Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is known for hanging out with his friends at the back of the room during Anchorage Assembly meetings. And rarely does he have much to say when asked for the Mayor’s Report.
But we had no idea how little he had to say until we saw this one-minute video, posted anonymously by someone who calls himself or herself “Reformed Snowflake.” The YouTube video was posted on Thursday and forwarded to Must Read Alaska.
In the video, week after week, Berkowitz is asked by then-Assembly Chair Dick Traini to give his report, and week after week, Berkowitz has nothing to report, even while crime grips the city, with record-breaking murders and car thefts that are some of the highest in the country.
In fact, by September of 2015, Anchorage was on track to set a new homicide record, even while homicides were falling around the country.
It set another new homicide record in 2016, and again in 2017, when homicides reached 35 — a 191 percent increase over the 12 homicides that occurred in 2014 under the previous mayor, Dan Sullivan.
In one meeting, Traini asks Mayor Berkowitz, “All these people, and nothing to say?” referring to the large crowd assembled for the meeting.
Berkowitz appears caught off guard and can only muster a weak, “I’ll defer to their wisdom” one-liner.
The election for Anchorage mayor and school board seats is mail-in only this year and starts in mid-March, when official ballots are sent to eligible voters through the mail. (They’ll be mailed from Washington state, so there’s no telling when they’ll arrive in Anchorage.)
