Mayor's Inauguration Part 2: A Few More Shots

There were a lot of folks at the inaugural the other day.  I did an earlier post of all the past mayors who were there.  Here are some other images to show who some others in attendance. 






























Andrew Halcro, who was third in the original election and then threw his support behind Berkowitz in the runoff was there to watch the new mayor sworn in.















Noah Berkowitz-Kimmel introduced the new mayor. 

Former borough mayor Jack Roderick talking later to Willie Hensley

And there were a few dogs in attendance too.  I guess they want to make sure dog parks are a priority. 

Seven Living Mayors of Anchorage Gather For Berkowitz Inauguration

Click to make bigger and much clearer

I think there are six former Anchorage mayors in this picture.  Tony Knowles on the far right in blue, Rick Mystrom, George Wuerch,  Matt Claman (behind Weurch),  Dan Sullivan in the brown jacket. And I think it's Mark Begich barely visible between Mystrom and Wuerch.  Here's another of Begich later.  





And they're watching Anchorage's oldest living mayor (well, actually mayor of the former Borough of Anchorage) Jack Roderick swearing in Anchorage's newest mayor Ethan Berkowitz.

Click to make bigger and  clearer

Of the living mayors, I didn't see Tom Fink, and the ADN says he was absent.    Fortunately, the predicted rain was also absent with the sun attending instead. 


From Wikipedia:

Mayors of Greater Anchorage Area Borough (1964–1975)

Name	Term
John Asplund	1964–1972
√John Roderick	1972–1975

Mayors of Municipality of Anchorage (1975–)

Name	Term
George M. Sullivan	1975–1981
√Tony Knowles	1981–1987
Tom Fink	1987–1994
√Rick Mystrom	1994–2000
√George Wuerch	July 1, 2000–July 1, 2003
√Mark Begich	July 1, 2003–January 3, 2009
√Matt Claman	January 3, 2009–July 1, 2009
√Daniel A. Sullivan	July 1, 2009–July 1, 2015
√Ethan Berkowitz	July 1, 2015–

Election Update #9: Mayor Elect Berkowitz 59.35% Runner Up Demboski 40.65%

Three more precincts added 1,320 votes.  There are still 2 precincts unreported.  That should be about 880 votes if they are like these last three precincts.  And there's the absentee ballots yet to count*.   I'll update this post tomorrow morning when the last two precincts come in. 

But this election is over.   I'm sure different voters had different reasons - but Demboski made a strong stand against gay rights and the voters rejected that.  I expect to see LGBT folks added to our anti-discrimination ordinance before too long.  Welcome, Anchorage, to the 20th century.  Jerry Prevo and Jim Minnery, your power over Anchorage elections is over. 


Reported at:  10:46pm

Votes cast:  61,567

Mayor Elect Ethan Berkowitz - 36,540 59.35%	Runner Up Amy Demboski - 25,027 40.65%

[*UPDATE  11:30pm:  As Anon linked to this ADN report from tonight that says many early votes have been counted and presumably are part of the total we have tonight:

"Deputy municipal clerk Amanda Moser said at least 12,200 people cast votes ahead of Tuesday, up 60 percent over the April 7 election.
Elections officials planned to count roughly 6,000 absentee ballots cast between April 22 and 28 on Tuesday night with ballots cast at regular precincts Tuesday, Moser said.
Moser said officials had received at least 3,900 more absentee ballots that will likely be counted by Friday, along with any additional absentee by-mail ballots that arrive later in the week but were postmarked by Tuesday."]

The Role Of Audio In Anchorage's Mayoral Race

First there was the audio of former assembly member Dan Coffey in the primaries.  It was a message left on assembly member Allan Tesche's answer machine.  Tesche's number was, apparently, accidentally dialed, while Coffey was talking to assembly member Starr about how buying votes from assembly members.  It had been highly publicized when Tesche discovered it on his answer machine back in 2008.  And Coffey, in a mea culpa page on this campaign website,  even linked to the transcript.  But when a TV station said they would put the audio online, Coffey's attorney threatened to sue.  Coffey, later said no, he wouldn't sue. 


