Another Mayoral Cannadate? Charlo Green's Victim Youtube

Nat Herz tweeted a link to a video of Charlo Greene proclaiming that the War on Drugs is really a War on You and Me.

"As I stared down the barrel of a police officer's gun, they made it very clear that the war they're waging is one for power over us. .  .   Anonymous reports were all the Anchorage police department needed to knock down my front door, put a gun in my face and rob me and the eight medical marijuana cardholders on-site of our cannabis, computers, and cards, a month after we legalized recreational marijuana."

Screenshot from Youtube video

Here's how the ADN portrayed the March 20 event:

Anchorage police served a search warrant on the Alaska Cannabis Club's downtown clubhouse on Friday afternoon, taking boxes of evidence from the residence as club owner Charlo Greene watched.
Anchorage Police Department spokesperson Jennifer Castro told reporters on scene later Friday afternoon that police had received reports of illegal marijuana sales occurring at the clubhouse. No charges had been filed Friday, Castro said.
Police arrived about 1 p.m., Greene said. Greene, whose legal name is Charlene Egbe, is a former television news reporter who achieved national notoriety in September when she quit on-air after announcing she was the owner of the club. . .


. . . Two marked police cars were outside the residence on Friday afternoon, with a few more arriving as the search wore on. Greene said about seven officers were boxing up marijuana plants, computers, papers and other materials in the clubhouse. Greene said she was free to go but chose to wait while police took evidence from the home.
An officer on scene confirmed no arrests were being made Friday afternoon.
At 3:10 p.m., police began to load evidence in paper bags and cardboard boxes into a white van from the back door of the clubhouse. At about 3:15 p.m., a red pickup and black Jeep were towed away from the house.

Nothing about a broken down door or a gun in the face.  You'd think she would have told them when she described the other things that happened.  (I've emailed the reporter Laurel Andrews to see if she just left it out. I'll update when I hear back.)

All I know about Charlo Greene is what I've read in the newspapers - as a news anchor  she pushed for legalizing marijuana while she was (unknown to the public) also the owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club.  She got fired for that.  And she's, apparently, not waiting for the legislature to enact the legislation regulating marijuana as the initiative called for it to do.

I'm not unsympathetic to victims of overzealous or biased police, though it helps someone's cause if the police were actually abusive and the person arrested was innocent.  I can't help but be a little skeptical of her victimhood here.  Sounds like she's taking advantage of the 'police treat blacks differently' meme.  Not that she mentions race and not that I don't believe that blacks do get stopped by police more often and treated worse by police than do whites.  Rather than saying it's race related, it could be (and that's all she's claiming) marijuana related.  Is it possible it's law related too? 

"The officer had his hand on the trigger as I, a law-abiding citizen, stared down the receiving end of an assault rife that my tax dollars paid for.  And in that moment I thought, I've done everything right."

Pretty dramatic.  Why wasn't this in the March 20 story?  And the thing about paying taxes.    Clearly, criminals don't get a pass because they paid their property taxes.  I think the point she's making is that she's not a criminal.  

Perhaps this is a cross-cultural issue:

"In spite of growing up in poverty, I became the first of my six brothers and sisters to earn a college degree.  I chose positive friends, I haven't had so much as a speeding ticket in the last three years.  I've dedicated my life to healing our community, with cannabis."

People growing up in poverty grow up in a different culture from people growing up in the middle class.  At the political corruption trials, I mused in a post about how Bill Allen related his life story in a family of itinerant farm workers, moving from place to place, missing lots of school and dropping out at age 15 to become a welder.  It was clear to me that he got little or no help from government and probably had no education about the rule of law.  He seemed to me to be a man who truly worked his way up from poverty through smarts and hard work.  For him, it seemed,  the law was yet one more obstacle, that a businessman had to overcome.  I don't agree or condone that stand, but I can understand it.

Is Charlo the same?  She did what she was supposed to do - went to school, got positive friends, stopped breaking the law.  The American Dream the Republicans so cherish.  Though another story about her dispute with the other tenant in the Cannabis Club building, suggests she's sugar coating a bit.  And if she graduated from college, she had a lot more opportunity to benefit from and learn about government and the rule of law than Bill Allen.  And since she seems to treat truth lightly, I can't help but want more evidence before I completely buy her portrayal of her childhood. 

But surely we shouldn't hold her to higher standards than we do other mayoral candidates, such as Dan Coffey who even confesses his and asks for absolution on his website.  This was even too much today for the last surviving dinosaur from the Anchorage Times, Paul Jenkins. 

