By SE STEELE
Mayor Suzanne LaFrance and her allies on the Anchorage Assembly are suddenly heartbroken over the closure of Carrs in Fairview. The store’s shutdown has prompted a wave of public statements lamenting the loss and emphasizing its historical significance.
Mayor LaFrance even claimed, “Fairview gave this business its start, supporting their growth and success for decades.”
While that sentiment acknowledges the community’s roots, it sharply contrasts with the prolonged inaction and neglect by city leaders that led to the store’s demise.
For years, Fairview residents and Carrs employees have endured escalating public safety concerns: open drug use, theft, assaults, and daily lawlessness. These issues didn’t arise overnight; they festered under the watch of present city Assembly members and Mayor LaFrance who had the power, resources, and responsibility to intervene. Despite an obvious, visible, and desperate need for help, those pleas were met with indifference.
Now, the sudden concern from official’s rings hollow. Where was this urgency when employees were being threatened? When residents felt unsafe just walking to get groceries? The city had every opportunity to act, and it didn’t.
Let’s call this what it is: political damage control.
For years, this Assembly and its allies weren’t focused on solving problems. They were consumed with destroying the Bronson administration. That obsession with political revenge came at the cost of public safety, economic stability, and community trust. And Fairview is the one left paying the price.
The closure of Carrs is more than just the loss of a neighborhood store. It’s the loss of trust in government and a painful reminder of what happens when leaders like Chris Constant, Daniel Volland, Meg Zaletel, Felix Rivera, and Mayor LaFrance prioritize optics and power over action and accountability.
Fairview didn’t need sympathy after the fact. It needed leadership before the collapse. And now, instead of cleaning up the mess, city officials are trying to rewrite the narrative. But the community isn’t fooled they lived it.
Anchorage doesn’t need more photo ops or press releases. It needs real leadership, real solutions, and the courage to put politics aside and fix what’s broken.
Until that happens, expect more closures, more chaos, and more heartbreak from the very neighborhoods that once carried this city forward.
SE Steele is a resident of Anchorage.
Hear Hear!
Direct, spot on, and well written. Thank you SE Steele.
Honestly I’m surprised it lasted this long. The assembly needs to take responsibility for it’s “inaction.” A drive through downtown a recent evening showed bums on each street corner and new fences/gates going up in retail businesses entries. This prompted my husband to say: “This city is dying.”
I remember hearing that particular store being called “Ghetto Carrs” even back in the 1990s, so even then, the crime surrounding it was nothing new.
However, unlike today, it did at least manage to stay open for business.
Its closing is nevertheless just another milestone (in a LONG line of them) marking the degeneration and decay of the city of Anchorage under radical leftist control.
Following the path of blue cities down south. They now have the phenomenon known as a “food desert” where residents cannot easily access nutritious foods because grocery stores cannot operate in that environment.
Carrs on Gamble is a oasis for the homeless. They have food and a liquor store in the same building. The general manager of Carrs once asked what could be done with the homeless problem. “Close the liquor store and the homeless problem will evaporate”. Carrs will not close the liquor store because that store is the most profitable in the company. Carrs- if you’re reading this, YOU are part of the homeless problem. You care more about the dollar than you do about the homeless. I still laugh at the “blue light special” security camera cart they had out in the parking lot. Did zero to prevent crime.
I hope Carrs levels the building and sells the lot. If they don’t, the homeless will move in and set the building on fire eventually.
I guess you don’t mind being a horse’s backside. It is not Carrs responsibility to clear the streets of bums and addicts. The City is responsible for deterring and preventing crime, but they are all in on promoting vagrancy because their members benefit from it. Don’t blame private companies for the loss of civic support.
The City is not responsible for deterring and preventing crime. The individual is responsible for not committing the crime in the first place. The City (in this case) is responsible for using our tax dollars (unfortunately necessary) for sweeping up the refuse that fail or refuse to be responsible for themselves.
Going into that place has been a tad sketchy for at least 30 years, but the conditions that made it that way were managed as best as humanly possible, NOT promoted by those who by all outward appearances seek to accelerate the collapse of polite society. This is the seeds they sowed having taken root and sprouted.
I know several people who really like the pharmacy at that outlet, where they are treated with kindness, respect, and efficiency. I am sad to see them go.
I find it amusing that these people did not make a sound when Kaladi closed the PAC location out of safety for their employees.
Everyone in Anchorage, both residents and commuters see what has happened.
As a general rule, a society will prosper or suffer in accordance with what it votes for. Anchorage has made the choice to suffer.
I agree, because without law and order, we do not have civilization.
Scary Carrs, as my wife called it, was unsafe, dirty and infested with the vagrant type. The city let it fail and now no store for miles. Vote for what you get Fairview and surrounding area.
