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.
