I ran across an article in PJ Media a couple weeks ago entitled “Ten Plagues of California Are Turning the Golden State into a Third-World Hell Hole.” Frightening stuff, as the author makes the case for the absolute devastation on an entire American state wrought by over 30 years of one-party democrat (is there any other?) rule. You can read it here.
What does the author, Stephen Green think to be the 10 plagues of California? The list follows: Blackouts, typhus, poop, an army of homeless, wildfires, contaminated syringes, garbage, rats, fleas and progressive government.
We here in Anchorage have been treated to the tender ministrations of one-party rule at the local level (Mayor Berkowitz and a lockstep democrat Assembly) since 2015. Over that time, our problems here have grown exponentially. And what problems are they? Homelessness, which Berkowitz demands a 5% alcohol tax to solve, a vehicle and property theft crime spree (blamed on SB 91), and the ever-present progressive government busily protecting us from everything but the actual problems in town. Homeless camps introduce no small amount of garbage and human waste into the greenbelts around town. And there is a growing drug use problem.
We haven’t had time yet to get around to typhus, contaminated syringes, rats and fleas yet, but they are all on the way.
Wildfires are an ever-present threat on the Hillside. We had one in Anchorage near McHugh Falls a couple years ago. Rolling blackouts are inevitable as the Muni pushes renewables (wind and solar) for energy solutions.
San Francisco born, Harvard educated Ethan Berkowitz is busily turning Anchorage into his idyllic boyhood home of SF, which wasn’t half bad when he was there as a kid. It is a public sewer today, all thanks to decades of one-party rule. And things in Anchorage are deteriorating fast enough that House democrats from Anchorage wrote a letter of concern to Ethan and his Assembly demanding they get their act together and solve their problem. Democrats normally don’t go after democrats in public, so I expect the internal polling on this is pretty bad and they are worried that the political blowback will take them down too.
Who else is responsible? You can point to the unions, which have responded to passage of open shop legislation by the Anchorage Assembly with a ballot initiative (AO-37) that overturned that legislation in 2014. Since then, they have successfully installed a veto-proof Assembly and held control of that body since 2015.
Unions are one of the lynchpins of democrat control of California also.
Final responsibility has been local Republicans who failed to fight this effectively at the local level. They need to get off the dime and do so pretty quickly, as their failure to organize effectively and compete effectively at the local level has (in my opinion) led directly to the dysfunctional democrat-led majority in the Alaska House of Representatives.
How do we solve homelessness, crime, and other newly created endemic problems here in Anchorage? First and easiest would be to quit electing democrats. Second would be to take a look at the other towns of our size who do not have this problem, see what they are doing, and start doing that. Super Dave Stieren has been pointing to Lincoln or Omaha, NE as a positive example for years.
The one thing I can guarantee is passing a new alcohol tax will not, NOT do anything for homelessness except make it worse. Doing what Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angles, or even Houston are currently doing about homelessness or crime will not solve the problem either, as all four cities are democrat strongholds these days, where the interest of the local politicians has little to do with actually solving the problems.
Solution to the Californication of Anchorage? Apply the Rule of Holes, which is “when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging.” But the first step of that process is to recognize that we are in a hole. Clearly Ethan and his Assembly haven’t done that. His fellow Anchorage democrats in the House have.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
