• Why are you running?

    Why are you running?

    I’m born and raised here in Juneau, and I am now raising a family of my own. I’m a homeowner. And you know, I’ve seen where Juneau has been, I see where Juneau is, and I see where Juneau can go. I want to be able to live here, I want to be able to retire here and I want my children to be able to find sustainable work and have the option to live here and not worry about sustainable work (or) the cost of living rising. And so we’re in a time of tremendous change. We are looking at not only our social issues, but just economic issues, tourism, everything as a whole. So during this time, these trying times, we find our strength to, you know, want to push forward and make a difference and make a change. So I look forward to taking experience here in Juneau and really moving forward and coming out of this pandemic stronger.

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  • Pandemic response

    Do you think the city’s response to the pandemic has been adequate?

    There is no playbook for this anywhere. And the Assembly has done a fantastic job, taking both science and public comment, putting things together and making hard decisions for Juneau that has kept us in a position to where we have not been overwhelming our health care. As we’ve seen in the recent weeks with the new pop-up testing center and the outbreak from bars, we’re looking at this just overwhelming — everything is changing moment by moment — and I really think that the Assembly has done a fantastic job to get in front of this, to be proactive instead of reactive and Juneau’s numbers have reflected that, that proactiveness and safety. And I think that they have done the best they can with what they have, and I’m proud of the work that they have done. 

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  • 2021 Cruise Season

    How should the city prepare for the 2021 cruise ship season?

    You know, at this point, I think tourism as a whole is going to look different and we are really going to have to communicate with these large tour industries and kind of get a sense of not only what are passengers looking for, but what are the cruise industries going to be needing from the port in which they’re coming to? Juneau has world class facilities to be able to accommodate these ships. Health, safety, mitigation — all of these things are going to be at the forefront of tourism. It is going to take all of us working together to boost and increase that sense of safety that we are working for the best interest of everyone, because we want you to visit our city, and we want everyone to be healthy and we want to be able to remain such a beautiful place and share that with others. But we also have to continue watching the tourism, we don’t want to get bigger than we were. As we were — it kind of felt like we were getting out of control.

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  • Housing and Homelessness

    What role should the Assembly play in addressing housing and homelessness issues in the city?

    That is an amazing question and that is something that the city is working on very diligently. Homelessness, housing, property taxes — those are all city issues. And we need to take what we’re hearing and work with the resources we have to work to improve. These are our community members. We can’t just say, “Oh, they’re just — that’s just someone on the street.” That’s not acceptable. These are our family. These are someone’s sons, daughters, husbands, wives, children. It’s going to take all of us to work together to improve this. And we want to have sustainable, long-lasting change. The Glory Hall moving out to their new campus, to be able to support these issues from all sides. I’m very supportive of it and I think we will start to see some movement forward and some positivity from them.

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  • Racism

    Does Juneau have a problem with racism? If so, how should the Assembly address it?

    You know, I think as a whole we all just need as a nation, we need to start looking deeper. We need to step out of the, “What do I think?” and we need that collective opinion. We need everyone looking at it from all sides. We don’t want to continue to exclude, not even realizing that we are making these exclusions in our decisions. So I really am appreciative of the systemic racism review committee. I think that is going to make some great changes, or at least provide some increased voice to the decisions that we make. And we can work together to further include everyone. It is that unintended exclusion, that we want to avoid. And, whereas I think Juneau is right on the forefront again, we are Alaskans, Alaskans definitely have to work together in order to make things work. And I think that we’ve done a great job so far, but I think there’s always improvement that we can make. And I think we’re doing a great job for that. 

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