Lawsuits.
From the few proponents of the initiative I talked to, the vote yes is a message to the cruise industry. While I’d love to have fewer cruisers, it is too late, as they are here to stay.
Passage of the initiative will only mean local government will become engaged in numerous lawsuits from the industry and the many local businesses and will cost local taxpayers millions of dollars. A win is only an empty promise is that it won’t really scale back the impacts of the 1.6 million visitors have on a community of about 30,000 residents.
At 77, I’ve spent more than half of my life in Juneau, and as a downtown resident much of that time I witnessed and experienced the impacts of the cruise ship industry. As now a resident of Douglas I avoid downtown during cruise ship days.
Reality check for Juneauites: the number of residents is falling; state government jobs is no longer our mainstay; mining jobs have peaked and will fall; and tourism has become a dominant force in our economy.
I’d love to see local government focus its energy upon electrifying docking berths, keeping tourists away from resident favorite spots like Perseverance Trail and my favorite spot Granite Basin, where I want my ashes spread, and, of course, lower and more moderate priced housing.
I also want to see local government continue to work with the cruise industry to ease the impacts of tourism on locals. The industry needs to understand overcrowding lessens the experience of passengers who come to see the beauty of our community and surrounding areas, and not the hordes of people they might find at Disneyland or the Grand Canyon.
Rodger Painter
Douglas