Yesterday, Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz announced closure of all bars and restaurants here in Anchorage because Wuhan. The businesses were notified via e-mail around 11 AM with the closing time around 5 PM, a mere six hours later. Darwin Biwer on the Tom Anderson Show this morning said that nobody knew it was coming and the action just put 20,000 of our neighbors out of work.
As of this writing, the current CDC guidance does not mandate bar and restaurant closure. It only recommends against gatherings of over 50 people. In response, some states are closing bars and restaurants. The White House yesterday recommended that number be 10, though they didn’t issue a mandate. However, given the low number of known Wuhan cases here in Alaska, Ethan’s action would seem somewhat over the top.
Depending on your perspective, this closure can be viewed as a couple things. On one hand, it can be argued that this is a prudent action taken for public safety concerns, though Ethan’s continued support for the single use plastic bag ban passed last year would tend to argue otherwise.
On the other hand, Ethan and his Assembly are locked in a political knife fight with Cook Inlet CHARR and other opponents over his alcohol tax. Things got so bad that he had his Fire Chief and Health Department Director pen an ADN Opinion piece over the weekend promising that the alcohol tax will “… bring needed relief to Anchorage’s emergency response system.”
CHARR and others have been running ads in opposition to the tax (Proposition 13) on the Muni ballot. They have been effective ads.
As a mayor with emergency powers and an Assembly that never says no or questions him, what do you do to your political opposition? You put them out of business. You shutter their doors. You make sure no more cash comes in the front door. When the cash goes away, so will their ads. You put 20,000 of your opposition out of work. While the rationale is plausible, the timing is just a little too cute and convenient, especially since CHARR was never included in Ethan’s deliberations. I thought Ethan was supposed to be mayor of all Anchorage rather than just those who agree with him.
The one thing Ethan and his Assembly better pray for is that the newly unemployed Anchorage residents who used to work for bars and restaurants in this town don’t decide to vote en masse when their ballots arrive in the mail this week. If I were CHARR, I would be moving heaven and earth to turn out those people to vote this week and next.
I hope it was all worth it, Ethan.
Standard note to Ethan and his Assembly: If this has become the way the political wars are now fought here in Anchorage, you guys aren’t going to be the only ones who can do that. Now that you’ve set the precedent, I don’t think you’re going to enjoy playing under your new rules a lot. But I will.
Alex Gimarc lives in Anchorage since retiring from the military in 1997. His interests include science and technology, environment, energy, economics, military affairs, fishing and disabilities policies. His weekly column “Interesting Items” is a summary of news stories with substantive Alaska-themed topics. He was a small business owner and Information Technology professional.
