I dig into questions about the forces and institutions that shape Juneau, big and small, delightful and outrageous. What stirs you up about how Juneau is built and how the city works?
In this newscast:
In this newscast:
Juneau cruise ship passengers will foot a big chunk of the bill for a new, integrated convention center and performing arts venue.
City officials and the cruise industry have drafted an agreement that would allow up to $10 million in cruise ship passenger taxes to help pay for what’s being called the Capital Civic Center. The Juneau Assembly approved the resolution authorizing the arrangement at its regular meeting Monday night.
Bob Banghart is the executive director of what’s called “The Partnership,” a local nonprofit that originally began to raise funds for a standalone replacement for the aging Juneau Arts and Culture Center.
Juneau voters shot down a grant request for that proposed facility, called the New JACC, in 2019. The Capital Civic Center concept has support from groups that weren’t supportive of the New JACC. It’s got a ballpark cost of $75 million and The Partnership doesn’t intend to ask the City and Borough of Juneau to pay for any more of that.
“If it all comes to pass, and this process that we’ve been pursuing, there wouldn’t be any subsequent contribution from CBJ,” Banghart said. “They’ve already done what they’ve said they’re going to do.”
That is, the city is working on voter-approved renovations to Centennial Hall. Those improvements are compatible with the Capital Civic Center concept.
“What we’re doing as a nonprofit, is bringing a complement to that effort and the money, from a number of sources that aren’t necessarily the city,” Banghart said.
Banghart said philanthropic donors will help pay for it. And, because it would be wholly owned by the city, there’s potential for federal funding. He said he thinks they’re in good position to start and finish the project in the next three to four years.
Banghart said the cruise industry’s become supportive because it needs indoor space. Small cruise lines and tour operators could use rooms there as a beginning and end point for their activities.
Banghart said a miniature, Pike Place-style market of local vendors there would be an attraction for visitors. And, Banghart said the pandemic has shown it’s a valuable space for large-scale emergencies.
This story was updated after the resolution was approved.
In this newscast:
Faculty at Dzántik’i Héeni Middle School in Juneau discovered a covered play area had been vandalized Tuesday morning. There were crude drawings, crude language, someone’s phone number — and a swastika.
Assistant Principal Laura Scholes said they’ve had a spate of vandalism at the school this year. She said the swastika feels like an escalation.
“It’s smiley faces, a couple of you know, sexually explicit kind of drawings, crude things, but not — not anything like this,” she said.
The swastika has had many meanings across many cultures in history. But for the last century or so, innocuous meanings have largely been displaced by associations with white supremacy and Nazi Germany’s mass murder of Jews and other minority groups.
Scholes said they painted over the vandalism immediately and, unlike past incidents, reported it to police.
Juneau police spokesman Lt. Krag Campbell said it’s being investigated. He said individual reports of vandalism are often logged to identify potential trends without much follow-up. But he said this case sticks out and will get more attention. In part because of the swastika, but also because the vandalism included references to a specific person and phone number, meaning this could be some kind of harassment.
Campbell wasn’t ready to call it a hate crime but didn’t rule it out either.
These were at my (Jewish) 8th grader’s school. Maintenance came & painted over them. This was the 1st “big one.” The others are little ones in the bathrooms. This is why race & Holocaust education a *IS* needed in schools. pic.twitter.com/j76Slz2XzY
— One Hot Mess AK (@libbybakalar) March 9, 2022
Scholes doesn’t think it got much exposure and for now, doesn’t intend to address it with her school community. She said that could change, depending on what the police find out.
After KTOO contacted the Anti-Defamation League for comment, the organization said it would reach out to Dzántik’i Héeni to offer support. Miri Cypers is the league’s regional director and she said that could include age-appropriate discussions about history, trauma and the Holocaust.
“We always do advise and try to work with K-12 schools to examine and reflect on the incident that happened and think about how they could make it a teachable moment for their students and their broader school community about how they hopefully want to commit to having a school where all students feel a sense of belonging and there aren’t, you know, hateful acts of vandalism or other hateful acts that happen,” she said.
Cypers said bias incidents are ticking up in schools, which she calls microcosms of our communities. She said exposing these incidents creates opportunities for growth and conversation.
In this newscast:
