I hope everyone enjoys this holiday season because it could be our last for a while. As the economy does a swan dive into uncharted waters, it's time to take a deep look at ourselves and see ourselves for the very first time. Our insatiable appetite got us into this mess; what we need is an economic and social equivalent of a gastrectomy.
Merry recession to all and to all a good fright.
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
Sunday, December 21, 2008
More Police
Here's a link to an ADN article which summarizes the beginnings of a workshop session which strives to address crime and policing in Spenard.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/630233.html
Though most of the comments were fairly good and informative, there were some who's complaints were less than constructive. Crime is a complicated mulit-faceted phenomenon. I think it's like health care; we can spend a majority of our resources on critical care or we can spend less overall by investing in preventative measures.
Increase in crime has been a problem; I'm nervous of the effects of the coming economy possibly creating even more desperation. It may skew the efficacy of the new approach which may result in it being rejected.
http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/crime/story/630233.html
Though most of the comments were fairly good and informative, there were some who's complaints were less than constructive. Crime is a complicated mulit-faceted phenomenon. I think it's like health care; we can spend a majority of our resources on critical care or we can spend less overall by investing in preventative measures.
Increase in crime has been a problem; I'm nervous of the effects of the coming economy possibly creating even more desperation. It may skew the efficacy of the new approach which may result in it being rejected.
Spenard Road Improvements
Plans for Spenard Road should be applauded. Spenard has evolved into a dangerous thoroughfare due to our planning based only on the almighty automobile. Like many arterials, sidewalks and trails have been reduced in favor of greater traffic flow.
The three lane solution will be a vast improvement to the current high speed four lane scenario which has people weaving and dodging vehicles waiting to turn. The proposed middle lane will consolidate the two inner lanes and allow for queuing space for vehicles crossing Spenard into the opposite lane. Wider sidewalks will improve the safety of pedestrians and provide room for temporary snow storage and help city maintenance crews. I only wish that the new plan included intermittent pedestrian crossings at key locations. Currently pedestrians and cyclists are compelled to jaywalk due to the great distances between traffic signals.
It seems that the character of Spenard Road wants to be different that that of Northern Lights or Benson. Rather than a high speed arterial it should be a focus and amenity for the neighborhoods that define it. I have experienced a lot of changes to Spenard during the last 30 years, both good and bad. The current plan will make it safer for residents and businesses of Spenard; it’s time to heal the wound which slices through the heart of our neighborhood.
The three lane solution will be a vast improvement to the current high speed four lane scenario which has people weaving and dodging vehicles waiting to turn. The proposed middle lane will consolidate the two inner lanes and allow for queuing space for vehicles crossing Spenard into the opposite lane. Wider sidewalks will improve the safety of pedestrians and provide room for temporary snow storage and help city maintenance crews. I only wish that the new plan included intermittent pedestrian crossings at key locations. Currently pedestrians and cyclists are compelled to jaywalk due to the great distances between traffic signals.
It seems that the character of Spenard Road wants to be different that that of Northern Lights or Benson. Rather than a high speed arterial it should be a focus and amenity for the neighborhoods that define it. I have experienced a lot of changes to Spenard during the last 30 years, both good and bad. The current plan will make it safer for residents and businesses of Spenard; it’s time to heal the wound which slices through the heart of our neighborhood.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Spurnagain
Spurnagain. That part of Spenard and Turnagain where both meet like interlaced fingers, well not quite in the sense that there’s camaraderie and block parties, but rather the interlaced juxtaposition of mobile homes, log cabins, custom homes, and spec homes. I would define it as the area which is south of Northern Lights, west of the railroad tracks, and north of Spenard.
In a world where we seem to have to know whether a thing is either good or bad, this part of Spenard is good and bad, loud and quiet, mean and kind, beautiful and ugly, smart and dumb, moral and amoral, young and old, poor and rich. It epitomizes dichotomy.
In a world where we seem to have to know whether a thing is either good or bad, this part of Spenard is good and bad, loud and quiet, mean and kind, beautiful and ugly, smart and dumb, moral and amoral, young and old, poor and rich. It epitomizes dichotomy.
