Not one neighbor, not one, around Inlet View Elementary School has said they don’t want the school. The opposite. We want the school! What we do not want is the design. What do we have to do to be heard? The design is lousy. A two-story building with an 80-car parking lot and two one-way lanes of traffic around it that are funneled to another one-way street that goes to a 10-foot incline up a hill, to another one-way street with a light that is 50% of the time red on L street. This enormous drive-through and parking lot would take up almost a quarter of the entire school grounds, destroying the green space we all love and enjoy.
I have listened to the vehicles spin out for 33 years on 13th Avenue to get up that hill. And what elementary school needs an 80-car parking lot? (They will say the parking lot has been decreased. That’s because they made each parking spot bigger.) These are just some of the problems. Anchorage School District did themselves no service by choosing to not engage our community until after the fact.
In what world is it OK for Rep. Zack Fields (36 years old) to tell a 40-year resident to move, or threaten another with personal ruin or “knowingly” give me incorrect information as truth regarding this project? He has called this a result of being “a passionate supporter of the school.” I think not. I call it mean, bizarre, bullying behavior.
When the design for Inlet View Elementary is community-friendly for the kids and the neighborhood, I will happily vote yes for the school bond that supports it. In the meantime, I wonder just how entitled Zack Fields believes himself to be? I’m a lifelong Democrat, but I think we need a new legislator who respects their constituents, not someone who has mean tantrums. I’m not voting for him ever again!
— Kelly Merritt
Anchorage
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