We need to proceed with caution to keep Anchorage safe

A safe and healthy Anchorage: It’s what we all want, but to rush the city’s reopening process without explicit safeguards and clear communication with the public on a wide range of issues affecting their everyday lives could leave Anchorage not so safe, and disproportionately affect those who are at high risk or socially and economically disadvantaged.

I have a number of unanswered questions related to the implications of reopening public-facing businesses which are likely the first we’ll see open under the new plan.

Enforcement: How will the public know what protective measures are required in a business? Will they be posted? How will measures be enforced? Will it be up to the public to lodge complaints if businesses don’t follow measures, and if so, how do they do it?

Worker protection: If called back to work, what are the protections for high-risk individuals or people who live with high-risk individuals?

Consumer protection: Will alternate means of obtaining essentials still remain available as businesses are allowed to reopen? What potential risks to current systems are being posed by opening back up — i.e., is take-out or delivery food riskier if the restaurant is now doing dine-in as well?

Child care: If called back to work, what do people do about child care with school not in session? Are there child care subsidies? Can individuals refused to return to work due to child care issues and still have a job later?

Unemployment and federal relief: If we see a spike in cases and businesses are closed again, will employees who returned to work be eligible for unemployment? Will there be a waiting period? What happens to eligibility for business hoping to take advantage of federal relief. Does that eligibility go away if they reopen? If we have to shut down again, what impact does that have on eligibility?

I write this on April 22, and we propose to open on Monday, April 27. Will a weekend be enough time to get all questions answered? I hope the mayor will consider holding a town hall-style press conference to address the large amount of public concern raised since the Safe Anchorage plan was released earlier this week. I’d be happy to gather questions and get them to the administration for response.

Taking calculated risks is a part of life, but risks aren’t calculated if we do not have adequate information to assess the risk. It is the government’s job to make sure the information is available and right now, we still have a lot of work to do. I’m not confident that a weekend, or even five days, is enough time.

I understand the urgency to reopen Anchorage’s economy, but doing so without addressing serious issues seems rushed. I applaud the mayor and his team for working so diligently on this plan, but until it is more concrete and clear, we risk too much by opening the floodgates to a new wave of COVID-19 cases in Alaska’s largest city. Right now, I caution business owners, employees and residents alike to wait until there are more specifics before venturing too far from where we are now. I hope the answers to these questions, and many more, come before Monday so we can truly have a safe Anchorage.

Meg Zaletel is a member of the Anchorage Assembly, representing Midtown.

The views expressed here are the writer’s and are not necessarily endorsed by the Anchorage Daily News, which welcomes a broad range of viewpoints. To submit a piece for consideration, email commentary(at)adn.com. Send submissions shorter than 200 words to letters@adn.com or click here to submit via any web browser. Read our full guidelines for letters and commentaries here.