Downtown Revitalization

Recently a group called the Downtown Improvement Group (DIG) organized a cleanup day in Juneau. What solutions would you offer to make the center of Juneau a better place for residents and visitors alike?

The Downtown Improvement Group as well as the Downtown Business Association as well as the Juneau Economic Development Council are all great steps toward improving downtown. It’s going to take a collaborative effort where people pitch in and work together and that is exactly the kind of forum that is necessary for that to happen. It’s going to have to be everybody coming together and it’s such a great thing that that happened. The City Assembly can continue to encourage that, can provide forums for that, can publicize those things, can provide incentives for businesses to clean up their facilities and their storefronts. All of those things are helpful. The other thing that is vital is to get people living downtown again. There are facilities in downtown that are vacant apartments and of course we all know about the Gastineau Apartments that burned down. To encourage downtown vitality, people need to be living downtown in greater numbers again.

I agree with the community that there are some issues downtown. However, there are also a lot of good things going on downtown. I’d like to take for example the work that’s been completed by the Goldstein Improvement Co. They own approximately two city blocks downtown and those buildings are in great shape. It’s my understanding that over the last year they’ve invested about a million dollars in those buildings to improve them, so I think that is excellent. We’ve also got the Walter Soboleff Center that is being built right now by the Sealaska Heritage Institute. That’s also another wonderful part of our downtown community. In addition to that we have the seawalk that’s gone in. So there’s a lot of good work that’s going on downtown and I would really like to continue to focus on the good work that’s occurring and hopefully that will branch out to the rest of downtown and help to keep downtown on the up and up and be a nice safe desirable place to be.

I attended DIG’s forum with Hal Hart back two or three weeks ago on the subject. I think that the biggest thing that we as a Borough need to embrace is the fact that all of us in the Borough need to recognize that a healthy, vibrant downtown is important as anything else in this community. It’s important as a Capital City that people that come to visit Juneau have a positive, good impression of their visit here. No matter where you live in the Borough, that is important to you because State and Federal government will always be the main economic engine for the community. Nothing will help that better than to make sure that people recognize Juneau as a responsible and positive Capital City. It could include to allow the private sector – to the extent that it can – to do what it does best: it is to seek solutions. That is what DIG is doing. To the extent that the Borough can help with that process, be it assistance with regulatory changes and pushing to eliminate the derelict buildings, unused buildings, and properties in the downtown area, to transform those, I think that’s certainly an important job for the Borough itself.

The other thing is to help the corollaries to housing, for instance, for parking and amenities that would foster a situation that would encourage more people to live downtown. The Assembly – I believe it was this week – approved use of a previously achieved grant to look at a new parking structure in the Willoughby area and I would really like to see that kind of solution being looked at as well as the possibility of some kind of downtown transportation system whether it is a circulator similar to simple bus (in) the way that the Care-A-Van works, whether it becomes just more taxis, something to connect a parking area to residents living in downtown so that you have something that is a good, year-round living situation. I think that brings more businesses to the downtown and certainly it brings more eyes, more people to the downtown and starts to reduce the vagrancy and vandalism, and the kinds of things that are associated with a downtown that is largely abandoned during the outside of the tourist season.

Let’s start with a baseline. Downtown Juneau is in much better shape than it has been just about any time I can think of. Fifteen years ago when my wife and I chose to buy our home and raise our kids downtown, we didn’t have SLAM going up, the Soboleff Center. Since then we have new shops, new restaurants, new buildings, renovated old buildings. The place is hopping.

The downside of all that activity, is that those people who have a hard time making it on their own and who kind of live around the edges of our society, of our communities gravitate toward that activity and all that commerce and all those people.

And so, I think we’ve got some opportunities. I’m thrilled at these business groups, like the Downtown Business Association, like the Downtown Improvement Group, working hard on their side of the house and pushing on the city’s side of the house. One of the things that we need to work hardest on, I think, is the twin problems of homelessness and of addiction. And if those were easy nuts to crack, it’d have been done decades ago. But I do think that a Housing First model for those folks who are chronically inebriated and who aren’t going to get completely sober is an important step. The research shows us that it makes a big difference in their lives and in the lives of the rest of the community. And that’s very important, that it’s a benefit to all of us when we provide some housing where those folks can live.

The other thing I want to look hard at: In the last year we did some incentives for subdivisions with regard to taxes. And I think we need to look at vertical building, which is best suited to downtown with its parking garages and density approach to things anyway. There is an incentive for sprinkler systems and there’s an incentive in the historic district. But we need to look at what more we can do to get builders putting more housing above those downtown shops, above those downtown restaurants. That means more eyes on the street. It means more folks paying attention. And I think it will benefit not just our economy, but our community downtown.

We’ve made some great progress with the Sealaska Heritage building in downtown Juneau. It’s a shining example of what can be done. The Gastineau Apartments need to be rebuilt. Perhaps we could get other businesses to put year-round apartments upstairs. This would also help make Juneau a more walkable community.

I’m really happy that downtown business owners are already taking the first steps. There are things the assembly can do and there are things they can’t. They can’t force private business owners to make themselves look nice. They can incentivize it but the business owners really need to be taking those steps and I’m happy they are. Regarding downtown, I think the big first step and I’m happy to see progress is being made, is the Gastineau Apartments need to be dealt with either by being renovated by the current owner or by eminent domain or something to that effect to get a big moldy, old building back into use. Other than that, I think there’s definitely incentives they can give business owners downtown to help it and we need to try to find ways to use buildings that are empty for half the year.

I know every year when the cruise ships come into town, people snap into action and make things look nice. But I think that we should try and keep it nice year round. Downtown is mostly businesses on the sea level. And I think the local business owners should look into keeping their establishments nice, year-round, if possible. The city should probably take the lead on that, and keep the public areas, the parks and public facilities in order, also.

I’d like the Assembly to work with the commission downtown, the downtown revitalization commission. I’d like to see them determine if they can offer incentives to current building holders, if there’s something they can do to help them spruce things up. … Obviously they need, not necessarily incentives, but we need to look at ways we can encourage business … all year long, is what we need to look at. Obviously it’s seasonal downtown. Very few places stay open. … If there’s programs that assist current building owners to get their, you know, to help them get their buildings revitalized, or whatever the case may be.

I think, again, going back to look at that whole approach of just looking at what the commission is, some of the recommendations and then going off of that, I think that’s a really great idea. I know they’ve already done some good work down there to start with.