In the late 1990s, Mayor Rick Mystrom introduced and promoted Anchorage as the City of Lights. He wanted to brighten our dark winters and he succeeded. Not only that, the positive change has been sustained ever since.
Now, through neglect, we are promoting the City of Dandelions. Their dominance as a species grows every year, unabated. There are aspects of this I don’t understand. Take Lake Hood Elementary School as an example. The ball field next to theschool and the area between the parking lot and the sidewalk get infrequent maintenance, but the area between the ball field fence and the sidewalk? None. It is a wasteland. Same with the area adjacent to the parking lot. Is no one responsible? It is not privately owned.
Or take any number of state roads — West Northern Lights, for example. When it was upgraded years ago, a good deal of money went into landscaping but the median is only sort of maintained, meaning parts of it are maintained and parts are left to the wild. Or take the median and side areas of most state highways and thoroughfares — Minnesota Drive, for example.
Why do we require investment in the landscaping of roads if we are not committed to maintaining them? Do we not see the connection with growing our tourism trade or stemming the flow of residents who leave for the Lower 48?
I don’t know about you, but I am tired of being one of the richest states and behaving like one of the poorest. No Alaska State Troopers on the roads or Village Public Safety Officers in our villages, and inadequate snow plowing and road maintenance. What I am really tired of is leadership that would rather give money to any and all Alaskans than invest in making this beautiful and unique state all it could be and where we want to live.
We have to do better or potentially perish.
— William Dann
Anchorage
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