And for the last week before the election a second very different kind of audio tape has been the focus of attention.  First Jerry Prevo said he'd heard about it from someone and told the nasty to his congregation.

Then Amy Demboski was asked about it on the air.  The conservative talk show host said he thought she would denounce the allegation as ridiculous.  Instead, she said she heard it and she didn't know that he (her opponent, Ethan Berkowitz) didn't mean it. 

But the station said the audio didn't exist.  They recycle them after a certain amount of time. 

The allegation?  That Ethan Berkowitz said he not only supported gay marriage, but also that a man could marry his own son. 

Once you have an allegation like that, and the tape is missing, there's no way you can totally undo the damage.  People who want to believe the worst will believe it. 

And now there's a post on Joe Miller's website with Bernadette Wilson mysteriously finding the tape and playing edited bits of what is a very hypothetical debate.  It's not clear what has been cut out, but Berkowitz is  clearly saying he's not talking about sex, but about a last resort to protect a child in areas like passing on property rights.   Here's Nat Herz' coverage of it:

"The recording showed the conversation between the two hosts started as a legal debate on the same-sex marriage issue in the appellate courts, with Berkowitz taking a libertarian position that consenting adults should be allowed to choose their own relationships. An unidentified caller took the issue further, asking Berkowitz whether a father and son 'should be allowed to marry if they’re both consenting adults.'
'If you're defining marriage as the bundle of rights and privileges that now accrue to people, yes,' Berkowitz said. In the show, he explained he was talking about financial and property rights, not incest, and on Monday, after the recording aired, said he had found himself 'frustrated' within a 'constrained hypothetical conversation.'”

I guess the Koch brothers' money that has been injected into this campaign and that paid for the commercial of their other Alaskan golden child Senator Dan Sullivan supporting Demboski, has bought a marketing team that has carefully built this up to release this tape the day before the election.

I can just say that while I've only had a few conversations with Berkowitz over the years, I know him well enough to know that he does not support incestuous marriages. As an academic, I can understand getting deep into hypotheticals,  But it's probably not something a politician should have let himself get baited into, even in a very hypothetical discussion.  We're talking about the only legislator to stand up on the floor of the house of representatives to protest Veco's interference with the legislative process on the oil tax vote. 

If I recall right, back in the early eighties, Tony Knowles stood up as an assembly member against, discrimination against gays, and was still elected mayor.  We're a long way beyond those days now.  By this time tomorrow night, we'll see whether Demboski is able to demagogue enough voters to win this election.  I'm guessing not.  The allegation may resonate with some, but for most, it will seem like what it is - a lame attempt to smear an opponent.   But if she does lose, she'll still be on the assembly, and now that she's tasted this much attention and power, she's not going to walk away from it. 

Early Voting Anchorage April 23,2015

And given early voting, a lot of folks will have already voted long before the tape was released.  When I voted almost two weeks ago, there was a longer line than when I voted early for the main election in April.

Why Don't Anchorage Mayoral Candidates Fill Out The Basic Muni Job Application Form?

Suppose you were hiring someone to run an organization with a  $400 million budget?  Would you ask applicants' PR firms to write you some copy about their clients to evaluate their merits?  Hell no.

But that's what Anchorage voters get from candidates for mayor (and assembly and school board). The Muni just gets their names and addresses. (See Municipal requirements for filing.) The financial disclosure info is fairly complex, and the information on financial interests and campaign donors is important, but doesn't give us the kind of resume information that job applicants normally submit. [Update 5/3/15 though Anon's links in the comments do give us some employer info.]  All we get is what they post on their websites and send to the League of Women Voters.  We get lots of 'interview' in debates, but little basic background data. 

