Safety first: Kaladi Bros. coffee company closes iconic Anchorage downtown location

By
Suzanne Downing
-
110
7293

Alaska’s renown coffee company, Kaladi Brothers, is closing one of its most iconic locations — in the heart of downtown Anchorage. The company cited safety concerns for staff and customers alike.

“It is with heavy hearts that we announce the closure of our Downtown cafe at West 6th Avenue on Friday, December 1st. Our highest priority is the safety and well-being of our staff and customers, and while we have put forth our greatest efforts in mitigating the safety issues that affect them, we no longer feel that we can responsibly operate within this space,” the company wrote on social media.

Kaladis will open two blocks away inside the Conoco Phillips Atrium, at 700 G Street. That location has private security, but it may mean fewer hours for the coffee purveyor. It won’t be open Saturdays or Sundays at that location.

“We have loved having this cafe and being a part of the Performing Arts Center for the past 18 years, and have endless gratitude for the staff and customers who have joined us along the way,” Kaladi Brothers wrote.

Downtown Anchorage has deteriorated over the past few years, as have the downtown areas in many cities, such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Seattle, dozens of stores have moved out of the urban core due to rising crime and drug-addled homeless vagrants.

Kaladi Brothers started out in Anchorage on April 14, 1984, when founder Brad Bigelow rolled out the cart that he and his father had built. He parked it on the corner of Fourth Avenue and F Street in front of the Visitor Information Center, becoming the first espresso cart in Alaska. He went into full- scale commercial roasting in 1986, and opened his first retail espresso counter in 1988. Tim Gravel later became co-owner, president and CEO of the company.

110 COMMENTS

  1. “Downtown Anchorage has deteriorated over the past few years, as have the downtown areas in many cities, such as Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. In Seattle, dozens of stores have moved out of the urban core due to rising crime and drug-addled homeless vagrants.”:
    The is the price being paid for surrendering in the War on Drugs. Lose a war, suffer the consequences. We all know who is responsible for failure to enforce law and order.

      • For decades I have believed that the war on drugs was an abject failure. But recent evidence suggests I may have been wrong.
        The WOD drove the users/addicts underground and limited their numbers through fear of punishment. It also controlled their behavior. Now that the “war” is over they are crawling out from under rocks and multiplying like rabbits.

    • I do not agree, this has very little to do with the “war on drugs” and more to do with the liberal policies that have been enacted by the city assembly members.

  2. The Bronson group has failed in virtually all measures of maintaining public safety. Like all failures, he’s consistent response is to blame others. Thank goodness he’ll be a 1-term loser and no more.

    • This problem lands squarely on the shoulders of our liberal Assembly. The Assembly have enacted the ordinances that are destroying our city. Most of them are transplants who moved here with a political agenda. They are succeeding in taking Anchor town the way of San Francisco; Portland, and Seattle. The Mayor is only voice of reason and they continually try to silence him and tie his hands with their veto proof majority.

      • Agree! This mess rests squarely with Chris Constant, Felix Rivera, Meg Zaletel, Cameron Perez-Verdilla, the temporary mayor who should never have been allowed to be in this position, AND Suzanne LaFrance. If these people had allowed the completion of the larger shelter that was approved (AND then disapproved) we would not be worrying about people dying in unsheltered environments. If we had built the shelter near the former police station, all homeless people would have a place to be AND we would have something to show for the vast millions we have already spend on this continuing problem.

    • You are looking for a Savior. You won’t find any savior among us. But only in Christ Jesus. Wlmleitch you will always find disappointment in anyone. The homeless, the addicted, the mentally ill, the demon possessed they been here before, now, and will continue in the city’s future. Bronson’s only been there for four years facing a problem that predates him, predates Berkowitz, predates Sullivan, predates Begich, predates Knowles and goes way back to the beginnings when Anchorage became a municipal. It’s worse today because of the number of Alaskan families walked away from the faith and belief in Jesus Christ and understanding of God’s Word than those living in Anchorage before 1980.

