Darin Colbry is one of two candidates running for Anchorage Assembly District 6, representing South Anchorage. We asked each candidate the same five questions and gave them 90 seconds to answer each one. Read the transcript of Colbry’s answers below and click the play button above to listen to where he stands. Find the rest of the Anchorage municipal election candidates’ Q&As here.
1. Why should people vote for you for Anchorage Assembly?
I've been born and raised in Anchorage, been here 48 years, and when we were growing up as kids and stuff, we weren't worried about, you know, playing outside, and our parents weren't worried about us, you know, getting kidnapped or anything happening, and we didn't have to lock down our equipment or any of our property, and we could leave our doors unlocked. And it's like now it's a whole different ball game. We've had to keep our properties locked down and everything, and keep our kids out of harm's way. And Anchorage has just become, how can I say, almost like Los Angeles and stuff. And I've been seeing people are calling it “Los Anchorage.” And so, it’s just personal to me, and I think we can change that if we have new people on the Assembly.
2. What is the single biggest issue facing the city and how would you address it?
The biggest is the homeless and the crime and the theft that's going on in the city. And how I plan on tackling that is trying to get things going to try to reduce the homeless population. Most of it is because the villages up north are sending their people down here on one-way tickets when they kick them out because they're being a problem or a nuisance up in their village. And so they kick them out and put them on the taxpayers down here, you know, try to figure out where to put them, you know, and so there's no place to really put them, except for they're out there in tents and causing a problem for us.
3. What do you see as the best way to reverse Anchorage's trend of outmigration in recent years?
What we need to do is, a lot of people are leaving because of the crime and because of the homeless population that I've been seeing. They're either moving out of state or moving to the Valley because of the property taxes. And if we can reduce some of that crime, some of the homelessness, and try to reduce the property taxes, then we could probably keep more people into our city.
4. How would you reduce homelessness in Anchorage?
Well, number one is we have, I did some research on it, 48% of the homeless population is Natives, okay? And, like I said, I did look on that, and what we need to do is at least try to come together as a community, maybe get hold of the villages, and let them know that we are not going to be the dumping grounds for their problems, that they need to take them back and maybe send those people back that don't want to get the help that we're offering. Like get them off the street and, like, maybe into some kind of trade school, you know, because there are trade schools that would take them and train them for a good paying job that they could maybe try to be successful in, and then get them, try to help them get into like a drug treatment program and stuff. And we probably have people that can help, substance abuse counselors that would be probably willing to help them to get their addictions taken care of.
5. How would you improve public safety in Anchorage?
Well, a lot of it is probably more hiring of police officers so the Anchorage police can have more officers on the streets. And also, too, we need to start enforcing some of the laws that are on the books already, because I know a lot of it is they're not enforcing what's on the books.
Read the candidate Q&A with Colbry’s competitor: Keith McCormick