We're left to the mercy of the media to find out what our candidates' careers have been like.  Neither Berkowitz's nor Demboski's websites tell us very much about their education or work experience. 

What would the voters and the media know, from day one, if the candidates had to fill out the same form most municipal job applicants have to fill out? 

MOA job application requires:

• Criminal Convictions - Have you ever been convicted of any violation of the law, other than minor traffic violations?(A DUI/DWI must be listed.) If yes, provide nature of conviction(s), date(s) and sentence(s). If more space is needed, provide an attachment.
• Education
• High School
• College and Graduate School
• Technical School
• Employment History
• Describe all work history beginning with your current or most recent job. Include volunteer and military experience, including military rank. If necessary, use additional pages or a resume as long as it provides all required information
• Failure to provide complete and accurate information regarding each job held, including providing misleading or false information, may result in disqualification for the position or termination upon discovery.
• For each job
• Job Title
• Name/Title of Supervisor with phone number
• Company Name plus city and state
• Ending pay, hours per week
• Employment dates from __ to __
• Reasons for leaving
• Duties and Responsibilities
• Then there’s some boxes for:
• List the types of computer software and programs you have used.
• List any other special qualifications, skills and/or abilities.
• List relatives employed by the Municipality of Anchorage  (Name, Relationship, Department)

Reporters and voters wouldn't have to dig to get this basic information that's fundamental in each hiring situation and necessary to compare candidates.

 Instead we get cosmetically enhanced mini-bios, like these from the League of Women Voters whose voter pamphlet is linked from the Municipal election site:

Ethan Berkowitz
Coming to Anchorage in 1990, I started my career in the state criminal appeals court and then working as a prosecutor.  My wife Mara and I are raising our two kids here.
We enjoy Anchorage’s great public schools, first-class trails, and vibrant, diverse community.
I served West Anchorage in the Alaska Legislature for ten years, championing fiscal responsibility and energy development.
As a small business owner with a background in telecommunications, public safety and energy development, I will bring unique experience to the mayor’s office to make Anchorage a safe, secure and strong community.

Amy Demboski Amy currently serves on the Anchorage Assembly representing Chugiak, Eagle River and JBER. Amy graduated from Chugiak High School and holds degrees in Justice and History, as well as an MBA with an emphasis in Finance.
Her background in business development and management give her a practical understanding on how to lead corporations, budget, and measure return on investment. She has held multiple public service positions including commissioner on the Judicial Conduct Commission, Chair of the Municipal Budget Advisory Commission, and Community Council President.
Amy will focus on essential services: public safety, infrastructure, and education, coupled with sound fiscal policy.

Berkowitz doesn't even give his educational background, but at least he is profiled on Wikipedia.  Perhaps he thought Harvard and Hastings College of Law might intimidate people.  But if you are weighing educational background, which candidate's brain do you think got the better workout?  Berkowitz with his Harvard and Hastings or Demoski with UAA and an MBA from an online college based in Alabama?  That's not to say you couldn't get a decent online degree, but if you had applicants with those credentials (and Muni voters do), which way would you lean? 

We don't know, for example, what businesses Berkowitz was involved with and what he did for them?  Nor do we know what  "multi-million dollar businesses" Demboski's website says she built and managed.   And I've only seen hints here and there online that they were healthcare related, specifically dental practices. But I don't have enough information to check with the dentists to see to what extent Demboski's work was what made them 'multi-million dollar businesses.'

The lack of such basic information on the candidates, means it's only in the last week of the election that we're learning that Demboski was in the Air Force, but we don't know for how long or the nature of her discharge.  You'd think someone representing JBER on the Assembly would have her Air Force experience listed.  Why leave it off?  If a Muni job applicant left that information off, they could be eliminated from the pool of applicants, or if hired for the job, fired when it was discovered. 

We're essentially hiring the CEO for a $400 million a year enterprise.  Surely an informed public should have more hard information to base their decisions on than we have.