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Pho, Skis, Booze, and Ammo
So the other day I noticed a new business pop up at the corner of Spenard and 30th in the old French Oven Bakery, an ammo store. I'm not sure if it's just ammo they sell or whether they also deal in guns. In typical Spenard fashion, within a 100 foot radius from the new ammo shop, there's a flower shop, a liquor store, The Burger Stop, a pawn shop, a Vietnamese restaurant, Cafe Croissant, a ski shop, a motel, a bar, the DMV, and Enstar.
There's some obvious relationships to the ammo shop which seems ripe for trouble. I think the name of the new addition to this area of Spenard is 'The Ammo Can', no messing around with nuance or a clever reference to the last frontier. It's like the gigantic 'Liquor' sign on the relatively new Brown Jug store. I think 'The Ammo Can' should have been even more honest with names like 'Kill' or 'Die' or 'Shoot 'Em'. The obnoxious yellow 'Liquor' sign at Brown Jug might as well be 'Drunk' or 'Wasted' or 'Inebriated'. Spenard doesn't seem to mess around when it comes to names of it's businesses.
The fact that the new ammunition shop is in such proximity to a house of ill repute, a bar, the In-Out Liquor store, and a depressed group of multi-family housing seems to be a dangerous concoction set to explode. Not that i think it's related, but a couple of weeks ago they found a body literally frozen between the walls of the building just to the north of The Ammo Can and the pawn shop.
I'm curious if there's any public hearing process for co-locating a gun store, liquor store, pawn shop, and low income housing. In some circles of business, they would call it 'synergies'; oh mustn't forget the flower shop, to apologize after the crime spree of course.
There's some obvious relationships to the ammo shop which seems ripe for trouble. I think the name of the new addition to this area of Spenard is 'The Ammo Can', no messing around with nuance or a clever reference to the last frontier. It's like the gigantic 'Liquor' sign on the relatively new Brown Jug store. I think 'The Ammo Can' should have been even more honest with names like 'Kill' or 'Die' or 'Shoot 'Em'. The obnoxious yellow 'Liquor' sign at Brown Jug might as well be 'Drunk' or 'Wasted' or 'Inebriated'. Spenard doesn't seem to mess around when it comes to names of it's businesses.
The fact that the new ammunition shop is in such proximity to a house of ill repute, a bar, the In-Out Liquor store, and a depressed group of multi-family housing seems to be a dangerous concoction set to explode. Not that i think it's related, but a couple of weeks ago they found a body literally frozen between the walls of the building just to the north of The Ammo Can and the pawn shop.
I'm curious if there's any public hearing process for co-locating a gun store, liquor store, pawn shop, and low income housing. In some circles of business, they would call it 'synergies'; oh mustn't forget the flower shop, to apologize after the crime spree of course.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Ugly Child
Spenard is about neglected neighborhoods, seedy pasts, but it is also a deeply American experiment that actually seems to be working without being fashionable. An unpopular ugly child who has grown to be a local folk hero.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Fish Creek Fall
In the air lately, the pungent aroma of fall which seems unique to Spenard fills my nostrils. I'm not exactly sure which plants compose the distinctive scent that is the harbinger of winter. I think it's the high-bush cranberries or perhaps the frightening mutant fungi, then again it could be the decomposing cigarette butts. During the last couple of weeks, honks of geese overhead remind me that I need to inventory winter gear for our kids. I haven't heard our feathered tourists in a few days and am left wondering if they've all gone.
Spenard is the second oldest neighborhood in Anchorage, it was actually a separate town from Anchorage. It's one of the few neighborhoods within mid-town which maintained its arboreal character. Fish Creek, an important wildlife corridor, runs through Spenard, it enters near Arctic and 36th, runs west through trailer parks, body shops, and behind Center Bowl before disappearing under Minnesota and reappearing on the other side. It meanders by SBS and heads west towards Northwood and finally crosses Spenard near Gwennies and the Harley-Davidson Shop. After crossing Spenard it finally gains recognition at Fish Creek Park which is the start of a short green belt that ends at Barbara Street Park.
