The Assembly covered a lot of ground at today’s work sessions reviewing encouraging news about Anchorage United for Youth‘s successful efforts to better coordinate programs aimed at helping young people succeed, a new Bike Plan aimed at improving non-motorized transit and more information on municipal finances. Each of these items are important and the bike plan may get a little media attention but you can expect the focus to be on financial issues. The question is what will actually get reported. There were three finance-related aspects of note:
Zoning, and enforcement thereof, are amongst the primary functions of local government but the issues stemming therefrom are some of the most complicated faced by residents and local officials alike. At the heart of most disagreements is the age-old conflict between individual and community rights. Put another way, “it’s my land and I can do what I want to,” versus, “how can you allow that guy to disrupt our neighborhood?” And sins of the past, like sub-standard or non-existent planning, only exacerbate present challenges. A good example in our community are industrial lands that abut residential areas. The latter tend to be noisy, the former tend to seek peace and quiet, and the lack of a commercial- or park-land buffer results in a plethora of hard feelings.
Growth in the Anchorage’s air cargo industry has been a tremendous boon to our local economy so it was bad news earlier this week when UPS announced it would begin furloughing pilots. There are quite a few pilots for UPS and FedEx “domiciled” in Anchorage and, while not every one of those pilots actually make their homes here, quite a few do. But while it’s reasonable to shake our heads in frustration at effects of the global economic downturn on our local economy, it’s better to focus on factors closer to home that negatively affect us.
As you may have read, last night the Assembly approved four of six proposed bond measures for consideration on the April 6 ballot. That same evening, we decided against adding an advisory vote regarding property tax exemptions to the ballot. Readers might be surprised to know that I opposed each of these items, but not because I was in a contrarian mood.
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