The Anchorage Assembly decided Tuesday night that the name of Alaska’s late congressman should be attached to the city’s port after all.
It took about an hour of awkward discussion and procedural maneuvering before the Assembly finally arrived at a straight up-or-down vote to change the name from the Port of Alaska to the Don Young Port of Alaska.
With his widow Anne Garland Young following the meeting in person, the name change passed in a 10-2 vote. Members Karen Bronga and Meg Zaletel voted no.
Mayor Dave Bronson said Young was in his office a week before he died in 2022, and had asked that the port be renamed after him.
“Quite frankly, that’s why we’re here today,” Bronson said. “Don was a friend of mind. He was a gentleman of the highest order. And I just thought it’s right that the dean of (the) House got the port named after him that he actually requested.”
Assembly Chair Chris Constant supported the name change, but discouraged making Young out as a saint.
“It’s not been fair to a honest record of Don Young’s life and story in Alaska,” Constant said. “It was great and it was terrible and it was everything — it was life! And we should not practice hagiography in undoing the stories and making false narratives about people.”
Constant, a Democrat, said he respected Young, a Republican, especially for actions toward the end of his life. Constant highlighted Young’s words in the aftermath of the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and his vote for the massive federal infrastructure bill. Constant framed both as Young rejecting his party’s position to look out for Alaska and the nation.
Don Young died in March of 2022. He was the most senior member of Congress at the time, representing Alaska in the House of Representatives continuously since 1973.
The new name is a partial rejection of a renaming panel’s recommendation. The panel wanted the place referenced in the name to change as well, so that it became “The Don Young Port of Anchorage.”
Historically, the facility was known as the Port of Anchorage until the Assembly changed it to the Port of Alaska in 2017. It was a symbolic move, in part to convey to legislators who fund infrastructure projects the port’s importance to the entire state. By weight, most goods that enter Alaska pass through the port.