      • So Anchorage is like Sodom and Gomorrah? The licentiousness of the city has brought homelessness, demonic possession, and all other scourges upon it? How laughably ridiculous. Who is this woman Jen, who apparently sees everything through the lens of her adoration and worship of Jesus Christ? She honestly has a very distorted view of reality, warped entirely by her religious zealotry. Ach du lieber!

        • Hans, I agree with you that Jen is usually “out there” and her understanding of faith is unique.
          That being said, she is entitled to her views and her lens and when you strip away the religious overtones, her assertions are correct. This is a problem that has existed much longer than the Bronson administration. Do you remember the “homeless emergency” Ethan Berkowitz declared?
          It is my and your choice to ignore her rantings, but find the kernel of facts.

    • It’s been like this since the 90’s. It’s not Bronson’s fault. He has been trying to clean things up but the City Counsel has been fighting him at every turn. It’s the democrats that have had secret emails, illegal closed meetings and stopped the public from testifying. I quit reading the ADN as they avoid telling the truth. People keep blindly voting for this unethical people and wonder why they don’t really represent the public.

        • Yes, the fix is in. It’s not what you think, however. I already pointed out in some detail how conservatives couldn’t be bothered to participate in the Assembly reapportionment process last year. They were too busy trying to get themselves added to the list of co-sponsors for the latest fundraiser at Keith Manternach’s hangar, as if that’s somehow more important. Holding those meetings in the middle of an election cycle was key, as Constant and Dunbar manipulated the process constantly based on the latest polling data. There’s also a historical aspect, namely the outsized impact South Addition and Turnagain have relative to Anchorage as a whole.

    • Well I don’t blame the Mayor. He has an up hill battle with the Anchorage Assembly. If anyone is to blame its the Assembly. Face it they are mainly Democrats who ate in charge. The past couple of Mayors were Democrats and need I say more. Just once I would love to see a all and all out Republican Mayor and Assembly then you will see the changes.

    • Wow! Your removal from all reality is really one for the books here, wimi-itch!

      It is of course the perverse, backwards, up-is-down, homeless-coddling policies of the ass-embly’s Marxist Nine that are largely if not completely responsible for this sad situation.

      • Well according to Jen, above, it’s not the fault of the Assembly at all. It’s the fault of the city’s residents falling away from Jesus Christ and the One True Faith since the 1980s. In her opinion, God is meting out his vengeance on the city in the form of homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness, and demonic possession.

        “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; Their foot shall slide in due time: For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste.” – Deuteronomy 32:35

    • You’re not too bright, are you?

      Exactly what could Bronson have done? Be very specific. Details matter.

      The Politburo owns this. Any measure he puts forward is vetoed. More this crap has been building since Mayor Dan, probably earlier.

      We really need a better class of trolls.

    • Seek medical attention you are delusional wimleach!
      It is the left-wing-nut assebly that is causing ALL the problems!
      You dimlibbys never learn, NEVER!

    • Nice try at deflection. The fact of the matter is that Mayor Bronson has been ineffective due to being constantly road-blocked and sabotaged at every turn by the Anchorage Assembly majority. The Mayor and his team have continually put forth ideas that would help alleviate, if not outright eliminate the homeless problem and subsequent unsavory activities downtown, that are then dismissed by the Assembly majority because they are afraid that he might actually be successful. The truth is that they (Anchorage Assembly majority) don’t want to let Mayor Bronson and his team get anything that appears to be a win, and they definitely don’t want to see the homeless problem actually resolved, because then they would lose the money that they are making to “solve” (read perpetuate) the problem. The homeless problem is a “cash cow” to the Assembly majority all of their supporters. Anyone that can’t see that is gullible and not paying attention to what is really going on in Anchorage.

    • Last time I checked, the Assembly are the ones placing the wants of the homeless before the needs of the taxpayers.
      The Mayor only has so much authority to override their decisions.

    • No, wake up! This is 1000% the result of a Liberal Assembly not the Mayor! He can’t do diddly squat with those idiots and you blame him?? Yeah, you are part of the problem!

    • Only a fool blames a mayor who inherited an administration from Berkowitz and an assembly of worthless extremists who are more concerned with power and control than anything else.