I'm not sure who has to authorize it (can the Clerk's office do this without Assembly approval?), but I think at the very minimum, all applicants for Municipal office  - mayor, assembly and school board members - should have to fill out a municipal job application form with the same obligations as any other job applicant:

APPLICANT AUTHORIZATION AND CERTIFICATION - I AUTHORIZE the Municipality of Anchorage (MOA) to obtain any information relating to the facts provided in this application from schools, employers, criminal justice agencies, individuals, ETC. This information may include, but is not limited to, academic, performance, attendance, achievement, personal history, disciplinary, arrest, and conviction records. 

I DIRECT you to release such information to the MOA regardless of any agreement I may have made with you previously to the contrary.  

I RELEASE any employer, including individuals such as records custodians, from any and all liability for damages of whatever kind or nature which may at any time result on account of compliance, or any attempts to comply with this authorization.

I CERTIFY that the statements contained herein are true to the best of my knowledge. I understand that any incomplete, inaccurate, misleading, false or incorrect information may result in rejection of my application, disqualification from consideration, may render an appointment void and/or can be cause for my dismissal upon discovery.

I AGREE to submit to such tests and physical and/or mental examinations as the MOA may require.

If the Muni can require this of other employees, why not for the top job?  I realize that for regular employees the information collected is confidential and the public as a whole doesn't get the right to verify all the data.  But I know it wouldn't be too complicated to have the same people at the Muni who vet regular employees to check on candidates as well.

Then the public would have real information, not pr puff, with which to weigh the merits of each candidate.  

News Flash: If Same-Sex Marriage Is Legal, No One Will Have To Marry A Same Sex Partner

Everyone will be free to choose to marry the person they love.

I write this the day after the US Supreme Court heard Obergefall v. Hodges.  And after equal rights became an issue once again in an Anchorage mayoral race. 

From today's ADN:

“This is the kind of mayor we need for Anchorage on May 5,” wrote Prevo, using all capital letters and referencing the date of the runoff election. “Not one like Ethan Berkowitz who supports same-sex marriage and ordinances that will take away the rights of those who do not agree with him.”

Not sure what rights, other than to discriminate against people they don't like, Prevo's people will lose.  While LGBT folks lose lots of rights from Prevo's position.

Let's hope Jerry Prevo's message no longer matters to Anchorage voters next week and that he'll have to find some other issue to get his people to hand over their money to support his religious empire in Anchorage.  

Looks Like Berkowitz (36% now) Versus Demboski (24% now) In Runoff 96% of Precincts Reporting

Here's the 10:49 report - 97% of precincts reporting.  Miserable 24% turnout at this point. 

MAYOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		124
Precincts Reporting		121	97.6%
Times Counted		49601/206033	24.1%
Total Votes		49288
KERN, Jacob Seth		53	0.11%
SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos		29	0.06%
AHERN, Lance		339	0.69%
BAUER, Paul		188	0.38%
BERKOWITZ, Ethan		18158	36.84%
COFFEY, Dan		7139	14.48%
DARDEN, Dustin		509	1.03%
DEMBOSKI, Amy		11980	24.31%
HALCRO, Andrew		10645	21.60%
HUIT, Timothy		101	0.20%
JAMISON, Christopher		37	0.08%
Write-in Votes		110	0.22%

Berkowitz at 37%, Demboski 24%, Halcro 21% at 10:32pm Report

Registered Voters 206033 - Cards Cast 45490 22.08%

Num. Report Precinct 124 - Num. Reporting 119 95.97%

MAYOR Total Number of Precincts 124 Precincts Reporting 119 96.0% Times Counted 45490/206033 22.1% Total Votes 45206 KERN, Jacob Seth 49 0.11% SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos 27 0.06% AHERN, Lance 307 0.68% BAUER, Paul 160 0.35% BERKOWITZ, Ethan 16890 37.36% COFFEY, Dan 6467 14.31% DARDEN, Dustin 460 1.02% DEMBOSKI, Amy 10902 24.12% HALCRO, Andrew 9714 21.49% HUIT, Timothy 94 0.21% JAMISON, Christopher 29 0.06% Write-in Votes 107 0.24%

