The Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday night postponed again the renaming of the Port of Alaska as the Don Young Port of Anchorage.
The reason given this time was that the matter was improperly advertised online under the “events” category, rather than under the “public meeting” category.
“Practically speaking, the public hearing wasn’t properly noticed, therefore, it effectively didn’t happen,” Assembly Chairman Christopher Constant said.
It was over 18 months ago that the mayor has proposed naming the port after the late congressman, who served in Congress for 49 years. Mayor Dave Bronson proposed the name change on March 22, 2022, just after Young’s death. It was one of the last things that Congressman Young had asked of Bronson before he died.
But it had to go through the naming panel process, and the Anchorage Assembly then delayed the matter, since the Assembly is a highly partisan body made up of mostly Democrats and Don Young was a Republican.
The matter now will go back to the city’s four-member naming panel and start the process over again, which gives time for the Assembly to inject more politically correct naming into the process, with a new naming panel it just created just in time. The naming panel will focus on indigenous names, rather than naming things after people.
The port opened as the “Port of Anchorage” in 1961 to support regional economic development. In 2017, the Anchorage Assembly renamed “Port of Alaska” to remind people that is is the port for most of the populated area of Alaska.
You know they want to give it some sort of Dena’ina Indian name.
They just hate to give Bronson a W at all…
Would they prefer Harvey Milk or Che Guevara?
Anchorage is ruled by children and will continue to be ruled (and ruined) by children until you can be bothered to vote these people out.
Choice is yours.
How about Yon Dung Port? International sounding, and then Democrats will support the name. Arliss would.
His name is too easy to pronounce and doesn’t promote the woke agenda.
Trig. Define the woke agenda please.
The liberal agenda; That is the definition Paola.
Just waking up?
Sounds like you can’t define it either.
Wrong person to ask. Not sure if it has any definitions or boundaries, only bizarre ideas that come out from people who are obviously stoned and confused, without morals, cheered on by the same. How do you define insanity? Perspective.
Stop naming things after public servants, especially those who hold office for decades. Put your efforts into making government smaller and taxes lower, a lot lower.
No people names on anything use numbers or letters but no names as they are all racist and I am offended by any naming that includes people. No Martin Luther King Blvd or Don Young port.
In Don Young’s last years of service he voted with the Dems most of the time. Labels mean nothing anymore as we have found out locally, statewide and nationally…politicians may label themselves what their handlers have deemed ‘get the most votes’. The public is no longer buying that!
Absolutely not – bad enough to have an airport bearing a criminal’s name (while still alive!); no need to have a port named after a buffoon and embarrassment to Alaska,
How was Ted Stevens a criminal?
Don Young could do more for us in 3 or 4 years then this assembly can do for us in 20.
In fact, giving this assembly 20 years will actually be taking from us, not giving.
Taking from citizens & taxpayers, but “giving” to our permanent underclass is all they know how to do as they juggle our public money.
The irony is that they aren’t even giving to that underclass …. they are just keeping people homeless, downtrodden & needy while they drum up votes from Muni Unions & “do gooders”.
Why have an organized society w/ laws & regulations, when chaos serves their political power just fine.
Sad.
Forget naming it. Just call it The Port of Anchorage then nobody’s nose gets out of joint. Be practical. Should not be Political!!!
Enough of naming anything after any politicians, most have lined their pockets on the backs of the Taxpayers.
Agree. It is quite bold of Don Young to ask Dave Bronson to do this. I’d prefer to keep the name “Port of Anchorage”.
Long names are awkward and burdensome. The problem with Don Young’s name is it must include his first name which becomes too wordy. For example, the Anchorage Airport can be referred to as the Stevens Airport. Calling it the “Young Terminal” sounds like you’re saying its not old. The trend toward indigenous names is commendable; however, its not working out well because they are invariably difficult to pronounce or sound out phonetically. “Port of Anchorage” is perfect.
Port of Anchorage is a fine name. To be honest I think either Port or JBER should be moved because of the two are two important infrastructures and why they be right next to one another. Be easy to kill two birds with one missile crippling Southcentral and Alaska if they day came. I get it though these Democrats today they just don’t like Don Young because of his R behind his name despite all the help he gave to Alaska Democrats.
If you want JBER or the Port moved, then YOU pay for it out of your own personal funds. Quit signing me up to pay for your inadequately thought out ideas.