Now we have two women candidates in the race.  But we have so much better potential women candidates.

Demboski Would Support Tribes, Veto Gay Rights, Darden Wired To God

A fairly new community group - We Are Anchorage - organized, as I understand it, by Ma'o Tosi, held a mayoral forum at UAA's Wendy Williamson Auditorium Thursday night.  It was one of the more interesting political forums I've gone to.  Except for some technical glitches at the beginning with the sound, it went very smoothly.

[We Are Anchorage said they'd have the transcripts up Friday (today) on their website.  As someone who has done transcripts for this blog, I think that Friday is probably optimistic.  But when they're up, I'll check to make sure I'm accurate in what I say below.]

The focus was on violence in Anchorage and how the candidates would address it.

The basic answer from everyone was:  More Police.  Dan Coffey always mentioned that, of course, it's dependent on funding.  Lance Ahern said there was lots of money that could be found in the Muni budget.  Someone else (I think it was Halcro) said that since there was no snow plowing this year, there's plenty of money in that budget.  Demboski bet everyone a piece of pizza that the Muni will have a surplus this year. (If I thought I would lose a bet, I might bet the whole audience a piece of pizza, but I don't know what I'd do with all that pizza if I won.)

There was a set of questions that had been given to all the candidates in advance - Dan Coffey had typed up answers that he left for people in the lobby.  But he only made 40 copies and I guestimate there were about 140 in the audience.  The questions were fairly detailed about strategies to fight violence in general, about violence against Alaska Native women, about the green dot program, the link between staffing levels and crime, etc. Questions were drawn randomly.  Most of the questions were drawn and asked of three or four different candidates.  A few questions were gathered from the audience as they entered the auditorium.  At the end, audience members asked questions.   Some of the candidates were well prepared with specifics and others spoke more in generalities.  Given they had the questions in advance, the latter group just didn't do their homework.

There was a lot of basic agreement on things like the need for more police.  Much of the difference was in style and emphasis.  So I'd like to focus on what stood out for me. 

Notable remarks

Amy Demboski.  Of the candidates that the media seems to peg as the contenders, Demboski was the one who stood out as the most different from the pack.  (It would have been nice to have seen more women on the stage.)

Tribes. The talk about tribes, especially coming from the candidate who bills herself as "the conservative choice" (March 9 video) was a surprise.  Conservatives have been vigorously fighting the concept of tribes in Alaska.   In answer to a question about domestic violence, Alaska Native women, and involving Alaska Natives in solutions, Demboski said she loved this questions, that she was already talking to Tribal Elders, that we should engage tribes because they have access to federal funding and medical care. We can't talk just about individuals, why not talk about tribes?   It wasn't clear.  Is she recognizing the importance of tribes to Alaskan Natives?  Or is it a way to tap into federal funds?  I'm not sure.  It was unexpected.

Liz Medicine Crow, Moderator

Personal Responsibility.  While she talked about dealing with tribes over individuals, she also seemed divided between "people have to take responsibility for themselves" when discussing homeless people and also acknowledging we have a responsibility to help.  I suspect 'individual responsibility' is one of her core values.  It's one that psychologist Jonathan Haidt says is important to conservatives.  (It's in the link - go down to where it says,  "In the Social Science Space interview.")  They don't want to coddle leeches and mooches.  I suspect that Demboski is trying to make a distinction between those who are just being irresponsible and those who are truly needy through no fault of their own.  What she doesn't seem to see is how the system works for some people and doesn't work for others.  There's a combination of genetic predispositions and family and social nurturing that prepare people to cope or to fail.  While I would agree that some people seem to repeatedly make stupid decisions, I tend to believe that if we were omniscient, we would understand that these were not so much irresponsible decisions (which they are on one level) but also decisions programmed by social, political, and economic systems.  It would be interesting to hear Demboski's explanation of how to determine who are just irresponsible and who are deserving of help.

Diversity.   The question was about how to make the Anchorage Police Department look like the diverse population of Anchorage.  Other candidates talked about recruiting candidates from the different ethnic groups of Anchorage.  Demboski said, that diversity, to her, doesn't mean race or religion or economic status.  The police department is already diverse, they're her neighbors (she lives in Chugiak.)  That sounds like someone who says I don't see race, I'm colorblind.  The mixed audience wasn't buying it.  (I'd note, of course, that we're really talking about skin color.  Race used to refer to Italians, Irish, Jews, etc.)