Halcro 1000 Votes Behind Demboski, 7,000 Behind Berkowitz - 10:22pm Report

43795 votes in as of the 10:11pm report.  That's 21.26% of the registered voters (many of whom are phantom).  This may be close to half the people who actually voted, though this is a mayoral race and one with lots of candidates.

If things stay the same, Berkowitz will face Demboski in a runoff. 

Registered Voters 206033 - Cards Cast 43795 21.26%

Num. Report Precinct 124 - Num. Reporting 116 93.55%

MAYOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		124
Precincts Reporting		116	93.5%
Times Counted		43795/206033	21.3%
Total Votes		43519
KERN, Jacob Seth		48	0.11%
SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos		27	0.06%
AHERN, Lance		292	0.67%
BAUER, Paul		153	0.35%
BERKOWITZ, Ethan		16345	37.56%
COFFEY, Dan		6236	14.33%
DARDEN, Dustin		452	1.04%
DEMBOSKI, Amy		10375	23.84%
HALCRO, Andrew		9372	21.54%
HUIT, Timothy		90	0.21%
JAMISON, Christopher		29	0.07%
Write-in Votes		100	0.23%

 Meanwhile, Prop 3 is even further behind 43% Yes, 56% No.

School board races show incumbents winning.  Snelling is 1300 votes ahead of Marsett in Seat G.

You can see the results yourselves at two muni sites:

1.  For mayoral and school board races

2. For ballot measures

Rankings Holding - Berkowitz back to 38%, Demboski 23%, Halcro 21%, Coffey 14%

21:55pm Updated numbers: 

MAYOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		124
Precincts Reporting		108	87.1%
Times Counted		39779/206033	19.3%
Total Votes		39525
KERN, Jacob Seth		46	0.12%
SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos		25	0.06%
AHERN, Lance		269	0.68%
BAUER, Paul		143	0.36%
BERKOWITZ, Ethan		15135	38.29%
COFFEY, Dan		5600	14.17%
DARDEN, Dustin		416	1.05%
DEMBOSKI, Amy		9270	23.45%
HALCRO, Andrew		8417	21.30%
HUIT, Timothy		85	0.22%
JAMISON, Christopher		28	0.07%
Write-in Votes		91	0.23%

Berkowitz Still Ahead With 38% At 9:26pm Election Update, Then Demboski At 23%

With 20,985 votes counted, here's the 9:26pm report

MAYOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		124
Precincts Reporting		62	50.0%
Times Counted		21119/206033	10.3%
Total Votes		20985
KERN, Jacob Seth		25	0.12%
SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos		16	0.08%
AHERN, Lance		141	0.67%
BAUER, Paul		77	0.37%
BERKOWITZ, Ethan		8128	38.73%
COFFEY, Dan		2868	13.67%
DARDEN, Dustin		235	1.12%
DEMBOSKI, Amy		4878	23.25%
HALCRO, Andrew		4508	21.48%
HUIT, Timothy		46	0.22%
JAMISON, Christopher		19	0.09%
Write-in Votes		44	0.21%

[UPDATE 9:54 -And another report came out a few minutes later giving Berkowitz 39% and Demboski 22%, Halcro 21%]

MAYOR
		Total
Number of Precincts		124
Precincts Reporting		74	59.7%
Times Counted		25955/206033	12.6%
Total Votes		25781
KERN, Jacob Seth		31	0.12%
SPEZIALE, Samuel Jos		19	0.07%
AHERN, Lance		175	0.68%
BAUER, Paul		96	0.37%
BERKOWITZ, Ethan		10056	39.01%
COFFEY, Dan		3553	13.78%
DARDEN, Dustin		287	1.11%
DEMBOSKI, Amy		5919	22.96%
HALCRO, Andrew		5502	21.34%
HUIT, Timothy		58	0.22%
JAMISON, Christopher		22	0.09%
Write-in Votes		63	0.24%

And the 9:32pm report on the ballot measures shows them all passing comfortably except Number 3 which is losing by 11% still. I've listed the items voted on for #3 in the previous post.

