Buffalo NY, population approx. 280K, has 44 large plows, a ✨️64 page✨️ written snow removal plan, and a goal of clearing every street within ✨️ 24 hours ✨️ of snowfall.
Cordova school district has no nurse, no mental health support, no fifth grade teacher & their maintenance person is teaching shop class. Prisons have had a 40% increase. Legislators, a 70% pay raise.
A state that fails to provide an education is a failed state.
#akleg
Bartlett today. The coolest part of the protest was the journalism students out taking interviews and photographs and hearing students talk about what they loved about their school.
#akleg
Centennial is a f-ing disaster. I was there earlier today. CPS was dragging a couple people into a van. A woman was freaking out about a missing child. Asked around & learned the child was taken by CPS. I drove a sweet, gentle woman who had been beat to AWAIC. Now this shooting.
Homeschool families who may no longer be able to afford horse-back riding lessons, hand-drawn curriculum, art, music & swimming classes are now beginning to have some idea what public schools have been facing for years.
Forrest lays it out, how Save Anchorage sucks all the air from the room & precludes participation by other groups, including youth (the screaming, hurling slurs, yellow stars).
"There's too much nastiness. Frankly people don't feel safe sometimes, physically don't feel safe".
6 days of school missed in the last two weeks. ASD doesn't even wait until morning to announce anymore, they've lost faith that the municipality can deal with it.
Ridiculous. Between Bronson, Dunleavy & anti-education Republican legislators we can't educate kids in this state.
Some bits of the most horrible, racist testimony I've heard since Save Anchorage was in full swing 1.5 years ago.
Forrest holds back his fury - barely, and Allard both sides it.
To see the full four minutes go to
@TermDustPress
's video on YouTube.
Bronson is now sponsoring vandalism, freedom of speech violations & child endangerment by his Right of Way dept. They threw my campaign sign over my fence & when I went to talk to them about property line & electric easement, they ran & sped off at high speed thru a school zone.
Just think - 2 years ago, we could have had the Alaska club on Tudor for $5M & a treatment facility.
Because Bronson & Save Anch NIMBYS stopped that we are now talking about a $20M tent that doesn't meet municipal code 2 years later, while people die from overdose and exposure.
Here is
@RepCarrick
's response to Vance’s insanely insensitive statements.
"While the suffering is the same for victims ... the justice for victims is not the same. And until its the same, we have got a lot of work to do."
#akleg
I just love how the same people that championed Jan. 6th & supported the protests with assault rifles in capitols across the country during covid are now crying on social media that the kids who protested for their future in Juneau today should be arrested.
What hypocrites.
I am trapped in my neighborhood for the 2nd day in a row, having not seen a glimpse of a snowplow.
This is the first admin that has not had plows ready to roll as soon as the snow started so as to keep up throughout a snowfall. I'd have seen 2 or 3 plows by now in past years.
This is economic injustice.
Neighborhood A backs Centennial & had this situation dumped on them with no warning and still no communication while Neighborhood B is still successfully blocking a treatment facility nearby that could benefit the entire city.
See the difference?
I noticed the city stopped mowing the right of ways by the sidewalks this year but didn't expect to see the library un-mowed & the fountain dry.
Bronsonville looks like a dead city, ruined by incompetence & lack of caring. From the look of it, everyone better buy a snow plow.
Neighborhood Heroes!
This path leads from cul-de-sac to school crossing for our entire neighborhood.The people who live by it, who don't have school age children, keep it clear & lit. Even in the mornings after heavy snow fall, I've never seen a kid have to walk through snow here
School transport has been flat funded since 2015. Drivers make 9$ less than drivers working in tourism industry.
Cafeteria managers make 13-14$ starting pay while McDonald's workers make almost 20$
Screw these old politicians that got their education & now want to defund it.
Schools are closed for the 4th day in a row &People Mover is not moving.
Lack of adequate winter city response is emblematic of Bronson running this city into the ground with his ineptitude, incompetence & NO planning. It's not even the roads that's so annoying. It's all of it.
Remember when Bronson tried to foment a dangerous mutiny by packing the Assembly chambers with Save Anchorage, removing security, trying to send APD home & ordering the video feed turned off so there would be no witnesses to what happened next?
Alaska law prohibits people from working as teachers in public schools if they've been convicted of sexual assault or sex trafficking.
@rep_gray
extended this to cover private & religious schools through an amendment. It passed, but Eastman, Vance & Craig Johnson voted no.
#akleg
It's a shame that we didn't pay 2 billion instead of 2.1 billion in PFD's, and fully fund our schools.
This is why we need to vote for candidates that support education.