The Hood store was what we called it. I loved the place when I lived in Fairview.
Quaint, cozy along with a generally friendly atmosphere, punctuated by half a dozen security guards!
“… prioritize optics and power over action and accountability.” I certainly agree with that analysis of our assembly and mayor, but what honestly puzzles me is why they prioritize the homeless (including both the 80+% that are there by choice and the 20% or so that are truly there for reasons out of their control) over the other citizens of Anchorage.
Trespassing, vandalism, and a host of similar crimes are crimes only if committed by productive citizens, not if committed by the homeless. Civic improvements (presumably to be enjoyed by all of the citizens of Anchorage) require voting and approval, but apparently at least $190MM can be spent on the homeless without any accountability.
I’m somewhat north of 6′ 4″ and circa 250#’s….but even though Carrs Fairview is on my way to work and a convenient place to stop for either a breakfast snack or lunch, I decided a few years ago that I didn’t want to run the gauntlet of the beggars, demanders, and (yes) proposition-ers that congregate at or near good ole 13th & Gambell.
Totally agree of the reason why. The indifference of the present administration concerning the issues revolving around that specific CARRs is just the beginning. Keep an eye on Walmart, Walgrens, banks and other businesses that can only tolerate lawlessness for so long.
Welcome to Portland North!
The root of this problem with the assembly and all others like them is open rebellion against God’s order, against God’s law, against God himself. They are shaking their fists against God with a high hand. So God in his justice has given them over to a depraved mind. It is just that simple. They are stubborn rebels, self-centered; their will is their God and they will be judged for it eventually. Hopefully in the hearing of this, their consciences will be pricked and God will have mercy on them come to their senses.
Wow. Can’t argue with that bold truth.
You should post this as a lte or opinion piece at ADN and see if they will publish the truth.
Carrs/Safeway’s closure in Fairview joins a long list of businesses in Anchorage that have closed due to the rise in crime, lawlessness and lack of accountability by our assembly leadership. Remember Kaladis coffee by City Hall? Remember Nordstrom? Driving through downtown and seeing all the closed stores that used to be there not long ago is truly heartbreaking. But these people keep getting voted in office so unless the voters take a different approach and vote these clowns out, Anchorage will continue to decline into oblivion.
It has, and continues to appear as though “these people keep getting voted into office”, to those who are yet to have eyes to see. Communists lie about everything, and their path to power is where it starts to become consequential. Fail to bring them to justice, and there will never be any.
Great article! It emphasizes the need for a new leadership and assembly in Anchorage. These leftist have ruined Anchorage.
Tim, Anchorage had an opportunity to make changes to the assembly on April 1st this year but it appears most of the people who voted (and especially those who did not vote) are ok with the pathetic way our city is declining.
The Carrs grocery on Gambell is sadly a shadow of what was once a nice community grocery store. It has been a slow decline for many, many years, and while several remodels and upgrades have helped keep the face of the building from showing too much wear, they cannot escape that it has become a hub for vagrancy, illegal activities, and general problems. Its unfortunate that this is the case, but it is not surprising. Anchorage has had a growing problem for years with the homeless, and the last decade has been seen some of the worst policies to address it enacted by the city government. If different policies are not put into place, I won’t be surprised to see other businesses in other areas of town such as Mountain View and Spenard close their doors as well due to it becoming cost prohibitive to stay open and deal with these issues.
lafrance and her Anchorage assembly cronies sure do make everything worse, EVERTHING!
In the 1960’s, Mom would take us to Carrs for some things, and then move on to Safeway for the rest. Both on Gambell St. and none of it was sketchy in the least. Those lady cashiers could punch the buttons on the registers without even looking. So professional, and of course they also gossiped while doing so. Mom loved that. Now, you are lucky if the bums get out of the way for you to make your purchases, Safeway is long gone, and now Carrs is gone as well. So much for the flagship and the end of an era. Thanks, commie asses on the Assembly. Way to take care of a great legacy. *spit*
Carrs delivers groceries to Fairview, the City is not responsible for operating a grocery store
The city is responsible fo dealing with crime. Not the grocery store.
However, they are responsible for controlling vagrancy and crime around the store which affects staff and customers!
Translation: let the drunks, druggies and vagrants run things. We’ll have success and prosperity. Just don’t look at the feces, needles, blood & vomit. Sure.
about time!!!
There is a homeless/industrial complex in Anchorage and members of the assembly are part of it, if not founding members. They’re not interested in helping homeless people, they’re interested only in enriching themselves at the muni’s expense while virtue signaling for all they’re worth to keep the gullible on their side.