The creek, which at times seems to be begging to be put out of its misery continues to flow north across some beautiful properties along Brookside Drive until it parallels the railroad tracks which it follows as it crosses under Northern Lights Boulevard at Forest Park Drive. There it seems to capture the momentum of a more affluent neighborhood. It ducks under the tracks and through a short section of forest until it finally becomes idyllic habitat to birds, moose, and foxes. Lush green grasses and a series of serpentine paths seem to create a story book ending to a dirty struggling trickle which had no head waters. If you took a look at Fish Creek at a point Just south of McCain Loop and then again at the Coastal Trail, it'd be pretty hard to believe they were the one and same.
Spenard is the second oldest neighborhood in Anchorage, it was actually a separate town from Anchorage. It's one of the few neighborhoods within mid-town which maintained its arboreal character. Fish Creek, an important wildlife corridor, runs through Spenard, it enters near Arctic and 36th, runs west through trailer parks, body shops, and behind Center Bowl before disappearing under Minnesota and reappearing on the other side. It meanders by SBS and heads west towards Northwood and finally crosses Spenard near Gwennies and the Harley-Davidson Shop. After crossing Spenard it finally gains recognition at Fish Creek Park which is the start of a short green belt that ends at Barbara Street Park.
The creek, which at times seems to be begging to be put out of its misery continues to flow north across some beautiful properties along Brookside Drive until it parallels the railroad tracks which it follows as it crosses under Northern Lights Boulevard at Forest Park Drive. There it seems to capture the momentum of a more affluent neighborhood. It ducks under the tracks and through a short section of forest until it finally becomes idyllic habitat to birds, moose, and foxes. Lush green grasses and a series of serpentine paths seem to create a story book ending to a dirty struggling trickle which had no head waters. If you took a look at Fish Creek at a point Just south of McCain Loop and then again at the Coastal Trail, it'd be pretty hard to believe they were the one and same.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
the beginning
Over the course of the last ten years or so, certain areas of Spenard have been experiencing some sort of renaissance. One of the most notable locales is the area whose epicenter is the Bear Tooth or perhaps REI. It doesn't seem too long ago that the mall in which REI stands was mostly vacant and tenuously toeing the line of collapse. Now a regular Mecca of gore-tex, tofu sandwiches, lattes, bagels, and books, the mall has all the ingredients to attract yoga enthusiasts from afar (actually not too far, just across Northern Lights).
I remember when REI was located in the current Brown Jug liquor store at the corner of Northern Lights and Spenard, and the Bear Tooth used to be Denali Theater. The Theater's original marquee still stands above Play it Again Sports. Shortly before the theater shut down, they used to offer $1.01 movies, usually movies which have already played at the more popular theaters. It was sponsored or ran by KGOT radio who donated the one lonely cent to charity. It was a decent cheap date if you could suffer through sitting on the springs poking through the seats. AMH and Quick Tow has been there through all of it, the bohemianification, yuppification, and gen-X-ification, and now as i understand it gen-Y and gen-M.
Spenard Road seems to be a curvy windy aberration within in a city which demands structured grids. At one end is Chilkoot Charlie's and at the other a relatively new congestion of bad airport hotels and crappy chain restaurants. The two seem to be holding the ends of a jump rope which makes up Spenard. There's a lot more to say about Spenard, but this is just the first post and it's late for me. Anybody remember 'Foodland'? How about the relationship between Foodland, Annabel the elephant, and the Alaska Zoo?
Check out some wiki-info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenard
I remember when REI was located in the current Brown Jug liquor store at the corner of Northern Lights and Spenard, and the Bear Tooth used to be Denali Theater. The Theater's original marquee still stands above Play it Again Sports. Shortly before the theater shut down, they used to offer $1.01 movies, usually movies which have already played at the more popular theaters. It was sponsored or ran by KGOT radio who donated the one lonely cent to charity. It was a decent cheap date if you could suffer through sitting on the springs poking through the seats. AMH and Quick Tow has been there through all of it, the bohemianification, yuppification, and gen-X-ification, and now as i understand it gen-Y and gen-M.
Spenard Road seems to be a curvy windy aberration within in a city which demands structured grids. At one end is Chilkoot Charlie's and at the other a relatively new congestion of bad airport hotels and crappy chain restaurants. The two seem to be holding the ends of a jump rope which makes up Spenard. There's a lot more to say about Spenard, but this is just the first post and it's late for me. Anybody remember 'Foodland'? How about the relationship between Foodland, Annabel the elephant, and the Alaska Zoo?
Check out some wiki-info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenard
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