In this Year of Kindness we give two weeks for nine homeless people to move off the Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority Land located on a rocky peninsula in Juneau’s subport: disabled vets who served our country suffering from PTSD, a mental health disease.
How about the city of homeless that had to be hauled out from under the library on stretchers on a high tide? Each week local crime increases, and a man finds a body floating in a covered hot tub.
In this year of kindness, a homicide suspect wants a better law library because he has been accused of first-degree and second-degree murder, manslaughter, criminally negligent, third-degree assault and weapons misconduct in 2015.
A man punched and kicked another to death. Talk to the police about seeing the same people they arrested two days later on the streets because of a lack of funding to the District Attorney’s Office. Ask the firefighters about the inebriates and being stuck in traffic when minutes matter. Talk to our first responders about the increase in aid units and ladder trucks as they try to serve ourcommunity with a projected 5,360 increase in call volume forecast for 2018. Maybe we should have a tourism tax since so many visitors need our city services and the opioid epidemic is out of control.
Yet, we want positive change for others, in this year of kindness. Fatal shootings, beatings, and heroin needles litter the alleys and bathrooms of Juneau. Vandalism, theft, harassment, and domestic violence fills AWARE. The Glory Hole is at capacity and we make a list for winter campsites for the homeless.
Our legislators hand us SB 91 that talks the talk of treatment, but makes no law with teeth that would make criminals accountable. Local businesses are moving out of downtown due to the increase in crime and parking issues.
Alaskans need reliable state and federal government, not meetings after meetings that have no solution.
We are facing an income tax, and our legislators have to have special sessions, can’t complete a budget when we face a government shutdown. Loss of jobs, 4.3-4.5 percent unemployment. And people are leaving.
In this year of kindness, let’s focus on making Juneau and Alaska our home again. Let’s stop the sugar coating and fix the problem.
• Loretto Jones is a candidate for the City and Borough of Juneau Assembly.