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.

Lazy Blogger; Low Budget Candidates; Who We Be

I've been having trouble getting posts finished.  It's not for lack of subjects, it's just they weren't coming out right.  So this is going to be a quicky just to get something up.

Low Budget Mayoral Candidates

First there was this sign:

I think I heard Dustin has spent less than $100 on his campaign. 

And then yesterday I saw this sign:

This is a fence that's seen a number of signs posted and then get removed.  This was the only one up.

There's an advantage to not having much money - it forces you to think differently about how you're going to do things.  These signs have a refreshing simplicity and homemade quality that clearly distinguishes them from all the very similar professional signs. 

Then I went to the Bartlett Lecture at UAA tonight.  The audience size was a bit disappointing.  Jeff Chang talked about his new book Who We Be and the evolution of race as an issue in the US from the 60's to today.  From a time when the majority was be
hind fairness and equality, through the backlash period, to today when things are particularly polarized.  Jeff has a passion for hip-hop and he talked about how it was the non-establishment multi-cultural movement.  (Sorry if I'm putting words in your mouth.)  There was also a good audience Q&A that got into questions about young activism in Anchorage - whether it was happening or not. 


  Here are a couple of the people I talked to afterward.  



Troy Buckner is the Executive Director of New Life Development in Anchorage, a non-profit that works with prisoners as they come out of prison and transition back into life without bars.  He also worked with Jeff years ago on documenting hip-hop.    He's with one of his board members, Carey Brown. 






Jeff Chen works at the Student Conservation Association (SCA) which involves students in various conservation projects.  No, that's not his conscience sitting on his shoulder, it's one of the book sellers in the background. 

Here's Jeff Chang after the talk listening to one of the audience members talk about Soviet multi-culturalism in the 1920s. 

Jeff, if you see this, here's a link to the movie Shield and Spear I mentioned to you. 


There's just so much going on in Anchorage and the weather's so good.  It's nice having easy walking and biking so early in the year. 

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)

Interview With Ethan Berkowitz, Mayoral Candidate

I'd been to a meet and greets for,  and did videos of, mayoral candidates Dan Coffey and Andrew Halcro, so I thought I should track down Ethan Berkowitz too.  So I went to the opening of his campaign headquarters last week.

His key issues were "fundamentals" like a safe community, housing, keeping the fiscal house in order, infrastructure for the 21st century, and education.   Housing and fiscal issues were also important to the other two candidates.  But Berkowitz said 21st century a couple of times and as he talked it did seem to me he was looking forward, perhaps, more than Coffey and Halcro - he talked about better broadband, and LED street lighting,  and he was not keen on building a road through the university.

[Disclosure: of these three candidates, I know Berkowitz better and feel most comfortable with him.  And I made a contribution to his campaign.  But you can view the videos and judge for yourself.]

I also need to mention that while I usually have the camera in close, this is a little extreme.  But he didn't pull back and you won't get any closer to him. 




[Note:  it will say in the video March 6, but it was really March 5]




Here's a reasonably close transcript of the video.

Steve:  Why do you want to be mayor?
Berkowitz:  Because it’s a great time to be mayor.  Washington DC is totally dysfunctional, Juneau is acting like it’s broke, so if anything is going to happen in this community, it’s going to happen at the mayoral level.  So I think there are terrific opportunities in front of us and I just didn’t see anyone coming to the fore who had that vision of where Anchorage should go.  So, now is the time.