Who remembers when the snowplows used to run around the clock throughout snowstorms to keep the snow from piling up?
Do they wait for the snow to stop falling to start now? Just let it all pile up until even plows are getting stuck?
While Amy D is confirming everything else the public has complained about for 2 years, please tell us more about the ABT contingent of Anchorage police, otherwise known as the "Men's Club."
And the plan for when security was sent home Oct 7th & APD asked to leave but refused.
Criminalized for being poor.
Taking away homes. Handcuffing people for trying to save more than the clothes on their back.
Bronson punishing the homeless because he didn't get his way and blaming everyone but himself.
Shameful.
This city is shameful.
Here's my concern about the rec centers not being accessible to the community.
They serve youth who may depend on them as the difference between a dangerous place to go, and a safe place. Delinquency & a place they can learn important life skills.
Co-chair, disaster Allard wanted to talk to ASD super about removing books. He told her the process. She said that if she thought a book was inappropriate, it should be removed. He said no, it's not decided unilaterally. She kicked him out of her office. "We're all done here."
There are too many people here. Too little planning. Too few resources The muni dumped them into campsites with no vetting. Single moms with kids next to meth addicts. You don't hide people in the trees and expect that they will disappear.
You don't F-ing do this.
Allard starts with "there's been misinformation, this bill doesn't require teachers to out students."
From there she said it requires that a teacher inform parents about a different name/pronoun.
Ummm. SAME THING.
I'm so frustrated listening to all of this.
Let's not build treatment facilities.
Let's not build housing.
Let's not build shelters.
Let's just bitch and complain about everything and build nothing to solve the problems.
@mayor_bronson
This is the empty, muni owned hotel that you could have begun housing people in months ago but you corruptly leave it empty for your campaign donors - Biggs, Brophy et al. FAIL. We don't buy your lying narrative.
At the end I gave up, having been interrupted so many times, and decided to put their violation of my freedom of speech on the record instead.
Allard interrupts every.single. testimony of mine.
Bronson has long talked about forcing the unhoused to make different decisions utilizing law enforcement & dropping services.
Centennial was very deliberate. No food, no services, no client vetting, no outreach & the creation of scarcity in a dangerous situation. All deliberate
The vandals came out last night & sawed the Bronga/Martinez sign on my property, while leaving 3 sets of Leigh Sloan/Spencer Moore signs standing nearby.
This is who these people are & who they represent -common angry vandals who can't win on ideas but rely on grievance instead.
I fail to understand why the left spends more time shrinking support through purity tests than expanding support with a big tent so that real change can be made.
Bronson said that they completed the municipal snowplow plan last Friday at noon, ahead of schedule.
Does he believe that residential streets are not part of the municipal snowplow plan?
True neighborhood hero:
This path goes from cul-de-sac to crosswalk, and it's the best plowed path in the city because this gentleman clears it for the kids - before school starts - all winter long.
Neighbors like this are the best!
I'm so freaking pissed. How is it that we live in a resource rich state that can afford to give tax credits to oil companies and build roads for mining companies but can't f-ing educate our children?
And people will still vote for the education defunders.
Off to the courts it goes.
They gerrymandered Anchorage, silenced East Anchorage voices, and they literally don't care that we know.
Thank you to everyone that didn't let it happen in the dark.
The US Dept of Education has designated Alaska a "high-risk" grantee for noncompliance with requirements under American Rescue Plan Act. As only state in nation to fail to comply, AK will have to come up w $29 million to schools & is at risk of losing $425 million in fed funds
Life in Centennial.
"It is unacceptable that I had staff coaching a mother through labor in that camp"
Thank you, Jasmine, for all you do & for speaking up.
A $9m building is sitting empty & falling into disrepair while the Mayor's lies about imminent condemnation & lack of maintenance tanks the buildings resale value. That's your tax $'s.
We are spending $1.5m to house the same # of people as would cost $.5m in the GL. Your tax$.
Ethan resigned for less, will Bronson have the honor and integrity to do the same or will the municipality continue to suffer under the weight of his cronyism and incompetence?
My guess is the latter.
67% pay raise recommended for elected officials and appointees.
I honestly don't want to hear a single thing about why they need a pay raise until they fund schools and pay teachers.
Visited the Golden🦁. It's a great space for emergency shelter. It has 3 floors of rooms - could be divided into mens, womens & mixed floors, a large restaurant providing kitchen & common space & 20 foot retaining walls seperating it from the NIMBYS that don't want it used (1/?).
60-80 individuals who have been dumped in Centennial could be receiving substance misuse treatment right now, if the Mayor would do what's right for Anchorage instead of what he promised his NIMBY campaign donors & USED THE GOLDEN LION for a treatment facility.