Discrimination Against Gays.  When asked by an audience member about reports that she would veto a gay rights ordinance if mayor, Demboski first pointed out that her campaign didn't put out that ad.  But she did, then, say she would veto such an ordinance.  She wasn't discriminating against gays, she suggested, but rather preventing religious discrimination.  People only had a minute (and later only 30 seconds to answer.)  My interpretation of that is that she's identifying with people whose religions say that homosexuality is sinful and who would not want, as a merchant, to have to do things that advanced the idea that homosexuality was okay.  I understand a person who embraces the bible literally including those sections fundamentalists point to as proof that homosexuality is a sin, feeling conflicted when they are asked to photograph or cater a gay wedding.  I understand their claims that they feel it would endorse something they disagree with.  And I certainly wouldn't want someone who thought I was an abomination to take the pictures or make the food for my wedding.  But if you live in a small community where there is only one photography store or one good caterer or bakery, being denied service because of how you were born (and I know others will say it's a choice) is against the basic principles of equal rights that we celebrate with "All men are created equal."  (And, of course, there is irony in that time has made the word 'men' there anachronistic.)  And when it comes to landlords or employers having the right to discriminate against gays - even when their presence is not about advancing homosexuality - is even worse.
Dustin Darden added the concern about pastors having their freedom of speech abridged if they spoke out against gays.  I don't know of any gay rights ordinance that says people in non-public settings can't offer the opinion that homosexuality is wrong. 
I can understand that reasoning, but I can't agree with it.  Religion has been used to justify drowning so called witches, and slavery as well.  I had a number of issues with Demboski as a potential mayor, and this issue is reason enough for me to consider Demboski unacceptable as a mayor.
What wasn't addressed in this discussion was the relationship between religious condemnation of gays and the disproportionate amount of violence gays are subjected to and how violence against

Don Megga and Timer

gays would be dealt with. 

Phil Stoddard.  Phil's solution to everything was the mantra: "Education is the key and jobs are the answer."  He promised to dramatically increase manufacturing in Anchorage by making this lowest priced electrical grid in the US.  Every time he had a question, he got his mantra into the answer. 


Dustin Darden paused before each answer, eyes looking up as though he were waiting to channel God, and he did say several times that God was the answer.  His most passionate moment was when he vowed to shut down Planned Parenthood.  He didn't actually name them, but he did talk about ending abortion and identified their corner on Lake Otis Parkway.

At the end of the randomly selected question, each candidate was asked what their most important tool for ending violence was.

• Darden:  Pray
• Stoddard:  Jobs
• Berkowitz:  Fundamentals and basics - prevention, policing, prosecution - alone won't eliminate violence.  We all have to do it together - We Are Anchorage.
• Huit:   Spiritual solutions - "though not to where Dustin [Darden] is" - we have leadership problems
• Ahern:  Use new technologies - smart phones - 911 doesn't take advantage of people's ability to text and send photos of the person bothering them.
• Coffey:  Agrees with Ethan on fundamentals, but then need someone who can do it effectively and then he suggested he could.
• Bauer:  Incorporate what everyone else said plus the inability of people to deal with others in a civil manner - thus education
• Halcro:  Become Anchorage again, come together as a community
• Demboski:  Wish I had a simple answer.  Communication - start with people talking to each other.

I walked away thinking there were four candidates who spoke knowledgeably about the issues and with recognition that there were other valid points of view besides their own - Dan Coffey, Ethan Berkowitz, Andrew Halcro, and Lance Ahern.  Ahern is the least well known of the four and his knowledge of Anchorage comes from a shorter span of experience.  He's head of IT at the Municipality now and has law enforcement experience.  In his area he seems well informed and is well spoken.  (I'm sure there are people at the Muni who dispute this and I don't know for sure.  He seemed genuinely open and I'm inclined to believe him, but always "trust, but verify."

One unexpected issue raised by the audience was the future of Uber in Anchorage.  Halcro was quick to say that he would be pushing for innovative firms like Uber much more than the man - Dan Coffey - who had been the attorney for the taxi industry.  Coffey responded that he was open to Uber, but was concerned with guaranteeing public safety.  Halcro also countered Demboski's promise to veto a gay rights ordinance by touting his own bringing the head of the national gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, the first 'regular' chamber to invite the head of the gay Chamber of Commerce to speak to them.  Berkowitz gave several spirited responses - in one case, after Paul Bauer talked about reawakening a moribund task force to study homelessness, Berkowitz held up a study on policing in Anchorage and said, there have been enough studies, it's time to implement them.  If I were to go by audience applause, Berkowitz probably was the winner, though Halcro got his share of applause too.  (There actually wasn't that much applause, though Darden's brother applauded loudly each time Dustin spoke.)