    • No wlmleitch – it’s the VERMIN on the city council – your people.
      The police need to enforce, zero tolerance, loitering, vagrancy, trespassing, public intoxication, panhandling, shoplifting – and these issues will go away.
      Wlmleitch – time for your booster shot, no?

    • So the supermajority assembly who stymies Mayor Bronson at every turn bears no responsibility for the condition Anchorage is in. Got it.

    • Great point, but they don’t come out of the glass tower really; only to get in their cars & drive away.
      And now we can’t even go to our own police station because there is no parking.

      • You can thank that worthless Ethan Berkowitz, Andy Halcro, and their best socialist buddies for the purchase of the building that now houses the APD downtown. It is a bad location for the police department, but as per usual customer service means nothing to the police department “leadership”, most of the Anchorage assembly, and bare-ass Berkowitz.

    • City Assembly is to blame they made the situation worse because no criminal is held accountable for crimes,criminals have a free ticket out of jail with the Democrats under 1,000 dollars shoplifting the criminals are not put in jail but are able to walk away from justice. Why not hold criminals accountable in jail and have drug treatment and mental health care in jail for those in jail.

      • Conduct the drug treatment and mental health care during the several hours of the day that that muni convicts are not working to pick up the roadside trash in this city. No work, no eat while in jail – just a diet of bread and water. BTW, in Singapore ‘street art’ is punishable by eight lashes with a cane.

  5. It is expected. I’m surprised they still there. You can’t operate when the manager passively aggressively removed all the tables and chairs just because of the homeless. Also the business can’t maintain a friendly hospitable social atmosphere while a security guard watches you eat and drink. Customers can’t sit and relax when the manager kicked out her at one time most loyal customers whose presence added to the familiarity and hospitality of a friendlier downtown Kaladis just because of they sat there too long patronage the business but also doing work. Kaladis Bros has an issue with hiring wrong type of people as managers.

    • You are blaming this business for the deplorable condition of downtown Anchorage, which started a downhill slide under knowles who converted tax paying business properties into useless parks and then Berkowitz who accelerated the slide. I would not be at all surprised that you voted for both of them.

  7. The main problem is a lack of real Christianity. ALL of our churches are now spiritually DEAD. Can’t even feel the presence of God there anymore. Some crank up the music to rock concert sound levels to give people a feeling that something is happening, but it’s NOT the HOLY Spirit anymore. They all teach “once saved always saved,” “only believe” or old covenant Hebrew roots — all false doctrines.

    So hardly “Christians,” including pastors and politicians actually abide in Christ, where they are led by and empowered by the Holy Spirit, walking in love and wisdom, overcoming sin by God’s grace.

    Instead, almost everyone is willfully lusting right now, being driven by evil spirits, addicted, instead of walking in holiness together where the JOY of the LORD is our strength.

    If the “Christians” are lust addicted, how are they going to help free the addicted homeless?

    Pastors won’t admit they are wrong, and are just playing church. Many use fear of being cursed by God (an old covenant verse in Malachi) to con church goers into giving them 10% of their paychecks before taxes (they always say).

    Paul said we’re to be led by the Holy Spirit now, in the new covenant, determining in our hearts who to give to and how much.

    Pastors aren’t even teaching their people to be led by the Holy Spirit in money, the root of all kinds of evil, because they have the old covenant law, tithing scheme going, and because they’re not led by the Holy Spirit themselves, so how can they lead.

    They’re not blameless and holy, what Paul’s overseers’ qualifications require in Titus and 1 Tim.. They’re all disqualified from leading, but the money keeps coming in, so they keep playing church, while our city and nation crumble — and hardly any are going to heaven; though, the pastors say they are as does R.I.P.s on social media.

    If we don’t have clear consciences before God and men (what Paul ALWAYS practiced (Acts 24:16), we’ll have dreaded fear when our consciences condemn us to hell when we die and our judged by PURE HOLINESS, knowing then that we fell short of the grace of God, not having walked in holiness (Heb. 12).

    One Anchorage pastor, who is in his 90s now had a dream that Anchorage was a Christian city. We can make it happen before he dies if we walk in the fear of the Lord, making sure we abide in Christ in holiness, overcoming sin by God’s grace, reconciling with any we’ve hurt and confessing sins until we’re pure.

