ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) – Many shops and restaurants in Anchorage are trying to start businesses while still pursuing local mandates. Several in downtown Anchorage have moved to city streets, and in turn, speculated calls about the involvement of Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz in their expansions, which the mayor vehemently denies.
“A lot of the criticism took the fact that I was an investor in these companies and made some unfair conclusions,” Berkowitz said Friday. “I have been engaged in not influencing my official duties in any way on my personal investment decisions, and vice versa.”
Sure, the city center now looks a little different than it did for the coronavirus pandemic: Several blocks have been completely or partially shut down as restaurant and business owners expand operations in municipal streets. Although the mayor has financial interests in a handful of businesses around the city, they are not located on any of the closed streets. He also said Thursday that he had no hand in choosing for whom businesses could or could not be built, and that he did not put the idea of downtown expansions in the first place.
“All businesses in the city had the ability to make decisions,” he said. “I realize this has gotten a lot of attention, but if you look closely, a lot of the accusations are not true.”
A recent blog post linked Berkowitz to several entities, including Crush Bistro, one of the downtown restaurants that expanded to G Street for its brick-and-mortar restaurant. Berkowitz has no share or ownership in Crush, according to state records filed with the Alaska Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development. However, Berkowitz shares business interests with two of the owners of Crush Restaurant, which manages partnerships in three limited liability companies that oversee restaurants in which Berkowitz has an interest. Those LLCs serve Spenard Roadhouse, South Restaurant + Coffeehouse, and Snow City Cafe.
Regarding his investments in local restaurants, records submitted to the Alaska Public Offices Commission show that, in 2019, Berkowitz personally received between $ 10,000 and $ 20,000 for his membership in Snow City Cafe and Spenard Roadhouse, two popular dining establishments in Anchorage. For a personal stake in South Restaurant and Coffee, he received between $ 2,000 and $ 5,000, according to state applications.
None of these restaurants have expanded to municipal streets, although they have all expanded their services for open dinners, something that is allowed as the municipality and local business owners navigate how they can function safely during the pandemic.
The Anchorage Downtown Partnership introduced the proposal to get businesses to relocate to downtown streets, according to the group’s executive director, Amanda Moser. The idea was then proposed to businesses around the downtown area and grew out of it, she said.
“We want to stand with companies and find ways to make them viable,” Moser said. ‘We put it out there, and people came back to us and brought the opportunity. And there we cooperated, and did the closing of the road. ‘
Moser said she had seen cities with walking districts over the lower 48, and thought it could work in Anchorage. The idea was raised in May at a meeting of the Task Force Economic Resiliency, a group that Berkowitz met early in his administration. The group then went to companies to find out who would support the relocation and who would not, and began working with the municipality to close roads and permits needed.
“It was an idea that we thought was a good idea, that we promoted it,” Berkowitz said of his involvement in the project, “and demanded that the state sign off on the distribution of alcohol on the streets. That this is something that we thought more companies would encourage use. ”
In June, Berkowitz Municipality of Anchorage signed Emergency Order 12, allowing temporary adjustment of permits so that approved companies such as restaurants, breweries, distilleries and wineries can “physically sit outside remotely” during the pandemic. It is also pushing for local guidelines to better comply with laws imposed by the state, the Alcohol Control Board, before deciding at a meeting earlier this summer that a temporary expansion of licensed farms would be beneficial during the pandemic.
“We know, when we are dealing with the pandemic, that outside is better than inside,” Berkowitz added, “and we want to make sure companies have as many options as possible.”
Several streets are currently used as community spaces as areas for downtown dining. G St. between 4th and 5th Aves. is currently blocked, and includes seating for Crush Bistro and a venue for games and activities outside Sevigny Studio; F St. between Williwaw and Flattop Pizza is also closed and has initially divided seats for use by the two restaurants, as well as a few others in the area.
‘It’s all about your neighborhood, right? It’s all about community, ”said Katie Sevigny, artist and owner of her namesake studio downtown. ‘This is very much about partnership in the inner city, about revitalization of the inner city.
“We were just like, ‘We’ll do this, we’ll do something,’ ‘she added,’ and I feel like we’ve made a really great community space here. ‘
G St. between 4th and 5th Aves. was also explored as an option. Not all business owners and businesses were there on board with the plan, Moser said, citing issues such as limited parking, traffic and other potential concerns, so the Anchorage Downtown Partnership did not move forward with developments there.
More than 30 businesses in Anchorage have relocated to fine dining, Berkowitz said. Moser said about 50 to 60 entities across the state have so far applied for alcohol licenses through the state government.
Among the companies setting out next to open with street vendors are Wild Scoops, a locally owned and operated ice cream shop, and Fat Ptarmigan, a popular pizza place that added a cider house in February, both of which are downtown on E St .
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