There was a positive vibe in the room.  Candidates treated each other, for the most part, with respect and the audience listened carefully.  The whole event was well organized and I got a good sense of the candidates. The APOC lists several other mayoral candidates who weren't there:

• Samuel Joseph Speziale III
• Yeilyadi Olson
• Jacob Kern
• Christopher Steven Jamison
• Jonathan Harrison  (is listed for both mayor and school board)

Halcro's Key Issues Seem Pretty Close to Coffey's

I'm only a week late on this, but the mayoral election isn't until the beginning of April, so we're ok for
now.  But if I'm going to get some video of some of the major names among the other candidates (I was told there are 12 in all), I'm going to have speed things up.

Overview here, and in depth transcript (and soon the video) below

Halcro's three main reasons for running for mayor were pretty close to what Dan Coffey said were his reasons a couple of weeks ago (see that interview here). There does seem to be a difference in how they might approach these though.  Coffey comes from a career as an attorney who's represented developers and the alcohol businesses and he served on the Assembly.  Halcro has been involved with his family business (Avis)  and been in the state legislature and has run for governor. Halcro is smart and I think he sees things more boardly than most.  He's certainly very sure of himself.  I think choosing the colors yellow and black for his campaign sign makes that point. 

I'd also note a real contrast in the two meet and greet evenings.  Halcro's was in a huge warehouse like room that was industrial cold, in the back of the TriGrill on 76th off of Old Seward.  While he probably had as many people at his event as Coffey did at Don Jose's (near the very busy intersection of Lake Otis and Northern Lights), the room was ten or twelve times the size as the cozy restaurant setting at Don Jose's and it looked like there was nobody there.


1.  Deal with the budget deficit.  (Actually this was a secondary issue for Coffey, but the first one that Halcro raised.)  He said he's been through this before in the legislature when oil fell to $10 a barrel.  He knows the conversations and the exercise, so he knows how to respond.

2.  Inebriates and homeless people.  And like Coffey he pushed the idea of Housing First (getting housing for this group).  Like for Coffey, this was a biggie for Halcro.  He said inebriate (or inebriation)  and homeless five times each.    Both candidates seemed to be interested in this issue because of the nuisance factor, though Coffey at least said we need to have compassion for these people because addiction is a disease and he mentioned that many of these folks were mentally ill, Halcro never raised that point.

3.  Developing Fairview.  Actually Halcro was broader on this issue.  He identified three areas near downtown that are undervalued and underdeveloped - east downtown, Fairview, and Mt. View.  He foresees cool neighborhoods for millenials who want to be near the restaurants, bars, and downtown in general.  He also saw this as a way for Anchorage to keep growing.  When I asked him if this development would help people living there or simply be gentrification forcing the current residents out, he strongly said it wouldn't be gentrification.  He wants, he said, everyone living there now to be able to stay if they want to.  This development was also one of the reasons he wants to get the inebriates and homeless out.   But if the point is to make this an area that developers want to go in, exactly what will they do there if they don't buy lower priced properties, tear them down, and put in more upscale property?  And as the price goes up, so will property taxes.  People who sell because the offers seem attractive, won't have any place else to move that they can afford.  He may not want people to move out, but I don't see how that won't happen.  And he wants the city to give developers incentives to do this.  (OK, I'm juxtaposing his words and my words, but he does want the city to give developers incentives to develop there - by making it safer (getting rid of inebriates and homeless) and with tax incentives.)

He also mentioned strengthening public education.  I'd note Halcro was the only member of the State House Sustainable Education Task Force who did not vote to approve their report which did appear to be the aim of key members from the beginning:  push for public money to go to private schools. 

A second major initiative of his presidency of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce he discussed was his diversity initiatives.  

