Detritus

what's the tarnish that white, white snow becomes when spring arrives? the urban crust of our winter city caked on fenders and edges of sidewalks. cigarette butts and beer cans sprouting like spring flowers. every year i think to myself that the trees have met their match, they are never going to make it. they are done being green, but instead they impress me. somehow despite ice and cold and haphazard plows they persevere and unravel into green breathing living things. they have the ability to make us forget about the snow, cold, and darkness and put us into a summer trance.

my hood

So it's been like an entire winter season since I wrote something. I bumped into an aquaintance this afternoon at one of my favorite wine shops in Spenard. He reminded me that I should keep writing about spenard and all its potential in spite of the naysayers about the Spenard Road project. (thanks!) I love living in Spenard. It's hip, bohemian, diverse, funky, and unique. I just want it to be safe and easy to get around. i would also like to see it blosom into a thriving vibrant community that's uniquely Alaskan. Meaning that it would be great to see future changes address our wintry climate as well as our eclectic diversity into a sustainable community. Seem too idealistic?

Recently I was so happy to see an invite to the Spenard Farmers Market. Check it out on facebook. what a great plan, i guess it was just a matter of time. there are many aspects of spenard that seem to be reaching critical mass which historically has led to a renaissance in other communities. using the adjective of renaissance in reference to Spenard is nothing new, but it seems that it's much more palpable these days. we need the road project to happen sooner than later. in many ways it's cramping our style and stifling our creativity.

Spenard, the coolest place in Anchorage!

Wisdom

http://www.ted.com/talks/barry_schwartz_on_our_loss_of_wisdom.html

Assembly Meeting - 2/3/09

Been to busy to post much but have two questions regarding the testimonies against Spenard Road improvements during the last assembly meeting:

• How will the businesses suffer after the proposed improvements?
• What part of 241 accidents since 2004 just between Fireweed and Northern Lights appears to be unbroken?

...and thanks Matt and Maureen for your great testimony, keep up the great work!

slicker than snot

wow! this is got to be the slipperiest conditions I've ever ridden in. i feel like I'm riding with clenched fear; somehow trying to grip the ice with any part of my body that possesses a crevice.

Last Christmas, Kwanza, Hanukkah, Festivus, etc.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.