Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance took a victory lap on social media this week, celebrating the cleanup of Davis Park in Mountain View, one of Anchorage’s most notorious homeless encampments.
Sporting a bright safety vest, gripping a trash grabber tool, and holding an empty garbage bag, LaFrance staged photo-op and posted cheery remarks about the city’s efforts.
“Davis Park is getting a fresh start!” LaFrance wrote on Facebook, praising the work of city crews and volunteers who had earlier this month removed an eye-popping 744,000 pounds of debris, trash, and stolen goods from the area. “It’s been incredible to see the transformation of this park over the last month… While there’s still more work to do, I know that together, we can help reactivate this important community space for Mountain View.”
The post comes after heavy equipment, dump trucks, and work crews clearing out the sprawling encampment, where many Mountain View residents had complained of open drug use, crime, and deteriorating conditions. The “Healthy Spaces Team” was commended by the mayor for what she described as years of overdue cleanup. LaFrance has been part of city government for those years, first on the Assembly and now as mayor, although she carefully pushed off credit for the conditions at Davis Park.
While Davis Park may be getting a “fresh start,” downtown Anchorage residents are noticing that the problem hasn’t disappeared. It just moved.
New encampments are mushrooming along the Delaney Park Strip near 9th Avenue and C Street, with one hotspot being around Anchorage’s historic Locomotive 556, a stationary train display meant to educate children and honor the city’s railroad history. At least one individual has been camping inside the historic train, turning the educational exhibit into his own crash pad.
What Mountain View lost, downtown Anchorage gained, with a noticeable uptick in tents, trash, and visible drug activity along the Park Strip in recent days, as our photo tour shows below.
LaFrance’s office did not address the displacement issue but emphasized the importance of “activating” community spaces and promised more cleanups in the future. The administration is playing a high-stakes game of encampment whack-a-mole.
The Delaney Park Strip is where a large encampment was staged during the Ethan Berkowitz Administration when a group of anarchists took it over as an occupation.
The Anchorage Assembly will take up a camping ordinance during the Tuesday, July 15th regular meeting, to further discuss the idea of criminalizing the homesteading of public property. The item is 11D on the agenda. The Assembly meeting begins at 5 pm on the ground floor of the Loussac Library at 36th and Denali Street. The entire agenda is here.
Our tour of the 9th and C Street section shows that from the train to the tennis courts, there’s a new crop of vagrants, druggies, and lost souls.
Is it time to abandon downtown and midtown? It seems like that to the casual observer. Property owners are forced to fence in their high visibility property for security reasons. What happened to quiet enjoyment? The city owes the property owners due diligence, no? You can’t poison the well, force me to drink, and condemn me for getting sick, can you? It really is a war zone, not a city you want live in. Thank you Democrat Party. For destroying good once again. You got it down to a science.
One residual benefit of Anchorage not doing diddly about this festering problem: If it ever was solved, those of us in the Mat Valley and Kenai Peninsula, would suffer an already worse problem of the “summer re-location camps” that are found in hidden niches in our community. Most — not all — disappear come October.
One would think that La France would at least have had enough intelligence to put some sort of offal in that bag, and shown her holding a tin can in the grasper. This faked photo-op will make a good anti-La France campaign meme in the future.
Haha… the empty commitment.
It was just a matter of finding out where they moved to. Thanks for letting us know, though I bet there are other spots as well. After COVID restrictions killed off a bunch of downtown businesses the “homeless'” may be the final death blow. Nothing like driving tourists and locals away from downtown. Great job Ms. LaFrance!
Unfortunately, homelessness is a problem that’s just going to get worse. Just wait until AI starts taking middle class jobs! Wonder how the doctors and lawyers will cope?
AI is the ultimate disruptor. The tidal wave hits soon.
The real piece of trash is what you see in the photo pretending to pick up trash.
Empty bag just like her head, Taking credit for something she was forced to do
Parks and Wreck!
Best headline description, ever!
Now that they are on Delaney Park, a big percentage of folks who have voted in this joke of an administration can now look out their downtown home windows and enjoy the fruits of their actions. Unfortunately our tourist have to see what a travesty our city has become. It’s sad and embarrassing.