Kyle Walker is one of three candidates running for Anchorage Assembly District 2, representing Eagle River/Chugiak. We asked each candidate the same five questions and gave them 90 seconds to answer each one. Read the transcript of Walker’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 think that I have a very unique experience and background in, you know, my career path where I'm a civil engineer by trade. I know how capital projects work. I know how to, you know, get a project started, get a project permitted. I know what it takes when you have to have a project sent to the Anchorage Assembly to get passed through. And, you know, I think just having someone who knows the ins and outs of a lot of the background behind that is, you know, an invaluable thing. But also, I'm very middle of the road politically. I'm a registered Republican, but I definitely lean more toward the middle than the far right. And you know, in that, I think I've, it's just been a really hard time watching both sides point the finger at each other for the last half a decade, decade even. And you know, I just, I really want to help the community. And I grew up here. I'm a third generation Anchorage resident. My grandparents moved up here in the 40s. My grandpa was one of the people that got a military land auction back in 1949, so, you know, I know the community. I have, you know, deep roots here, and I really think I can help. And that's kind of, you know, where I'm at. I think experience is lacking, but I can help.
2. What is the single biggest issue facing the city and how would you address it?
I think there's a couple things that are going on with the city right now. I think one of the biggest ones is, you know, we do have a homeless, unhoused crisis going on downtown. Around town really, it's not just downtown. And I think, you know, that is going to take a lot of effort from, you know, nonprofits and, you know, the city also. Hopefully even the state and the feds can help get some, you know, extra money and get some people in there that have a lot more experience than I do in how to solve that problem. As a civil engineer, I can tell you how to, you know, plat a structure and get it going, but I don't necessarily know the ins and outs of, you know, how many beds per person, how many sheets do we need, how many clean towels do we need. And, you know, I think there's a lot of red tape that the city can help with to get, you know, this issue solved, but I think, you know, that's probably one of the biggest optical issues around town right now. And I think solving that's going to help tourism. It's going to help local business downtown, because you're going to have people feeling safer on the streets, in the parks where all these people are staying and, you know, and then another issue that's not related to the Assembly is just the school board and their budget issues and cutting school sports. But again, that's not necessarily an Assembly issue as much of a school board issue. Yeah, that's where I'll go with that for now.
3. What do you see as the best way to reverse Anchorage’s trend of outmigration in recent years?
We got to figure out how to bring down the cost of living in Anchorage and Alaska. I think, you know, property taxes continue to go up. I think a sales tax is going to help that. I know that that's something that just got postponed, the vote on that by the Assembly to figure out if that's going to go through or not. But I do think property taxes being so high, construction costs, you know, being so high in general, is another issue, but we got to figure out how to get more homes in Anchorage and, you know, that's, you know, something that's going to take the Assembly and just local contractors working together to figure out how to get that done. But yeah, I think outmigration is going to continue to be a problem until we can get a lot of these other issues fixed, like, you know, the homelessness that people are saying, like, “Oh, I don't want that next to my house.” The cost of living and buying a new home in Anchorage is significantly more than it is in the Valley. So people would rather commute 45 minutes each way than they would, you know, spend the extra money to build, or buy a house that's 60 years old. And, you know, I think there's a lot of other things that go into all of this, but, you know, cleaning up the streets, getting the cost to build a new house down, those are all factors that are gonna play into, you know, keeping people in Anchorage.
4. How would you reduce homelessness in Anchorage?
I want to start by saying that I do not have all the answers to this question. And I've, I've talked to people that know a lot more about it than I do, and from everything I've been told, it is going to take nonprofits, churches, you know, just local organizations that have a history, and, you know, institutional knowledge of helping this population, coupled with fixing federal funding towards it. Because, you know, one of the interesting things I heard is that it's based on the population of your city, how much funding, or how much money you get from the federal agencies. So larger cities like Houston get, you know, multiplied, you know, factors of assistance from the federal government than we do when we have the exact same amount of homeless people. So I think we need to lobby to get more money from the feds. We need to work with these, you know, local organizations and, you know, cut whatever red tape we have to so they can effectively help this population. And then if the city needs to step in and say, “Hey, we're gonna lease this building and we're gonna provide, you know, a centralized area where, you know, these people can come to get help for, you know, medical help, you know, mental health and, you know, in other aspects,” I think that all is going to play into getting this problem solved, but it's going to be a team approach, and we got to bring in the people that know how to do it, but we also have to get more money to do it.
5. How would you improve public safety in Anchorage?
Well, first off, we have to fill all our vacant positions within APD. I can't remember the exact number, but I know there's a significant amount of sworn, you know, officers that are not filled, like those positions are not filled, and whether that is making it more attractive by raising the salary or just better advertising and marketing. You know, we got to work with APD and figure out what it's going to take to get those positions filled. But that's, you know, the first step. Then we also, you know, the homeless issue, I think, is a big optic of public safety where families don't feel safe bringing their kids on the Coastal Trail. They don't feel safe bringing their kids to local parks. They don't feel safe going to the Loussac Library. So, you know, I think it's a, it's a multi-step approach, but we just, we have to, you know, fill positions in APD. We have to fill positions in the MOA. There's, there's a lot of vacant seats that have been sitting for a while across the MOA, including APD, AFD, and getting those positions filled is a step in the right direction. And then after that, you know, I think we just have to work together as a community to figure out what our priorities are, and how do we get people to feel safe. Have them tell us what it's going to take for them to feel safe.
Read the candidate Q&As with Walker’s competitor: Jared Goecker. District 2 candidate David Littleton did not participate in our candidate interviews.