Today is voting day in Anchorage (no, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke). There are lots of important issues on the ballot today, including a few seats on the city assembly, a couple school board seats, and a slew of propositions.

No matter what your political views, be it liberal, conservative, libertarian, or whatever, please get out and vote today.

I voted today, have you?

Photo by yksin

In next week’s municipal election, one of the issues facing Anchorage voters is taxi deregulation. Currently, taxi permits are regulated by the city and are very costly, effectively limiting the number of taxis that are on the streets. In fact, the last taxi permit was issued in 1994.

Proponents of proposition 8 argue that the deregulation will create more competition, resulting in more cabs and lower fares.  They say that the free market is the best decider of how many taxis should be out on the streets.  More taxis on the roads will also lead to better service to outlying communities like Girdwood and Eagle River, that currently have little or no taxi service.

The proposition’s opponents argue that deregulating Anchorage’s taxi industry would flood the streets with cabs, and lower the overall quality of service. There have been some pretty outrageous commercials on the radio and TV the past few weeks, claiming that deregulating taxis in Anchorage will lead to some sort of taxi “wild west” scenario, where drivers are allowed charge whatever they want, take tourists on ridiculously long routes, toss your baggage around, etc. You can see one of the commercials here on YouTube.

I’m always suspicious of this type of industry-sponsored campaign, where instead of hard facts they use outrageous claims, trying to scare people into voting their way. If they actually had real facts or data to backup their claims, why don’t they use them in their commercials?

I haven’t seen anything that would lead me to believe that deregulating the taxis in Anchorage will be a bad thing.  There may be a certain period of time while everything is in flux when conditions may not be ideal, but in the long run, I truly believe that letting the free and open market determine the number of taxis on the road is the way to go.

What do you think about all this?  Do you take taxis often?  Do you think the overall quality of service will go up or down if the taxis are deregulated?

This Associated Press photo of the Aurora Borealis taken from the International Space Station was on the front page of the Anchorage Daily News this morning:

Absolutely beautiful.

Well, it looks like curbside recycling is finally coming to Anchorage (or at least to parts of it). My wife and I have been dedicated recyclers for years, but the fact of the matter is, it’s not as easy as it could be. And for most people, if something isn’t easy, they just won’t do it.

Many other large cities around the size of Anchorage have had successful curbside recycling programs for years (in fact, Anchorage is the largest city in the country without curbside recycling). I’m thrilled to see this finally coming to Anchorage, but it makes me wonder what took so long?

The current plan is more of a test-run to see how well the program works for about 20 percent of Anchorage residents. The program will cover most of Anchorage’s north side – everything north of Tudor and west of Boniface. Unfortunately, this still means no curbside recycling for me. The plan also calls for additional recycling locations around town, for those that don’t live within the boundaries for curbside pickup.

Hopefully this new program will help get a much larger percentage of Anchorage residents recycling. City officials think that with the full implementation of this program, most residents will be able to recycle between 32 and 38 percent of their waste. Kudos to the city assembly for finally stepping up and bringing a curbside recycling program to Anchorage.

Photo from the Anchorage Daily News

Google Maps Street View has officially made its way to Alaska, with its debut last month in Juneau. Juneau is one of about 30 cities around the country where Google has used specially equipped vehicles to photograph all of the city’s streets, allowing users to take a virtual tour of the city by navigating its streets.

Here’s a view from in front of the capitol building:

And another of the Governor’s mansion:

When Google first introduced the Street View feature, many people voiced privacy concerns that Google was allowing people from around the world too close a look into their private lives. Some websites even began collecting some of the more “interesting” images that could be found on Google Street View, including girls sunbathing, a man going into an adult bookstore, and another man coming out of a strip club.

Some of these images may seem a bit close to “Big Brother”, but the fact of the matter is, all of the photos were taken from a public street, so there is nothing that can be seen on Google Street View that you or I or anyone else couldn’t see by simply walking or driving past. Anything that is visible from a public street is perfectly legal to photograph.

Personally, I like the new Street View feature. When Google first introduced it in larger cities like New York, I had fun exploring the streets of Manhattan from the comfort of my living room. Something like this can only help the tourism industry in Alaska. It is certainly no replacement for actually being here, and when people around the world are able to use this site to get a small taste of the beauty of this state, they will be more inclined to want to visit so they can see it for themselves. How can that be a bad thing for Alaska?

Update: rumor has it that a Google Street View car was spotted in Anchorage this fall – I wonder how long it will be before Anchorage will be up on the site?

