Angela Frank is one of three candidates running for Anchorage Assembly District 5, representing East Anchorage. We asked each candidate the same five questions and gave them 90 seconds to answer each one. Read the transcript of Frank’s answers below and click the play button above to listen to where she stands. Find the rest of the Anchorage municipal election candidates’ Q&As here.
1. Why should people vote for you for Anchorage Assembly?
I have an extensive background in research and data analytics, and I feel like I would be able to contribute that with the Anchorage Assembly, working with our community to make it better.
2. What is the single biggest issue facing the city and how would you address it?
I think the biggest issue facing our community is really, deeply like lack of connection with one another. And as a result, it's, we have just an extensive record of crime and substance abuse and homelessness. And by addressing this, I believe that we can, in that regard, better our community in a variety of ways.
3. What do you see as the best way to reverse Anchorage’s trend of outmigration in recent years?
It would be making our city a desirable place to live. With a lot of, with a lot of the issues that I think we're facing right now, it's difficult to feel like Anchorage is somewhere where it is safe, for one, and being able to raise your kids in this kind of city is, it isn't desirable, on top of a lot of issues that we're facing with our school board, or not necessarily our school board, but just our school education system. So if we can, so by being able to address these kinds of issues, cleaning up our city, bringing more connection into the community, and really trying to change what the, what our city is, or the conditions that our city is in now, and to make it more of a place that is, that where people can live and thrive and be safe and have connection with one another, is how we can address that.
4. How would you reduce homelessness in Anchorage?
That's a pretty, pretty heavy, heavy question, and it's not an easy answer. I think, with what we're doing right now with, I believe the name of the program is Project Hope, and it's literally just, you know, one, one individual, or two, a pair of two people, one social worker and one police, member of the police department going and just a literally, one by one, asking individuals that are homeless, how they can provide assistance and if they want to look into getting permanent housing. And if not, you know, seeing other ways that we can help them as well, because I understand that there's a lot of members of our community that are homeless that don't necessarily want to receive that help for a variety of reasons. So trying to sift through the individuals who need those resources, who want to access those resources and better their lives with permanent housing and trying to be, you know, added to an active member of our community is, I think, the first steps, and is the first steps to that.
5. How would you improve public safety in Anchorage?
I think by, as I mentioned, trying to strive to bring connection to our community members. I think our mental health is severely underrated, especially in the kind of environment that we live in, and how taxing our winters can be for everyone in the city. So bringing, I think, if we can bring more connection and collaboration with one another, we can address mental health, and if we can address mental health, we can, in theory, bring a lot less safety to our community, and providing the individuals who might be prone to doing crime the kind of help that they need so they aren't feeling like they need to act on those, you know, on doing criminal acts.
Read the candidate Q&As with Frank’s competitors: Yarrow Silvers and John Stiegele.