    We need to live in Paul’s second list in Galatians 5.

    And the goal is Jesus’ prayer in John 17: being ONE with each other IN Christ “that THE WORLD WILL KNOW” — God’s glory will be that evident!

    Jesus wants His JOY to be in us and our JOY to be FULL (John 15 & 17) — instead of doing drugs and alcohol, and lusting to get false highs that feel sour.

    And God’s standard in Ephesians 4:11-16 should be our focus as well. Look at what it says about false teachers tricking the people, how once that stops we’ll have holiness together, the body of Christ working together in LOVE!

    The government can’t fix what’s a deep spiritual problem.

    But we can!

    • I really get tired of the weekly sermonette. Especially when said missives are so lacking in actual understanding of Christianity.

      So many here have ready some version of the word and totally missed (ignored) the meaning of the message.

      I have the knowledge and ability to go toe to toe with almost anyone in dueling scripture. And win. I could do so here, but I don’t waste my time. So I’ll just do the one.

      Did you read the book of Jeremiah? Specifically 29:7?

      If you actually mean what you say, you should be leading the charge to help your community. Clean the streets. Feed the poor. House the homeless. Be involved in everything from PTA to Beans Kitchen.

      More doing it as a happy warrior for Christ. No other reason. Not to score points or to make converts. Because God calls you to love one another. Christ did not caveat that to only include people whom you might agree with or convert.

      You want a Christian revival in Anchorage? Great. Lead the way with your acts. Not long winded self serving sermons advertising your piety.

      • Sounds like this person has a problem w/ tithing.
        Wonder if he has been slighted by some pastors for not kicking in enough?
        Good message on loving everyone, amazing how many miss that simple Christian message, while they focus on everyone else’s sin.

      • At least Jeff is preaching it Masked Avenger. There are things that are questionable about him too like he supports the lied told by HAMAs about Isreal. We all are sinners MA. You know that. Furthermore MA its Jesus who saved us all not saint peter, not any of the saints, we don’t go into purgatory, not how many masses we attended, not how good we think we conducted ourselves. Unlike however your catholic teachings taught you Saint Peter is not going to be our judge not waiting for us at the door. The apostle made the request to been hung upside down for the reason not to be confused as the Christ. It’s King Jesus and only Him we find our salvation in. Our job is to scatter the seeds, God is the gardener and his job comes after the scatter to grow what we scattered and sowed. He taught the people many things by telling them stories. He said, `Listen, a man went out to sow some seed.

        As he sowed it, some of the seed fell on the road. Birds came and ate the seed.Some seed fell on the stony ground. Not much earth covered the stones. The seed started to grow right away because it was not deep in the ground.When the sun began to shine, it was too hot for the new plants. They died because they had no roots.Some seed fell among the weeds. The weeds grew up and made the new plants die.But some seed fell on good ground. The seed grew and the plants gave more seed. Some plants gave thirty seeds. Some gave sixty. And some gave a hundred.Everyone who has ears, listen!’The disciples came to Jesus and asked him, `Why do you tell the people these stories?’Jesus answered them, `You can learn the secret things about the kingdom of heaven. But they cannot learn them.
        Anyone who already has something will get more, and he will have plenty. But he who does not have anything, even the little that he has will be taken away from him.

        That is why I (Jesus) tell them stories. They look, but they do not see. They listen, but they do not hear or understand.They make what Isaiah the prophet said long ago, come true. `Isaiah said: “You will listen and listen, but you will not understand. You will look and look, but you will not see.The hearts of these people have no feeling. They do not hear well with their ears. And they have shut their eyes. They do not want to see with their eyes. They do not want to hear with their ears. They do not want to understand in their hearts. They do not want to turn to me. If they did turn, I would heal them.
        God is blessing your eyes because they see. God is blessing your ears because they hear.”

        We don’t know where the seeds of scripture land, which stoney heart receives it, or how God uses the scattering of the seeds. Our job is be reckless and share it like God’s love is reckless he gives to all even the heathens not only to his Chosen or His elect. Showers of blessings rain down on the just and unjust. We are to be same not withhold good from those around us, and God’s Word is the best prize and treasure a person here can hold.

