Do you think the pace of development and economic growth in Juneau is too fast, too slow or about right? Why?

  • District 1 Assembly

    • Troy Wuyts-Smith

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      I believe it’s going too slow. I am very pro development. There are a lot of issues — I’ve talked to a lot of business owners who are trying to expand: bars that want to add restaurants, restaurants that want to add different areas. And just to get the permit and zoning permissions, it’s just a very long process, and I think that we need to expedite that process and relax zoning restrictions. Because whenever we build and grow, we create more jobs. More jobs creates more revenue. It attracts more tourism. I think we need to speed it up. 

    • Barbara 'Wáahlaal Gíidaak Blake

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      I think we’re about right, in terms of the pace of development here in Juneau. I know that a lot of our development is slowed, our economic development is slowed by the lack of land here. I think a second crossing might help open up some of those opportunities. But in terms of how I see Juneau, you know, we’re a small, big city, for Alaska. And I’d like us to remain so but I appreciate everything we get. 

    • Paul Kelly

      Candidate for District 1 Assembly

      I believe we have a little bit of catching up to do after the pandemic impacted our economy. I’ve done a bit of research into this and I wrote a paper on this for this last last semester at UAS. And one thing I discovered is we already have a pretty diverse economy, I would like to see us expand the tourism industry to cater to more independent travelers and cultural tourism.

  • District 2 Assembly

    • Kelly Fishler

      Candidate for District 2 Assembly

      I would like to see more economic development, especially with small business owners. There’s a lot of barriers that people run into, whether it’s licensing or simply not understanding how to open a business. There’s a lot of opportunities here in Juneau. There’s not very many places where you can buy new clothing here. And we have a lot of Coast Guard families who come up and they say, well, it’s beautiful here, but they’re missing a lot of amenities that they had considered to be standard things that you would find in any town.

    • Michelle Bonnet Hale

      Candidate for District 2 Assembly

      The pace of economic growth in Juneau right now is too slow, and it’s been slowed by COVID. And I think that is one of the critical things that we as assembly members in the upcoming several years need to focus on is to make sure that that pace continues well, and Juneau’s economy becomes strong again.

  • Mayor

    • Beth Weldon

      Candidate for Mayor

      I think the pace of development in Juneau and the economy, is about right for the economy, although we are still in the recovery phase. And for development, I like to see a little bit more development in regards to housing. But that will take some time and we’re working through that at the assembly level doing what we can to help with zoning and opening up other lands.