Anchorage Park Foundation Report Card

The Anchorage Park Foundation just recently finished adding up the critiques made by residents during the fall and have released its first ever Anchorage Parks Report Card with the final grades for each of the city's 54 parks. The final grades? Well it appears Little Billy will have to pay more attention at school. I didn't do an exact count, but it appears C's rule the map while F's and D's can also be found aplenty. Cheney Lake Park in East Anchorage along with David Green Memorial on 36th Avenue were the two parks that received A's. Hilariously enough, Minnesota Park (along Minnesota Drive) received an F. Can't say I'm surprised considering the trouble between the areas residents and its young rabble rouser's as covered by the ADN earlier this year or so. Anyways the Parks Foundation has the whole report card on its website along with a directory to help you find out which parks are in your neck of the woods.

Anchorage Park Foundation Report Card

joop in the dust

For my regular readers who expect that usual update or two a week, my apologies for the neglect. As a student in UAA, combined with the holiday season, this time of the year can be pretty tough. My days lately have consisted of heading to school at 8am, leaving school at 7pm, and working at the job till midnight. As a result, I may have missed some important news concerning the Anchorage cityscape as I have had hardly any time to pick up the papers or watch KTUU and other sources. Thankfully school is finished, so I may have a bit more time to catch up on the latest.

On a related note, as someone who works the night shift, the new JL Tower in Midtown has been really strutting its LED's in recent time and has made my work near the building each night more interesting as a new light show on the tower seems to take place every night. I was wondering how long it would take, but finally a nearby resident in the area took out the camcorder and started putting some of the tower's light shows on YouTube. The producer of these light shows can also be found responding to some of the videos and is a cool guy who will answer your questions. In the meantime, enjoy this rare show:

Mountain View on the rise

The Alaska Journal of Commerce published a great article this week on the continued revitalization of Mountain View. I don't know if I'd say Mountain View is destined to become the next SoHo as the article seems to imply, but seeing the effort coming from a barrage of local big muscle including the Rasmuson Foundation, JL Properties, Chevron, RIM Architects, etc (along with of course the Muni) does certainly paint a hopeful picture for this true Alaskan neighborhood. New buildings are also discussed in the article including the new Credit Union 1 which broke ground last month along with what looks to be a proposed two story building dedicated to artists or some sort.

While you're at it, here's a great blog dedicated to Mountain View by long time community organizer Clark Yerrington.

Vintage Anchorage

So I was looking through my way-too-large stash of Anchorage photos when I found this one collecting dust in one of my millions of sub-folders. I don't know the exact year, but I'd place my bet at circa 1960. Obviously you can't miss the McKinley Apartment tower on the left next to the old native hospital. But what gives me a hunch that this was just taken around the early 60s is that the bright yellow Hill Building (now City Hall) is standing proudly in the center of Downtown. The building was completed in... I'm wanting to say 1959. Also noticeable is the Turnagain Arms Apartments (in red) right above the then low density Bootleggers Cove near the Inlet. By the way, check out the smooth grade of 5th Avenue as it goes down into Bootleggers Cove. For those who have driven up 5th from Bootleggers, you could clearly see the difference in steepness. I'd assume the '64 quake, which hit that end of Downtown pretty hard, was probably responsible for reshaping the steepness of that bluff. Have any corrections, more facts, observations, or comments? Feel free to respond. Oh, and of course, click the picture for a much larger version.

Hillside may get some... planning!