Steve:  What are your top priorities?

Berkowitz:  We have to deal with the fundamentals, make sure Anchorage is a safe community, a secure community, a strong community, and that is public safety, making sure our fiscal house is in order, and houses are available for people to move into, and when you talk about a strong community you need the right kind infrastructure for the 21st century, and you also have to make sure our education system is, sorry, I’ve got kids running by, speaking of the educational system, robust enough so they’re able to compete and succeed in the 21st century
 
OK, that’s a lot of general kinds of things, what are the specifics, like, what about housing?

So, with housing, I don’t need to lead or reinvent the wheel.  There are studies which talk about how to provide affordable housing for folks who want to move into it.  There are all kinds of studies about how we address the homeless issue.  It’s time to implement these plans instead   of studying.  Anyone who’s hung out down in Fairview and seen the tent city that’s sprung up there, knows we’ve got a major problem that’s gotten worse in the last six years.  You’ve got to actually lead if you want things to change.  So that’s what’s going to happen.  You have to do  more Housing First models, you have to make sure you have denser housing in the core areas where people want to live.  So that’s just a question of making those things happen.

When it comes time to provide safer streets, lets just hire more cops.  This insane notion that you can do more with less, is just that - insane.  If you want more cops, we gotta find a way of bringing them on and there’s ways we can do that.

We can pay for them by taxing marijuana, which is now a legal substance.  We can do it by finding savings in our municipal budget, One saving, for example, is we have 20,000 lightbulbs in Anchorage, we put LED lights on 5000 of them.  That saved $2 million a year.  Let’s go save another $6 million and put LEDs on the other 15,000. 

I can go up and down the city budget, there are opportunities to find efficiencies, to find savings, but we’ve gotta to know where we want to go. 

Steve:  All right.  One of the questions I’ve asked the other candidates I’ve talked is:  there’s $20 million sitting there to build a road through the university.  All the community councils in the area have voted overwhelming against the road.  Where do you stand on this?  Can you use that $20 million for something else?

Berkowitz:  I’ve got to see if there’s a tail on that $20 million, if it has to be there, but I’m not in favor of that road.  And my feeling about any of these infrastructure projects is before you get to the merits of whether you like the road or don’t like the road, whether you like the Knik bridge or you don’t like the Knik bridge, how are you going to pay for it?  You wouldn’t go to the bank and say, “Hey, I’ve got enough for the foundation of the house I want to build, I don’t know how I’m going to get the rest constructed or how I’m going to pay for it once I move into it, but give me a load for the rest.  That goes no where for an individual.  The Municipality has to be held to the same standard. Don’t start a project unless you know how it’s going to be finished.  Don’t start a project if you don’t know where the operations and maintenance money are coming from. 

Steve:  All right, any other issues?

Berkowitz:  There’s a LOT of other issues.

Steve:  Well, give me two. 

Berkowitz:  If we want to compete in the 21st century, we need more robust broadband, so I think that’s a major factor  Right now we have 6 mb per second coming down the pike.  We ought to have 100 like they have in Korea . . .  That’s one example.  We need to have the ambition to be much more energy efficient.  We ought to produce more energy locally, geothermal, the wind, tidal, we need to be on the cutting edge of that.  We need to integrate our school with our university system more than we have.  We have to make sure the cultural vibrancy of Anchorage is as robust as it can be - the food scene, the culture scene.  There’s a lot going on here.  We just have to do more of it and make it more accessible to more people.

Steve:  How are you going to be different from the other major candidates.

Berkowitz:  I bring a different vision, and I don’t know where they are on these things.  The vision I have is of an active mayor    I also believe on relying on smart people, intelligent people, informed people, who live here and see what they want, following the plans they crafted  We just need to do things.  I’m so sick and tired of studies.  It’s time we just start doing things and we’ll be fine when we do that.

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.