanctioned street expressions just a few of blocks away from the Mayor’s Office.
A recent survey by the Anchorage Community Development Authority, which gathered feedback from nearly 750 residents, found that half of respondents visit Downtown less often than they used to, citing public safety concerns and a sense that the area has become stagnant. Not to mention starting to be the home of aggressive wall warfare.
Bring back the KitKat Club, which was located where the parking lot is now.
You can blame the death of downtown Anchorage on Tony Knowles, a former mayor.
I think it was the Alley Cat.
The Kit Kat Club was in South Anchorage on the Seward Highway, before there was a New Seward Highway.
I stand corrected, it was the Alley Cat on the alley off of C Street. The KitKat was on Old Seward near where Wendys is now. But, let’s also give a shout-out to PJ’s on Spenard Road near Dead Man’s Curve.
I have some slogans, or more accurately Bible verses, I’d like to write on the wall. Could I do that? As I notice an anti Christian slogan written on the wall.
How about this one for the leftists of Los Anchorage >
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power.” – 2 Timothy 3:1-5
You can paint it your wall. But that sounds pretty anti-trump so you might get some push back from the readers of mustreadalaska.
Maybe Mr. Tomasi would welcome some graffiti more critical of municipal government instead of Antifa crap?
If the owner of the building and the parking lot is, and has been, in a dispute with the city government, why is he sanctioning and allowing the painting of radical leftist propaganda on his building with which that leftist city government would agree? I don’t understand this story at all.
I’m still working to reach him for comment. – sd
I think it’s great! More please, sir.
If LaSanFrance-isco wants to slowly convert downtown Anchorage into Portland and Seattle then we’re well on our way. This is proof positive that the radical Left messaging is a complete failure.
We travel quite a bit in our RV. We’ve found that the little & medium size towns as well as larger ones that preserve their main streets with local flavor, heritage and vibrant shops have a thriving downtown district.
Murals do nothing. I’m in support of LaFrance losing her re-election bid with more of this symptomatic visible cr@p.
The dispute mentioned probably could be resolved if Suzanne LeFrance and her administration allowed themselves to be accessible to Anchorage business owners and taxpayers. This administration has already set a pattern of declining to interact (without the mayor reading pre-written scripts) with those of us who contribute to pay the Muni’s bills.
I discovered recently that my requests to discuss code enforcement deficiencies with the municipal manager were unacknowledged. And, taking this up the chain of command, Marie informed that I would be unable to meet with the mayor about this without first providing years of emails so Marie could “conduct an investigation” to determine that my accurate facts would be worth any amount of the mayor’s time. The mayor’s default position is that anybody with a concern about code enforcement must be a “crack pot”, seriously confused, and/or completely dishonest. As an 80% service-disabled veteran paying property taxes on two Anchorage properties, I deeply resent the mayor’s position.
What happened to our town? How did we end up with this mayor, this administration, and this assembly?
Well, Dan Sullivan was useless and horribly wasteful (sap software project and port boondoggles vs ??? Accomplishments) so we got Berkowitz.
Then he threw Rs a bone by throwing Athens his butt, and the best conservatives could muster was Bronson.
Bronson was drastically under experienced, and got royally played by the assembly while in a near perpetual state of self-inflicted administration meltdown (culminating in Demboski’s suit against the city, but don’t forget stolen-valor Gerace or Mr. Chewy or Kolby Hickle harassment etc) so then we got LeFrance.
Does that help explain it for you any? The smart conservatives with the capacity to be effective leaders must be making too much money and/or are too sane for public service. So we get dingbats or leftists (or dingbat leftists, but at least sometimes the leftists play their “A” team, such as it is)
McCormick on the assembly and Kaufman in the senate both seem to have heads screwed on straight, and I know Trombley (Sullivan’s office) has the chops. Conservative voters need to get a grip on reality and put forward serious minded leaders who can accomplish more than ‘owning’/pissing off/motivating the libs.
Actually, SAP was finally installed and is working well. Dan’s only mistake was stopping the project for a while, which jacked up the final cost. Not to worry, ERP’s are hard. State of Alaska failed on three of them while the Muni was mucking around with SAP. Cheers –
Greenies moved in.
Mark Begich hired staff directly from the AK Center for the Environment so everyone would be on the same page.
These are green thinking West Coast libs who move up here to a State that is almost 40% Gov Parkland.
That’s what happened to our town.
