Roadmap to a Vital and Safe Anchorage

This group sees a need for activation and beautification in Downtown Anchorage.  RVSA participants described Downtown’s current reality as lacking energy, vibrancy, and perceived safety.  They see a hesitancy to go Downtown and diminishing reasons to draw residents and visitors to the core.

The group believes that Activating Downtown means:

• Creating events and actions to celebrate identity and values.
• Supporting activations by improving infrastructure, incentivizing housing development, and improving security.
• Making Downtown beautiful and easy to navigate.
• Focusing on the pedestrian and rethinking parking.
• Activating outdoor spaces Downtown all year long.
• Supporting existing planning and funding its implementation.

To support the initiative to Activate Downtown, the group’s focus over the next six months is:

• Finding ways to include east Downtown.
• Facilitating options for outdoor dining Downtown this summer.
• Engaging artists in short-term installations, as well as more permanent installation projects.
• Activating more police presence.
• Initiating both small and larger-scale façade improvements.
• Creating/

In June 2021, this implementation group focused specifically on:

• Continued downtown businesses outreach to remove plywood, update and/or clean-up facades for the summer season.
• Supporting downtown events 7-days a week aimed at all types of interest through Anchorage Downtown Partnership.
• Development of a collective calendar of events to drive community members and visitors downtown.
• Exploring existing, free Apps that offer walking tours downtown as a way of promoting local engagement Downtown.
• Curating opinion pieces in the ADN to promote getting Downtown.
• Work towards creating a Co-Working Space in Town Square.

This group evaluated the current realities of doing business in Anchorage and described three main issues.

Workforce: Anchorage has always had issues with maintaining an ample workforce.  The Pandemic has shed light on some of our significant weaknesses in healthcare and education.  Also, we cannot balance the supply and demand of our workforce and our training response.  Finally, we haven’t promoted the trades enough, leaving high-paying trade jobs unfilled.

Regulatory Process: There is a lack of flexibility for businesses to operate and far too much “red-tape” and bureaucratic process.  This issue points to clear communication discrepancies between policy/process makers, enforcers, and the people impacted in business.  Business owners don’t clearly understand the cost and purpose of regulations.

COVID Readiness: As a community, we have been reactive to the impacts of COVID rather than proactive.  Our communication has not always been clear, and there is not always an understanding of what is data-driven versus opinion-driven.  Moving forward, we need more proactive communication between those creating health and safety regulations and those operating businesses to make regulations that make sense.

The group believes that Making it Easier to do Business in Anchorage means:

• More rapid, streamlined training
• Valuing and supporting all types of workforce development (trades, etc.)
• Making hiring easier
• Coordinated government working together towards a common goal
• A review of current government processes with a focus on streamlining them
• Increased access to resources and technical assistance for business
• Advocacy for access to all types of capital
• Clear data around public health

To support the initiative to Make it Easier to do business, the group’s focus over the next six months is:

• The development of a consumer and business confidence tool, the NorthStar Pledge, for the hospitality industry.
• Communication with the current and future MOA leadership to ensure continued support and engagement.
• Work to promote a review of MOA regulations and processes that affect business.
• Healthcare workforce development.
• The development of a public campaign for trades.

In June 2021, this implementation group focused specifically on:

• Implementation of the NorthStar Pledge through Visit Anchorage’s Healthy Anchorage Pledge.
• Reaching out to the Mayor elect’s transition team to introduce RVSA and the group’s work.
• Meeting with the Homeless Coordinator to the new administration.
• Being to define a regulatory process that would make it easier to do business in Anchorage.
• Meetings between the Chamber and Anchorage School District to promote workforce development.
• Coordinating a second meeting of the workforce development group.

This group sees Anchorage as lacking the skilled and ready workforce needed to incentivize investment.  They see people moving from Anchorage because it is expensive.  They see a great deal of empty retail space and commercial space growing larger due to the pandemic.

To Incentivize Investment, Anchorage needs to attract new business and enable existing businesses to grow.  We need to make progress in building the necessary infrastructure to support the entrepreneurial ecosystem. We need to provide tax incentives for development.  To build our workforce, we need to increase enrollment in degree and certificate programs that lead to high-demand jobs and find ways to retain Alaska’s students.

To support the initiative to Incentivize Investment, the group’s focus over the next six months is:

• Aligning investments of the private industry for a public/private partnership.
• Aggregation of Business Resource Information.
• Activating a Federal Infrastructure Earmark Campaign.

In June 2021, this implementation group focused specifically on:

• Identifying State and Municipal capital projects to align private development resources with quasi-public and public resources.
• Identifying private and not-for-profit shovel-ready projects to collect an understanding of the private development planned.
• Meeting with the MOA Directors of Planning and Project Management and Engineering to review and discuss the MOA’s Capital Improvement Project list and process for identifying projects.
• Coordinating a business resource information aggregation by curating presentations about business incentives through the Chamber of Commerce and other entities.
• Hosting a Make-it-Monday Chamber of Commerce panel presentation called “Ready, Set, Grow” that included Chris Schutte, Jon Bittner, and Kirk Rose to provide insight into resources to grow a business.
• Supporting Regulatory Reform Initiatives such as the Title 21 Parking Initiative and Our Downtown Planning project.