In the past three years, at least six people have been killed in pedestrian-vehicle collisions on the highways that cut through downtown Anchorage. Four of those fatalities have occurred in the last four months alone.
These are their names:
Phillip Chowak, 42, Jan. 30, 2013
Arthur Mike, 36, Sept. 10, 2014
Nathaniel Olemaun Jr., 72, Sept. 21, 2015
Tyrone Milton, 56, Oct. 2, 2015
Evelyn Buckles, 47, Oct. 27, 2015
Edmund Kenneth Onalik, 60, Jan. 17, 2016
We have also had many nonfatal collisions.
Since late 2012, the Fairview Community Council has been calling for safety improvements to the corridor, but to date, those calls seem to have gone unanswered. The Fairview Community Council and Fairview Business Association have put forward no less than three proposals for a solution to this and other infrastructure problems plaguing east downtown. We have proposed moving up the priority of the Glenn to Seward Connection, the Gambell Street Redevelopment and the Downtown Transportation Vortex Study. The importance of these projects doesn't seem to have reached a high priority, but these lives should matter. And the community is outraged.
While we don't want to politicize yet another horrific death on this dangerous road system, it is becoming apparent the state Department of Transportation, the Municipality of Anchorage, its joint committee Anchorage Metropolitan Area Transportation Solutions (AMATS) and the local utilities like Municipal Light and Power have undervalued the worth of human lives that continue to be lost due to inaction. In a way, these deaths are a policy decision. It's time to do something.
In adopting the Fairview Neighborhood Plan the Assembly unanimously recognized and affirmed the findings of the Planning and Zoning Commission that "Gambell Street is neither safe for the public, nor safe for traffic; it is time to stop studying Gambell Street and to take action for improvements." (AO No. 2014-108, Exhibit B, Finding 13.)
And yet, AMATS has tabled three plans for doing something about the problem:
1) Fairview has advocated that the Glenn to Seward Connection be moved up in priority. AMATS currently sits on the long-range transportation plan, which calls for waiting until 2035 to address a Glenn-Seward connection.
2) The Gambell Street redevelopment project, which seems to have been stonewalled by the technical committee.
3) Fairview's request for a vortex transportation study, which has been held up in committee as well.
The political will is emerging to do something about this, but we can't just stand by while people die on our streets. It's time to get this moving.
With new administrations at both the state and municipal levels, we see new opportunity to deal with this old problem. Mayor Ethan Berkowitz and Gov. Bill Walker have another opportunity to do the right thing. Berkowitz has made safer streets a priority of his administration; any real safer streets solution will have to address the infrastructure challenges plaguing the downtown core. I have hope our new mayor will help us find a solution.
The deadly environment caused by the poorly designed highways cutting through our downtown neighborhoods must become a high priority. These deaths are avoidable, if only we could muster the political will to surmount inertia.
Christopher Constant is president of the Fairview Community Council in Anchorage.
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