I asked him about the gentrification potential in Fairview - I didn't get a chance to ask Coffey - which I've addressed above and I asked about the extension of Bragaw through the university lands, despite overwhelming community council opposition, and despite the fact we have a budget problem and this would be an easy $20 million to recover since it hasn't been spent yet.  He acknowledged that he doesn't know this issue well, but his response also shows he doesn't know the university neighborhood well either.  At one point he said, " UMed district really hasn’t changed since I was a kid."  That's completely wrong.  In the last five to ten years there are four new roads that connect 36th and Tudor between Lake Otis and the new sports center.  And since Halcro was a kid, Providence and Lake Otis have become four lane roads, and DOT made a molehill out of mountain to punch 40th through from Lake Otis east to just past Dale Street.  And Bragaw (now Elmore) became four lane, and was pushed through to Abbot and MLK Blvd was added south of Tudor.  He talked about the growing University, but apparently he forgot he mentioned the State's budget problems at the beginning and the University's budget cuts being submitted right now.  Options for getting to the University include all people on campus with a university id card get free People Mover passes.  There's a campus shuttle bus that even takes people to the University Center where the University has expanded.   But I'm getting off the interview now to my own pet issue.  And Halcro acknowledged he hadn't studied this.  But he did say there hadn't been improvements in roads to the campus since he was a kid and that's flat out wrong.  And he implied, when he said the local folks couldn't be against progress, that progress means roads.  In education progress means more and more opportunities to attend class without driving there - like through online classes and audio conferencing and even Skype.

[As I prepare to post this, I realize that I'm comparing Coffey and Halcro here - which makes sense because they both emphasized the same issues.  But I'm thinking ahead of posts on other mayoral candidates and if I continue to do it this way, the posts are going to get longer and longer.  So I'll probably not do this in the future posts on individual candidates.  But I can link to here and eventually have some posts on all the candidates.]

So, here's the transcript I wrote up.  It's pretty close, and I think it captures the meaning if not the literal words.   I'm not sure you can call it an interview.  I did get a couple of questions in.  Andrew talks so fast, that even in 50% audio speed I had trouble keeping up with him to write these notes. [Video's up.]   It's taking its time to upload, so I'll post this tonight and tomorrow, the video should be ready to embed.  I'll put it here:  


Transcript of video:

Steve:  Andrew, you’ve got a good life, why would you want to run for mayor?

Andrew: Well,  That’s exactly why I want to run for mayor. There are three reasons.  One, I think the economy is going to be uncertain in the next few years  with the state in a $3 billion budget deficit and You need somebody in the mayor’s office who understands  how to contain the cost of government, not to mention I was in Juneau, I served in the legislature 15 years ago when they were going through the same thing. Oil was $!0 a barrel and we had a $1billion budget deficit. In fact we spent a lot of time looking at solutions.  We also spent a lot of time talking about where to cut the budget.  So as the next mayor, I know exactly what those conversations are and therefore I know how to plan  and how to contain costs. 

The second thing is,  I really want to make the community healthier and safer, my last couple of years as president of the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce, we’ve really had an issue with downtown public safety, certainly the crime rate, the chronic inebriate problem, the homeless problem

We have to take the long view of these problems.  From the management standpoint we like to nibble around the edges  or we like to adopt what we think are going to be these silver bullet programs.  We have to realize we’ve got to have a comprehensive approach.  With public safety you have to put more officers on the street,

We’re 50 officers short  …..  They’ve decimated the   gang  task force, they’ve decimated the sexual assault task force because they want more officers in patrol cars.  And that has really hurt our ability to go out and be proactive.  Addressing the gang issue and some of these criminal issues that are now percolating to the top

The communities does need to get healthier the chronic inebriate problem, the homeless problem    needs to finally be addressed.  We need to look at expanding things like the housing first model that works, it really works.  Not only does it get people off the street, it makes them safer, but it also reduces public safety calls to that area.  Police will tell you that it’s been a success.

And the third thing is really to just continue to grow the economy and  manage the cost of government.    Growing the economy in the sense where we get where we get in and doing that    should have been done a long time ago.  I think some of the greatest areas of our town are the most underdeveloped and undervalued.  

I’d like to see huge redevelopment downtown and East Anchorage.  I’d like to see us go into Fairview and clean up the area.  And provide a just really cool part of town for people to live in.  The demographics are changing.  We have 82,000 millennials that live and work in this city and they have different needs than I do or you do. It’s a different generation.  They want to live downtown, near to bars and restaurants.   They want easy access to  downtown.      In order to attract that kind of investment, you have to address the public safety concerns and you have to address the chronic inebriation and homelessness problems. Because those Developers aren’t going down there to redevelop unless those areas are ripe for development.

So really those things are why I’m running.

My last two years at the Anchorage chamber, we’ve done some groundbreaking work,  Our education initiatives to strengthen public schools.  I’m chair of the 90% by 2020.  I have been for two years which seeks to strengthen public school outcomes by promoting 90% graduation and 90% attendance by 2020 

I’ve also been very active in the community with diversity,  One Anchorage One Economy has brought in all types of diverse groups.  Sitting down and talking about how the business community how we can integrate them into the business community.  Talking about how work all one Anchorage, we all live in the same economy and go to the same schools and have all aligned concerns and the same goals.  We all want a successful and happy and healthy city.  And that’s really why I want to be mayor.

