A recent think-tank survey found 42 percent of Haines business leaders “pessimistic,” according to Rain Coast Data, a think-tank based in Juneau. If those numbers are accurate, they’re not particularly surprising given that commercial fishing — a big economic driver in Haines — is suffering a severe downturn in prices to fishermen. A crisis occurs in the fishery about every…
Are two local governments better than one? Some of the folks who supported consolidation of the City of Haines and Haines Borough in 2002 are now wondering if it wasn’t a mistake. The old City of Haines, with boundaries just around downtown, served as an extension of the Haines Chamber of Commerce, including keeping downtown looking trim and well-maintained. The…
Shelley, 27, was born in China and moved with her family to the United States. She was working at Saturday’s Farmer’s Market, serving up homemade custards and Pavlovas, which were selling well. As a favor to me when I went to speak with friends, she manned my table soliciting signatures on a petition to save camping at Portage Cove Wayside.…
Why are politics in Haines so divisive? Why so mean? Why do so many disagreements in this town become holy wars between crusaders and infidels, where all tactics are justifiable and only total, crushing defeat of the other side is victory? Why so many recalls? Why so many complaints? Why are so many of us so upset? We live in…
The Haines Restaurant Guild met Friday. There’s no such thing, officially. But there was a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce Friday of young cooks, chefs, restaurant owners and would-be owners. On the whole, they’re an energetic bunch, attempting to make money in a famously perilous line of work in a town not awash in cash during an economic downturn.…
Thousands of years ago, people invented rules and governments as a means of resolving differences that didn’t involve bashing each other with rocks. We’re still at it, making rules so we can live in a world where we needn’t pick up a rock — or be bashed by one. The most ambitious form of government is democratic: That is, agreeing…
Bobby Milnes, who’s in charge of snowplows on Canada’s side of the Haines Highway, says it’s snow and wind – not budget issues – that have caused this winter’s road closures. For weeks at a time since December, plow drivers have abandoned efforts to keep open two lanes through Chilkat Pass, instead settling on pilot cars and scheduled convoys to…
This week I laid out a plan for addressing illegal garbage dumping in the borough: To launch an education campaign and have the government buy pre-paid orange landfill bags for folks who need help affording their trash bill. My wealthy, educated white friends were aghast. Use my tax dollars to subsidize miscreants who foul our valley and flout our laws?…
Fifty or more years ago, people didn’t worry too much about their trash. Many dumped theirs at the first pullout heading out Lutak Road. Down went garbage, washing machines, even cars. For some visitors, their first view of Haines was of a beachfront garbage dump. The rock outcropping became known as Garbage Point. Although a sanitary landfill was established and…
A friend of mine described his residency: “I live in Alaska year-round except for Novembruary.” For those four months, my friend went to Mexico or Thailand or Florida or anywhere warmer, brighter and drier than here in deep winter, which would describe most of the rest of the world. I give my friend credit for owning up to his annual…