Tony Knowles (2 terms) knocking down businesses & replacing them w/ Government
And Mark Begich (2 terms) hiring only environmentalists.
Maybe it’s time to change the name of Anchorage to DEADWOOD.
Now do a story about how Patriot Front is in town, gracing us with their fliers and posters all over Southcentral Alaska.
Contact KTUU w/ that info
Jackie could discuss it along w/ the cold “fronts’ coming down from Wrangel Island.
Check the FBI offices to contact Patriot Front. Its their home
The blame for the decline of Anchorage is on the VOTERS & NON-VOTERS. You either voted for the liberals or you sat on your butts on voting day . Take back your city .
Hear, hear!!!
A minor quibble with the respondents to the survey who, “cit(ed) public safety concerns and a sense that the area has become stagnant.” The area is not stagnant. It’s filled with squirming maggots writhing in the human detritus that the City leaders have allowed to infest a once buoyant business district.
Why is everything woke so damn ugly and annoying?
Had no idea Ziggy was such a radical leftist (I thought he retired from this)
But to his credit, Ziggy is not using beige paint ….. so he is compliant.
If Mr. Tomasi wants to bug the Muni, why is he posting National (leftist) crap?
Why doesn’t he put up anti-muni stuff, there’s plenty to work with there (is Ziggy calling the shots?)
I think it’s great! More please, sir.
If LaSanFrance-isco wants to slowly convert downtown Anchorage into Portland and Seattle then we’re well on our way. This is proof positive that the radical Left messaging is a complete failure.
We travel quite a bit in our RV. We’ve found that the little & medium size towns as well as larger ones that preserve their main streets with local flavor, heritage and vibrant shops have a thriving downtown district.
Murals do nothing. I’m in support of LaFrance losing her re-election bid with more of this symptomatic visible cr@p.
The muni has a history of backing out one their “deals” or word. Just look at the navigation center they approved, then backtracked.
Look what they did to Ron Alleva with the Beans Cafe fiasco that destroyed his property value and the city backed out of the deal they made to buy his property if he stopped opposing Beans and Brother Francis being expanded.
I think it’s a brilliant way to put leftist absurdity on display in more ways than one, whether it is intentionally done or not. A rundown city that has been rundown due to leftist policies, the gaslighting of the taxpaing population using taxpayer dollars to add murals as a way to revitalize the city that is overrun with vagrants because leftist policies allow it and subsidize it has a graffitti billboard on display for all to see that the empress has no clothes. Brilliant.
How about Tomasi take his agenda to Gaza and free it himself.
I rarely leave comments, but in this case I feel like Suzanne missed an important piece of information about Tom.
I suppose it could be Tom’s Revenge.
He’s Very Conservative!
Ziggy did the other murals on and around his building and Tom did give Ziggy permission to paint away…they didn’t talk about what was going to be painted.
Tom could not be more opposite of the free palestine movement.
Tom also could not care less about upsetting Mark Begich or any other current or past pols, well he might actually enjoy pissing off the pols and bureaucrats that decided to bill him around 8k for the work they were obliged to do to the parking lot, per that contract.
But is Tom himself a liberal or remotely progressive?
Ya, No.
He’s a standup father, Grandfather and widower.
He’s helpful and active in his community.
He’s helped a lot of people, including myself.
He’s the kind of guy you Want for a neighbor.
BTW- the rumor mill says Mark is or has filed some suit against him for disruption of business or loss of revenue or something similar- because Ziggy painted a wall. So, again, I doubt he cares much for old Mark but he’s not one to stand in the way of Ziggy’s first amendment right to paint whatever he wants on a wall that he (Tom) just so happens to own. Toms just not that guy.
Then again, as a conservative, he might just ask Ziggy to paint in his old Alaska Nature theme….you should ask him. If he does, it won’t be appease Mark and Co. or LaFrance and Co. of that, I can assure you
The destruction of Anchorage, and Alaska is the result of woke activists being allowed to implement their will. By whom I say? By their apathetic opposition. If disdain for the woke agenda were to manifest in action rather than words, we’d prevail in halting this destruction.
I don’t hear many officials or ‘wanna be’ officials pushing back, and certainly don’t see any action! Where’s the outrage, Bernadette ‘wanna be’ Gov, for example? I could run for office and simply say or do nothing just as effectively as some of these candidates!
These people need to work on their “art” skills. I’ve seen better art created by pre schoolers.