Choose CBJ leaders who support growth

Cruise ships and visitors in downtown Juneau on Tuesday, Aug 25, 2026. (Mark Sabbatini / Juneau Independent)

By Bruce Abel

Assembly decisions are too often viewed by both the public and sitting Assembly members as isolated decisions without consideration for downstream consequences. This is a natural state of public policy decision-making. After all, city government has always been able to return to the public to shore up its financial resources with fresh tax revenue. Unfortunately, this disconnect often results in poor long-term decisions. 

For example, the Assembly holds a sliver of tidewater between the old subport property owned by Huna Totem Corp. and the State of Alaska Tidelands. This property, originally slated for a new state-of-the-art cruise ship dock, Aak’w Landing, included uplands development with a reception hall, restaurants, shops, covered parking, a public park, and even affordable housing.

At the time permitting began, Huna-Totem was ready to commit $150 million to the project. This investment in Juneau would have provided dozens of short-term construction jobs, material sales and substantial CBJ revenue. In the long term, the original design would have provided roughly a hundred new job opportunities for our community and perpetual tax revenue. The original project would have taken pressure off the downtown core via a world-class development, something cruise critics have advocated for years. But after years of CBJ stonewalling, the project scope has been reduced to a dock, a reception building and surface parking because the permitting delay changed the financial reality of the development. Delay tactics are often used by bureaucracies when administration leadership wants to kill a project without igniting a public debate. The result? Juneau will have all the impact on the dock without most of the community benefits. We won’t get restaurants, covered parking, a park, housing, or nearly as many jobs in both the short and long term. 

That doesn’t sit well with me and perfectly illustrates the disconnect between short-term thinking and long-term community impact. By delaying the project, CBJ leadership has reduced future tax revenues, destroyed job opportunities, construction jobs, and material sales. Was this wise? Where was CBJ leadership while this was unfolding? Why wasn’t the Assembly demanding action? Did leadership consider or even understand the impacts on Juneau that slow-walking the tidewater lease and permits would have? Of course, when you believe there’s an unending revenue stream via tapping the existing tax base then there really isn’t any incentive or sense of urgency to encourage growing the tax base.

Now what about Goldbelt’s master plan for North Douglas? The development will invest nearly a half a billion dollars, add more than 100 jobs, create life-changing opportunities for our children, bring housing, add children to our schools, and add millions in property and sales tax dollars to the CBJ treasury. So where is city leadership on that project? I sure don’t see a concerted push to help foster and promote the development. Instead, there seems to be resistance and need to show who’s in charge. How does that benefit the taxpayers of Juneau? The CBJ hasn’t figured out that business moves quickly via necessity, a lesson the Assembly would be wise to learn.

Once again, short-term decisions at the city seem to be more important than long-term benefits. And this brings me to the Assembly elections. Which candidates are interested in growing Juneau, and which candidates would rather manage decline? Which have a proven track record of obstructing development, opportunity and growth? How does that affect your vote? I’d like to see Juneau prosper, which is only possible when we actively grow our community through business opportunity and development. That hasn’t been a focus of CBJ leadership for at least the last 20 years, and we are living the result; school closures, shrinking enrollment, higher taxes, unaffordable housing, and a shrinking population. It’s time to change that trajectory. It’s time for the CBJ to promote and encourage private development and eliminate the government barriers that so often kill development projects. Juneau needs to elect candidates that understand the CBJ is in business forever and act accordingly.

• Bruce Abel, a graduate of the University of Alaska Fairbanks (BBA) and Gonzaga University (MBA), is retired. He owned and operated Don Abel Building Supply and Valley Lumber Company. He is a past president of the Juneau Chamber of Commerce and the Western Building Material Dealer Association. He is currently the vice chairman of Alaska Aerospace Corporation.