Piles of waste encroach on Anchorage’s crown jewels: its bike trails, parks and waterways.
I voted against the recent bond to improve our parks because until we can address the squalor that makes some parks unsafe and unusable, why take on debt to improve them? What’s truly frustrating is that we take a narrow-viewed binary approach to camps: full abatement or take no action at all. There is a continuum, however. There’s a difference between abating the only shelter someone has and allowing that person to amass piles of trash and items.
We can restrict accumulation.
Tent dwellers could be allowed no more than a fixed and enforced limit on the volume of items at camps.
I suggest one cubic yard per occupied tent. A single retired fish tote provides this volume, can be secured, would protect materials from rain and getting windblown, would reduce the heartbreaking amount of filth entering the creeks and Cook Inlet, and could easily be relocated with a forklift. Anything outside the tote gets removed, weekly, full stop. We taxpayers have to fund trash removal and totes, but we would address at least one aspect of this crisis while complying with the law.
— Alison Kelley
Anchorage
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