This story has been corrected to state petitioners have 30 days, not 60, to gather signatures.
A proposed ballot initiative banning cruise ships with a capacity for 250 or more passengers on Saturdays and July 4 is being submitted this week to the City and Borough of Juneau by a group of residents who are citing numerous adverse impacts of mass cruise tourism as their motivation.
The initiative was announced during a rally by about 20 people in Marine Park at midday on Tuesday, while the first ship of the season was in port. Members of the five-person petitioners’ committee said they were meeting with the municipal clerk’s office immediately afterward to present the draft of their initiative.
“We’re not against anything,” said Karla Hart, a longtime objector to mass cruise tourism who presided over the rally. “We are for having Saturdays back. I’d like people to think about the positive framing of what you might do on a Saturday when you know every Saturday there are not going to be cruise ships in Juneau.”
Hart said she expected it would take about two to three weeks for the city to certify the initiative, after which proponents could begin gathering signatures. They would have 30 days to gather a total of 2,359 signatures — 25% of the total votes cast in the most recent regular municipal election.
A similar effort was attempted in 2021 with three measures imposing restrictions, but Hart said organizers’ efforts were limited due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Skepticism about the effort was expressed by Edward McCool, a Florida resident visiting Juneau for the day with his wife, Denise, as part of their cruise aboard the Norwegian Bliss. The couple walked by the protesters while returning to the ship, but without getting much sense of what their disgruntlement was about.
“They’re protesting something that you’re never going to get rid of as long as you have that,” he said, gesturing with a sweeping motion toward the mountains across the channel. “The mountains, the scenery, the culture, the food. That ship pulls into this port and the taxes off of that ship pays everybody salary…We’ve spent $300 to $400 in this town in three hours.”
McCool said they take cruises about every eight months, but this is their first trip to Alaska and first time encountering protesters. When told about the protesters’ desire for ship-free Saturdays he said “that’s never going to happen” because people taking cruises are generally going to try to include weekends in their itineraries to reduce days taken off from work.
The draft of the initiative declares “a majority of Juneau residents think that our local government is not doing enough to manage cruise tourism.” The claim is supported by CBJ’s annual tourism survey from 2023 which showed 56% of respondents said the city wasn’t doing enough to manage impacts, 33% the right amount and 4% too much — a notable shift from 2022 when the responses were 45% not enough, 41% the right amount and 4% too much.
An obvious factor, city officials noted when the results were released, is Juneau had a record 1.67 million cruise passengers last year, compared to about 1.2 million in 2022 when the industry was still rebounding from the pandemic. The number of passengers this year and next are expected to be about the same as last year’s total, but CBJ and industry officials say a new five-ship-a-day limit is intended to reduce the maximum impacts on any given day.
CBJ officials have also said they are trying to work with industry officials on other ways to reduce impacts, such as additional offerings for visitors to spread their presence over a larger area.
The petitioners make other claims that are at odds with the CBJ survey, such as declaring “city leaders and industry have had decades to act and failed to balance the economic benefits to some against the economic and other harms of many imposed by the cruise tourism industry.” According to the 2023 survey, 31% of respondents said tourism had overall positive impacts on their household, 11% said overall negative impacts, 46% “both positive and negative impacts,” and 11% no impacts.
Making Saturdays a ship-free day will give residents more ability to enjoy leisure activities around town, while giving businesses a day for purposes such as maintenance, according to the draft petition.
“This pause could result in safer, cleaner, and better operations and happier employees,” the initiative states.
The proposed ordinance sought by the petitioners, in addition to banning large ships on Saturdays, would also make “all downtown waterfront parking restricted for commercial vehicle use related to cruise tourism” to be freely available to the public on Saturdays and July 4.
The ban on large ships on July 4 is a new element compared to the 2021 petition effort.
“The Fourth of July is a day of community celebration and festivity that extends along our waterfront and through our narrow downtown streets. Making July Fourth cruise free opens possibilities for additional community use and enjoyment of our downtown and harbor throughout the entire day.”
• Contact Mark Sabbatini at mark.sabbatini@juneauempire.com or (907) 957-2306.
