New York City performance artist Penny Arcade visited Juneau the first time last month for her birthday. Those who went were lucky she agreed to do two shows while in town. The one I saw at Perseverance Theater was excellent. While talking to the audience, Ms. Arcade brought up the puzzling number of jewelry stores downtown, then mentioned seeing a lot of signs proclaiming local shop ownership. She asked in 20 or so jewelry shops where the Russian Orthodox church is; none of their workers knew. After that, those signs made sense to her. The persons working in these shops are not locals, and the shops themselves have no real connection to this place. (The Jewel Box store on Front Street is locally owned; apparently she didn’t ask there.) It would surprise no one if most non-locally owned jewelry shops were cruise ship owned or affiliated.
I was reminded of Ms. Arcade’s remarks as my wife and I walked through downtown. The sheer number of seemingly cruise ship corporation owned or affiliated jewelry stores is overwhelming. They dominate the downtown retail scene, and not in a good way. I can’t imagine anyone thought: let’s enhance the experience of visitors and locals by opening a jewelry store in downtown Juneau. Why it even makes business sense is not intuitive, but I understand how one expensive piece can pay for the entire tourist season’s worth of rent and salaries.
Ironically, there are signs posted by the City and Borough of Juneau throughout downtown indicating a “historical district.” Unfortunately, there is little downtown that evokes history or even place, certainly not on South Franklin Street (except maybe for the bars). Most jewelry stores there are identical to ones in cruise destinations throughout Southeast Alaska and in the Caribbean. These stores manifest only an eternal present, one that knows or respects no local history or unique identity. Theirs is a world of the eternal “sale,” of gleaming store fronts full of generic displays, of hucksterism running roughshod over a community.
This situation is a done deal and not going to change anytime soon. We can chalk this up in part to the collateral damage of industrial tourism. But also to a lack of vision by our city leaders. What has happened to downtown Juneau is an affront to our town. As a community we let this happen. Shame on us.
Paul McCarthy
Juneau
Comments (5)
Add commentAlas, its true. There is no
Alas, its true. There is no reason to go downtown beyond Pelmenis. Maybe an occasional run to the rock dump. Downtown Juneau has become a monstrosity. I could see a jewelry store, specializing in locally produced gold jewelry, or maybe garnet, or something that has a connection to Alaska. I dont even take my visiting friends and relatives down there.
I wonder how
entrenched the tourist-traps are, meaning do most of them actually own the buildings and land? - If so, it will be next to impossible to get rid of them. For those that are leased, it would be nice to phase them out and give preference to a locally owned, year-round tourist trap as opposed to the cruise ship variety. I find many reasons to go to downtown Juneau. I love the city-center aspect of it - an actual sense of community. I too find it cumbersome at times driving out Than Road for example, but I'm also aware of the big boon that tourism is to Juneau. I'd like to see many less package jewlery and pure tourist stores as well, but don't throw out the baby with the bathwater. Downtown still has many local shops, run by Juneauites, with a wide range of goods that makes for a satisfying local experience. I'm somewhat tired of hearing the rants against downtown. Juneau is a great place to live, and we're all in it together as a community. Let's try to make it better by providing positive solutions as opposed to bitter whining.
So true: Mammon rules this town!
Downtown is a joke to any "normal" visitor to Juneau.
I do not take my visitors downtown because I am embarrassed. The employees in the jewellery stores don't even know where they are I swear.
It is just a matter of time before Taku Fisheries will be kicked out to make room for more trinkets and baubles.
The fishermens memorial is allready on its way.
money laundering
Money laundering, at its simplest, is the act of making money that comes from Source A look like it comes from Source B. In practice, criminals are trying to disguise the origins of money obtained through illegal activities so it looks like it was obtained from legal sources. Otherwise, they can't use the money because it would connect them to the criminal activity, and law-enforcement officials would seize it.
Need I say more?
Red Dog
Gordy should never have been forced to move the Red Dog from where it was next to the Artic! That was Juneau history at it's finest, I loved to hear the "Tin can" played by Hatti Jessup, just the history on the walls was impressive.