Letter: Plans to demolish Telephone Hill revive sad memories

Several years ago while living in Fairbanks, a group at the University of Alaska Fairbanks decided that some of the city's historic buildings should be restored and preserved. Motivated primarily by a knee-jerk opposition to anything coming from the university, another group made up mostly of downtown businessmen was formed — to destroy the buildings rather than see the preservationists get their way. They went so far as to have t-shirts printed with "If It's History It's History!" On the eve of the annual Golden Days parade celebrating the founding of Fairbanks, they positioned a bulldozer by the city's oldest building so that it could be symbolically demolished during the parade. Fortunately, some buildings were saved by a local gold miner who moved them to his property.

I moved back to my old hometown of Juneau, expecting a return to the generally more progressive community that I remembered — a place with no room for the attitude expressed in those ridiculous t-shirts up north. However, CBJ's "plan" for redeveloping Telephone Hill has stirred a troubling memory. Demolishing Juneau's historic neighborhood without a definite idea of what would replace it hardly seems like much of a plan. Is the historic significance of the Hill being fully considered? And how do you "redevelop" something that is constantly developing? Telephone Hill has been developing as a cherished neighborhood and welcome green space for the Juneau community and its summer guests for decades. The Assembly's plan is not a redevelopment — it's a burying of all the previous developments made by the stewards of that property. I don't believe that CBJ's push for demolishing the Hill is rooted in anything like the malice I witnessed in Fairbanks, but its plan for Telephone Hill has me deeply saddened and disappointed.

Joseph Karson

Juneau