I think, I've lived here for 50 years in the community.  Its been stagnant in some places I think we need to move forward on.  There are some intractable problems that we haven’t addressed that we really need to address.  But by and large, this city has been amazing to me and amazing to the people I love,  and I just want to make it stronger for future generations.


Steve:  You talked about Fairview, and when I talked to Dan Coffey, he also talked about redevelopment of Fairview.  My concern is whether development the people who live there now and get their neighborhood cleaned up and they get to stay there making their lives better, or are we talking about gentrification, and we get rid of the poorer people so the wealthier an move in?

Andrew:  No, in my view, redeveloping Fairview is keeping people in their homes who want to stay there.  Be more aggressive on the chronic inebriation and homeless problems.  Here’s an example,  years ago they went into Fairview and they created these neat little parks and put up all kinds of accessaries, then within a year or two they had to take them out because they became gathering places for crime and inebriates and the homeless.  I want to see a time when people who live in Fairview today and tomorrow have little pocket parks, I want to see when it’s safe to walk to the store at 11 at night.  I want to finally look at 13th and Gamble and say how do we clean this up.  This has been a problem since I was 16 years old.  It’s not about gentrification, it’s about cleaning up the neighborhood.  I want people to stay there.  I don’t want anybody to move out of their neighborhoods.  I want to use the city’s leverage with tax incentives   to tax deferral credits to get in and make the area safer, make it more of a great little community.  I mean, they really have a good community council, the Fairview community council the Fairview business association.  They’ve done an amazing job and what they need is a little more help from City Hall  They have overlays, they have development plans, and they need   leadership from city hall, because when I look at this city, there are three areas - there’s east downtown, there’s Fairview and Mountain view.  They have the greatest promise, because they are three of the oldest areas of town that are really ripe for people who want to live in cool little neighborhoods.

Steve:  Let me ask another question.  There’s $20 million sitting out there to build a road through the university campus.  All the community councils around there have protested and don’t want the road. Where do you stand on this?

Andrew:  I haven’t really studied this project.  But I will tell you the area is growing and we need to have better access in and out.  Whether that means adopting that road plan I can’t say.  I do know  is you have a growing University you’ve got a hospital that’s growing fast, if there are ways we can improve access without cutting the road through the CC areas, we should do that.  But there’s no question that area needs better transportation access.  The road system in the UMed district really hasn’t changed since I was a kid.  I access from Northern Lights to 36th to Providence Dr.  None of the roads in that area have matured.  Maybe instead of doing the road through the university, maybe we should look at approach roads that get people into the university district.  As a former community council president, I’m very sensitive to the wishes of community councils, they work hard, they get their people out every month, they have the best interests of their community at heart.  We went through the same things at Sand Lake when they wanted to build homes in a gravel pit.  So I understand the frustration.  It does require some collaboration.  You can’t just show up and say we’re going to build a road in that area.  But you also can’t just say we’re not going to have progress, because that area is going to continue to grow and it’s continue to be served by underdeveloped roads. 

Steve:  Any other critical issues you want to talk about?

Andrew:  No, thanks. 

Dan Coffey Says Housing, Public Inebriates, And Fiscal Problems Are His Top Priority

I got a flier and a robo-call inviting me to Don Jose's for a Dan Coffey for Mayor meet and greet.  Since that's reasonably close and walkable, and since I have never really had a chance to talk with Coffey, and since I'm a blogger, I figured I should go.









I got to talk to Dan with the camera running and so I want to share our conversation.  I've done a rough transcript of the video so you know what's on each section.

Quick Summary

Key Issues: (he told me and then repeated to the gathering)  Housing and public inebriates. And the fiscal problems that have arisen recently. Others he mentioned to the group:  Labor costs, developing Fairview, and fixing Title 21.

The video (with rough notes below) [The video is taking forever to upload to Youtube so I can embed it here.  I'm going to post this now and add the video when I get up in the morning.]