      • People are losing interest in religion nationwide. They see the conflict it creates (i.e. Middle East, etc.) and have basically decided that there are better frameworks within which to structure one’s life. Have you noticed the number of people who left church during Covid, and have never come back? It’s a lot. Churches were already struggling – Covid opened many eyes, and accelerated the slide.

        Great little sermon, though.

      • Oh Avenger, the Bible doesn’t say to take in everyone, feed all the poor, and give them all your money. I guess you should go back and read it again.

        Not sure what Jeremiah 29:7 has to do with what Jeff said.

        “And seek the peace of the city whither I have caused you to be carried away captives, and pray unto the Lord for it: for in the peace thereof shall ye have peace.”

        Anyways, maybe your next sermon can make sense and you can cite a better passage from the Bible. You should also include which Bible version you are citing from.

  8. Anch is a crap hole. Im glad to see a business boldly state the truth. Unsafe to operate. Dont blame the current mayor, blame the last 10, the assembly and the local conservatives who dont vote and sit around watching the city decline. Glad i left 30 years ago.

  10. Every city controlled by far left liberals is dying. Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Portland… and many more. Democrats are pro crime, anti business, pro drug, and anti- USA. The liberal left are truly the enemy.

      • I’m of the same opinion as M and I not only turned off my TV, I unplugged it. There are much better sources for news than Faux News. You should see how we look through the lens of the foreign press and media. It’s a lot more objective and a lot less propaganda than the alphabets in this country.

  11. The assembly can say we did that. Uneducated voters have aloud this to happen by voting for politicians whose goal is to tear down the society that was built by smart people.

  12. The Homeless Industrial Complex claims another small business. Zalatel, Constant and the rest of their fellow travelers must be very proud. At least they will have their new public restrooms. Cheers –

  13. Well this is what happens when non informed people vote for liberal ideas. The blame is squarely on the voter and who they want leading them. I hope downtown looses more businesses as this will show people the truth about liberal ideas and crime.

    • The downtown area will lose more businesses. Anchorage as a whole has become a sh–hole. Downtown is just one manifestation.

  14. Rather ironic. Knowls shut down what Bob Hope called “The Longest Bar in the World” (4th Avenue) to make it more peaceful and tourist friendly. During the Pipeline years when 4th Avenue was wide open, I never felt unsafe while picking up my mail at the post office and wandering around 4th Avenue shops.

  15. Hey, I’ve got a great idea! Let’s not have the poor and addled street folks arrested, prosecuted, and punished for vagrancy, shoplifting, and other petty crimes – too bourgeoise. And besides, we need to harvest their mail-in muni votes! Instead, let’s eliminate the unfair bail requirements for all crimes short of Class A felonies. Does downtown Anchorage really need this coffee shop? And don’t we admire the great progressive cities like Seattle, Portland, and San Francisco? Surely, there are some smart folks serving on the Anchorage Assembly who will get this ball rolling.

  16. The problem started during Ethan Berkowitz’s term as Mayor.

    VA started sending all Vets to the Diamond Center Hotel, two years before Mayor Bronson. Downtown wasn’t safe then and it’s way too dangerous for old crippled up Vets to walk now.

    Your liberal council is 100% of the problem.

    • In the late 1990s, Earl Mayo did well enough with the How How to build a hotel on the property. The location was clearly intended to take advantage of the proposed VA clinic across the Glenn Highway. Things didn’t turn out that way, however. First, there were delays in building the clinic. Then there was a substantial sum in Medicaid charges that the feds wouldn’t pay. He threw in the towel several years before the clinic finally opened. RurAL CAP took over the property and I’m pretty sure there’s still no comparable hotel in that part of town. At least he tried. Why doesn’t the VA put them up at one of the hotels at Tudor and C? People Mover Route 25 is a ridiculously long route that’s rarely ever on time. This is because they want residents of the Domiciliary to be able to ride one bus to the clinic and back. Do they provide separate transportation for the vets you refer to?

  17. Wow, right across the street from city hall. And a couple of blocks from APD HQ.

    It might help to make crime illegal again.

