Sitting in my living room listening to nails pounding into the old DEC building under renovation by the Tlingit Haida Central Council (CCTHITA) I want to acknowledge the investments Native organizations are making in Juneau and the benefits I see as a non-Native resident.<\/p>\n
In this case, I don’t mean investment in the seasonal tourism industry or spectacular cultural enrichment.<\/p>\n
I’m referring to remodeling of decrepit buildings, expansion of programs that create year-round jobs and increased access to healthcare for non-Native as well as Native residents.<\/p>\n
I don’t know all the reasons for the surge in activity by CCTHITA, THRHA, SEARHC and SHI, and there are probably complexities and some controversies.<\/p>\n
But I do know that when I see construction happening downtown that will serve Juneau residents, those organizations are often involved.<\/p>\n
State government jobs continue to leave Juneau, but employment in Native nonprofits is increasing and I have non-Native and Native friends who have gotten good jobs with them.<\/p>\n
I found it almost impossible to help low-income neighbors get a dentist appointment they could afford until the SEARHC Front Street Clinic began serving all Juneau residents with fees based on ability to pay.<\/p>\n
The retired technocrat I am wants to say — I appreciate the contributions to solving our community challenges in affordable housing, economic diversification and healthcare.<\/p>\n
The 60-year-old woman I am just wants to say — thanks!<\/p>\n
Catherine Reardon<\/p>\n
Juneau<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sitting in my living room listening to nails pounding into the old DEC building under renovation by the Tlingit Haida Central Council (CCTHITA) I want to acknowledge the investments Native organizations are making in Juneau and the benefits I see as a non-Native resident.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":104504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":14,"footnotes":""},"categories":[14,8],"tags":[97,106],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-104503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-opinion","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104503"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=104503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}