The Main Issues 00:00 - 2:25
What Do I Know?  You’ve had a successful career as an attorney so I presume that you’re comfortably well off. So why would you want to be mayor?
Coffey:  I’ve been here a long time, I know the challenges we face.  Things like housing,
Housing,  chronic public inebriates - we’ve talked about it a long time. I have a lot of . . .
I don’t want to say solutions. That’s the wrong word. I have ways that can be ameliorated. And we can be humane and we can save money.
Housing First works - I’ve spent about two years looking into this. Housing first saves substantial amounts also humane.
None of these folks started out at age ten saying “I’m going to be a street drunk.”
Love your neighbor as yourself. It’s just necessary because the impact they have on the community is devastating. I don’t condone their behavior and I don’t condone their action, but I sure as heck know we need to take steps to deal with it. Housing first seems to be the best possible alternative, but other things are involved. I know about these things because I made a study. I’m qualified, capable, and ready to take that action.
Then we need to build housing, and I don’t say affordable because I don’t mean subsidized. I say workforce housing. What is workforce housing? It’s for people who work for a living. They don’t get government help, but they’re capable of paying reasonable rent and housing themselves and family and so on. OK, we have to build more and more of that. I’ve spent a long time in the business of development of housing, commercial property, and subdivisions as an attorney. So I have a depth of knowledge. Those are the real qualifications and they happen to be the real challenges.
What Do I Know? : So those are the two big issues?
Dan Coffey: And the fiscal situation. What has come on since I started this in October of 13 is the fiscal situation. I’ve run businesses. I’m still in business. I run the Express Lube with my partner Terry. I used to on Dollar Rent A Car. And we own the Anchorage Aces. I’ve got lots and lots of business experience. That gives me business and managerial experience. The city is a billion dollar enterprise, so you want somebody who has at least some concept of what we do and how we do it in the mayor’s office. So there you go.


Respect Your Workforce And Coffey's Business Experience  2:25-3:05
What Do I Know? : But government is different from business. . .
Dan Coffey: Of course it is. But management of people is not.
What Do I Know? : No.
Dan Coffey: You respect your workforce. You train your workforce. You rely on your workforce. You run a cooperative enterprise that’s meant, in our case, provide services. In the city that’s 85% of what we do, provide services of all sorts.

Snow Plowing, Out of the Office Listening, Community Councils  3:30 - 7:05
Then I Complained about snow plowing today. I moved the car when I heard the plow, but he’d already done my side of the street and when he came back on the other side and saw my car in the driveway, he didn’t pull over and remove the big berm behind where my car had been.   Coffey at first didn’t have much sympathy for me. The guys in the plows are rushing to get all the neighborhoods.That happens to us all. Do you really think that’s a mayor’s job? (Introduces his wife.)

I counter that this happens all the time. People have to park on the street in my neighborhood and we never know when the plows are coming so we can move our cars. We have technology now to notify people Dan: Now you’re talking about making it work better and that is the Mayor’s job. We’ve got to do a better job of providing the services because we’re going to have less money to provide the services. Then I suggested notifying people better - using robo calls say - when plows are coming. Coffey liked that idea and then goes on to say that there are lots of ideas out there and that he’s not going to spend his time on the 8th floor. He’s going to be out there talking to folks and getting good ideas. He can’t go to every community council meeting, but he can stop in every three months or so and listen.


Road Through The University - $20 million could be saved  7:05- 9:45
So I brought up an issue for the community councils in the area - they all strongly oppose the road through the university land. He countered but there were others who like the idea - Providence, UAA, and APU. I talked about how Central Park was in the news lately and I saw that land around Goose Lake as Anchorage’s Central Park in the future. He said, well APU is going to develop all that. Well, just on the east and north - he rightly corrected me - on the south. Then he asked what I thought about the bridge over Seward Highway at 36th. We agreed that probably didn’t need to be built and he had to run to someone else. And my camera battery light was blinking hard that it was just about out of juice. When he came back to me he said his job is to work for his client - the people of Anchorage. I said that was easier if you only have one client instead of a whole city of clients with different ideas. That’s the job of the mayor he said - to listen to people and then make a decision.

Later, he talked to the crowd and repeated some of what he said to me almost word for word. So those will be some of his talking points I’m sure.
Dealing with the public inebriate issue and more housing. The inebriates are a big nuisance, but they are ill and many are mentally ill.
He talked about the unions. Dan Sullivan inherited a problem from Begich who gave the unions too good of a deal. Not the union’s fault - their job is to look after their members. But we can’t afford those contracts.
Develop Fairview - once we get the inebriate problem taken care of. Does that mean gentrification and moving out the present residents and building more expensive properties close to downtown? He didn’t talk about it like that.
He did say that they built Karluk Manor (the residence for homeless inebriates) too close to Fairview to they go back to their old friends.
Fixing Title 21 was another issue he raised. Coffey had been hired by Dan Sullivan to review Title 21 and make recommendations. There was a big battle over that. After years of developing Title 21 with broad public involvement, the developers got together with Sullivan and then Coffey to rewrite it more to their liking. At least that was how I saw things. So I asked what specifically he had in mind in changes to Title 21. That was one of the first things he had in mind with changing Title 21.
The only one he mentioned was the R4 - highest density areas, up to 30 units per acre - had a height limit of 3 stories. I’m thinking of a four plea in my neighborhood that is on 1/4 acre and is two stories. four like that, with three stories could have 24 units. And if they were designed better without the space between the lots, they ought to be able to get 30 units of mixed sized apartments on an acre.