    • Frankly, I don’t think that APD has much to do with public safety. Generally, APD is an extension of the Police Union and exists primary to further the interests of the members of the Union. And the Union doesn’t much care about crime. So don’t blame the cops. They have other things to do, such as “negotiating” lucrative new contracts, heath and retirement benefits and electing Assembly members to serve their interests. Crime? Destruction of downtown? That is somebody else’s problem.

      • Want to talk to a cop? Just cruise along the Glenn Highway and Seward Highway. Plenty of them sitting around on the side of the road looking for easy pickings. Why fight crime when you can make money off of hapless motorists going a few mph over the speed limit.

  18. This is what you get in a Liberal run city. Look at Seattle, Portland, California…. Real business owners are not going to deal with the bs. Cracker Barrel and many others have done the same in other states because of the pigs sleeping on their door steps, drunks and drug addicts all over. Not good for any business…purge the Liberal Agenda and start cleaning it up!

  19. Meanwhile the good citizens of Anchorage pay about $5000 a month to STORE all the parts to a perfectly good navigation center, that could bring all out of the cold, while being a place with rules, assistance and policing. Removing the criminal element co-mingled with the true homeless would be a great start.
    It is clear that the assembly is all about agenda and politics (and petty power struggles to make the mayor look bad) not about “ending homelessness”.
    The “we will give you a free ride in a nice hotel, three squares a day, while you continue your destructive lifestyle, illegal activity and harassment of hardworking taxpayers” has to end.
    A good start would be by saying “No” to ALL bonds, demand a return to in-person-voting and moving the election back to November.

  20. I had to stop going in there. I spent a lot of money buying my coffee when I was managing the school buses on G Street and E Street during Christmas. It was not safe at that Kaladi. I worried about the employees working at that shop.

    • Kirk. You’d think that the Bronson administration would have tried to address Kaladis problem. they aren’t the only entity with homeless people over staying their welcome.

      That’s just another way of saying that Bronson is grossly incompetent. It’s not the assembly so much. We can all agree that winter follows fall. Why aren’t these solutions, such as they are, ready in the spring rather than a week before sun freezing temps.

      • Can you name one of Bronson’s proposals that actually got past the leftist Assembly? I didn’t think so. They are determined to see him fail because the Anchorage voters disobeyed them in 2021.

  21. Noteworthy is how the downtown sector consistently votes for the leadership that created the mess. I have no sympathy for the woke businesses that helped create this utopia.

    • Me neither they got what they want. I hope downtown dies and the property values crash. We avoid down town like the plague.

  22. Bronson has been trying to manage the city but it takes the full support of all entities of the Muni government to govern. When oppositional defiant assembly members thwart attempts by the mayors office to progress forward then anarchy reigns. Now that downtown Kaladi Brothers is closed maybe some signs should be put up at the closed store to the address of Felix Rivera for the homeless to go and hang out.

  23. This place had problems since it opened really.
    It was the most unfriendly shop in their system & I didn’t like having to use it sometimes.
    That unfriendliness was driven by all the riff-raff they always has to deal with.
    Riff-raff that is now more emboldened & violent.
    Remember the homeless “leader” that sat barefoot, vegetating across the street by the Hill Bldg when Mayor Dan was there? and the ugly crowd always present at the old bus station?
    This shop dealt w/ that sh@t non-stop & the baristas were all the more mean for it.
    Good business move, I’m glad the owner spoke out & surprised the ADN printed his comments.

  24. What do all the cities mentioned have in common? No need to answer that. Even those without the ability to think for themselves, should be able to get that one right.
    To speak on behalf of the assembly in regards to this article, I would like to comment for them. WINNING!!!!

  25. Conoco should be more concerned about the safety of their employees. Get them out of the downtown disaster zone and move to the BP office tower. Lots of room there. Mid-town will be safer for a few years … until the Constant/Zaletel/liberal Assembly sells its soul to the Homeless Industrial Complex.

  26. You can thank the people of Anchorage for this, they wanted a Seattle type assembly. Well you got it and the negative part comes with it. We don’t shop in Anchorage anymore.

  27. Addled Acres is the place to be, drugs and stealing is the life for me. City’s arms are so open wide, just give me a tent so I can go and hide. Go to work so you can pay for me. Raise the taxes so I have a place to pee. Keep your arms so open wide I have a place to camp and trash you trails and places you reside.
    Thank you Assembly.

