Hey Anchorage, you don’t know us guys on East 3rd Avenue, between Denali Street and Ingra Street, but you should.
We’re just like you — we love our community, take pride in our properties and wrote a mission statement for the beautification and economic development of our area that is moving forward. And we are fun people with a great sense of humor.
We are one of the oldest communities in Anchorage, and our history is colorful and interesting. The cows from The East Side Dairy once roamed our area, an official Ski Bowl — with jumps of 90 feet and 45 feet — existed for nearly 40 years until the Alaska Native Hospital was built in 1953. The first Anchorage school was built in 1915 on 3rd Avenue and Eagle Street. We even had a gambling joint and brothel in the late 1980s that makes our history even more fun.
We are within walking distance of downtown Anchorage, are close to restaurants, a service station, etc., and are working hard to establish East Downtown Anchorage as a thriving extension of the city, We worked with a large gathering of citizens designing a plan for the Heritage Land Bank property located on the former site of the Alaska Native Hospital. The plan includes housing, a farm, a dog park, an outdoor amphitheater, a small grocery store and a coffee shop that would honor the beauty and Native history of the land and increase the tax revenue for the city.
Like you, we care about the homeless issue that has affected our city and also know that many want all of Anchorage’s homeless residents in our area and not yours. We understand that — but is that fair? Cities all over the world are designing their downtowns with farms, housing and trails — Anchorage has the perfect opportunity to do the same. Would that be a better option for Anchorage than a “downtown” homeless camp? Think about it.
— Wadeen Hepworth
Anchorage
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