My impressions? I don’t think I’ve ever had a conversation with him before. When I watched him present his Title 21 recommendations he seemed to be an attorney presenting his case and swatting down any opposition. That’s what an attorney is supposed to do. But he was paid by the city - by all of us - to make those recommendations and the sense that I got was that he was reflecting the construction industry and not the rest of the folks in Anchorage. Tonight he was charming and he looked me in the eye. Was he really interested in what I had to say or was I just a fish nibbling at his election hook? I have no idea. He said he’s worked as an attorney for construction of residences, commercial property, and apartments. He may well believe that construction is both good for Anchorage and for his own pocketbook. Win-win.  And to a certain extent it is. But it’s not everything. What’s the interest in Fairview? To help the people already there to have a safer neighborhood?   Or are developers saying, “There’s lots of cheap real estate near downtown where we could buy up existing homes, tear them down, and rebuild it as a much more upscale neighborhood?”

While he talks about respecting his employees, he's set on taking on the labor unions.  The US did well in the 50s and 60's when taxes and union membership were highest.  But now the wages of executives have gone way, way up.  In part, they do this by cutting benefits, making jobs less secure, and holding down wages.  That results in a lower standard of living for today's workers than for their parents.  And a huge income disparity between the middle class and the rich.  And it increases the power of the relatively few rich over the rest of us.  A robust middle class keeps the economy humming.  Are there issues with some labor contracts?  Sure.  Letting some police and other workers  double their salary through overtime is a problem.  Especially when it greatly increases their retirement.  But that's a supervision problem, not a union problem.

I’m glad he’s talking about the illness of alcoholism and the mental health problems of the street people. But from what he said tonight, if they weren’t a nuisance to other people, if they didn’t cause problems in Fairview, where he’d like to do some development, then they wouldn’t be his top priority.

Can he get things done? Probably he can. Are they the things I’d like to see get done? That’s a bigger question. As I fly back and forth between Anchorage and LA to spend time with my mom, I look at the craziness of the building there. The density, since I left LA pushing 40 years ago, has increased dramatically and traffic is horrendous. Neighborhoods that were single family homes now have high rise condos. Areas that were wetlands and open space are masses of four and five story apartments. All the extra people driving the same old roads raises the stress level of everyone who has to drive. The Costco parking lot near my mom is a nightmare and the traffic inside the store makes our Costcos seem like vacation resorts.

Where I see green space and a chance to save $20 million (land at UAA and Goose Lake), he sees a chance to develop.  It's easy to think we don't need the in town green space because we're surrounded by the nature.  But kids need to get to parks by foot and by bike.  We shouldn't have to drive every time we want some natural space.  It's what make Anchorage so livable.

I think about Pete Zamarillo who figured out how to make lots of money building strip malls. And when the economy tanked, he continued to make strip malls, because that’s what he knew how to do. I’m afraid that what has worked in the past for Coffey - helping developers get their projects done - needs to be countered by preservation of open space, views, and making sure the population density doesn’t begin to overrun the infrastructure. He understands the parts of Title 21 that irritate builders. But does he understand why the non-builders want the builders to have restrictions on what they can do? Does he understand that we don’t want a schlocky city created by builders who cut corners to increase their profit and then they retire to Palm Springs?

[Updated 6:00 am:  A couple more thoughts on the video as I watched it again to get the times for each section.  I like, a lot, that he recognized that we don't get solutions for things like public inebriates, but rather we can ameliorate the situation.  I've heard very few politicians who have voiced that important distinction.  I'm concerned a bit that he declares himself an expert "because I studied the problem."  I think studying helps, of course, but I've studied issues for years and recognize that there is so much more I still don't know.  I'm better informed than most, but humility about one's level of mastery is the best way to keep open to the many subtleties still to be grasped.  But studying the problem at all is more than many politicians do.]

I don’t know.   He said he has five or six more of these community meet and greets scheduled. Go talk to him yourself and let me know what you think.