It is a fact that any bureaucracy tasked to end a problem, will not end that problem but instead make it worse. Asking a bureaucracy tasked with, for example, homelessness cannot accomplish that goal without rendering the need for its own existence obsolete.
Essentially, you’re asking a bunch of bureaucrats (good people and bad) to fire themselves. Not going to happen, ever.
It was pointed out that Carrs on Gambel was complicit in its own destruction because it refused to close the liquor store. Fair enough. It’s also the case that the profit margin of the store was so narrow that closure of the liquor store would probably have sank it, also. Both can be true.
The underlying issues of Anchorage are the same as the other Democrat wastelands down south but with an added burden. Alaska’s native villages banish their dangerous or hopeless cases to Anchorage where the federally funded Alaska Native Medical Center fails to even try to fulfil its mandate.
Well said, SE Steele! This, our once “All American City,” is vanishing before our eyes!
Please speak accurately and with authority. Anchorage is not vanishing before your eyes. Rather, it is being decimated by choice of the voters. Granted, some may be ignorantly well-intended but all the good intentions in the world plus $5 buys you a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Same thing is happening here in Juneau.
I noticed in the Midtown Fred Meyers locked up all the laundry detergent behind secured glass cabinet display: pods, liquid, powder forms. Who knew there was a shoplifters’ black market for resale/trade on laundry detergent?
I won’t be going there for my laundry detergent purchases since there are other retailers that don’t put it behind locked display.
Please propagate the truth earnestly. That is, both the homeless situation and failed eduction system have something in common. The more money we throw at them the worse they become.
Don’t forget the Walgreens up on the far east side on Debarr across from Freddy’s next to the new Wendy’s closed it’s doors start of the year do to theft and threats same reasons why Carrs in Fairview is closing down. But bigger difference is this is the only Walgreens on the east side of town. That was a new building too. Now empty and for lease. Theirs a huge group of homeless people their stealling from Walmart and Freddy’s 2 days ago their was an incident at Freddy’s surprisingly the police actually showed up. Private Secuirity had the homeless guy in hands.
You guys are a hoot. La France is in for 9 months and it’s her fault? What did Bronson do in his 3 years to proved public safety? . The assembly is not responsible for administering, they merely appropriate and the mayor allocates the funding. Ultimately, it was a business decision to close. It’s too bad the neighborhood lost a store. If it was making money it would remain open.
This place was scary to shop at in the early 1970s. It is amazing that it survived this long.
Solution is simple and time-proven: Have police arrest and refer for prosecution shoplifters, vagrants and drug dealers. This isn’t rocket science. Perhaps Chris Constant could respond.
You are spot on Frank Rast, and apparently the City is not responsible for anything. And how much longer will Midtown Freddys be open? Not much would be my guess.
THIS is a direct result of Assembly decisions….
You don’t think the use of the Sullivan as a gigantic homeless shelter played a major factor in this decision?
I was amazed when this location survived CoVid.
What people fail to remember…there is no Carrs any more. Its simply Safeway using the old name.
We lost local control years ago, which is not a bad thing. Just means history is not in the stay open plan.
I am sure the admin types at Safeway corporate are just done hemorrhaging money and struggling to find staff that wants to be exposed to the abuse at this location. Would you leave your car in this neighborhood?
Classic karma situation for the libtards in these neighborhoods….
We as a community have to accept FAFO…..We have FA…Now we are finding out.
History will should we were the folks that let a small percentage of liberal Anchorage folks WRECK the MOA for the rest of us.
Pick almost any city run by Democrats in the US. Almost all of them are failing, or have high crime. Chicago sucks, so does Washington DC, Portland and scores of others.
Look at what happened in LA County. Over 10,000 homes burned down, toxins all over the place, including in the ocean. There, the fire hydrants were not repaired. Fire trucks sat out of service, water reservoirs sat empty. Brush wasn’t cleared. Yet when the Santa Anna winds returned like that have for millennia, the county mayor was on a junket to Ghana. Now the liberal fukwits want $35 billion from the rest of us for a bail out.
They shouldn’t get a penny.
The quality of life in Anchorage is plummeting. It will not change until the Democrats are pushed out. Will voters get off their asses? Or will Anchorage be left to fail? Pity, Anchorage used to be a great place.
don’t forget the impact liberal judges and politicians have made on law enforcement and their willingness to conduct proactive policing
People blaming the assembly are part of the problem. These tend to be people that also claim they want less government as well. When are the people living in the area going to take responsible for their community. It’s the peoples inaction for more than 30 years to do anything about their own problems.
The cold hard truth is when only less than 20% of Anchorage voters turn out to vote you get what you got.
Grocery stores be raciest n sheeit. lol