In Alaska, 68 miles of contentious asphalt
As much as Alaskans hate lower-48rs talking about them…I thought I’d point out this article…
This road has been in the planning stages since I was in Skagway back in ’98. There was a definite split in the town as to whether or not to build. One of my coworkers at the Fairbanks Grocery Store, responding to my questioning whether or not harm would come by cutting down all those trees, said something to the effect of, “This is Alaska. There are lots of trees. There’s nothing around for miles and miles but trees.”
In the article, they pull a quote that says that the issue isn’t clear cut politics as usual, “that opinions aren’t separated along partisan lines or conservative vs. nonconservative.” But knowing very little about the region — other quotes allude to what is at issue.
Money. Buckaroos. $$. Moolah.
“Communities are meant to grow,” says Kathy Hosford, a lifelong Alaskan who rents rustic tourist cabins in Skagway, the Juneau road’s proposed terminus. “If you can’t grow, you can’t survive.”
The emphasis above is added. Ms. Hosford rents cabins in Skagway. That means that most of her business and income is coming in from the roads into Skagway. Naturally she wants another road and another route in so that her clientele and profit will increase. The argument about “Communities begin meant to grow” is a tad bit frightening. Look at urban flight and sprawl in the lower 48. Communities aren’t growing. They are disappearing and reemerging across the land as some sort of sick virus – leaving empty Wal-Mart shells in their wake. Skagway has been around since the gold rush. Its survival does not depend on this road being built.
In fact, Skagway’s survival is due in large part to the number of Cruise Ships that line up to land at her docks. A town of about 700 in the winter grows to 5,000 on busy days when three ships come in from the fjord. I remember another local, during the taping of a radio show in the town’s Gold Pan Theater, discussing this matter and remarking with an endearing emotion in her voice, “We love our winters.”
It seems that the majority of the population in Skagway is still opposed to the plan. The article also shows the EPA’s disapproval. But if the debate has been going on for at least seven years now, probably longer, it will most definitely continue.