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October 28, 2005
Red Alert
by Soren Wuerth

Too Much Coffey

     There is an Earth First! bumper sticker that reads: “Developers, Go Build in Hell.”

     I once considered fastening it to the back of my car, when I had one, but I was worried about incensed rejoinders from other drivers. I wasn’t concerned about reaction toward me, per se, but I didn’t want a man pulling out of McDonald’s in a white Ford 250 to jab a crooked, middle finger toward my wife.

     Also, “you don’t attract bees with vinegar,” another activist, echoing Saul Alinsky, used to caution me. So I stayed with honey and the idea of building - gently - community first.

     Yet, reading about a developer who leveled a swath through the Eagle River valley, and about the selfish decisions of the new cast of sectarian neocons on the Anchorage Assembly, has me rethinking the message of that bumper sticker.

     Assemblyman Dan Coffey, the bastard son of the alcohol industry, has a vision for transportation that is as immediate and urgent as the urinal in front of him when he steps into an airport restroom.

     I remember, about seven years ago, riding my bike through muddy, snowy slush to West High School to attend a citizen’s transportation task force meeting. Sitting next to hardcore year-round bicyclists were truck drivers, cab drivers, eight-to-five commuters and bus riders. Over the course of two months, most of us gave up a night each week to map out Anchorage’s transportation future.

     The process took five years and involved hundreds of people, special interest groups and policy makers. Words were exchanged, compromises were struck, and facilitators had breakdowns, but, in the end, a plan emerged with the promising title “Anchorage 20/20.”

     In 2001, the Anchorage Assembly adopted the plan by ordinance. A photo of Mayor George Wuerch, a staunch Republican, graces the inside cover. The plan, promoted so heavily that it won a “public education award” from the American Planning Association, called for Anchorage to protect parks and wildlife by concentrating urban growth, promoting transportation alternatives and nurturing neighborhoods. In other words: more communities, less sprawl.

     Now comes along Anchorage’s own Tammany Hall, ignoring all those citizens’ hard work and waddling toward a white porcelain landscape just inches before their waistlines.

     The 20/20 plan calls for “a transportation system ... that moves people and goods safely, conveniently, and economically, with minimal adverse impact on the community.” It sounds reasonable.

     The right-wingers on the Assembly, however, want to add $200 million in roads, delay a “convenient” and rational lane addition to the busiest intersection in town, and plow new roads through existing communities.

     The Assembly members are of like mentality to that man bulldozing his way through Eagle River. They want to develop the Anchorage bowl and its suburbs as quickly as possible, ignoring communities, plans, and a near future when oil production begins to decline and subdivisions turn into ghost towns.

     There is no horizon in site for the devil at the toilet. His view is down. And if you want to express your view about the lot of them, go to www.greenbicycle.net.







Soren Wuerth is perhaps Alaska's best known community activist. He resides in an undisclosed location in rural Alaska and can be reached at soren@insurgent49.com.
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in-sur-gent (in sur'jent), n. 1. a member of a group which revolts against the policies of its leadership.