Earlier this week I headed to Club Paris for lunch, one of Anchorage’s premier downtown restaurants, located just down from the Egan Convention Center.

Club Paris has been cooking up some of the tastiest meals in Anchorage since 1957, and has been voted to have the best steak in Anchorage for the last 7 years in a row. Since I was there for lunch, I didn’t quite have the appetite for a big steak. Instead, I decided to go with one of their popular fillet mignon burgers.

I have to say that I was not disappointed. Not only was this one of the largest burgers I’ve ever had, but the meat was extremely tender and juicy (as one would expect from a fillet mignon).

Aside from the excellent food, the atmosphere was very pleasant. Inside of Club Paris, the lights are dimmed considerably, making for a very intimate experience. If you haven’t been to Club Paris before, I can’t recommend it highly enough. If you go for lunch, their fillet mignon burgers are hard to beat. If you’re there for dinner, they have a number of excellent steaks to choose from.

You better get a reservation, though; seating is limited and they tend to fill up fast, especially for dinner.

Late Monday night, Deborah Bicknell was the last musher to cross the finish line under the burled arch in Nome, ending this year’s Iditarod sled dog race.

Bicknell, the 78th musher to reach Nome in this year’s race, was awarded the Red Lantern for being the last musher to finish the race.

After puling into Nome with 8 dogs, and nearly 6 days after champion Lance Mackey, Bicknell proceeded to blow out the widow’s lamp, signaling the official end of the race.

Coming in last place in the Iditarod is nothing to be ashamed of – just being able to finish the race is quite an accomplishment (18 mushers scratched before reaching Nome).

Congratulations to Bicknell, and all of the other inspiring teams that were able to endure such a harsh race this year.

I just saw that 7 time Tour De France winner Lance Armstrong gave a shout-out to 2 time Iditarod winner (and fellow cancer survivor) Lance Mackey on his blog recently:

“The inner resilience you have to develop to get through this thing has to be enormous. Mackey’s achievement is another reminder that life after cancer can hold your biggest achievements and my hat’s off to him.”

These 2 amazing athletes have shown that not even cancer can keep them down – I stand back in awe of them.  My guess is that we’ll continue to see great things from Lance Mackey in the years to come.

Or maybe I should just call him a racist.

Last week, the local talk-radio host and ADN columnist revealed his true colors (and utter ignorance) with the following comments:

Fagan: You don’t know who Louis Farrakhan is?

Girl on show: No I don’t…

Fagan: He’s the head of the Nation of Islam of the United States, he’s a big, uh…y’know – hates Jews. But all Muslims are supposed to hate Jews. To be a good Muslim.

Girl on show: See, I’m not a Jew, so I didn’t know that.

Fagan: You don’t have to be Muslim to know that Muslims are supposed to hate Jews.

For someone to make such a broad, sweeping generalization of any group of people is inexcusable. I thought the year was 2008; this feels more like the 1950’s. This just shows Dan Fagan’s low level of intelligence and complete ignorance. For someone who purports to be a man of faith, Fagan sure doesn’t practice the love and acceptance that most religions teach.

It’s ridiculous to me what passes for “legitimate” journalism these days. People like Dan Fagan, who are not interesting enough on their own, must resort to this type of “shock journalism”, making outrageous claims, to get attention. The sad part is that it works: just look at how popular Ann Coulter’s books are. If nothing else, people love to hate her. And for some people, any attention is good attention. It looks like Dan Fagan is shooting for the same thing.

After Lt. Governor Sean Parnell announced last week that he plans to run against Don Young for U.S Congress, the next obvious question is: can Don Young be beat? After 18 terms as Alaska’s lone Congressman, many people will continue to vote for him simply out of habit, regardless of his current legal woes, arguing that his seniority is too valuable to give up.

Young, who is currently under federal investigation for his ties to VECO (among other things, see the website Drop Don for all the details), appears to be at his most vulnerable in years. Even republican Governor Sarah Palin has said that it’s time for a change, and immediately endorsed Parnell after making his announcement at last week’s Alaska Republican Convention.

One can only hope that Parnell will finally be a worthy opponent for Young’s Congress seat. Many others have tried unsuccessfully in years past to take Young’s place, but none have had as high a profile as the current Lt. Governor (whose father, Pat Parnell, ran against Young in 1980, but only garnered around 25% of the vote).

Parnell may very well have the best chances of any of Young’s prior opponents, but it’s difficult to say whether the fact that they are both from the same party will help or hurt him.