Safety and Equity for Latinos, Priorities in Anchorage
“We want everyone to feel safe in Anchorage. People of color have been underserved by the safety net. We will serve the homeless and promote equity,” Mayor Suzanne LaFrance tells Sol de Medianoche.After the snowstorm, Anchorage residents woke up to clear roads, and daily activity was normal in schools and workplaces. “City Manager Becky Windt Pearson leads a Snow Solutions Team that coordinates communication among the 12 city departments involved in snow removal,” LaFrance says.
After 15 years of no investment (17 of 30 graders had more than 10,000 operating hours and needed to be rebuilt or retired), snowplows have been mounted on more municipal vehicles than ever before; operator vacancies were filled in partnership with the state; and the eight municipal snow removal websites with comprehensive updates (www.muni.org/plow) were unified into one. LaFrance has reorganized the Municipality to improve public services, including Health and Police. “We will not stop evaluating and improving processes and systems,” she assures, ‘to focus on public safety, which benefits the entire community.” “We want everyone to feel safe in Anchorage,” she says, “and we know that people of color have traditionally been underserved by safety net systems. We are steadfast in our efforts to address homelessness because we have listened to the community’s concerns. Our Equity Director, Kim Waller, is changing the Office of Inclusion and Justice to focus on Equity and will be called the Office of Inclusion and Equity.” “Many issues are complex and interrelated: public safety, homelessness and housing, for example. We are advocating for winter shelters and prioritizing public safety to ensure people have a warm place to sleep and addressing safety concerns in parks and on trails. We’re working over the long term to get more housing built for people at all income levels and at all stages of life.” “We are focused on improving snow removal, which is a critical service and public safety issue in a winter city like Anchorage. Ensuring that our students have access to education by being able to get to schools and that people can get to work is an Equity issue. We can’t solve everything at once, but we are focused on communication, coordination, and preparedness to best utilize the resources we have.” |