  28. The real problem here is that our elections are broken. Do you really think the majority of residents are electing the nuts in the assembly while they are destroying it? Until people acknowledge the fact that elections are corrupt and demand they are cleaned up, we will keep seeing the destruction of the country. Oh, and the people in office are NOT going to fix the elections since that is how they are staying in power.

    • The problem is, Anchorage voters are lazy and can’t lift their fat asses from their couches and TV/video games/ticktok to actually vote. On the other hand, the extremists are good at organizing voter corruption to make the odds of an honest election next to zero.

      • Touche’
        remember the old 4th avenue of the 80s ?
        People have been bitching since forever about one social ill or another.
        When a problem hasn’t been solved follow the money of why its still happening.

    • The majority of residents aren’t electing anyone at all! Let’s start with the 70% of the city that can’t even be troubled to vote before we start crying fraud.
      Facts:
      2023 voter turnout – 28%
      2022 voter turnout – 30%
      2021 voter turnout – 32% (runoff: 38%)
      2020 voter turnout – 31%
      2019 voter turnout – 29%
      2018 voter turnout – 36%
      2017 voter turnout – 23%
      2016 voter turnout – 25%
      2015 voter turnout – 28%
      Anchorage has some of the most apathetic voters on Earth; nothing will change until people actually start voting in Muni elections. Comments like this are part of the problem as you are actively discouraging people from voting by telling them that their vote doesn’t count anyway. If you want to fight fraud you need to win elections first, and it’s a lot harder to cheat if voter turnout is 98% vs 28%.

      • You are probably right. It has been too hard for me to believe that so many could be so lazy to not vote when they can see what is happening. But the cheaters would have to be able to dispose of a lot of ballots if everyone actually voted. Truckloads.

  29. To everyone complaining and bemoaning the issues with Anchorage, people seem to like the lame response of its the “liberals” this or the “boogie man” that, when it really comes comes down to people have lost connection with themselves in regards to getting involved. You know what a 3% sales tax could do? Even the shelter less, homeless and “drug addled” humans buy basic necessities. Why not have them contribute in that manner. Earmark those funds specifically for operational costs of the many needed programs. Shelter, food and clothing. I use to live in the “beautiful” downtown Spenard of the early 80s. The old joke is, thats when you knew the hookers and the bums. I miss those days ,but they’re not coming back.
    Maybe the real issue is “unsustainable consumption and population. Peace and prosperity to you and yours and hope you will never find yourself riding public transit just to get warm and take a nap.

    • Sanctos
      I hope you’re a down town shopper and feel at home in the crime ridden area you live in. Your so off base it’s funny as you have not gotten a good education.

    • Carol
      No to any tax increase or new tax as the government can’t manage their checkbook now. They squander and waste millions. No more money for a failed government.

  30. Face it folks, Nordstrom, BP, and too many others have flown the coop since the oil companies sold Alaska on their pitch that Alaska will lose jobs if you get a higher royalty, which they like to call a tax. Alaska is cannibalizing jobs and hiring out of state residents to work here to its detriment.

  31. Please describe in detail the ‘safety issue’ ? I don’t spend any time downtown and have only in this specific Kaladi establishment once or twice in my life. Guess I’m just an ignorant south sider!!

  34. clearly 50 years of trickle down economics has failed. The Laffler Curve, Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics have had the “run”, its all failed. the only thing left to trickle down is pennies on the dollar, 95% goes to the upper two quadrants of income.

    proof? there is actual policy discussion of return to the CAB, civilian aviation board. since the the Reagan era economic fiascos are such a success. maybe less crass commercialism with BMI citizens losing control of eating and intelligent.

    wake up folks, like the old poker adage, can’t find the sucker at the table? its you. 50 years later your kids and grandchildren are worse off, sit watching your off shore flat screen.

    that store location went down starting in 2016, surprised it lasted this long.

    text less, comment less, read more. educate yourself with the 1870’s period of USA and world history, it’s repeating itself and the lesson is scary, capital wins and labor is meat.

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