John Stiegele 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 Stiegele’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?
Well, I'm a lifelong Alaskan. I was born and raised here. I’m concerned about lots of the issues here, and you know, especially, there's some priority issues I have concerns about, but that's pretty much about it.
2. What is the single biggest issue facing the city and how would you address it?
I think it's homelessness, that's being my first priority. I actually knocked, I've talked to a lot of people that are homeless, and I asked them, the city offers so much facilities and helping these people, ask, How come they don't use it? And they told me they can't do their own thing. You know, they're into drugs or, you know, they can't be by themselves. I actually think we could eliminate 20% to 30% of the homeless with some serious work, but the rest just don't care.
3. What do you see as the best way to reverse Anchorage’s trend of outmigration in recent years?
I don't know. I couldn't, I gotta be very honest about that. I don't have a solid, educated answer for that.
4. How would you reduce homelessness in Anchorage?
Just try to help people. I understand people have, go through stages where they need help, and those are the ones we could probably reach out to. Like I said, the other portions, they just prefer not to be talked about it and nothing you could do. But all we got, we got to keep trying. And that's my major concern.
5. How would you improve public safety in Anchorage?
That's another question I have to do research on. My biggest thing is crime, my biggest issue, and I think a lot of that’s resulting from homelessness, but mostly because, you know, they do crime. They're stuck all day. They don't do anything. And that's to reduce the crime ratio in this town.
Read the candidate Q&As with Stiegele’s competitors: Yarrow Silvers and Angela Frank.