Not really an interesting article, but the headline "As Anchorage expands, planners chart Hillside's future" is quite the attention grabber especially for some of our friends up in that neighborhood who may or may not be stocking up on weapons for the prophesied coming of the city planners! The article, published in Sunday's ADN, mentions how the city is looking to treat some of the problems to be had in the Hillside such as water runoff, city services, and commercial development. Again, if you need reading material to put you to sleep, this article is for you. If unlike me you are interested, there will be some public meetings regarding a plan for the Hillside to deal with such hard hitting issues facing the neighborhood. And yes, there's a website for the plan as well:

http://www.hillsidedistrictplan.com/

New bicycle racks for Downtown

With bicycle ridership increasing up to 30% in the last year, the Muni invested $17,000 into 13 new bike racks for the Downtown area using state grants. Now if you attended the city's little civic block party earlier this summer, you may have noticed a booth in which a map of Downtown Anchorage was laid out in front with visitors being asked to pin down locations they'd like to see bike racks and even bicycle lockers. I can't confirm that this is the result from that survey earlier this year, but with new bike racks installed in popular locations such as G Street, 5th and D, and of course our beloved Snow City Cafe, it sure looks like the results have been delivered. The ADN is reporting that bicycle lockers are expected to later show up on the parking lot behind the Sunshine Plaza.

With this news, I decided to bravely trudge out into the subzero cold and check out the new racks for myself. The results: not what I expected. It appears that at least two different versions of the racks have been installed. One rack looks more traditional with its "curved sink pipe", while the other sits between parking meters with space for two locks. I guess the artistic street furniture now found on F Street and around the new convention center raised my expectations for more artistic and unique designs, but then again this is a limited budget from a state grant. Not that I'm complaining or anything -- I'm very satisfied! Below are my sightings of these new species in their habitat:

Among election winners: mass transit

Besides Democrats making major gains in the election earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal is reporting mass transit also became a big hit for voters. No, this has nothing to do with Joe Biden taking Amtrak on a daily basis, rather mass transit initiatives around the country saw approval from voters that were twice the amount that usually pass in previous elections. Surprising considering the funding required for such projects especially in todays economic times (then again I suppose gas prices were on voters minds...). Click below for the article:

Mass-Transit Projects Fared Well at Polls (WSJ)

E Street project goes into deep freeze

The Muni, through its website Destination Downtown, is reporting that the E Street Corridor Project is on hold. Thankfully, unlike the recent halting of projects around the country such as a major skyscraper project in Chicago (or for a more local level, the cancellation of Costco in Wasilla), the E Street project is NOT being canceled due to the economy or poor planning. As any Alaskan would know, "it's the snow, stupid". Construction shall resume in the Spring. Meanwhile here's some pics I took on how the project is shaping up so far with three personal observations that pop out to me:

First off, it appears the corridor will be losing the specially designed green light poles. The unique poles looked awesome when I was a young child, but just the other day I was thinking about how they have aged with their 80s look and that they should be replaced with traditional poles to integrate Downtown with the rest of the city. Next thing I know, I drive by 5th and E a few days later and see what appears to be the installation of new poles (stumps for now).


Perspective really helps in understanding just what is going down and I can't think of anything better to prove that than this shot of the new street curb placed further away from its original location. It looks like the new sidewalk will take up what was formally metered parking along with the right lane of old E Street.


Last, the intersection of 6th and E looks to be complete. Unlike the blueprints however, I don't see the darker colored bricks that were to be placed so as to appear pointing towards Town Square. Another thing worthy of mentioning is that the crosswalks are not just painted onto the bricks. They're actual slabs of concrete which I suppose makes sense considering the uneven brick surface that the intersections of 6th & E and 5th & E now present.

By the way for those interested to learn more about the specific project I was referring to in Chicago, check it out here.

Seattle shying away from daring architecture?

No, this is not me being lazy to post original updates. I swear! I've been meaning to post this interesting op-ed piece published recently in the Seattle P.I. that has to do with whether Seattle's modern architecture is running too conservative for an otherwise emerging international city. While I try to stay away from the carnage of harsh criticism, critic Lawrence W. Cheek is apparently more than happy to tackle whatever building design has gotten in his bonnet.

On one building in Seattle, Cheek writes:

"Lake Union Center on the ship canal waterfront, exudes all the panache of a Baptist Sunday School annex".

Ouch. Anyways, the rest of the article is here.