Actually at least the tank farm should be moved to point mac. The thought of sitting within 1 mile of 30 million gallons of gas let alone diesel should make for a thought anyway. The blast from that would take downtown anchorage off its foundation and possibly do huge damage to elmandorf facilities. Course if you smart people want to store dynamite downtown go right ahead. It’s never an emergency until it’s an emergency.
Any idea how many billions of dollars that would take?
Jen, learn the history of the Anchorage Port and of the military bases before you start suggesting things.
All politicians who are responsible for destroying the dollar – Don’s right up there near the top – need to be remembered as traitors, not honored.
While I am not a supporter of the Anchorage Port for several reasons, I have a more difficult time with naming it the “Don Young Port of Anchorage”.
Read my March 16, 2021 op-ed on Don Young, “Time for Done Young to Retire”.
He was Alaska’s sole congressman for almost 50 years. He brought nothing but colonialism to our state. I repeat he not once moved the needle to freedom and productivity.
While in the US House of Representatives, he singularly kept our state from achieving its true place as one of the stellar natural resource development states in the nation. Perhaps this has always been the intent of D.C., since statehood, but Young did it with unapologetic brass balls determination.
He was responsible for the current idiocy we deal with every time we fly. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was a result of Don Young’s chairmanship of the House Transportation Committee; that became law as part of the Aviation and Transportation Security Act on Nov. 19, 2001. Don Young voted for it.
But to this point and incredibly ironic is the fact that the Anchorage Assembly would even consider his name. Young was one of the biggest fans of the Jones Act in Alaska and Congress. Regardless of the immense economic and psychological damage that the Jones Act perpetrated on Alaska and during Covid, Young remained a staunch supporter of the Jones Act.
Colin Grabow, Cato Institute, wrote on August 5, 2018,
“Among the Alaskan congressional delegation, Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Rep. Don Young are firmly in the pro‐Jones Act camp while Sen. Dan Sullivan has been quiet. Alaska presents a particularly galling example, as in 1984 the state’s voters overwhelmingly passed a ballot initiative demanding that the state’s governor use his best efforts to persuade Congress to repeal the Jones Act — a requirement currently written into state law.”
The need for our political representatives to study history and avoid repeating it is great in Alaska.
“while Sen. Dan Sullivan has been quiet” Been quiet a long time that guy.
Democrats are THE biggest back-patters. Giving each other awards and naming buildings after themselves. Expect a Democrat’s name for the Port.
Public infrastructure should not be named after people (especially politicians) or companies; if anything they should all be named after the TAXPAYERS because that’s who paid for them.
Before bestowing a family name in a political way I hope the family has an opportunity to say “No, thanks” as part of the process due if they wish. .
The assembly would approve it expeditiously if it was named after Karl Marx or V. Lennin.
They intentionally screwed up the public notice. The clerk owns it.
Leave it named as it is! Across the inlet on the Pt McKenzie side is the W. Don Young Rd – isn’t this enough already? !!!
Don Young asked Bronson to name the port after him? Is that really true? I find that hard to believe.
An obscure Aleutian volcano that Young had never seen was renamed Mt. Young. So, we’re good with naming stuff after Don.
Best would be to change the name back to Port of Anchorage. Port of Alaska is disingenuous and arrogant. It’s like changing the name of Anchorage to Alaska. The City of Alaska, Alaska. Stupid. Thanks Berkowitz.
But I’m sure the Assembly’s woke wacko friends can come up with a name that is even more stupid.
Just call it what it is – the Port of Anchorage. No government or public thing should be named after any person and especially not a career politician…from either party. Why turn naming something into a political controversy? It’s not as if Don Young cares…
True, he wouldn’t care. He is in Glory. I hope to see him again working for Christ during when Christ’s 1000 years reign without the devil’s deceit. No matter what others say I admired him and his attentive wife When I sit next to him at Mountain City talking with him while he waited for the car. I could tell he knew Christ and was sensitive to the things God. I was assured by his understanding the trauma behind Abortion and he knew right from wrong regarding abortion despite things that came out of the time he served about the leaders he worked around and the way they went about to get things done. Cause a lot of leaders don’t think of anything about Abortion and they take it so lightly. I could see Abortion weighed heavily on him.
Don Young arrogantly displayed his lack of caring for Ak during his final 10 yrs in office when he should have laid the groundwork for a conservative successor but instead it was all about him. Naming publicly funded projects like coastal trails, airports and ports after politicians should be strictly prohibited.
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