It sits empty.
We live in a state (and a country) where the taxpayer pays to build and maintain roads for the sole benefit of for-profit mining companies, and public land can be tied up to protect the "privacy" of the rich for whom acres of private land isn't enough.
Are you tired of it yet?
On Wed in House Tribal Affairs committee,
@RepVance
admonishes native women for forgetting about white women when talking about abuse. She encourages them to be more sensitive to white women’s feelings. What would we do without Vance giving voice to white women’s struggle?
#akleg
.
@mayor_bronson
and his legislative director Mia Costello just met with a bunch of Anchorage legislators. Here is a sheet they handed out with his legislative priorities.
#akleg
Next time someone hits you with "the Sullivan is destroyed" propaganda let them know most of what is actually being repaired is:
VIP room roof leaks 600K
Exterior lights 584K
For clarity:
Gerace, who lied on his resume & maybe lied to the HR director, who is investigating himself, promised Bean's a renewed contract, which is news to the Admin.
Bean's hasn't been paid. United Way hasn't been paid. ACEH & First Presbyterian hasn't been paid.
Kudos to Stanley Wright for introducing this legislation. These predatory loans target people who are already struggling to pay for rent and food. I hope
#akleg
supports it.
This idea that conservatives are fiscally conservative is a big lie. They cut government programs and use the proceeds to fatten their friends, but they certainly don't spend less money.
Not even sure what to say here. Rep. Eastman says it’s a benefit to society when children who are victims of abuse die “because there aren’t needs for government services over the course of that child’s life” when they die as a results of abuse.
#akleg
Every department, literally every one, has had 20% or higher budget increases since 2017. The legislature itself spends 25% more of your money on themselves than they did in 2017. They gave themselves 34k raises last year.
The GOP hates public education& wants it to fail.
#akleg
Anna Brawley very clearly communicated competence, attention to detail, and a very strong "you won't get away with trying to do things under the radar because this 'new' Assembly is paying attention" message to the administration tonight.
Let's talk about full PFD politicians. DO NOT VOTE FOR THEM. They make promises they can't keep just to win your vote but they offer no real solutions. Even if they could offer a workable solution for the budget/PFD they wouldn't because then how would they get re-elected?
Listening in on the emergency shelter meeting now.
Going over the Mayor's plan: portables not available until next year.
Grant program: only one applicant.
The Rec centers were withdrawn.
It's a good thing the assembly overrode the Mayor's veto of the task force.
Alaska is deeply corrupt.
Whether knowingly or not, a large portion of the GOP clings to the policies, dumbs down the population, and spreads the propaganda that keeps it corrupt.
Mayor Bronson will never resign because a 'lib' becoming acting mayor would be the ultimate failure for him.
We should thank him, though, because after another miserable year of lame duck incompetence, cronyism & corruption, a 'conservative' may never again be elected in Anch.
I've been thinking about how to say this nicely - with muni in shambles & decades of knowledge gone - we need someone who knows how things work & can jump in & do the work immediately, not spend a year learning the ropes. That is Suzanne, not a state-focused ex-legislator.
"The governor makes it clear through his actions that only people who are acceptable to a narrow religious faction are welcomed and protected in our state...this bill does not represent the views of most Alaskans and should not pass"
❤❤❤
The news from Centennial is not good.
I'm hearing the 1st death happened last night.
There's not adequate access to emergency care, Narcan, phones to call emergency services when needed.
Unless something changes, Beans serves their last meal at 5pm.
Crickets from the admin.
First, I appreciate the crews who are working 24/7.
2nd - why wouldn't he aggressively hire people (& make sure equipment was working) before kids had to stay home for 4 days & businesses suffer? Like we all knew winter was coming, right?
3rd - McKenna. Just have to laugh.
Or, they could just buy the Sam's Club building and have it remodeled in a month, which they didn't consider because it was "too close to businesses" & they'd rather try to hide homelessness in the trees in poor neighborhoods.
How long do you think it will take for Bronson to install the failed school board and assembly candidates into six-figure administration positions that they are uniquely un-qualified for?
My thoughts on school vouchers.
Churches like ABT operate tax free while raking in cash. Pastors at these Churches live in mansions. They should operate their religious schools for free.
Don't come after my tax dollars to fund their grift. Tax them and then maybe we can talk.
Allard "when you bite into high earners you bite into income that people donate and use to buy things."
OK well when you tax lower earners you are biting into income that buys food.
I guess that isn't important...
Forrest asks why aren't we using the Golden Lion.
No one on the administration can answer.
I suppose that's because saying "because Bronson campaign donors don't want us to" wouldn't be a good look.