{"id":19440,"date":"2016-09-18T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2016-09-18T15:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/my-turn-tourists-will-judge-the-value-of-juneaus-whale-park\/"},"modified":"2016-09-18T08:00:09","modified_gmt":"2016-09-18T15:00:09","slug":"my-turn-tourists-will-judge-the-value-of-juneaus-whale-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/opinion\/my-turn-tourists-will-judge-the-value-of-juneaus-whale-park\/","title":{"rendered":"My Turn: Tourists will judge the value of Juneau’s whale park"},"content":{"rendered":"

In his Sept. 9 commentary<\/a>, Win Gruening was right to criticize the Empire Readers\u2019 Council (ERC) for speculating about the motives behind the head tax lawsuit filed against the City and Borough of Juneau. It\u2019s up to a federal judge to decide the merits of the case. And unless the parties settle out of court, he won\u2019t do that until attorneys for both sides have presented him with all their arguments and supporting evidence which we bystanders haven\u2019t seen.<\/p>\n

[Empire Readers’ Council: Head tax lawsuit nothing but hot air<\/a>]<\/p>\n

But back in April, Gruening was the one who brought the lawsuit into the court of public opinion. And he was first to suggest that the catalyst for it was plans to construct the seawalk, artificial island and park that will contain the bronze whale sculpture and reflection pool.<\/p>\n

Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA) and its Alaska affiliate formerly filed their lawsuit in Federal Court on April 13. The ERC is correct in that it \u201cchallenges \u2026 the legality of taxes imposed as a condition of entry into City and Borough of Juneau \u2026 on passengers arriving in CBJ on cruise vessels.\u201d And CLIA is seeking \u201ca declaration that CBJ\u2019s entry fees are unlawful and a permanent injunction against the assessment, collection, and improper use\u201d of the head tax. Those quotes come directly from complaint filed with the court.<\/p>\n

Gruening was amazingly quick to come to CLIA\u2019s defense. At midnight the same day the suit was filed, his Empire commentary was posted online stating the \u201cdispute has been simmering for years but the seawalk\/island project simply went too far.\u201d He concluded by saying both parties should work to resolve the issue quickly. In other words, he was calling on CBJ to negotiate a settlement instead of trying to defend itself in court.<\/p>\n

Seven months before that, Gruening had already begun arguing CLIA\u2019s case. He accused CBJ of funding many projects \u201cwith dubious connections to cruise ship impacts.\u201d Referring to this project as an \u201cisland too far\u201d he wrote \u201cit stretches the imagination to see how creating a park with a sculpture \u2014 claiming future passengers will walk miles to see it \u2014 legally qualifies an island and connecting seawalk to receive $10 million in head tax funding.\u201d He speculated CLIA might take legal action and rhetorically asked \u201cwho could blame them?\u201d<\/p>\n

The seawalk is not CLIA\u2019s only complaint. They\u2019ve accused CBJ of spending $22 million from the head tax collections for general government operating expenses during the past 15 years. If that\u2019s true, and the money wasn\u2019t earmarked to address the impacts of cruise ship tourism, it would be a clear breach of the tax law.<\/p>\n

[Cruise ship group: Statue plans are misuse of fees<\/a>]<\/p>\n

At this point though, CBJ hasn\u2019t responded to that or any other allegation. All it has done is ask the case be dismissed on the grounds that it doesn\u2019t belong in federal court. And I\u2019m not about to speculate on how it will proceed if the lawsuit does go forward.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s get back to the seawalk and park. In their complaint, it\u2019s the only example CLIA has given as an activity \u201cunrelated to and\/or which have not provided any benefits to passengers and vessels.\u201d The issue isn\u2019t the whale, John Binkley, the association\u2019s president, told Juneau\u2019s Chamber of Commerce the day after they sued the city. \u201cIt\u2019s about a mile from the current docks,\u201d he said, \u201cand that\u2019s really our concern.\u201d<\/p>\n

But do tourists want to be corralled inside the congested downtown shopping area? Or would they like a broad range of choices to help them escape those crowded city streets?<\/p>\n

A place to look for the choices tourists make is the Mendenhall Glacier. The opportunities at Juneau\u2019s number one attraction have expanded in recent years. Among the enhancements is the 0.9-mile trail to Nugget Falls.<\/p>\n

According to John Neary, the Visitor Center\u2019s Director, the trail is so popular that it\u2019s changed how the tour bus companies operate. They now offer shuttles so people don\u2019t have to return to the docks on the same group bus they arrived on. That allows them time to enjoy the Visitor Center and other short interpretative trails, plus go out to Nugget Falls, a walk that Neary estimates up to 3,000 people take each day.<\/p>\n

Could that happen downtown?<\/p>\n

In the end it won\u2019t be the CLIA, a judge, project supporters or detractors who ultimately decide if the seawalk and park is too far from the docks. It\u2019ll be the tourists. Some of them already walk the half mile uphill to see the state Capitol and Governor\u2019s Mansion. And it won\u2019t be long before we learn how many are willing to walk a mile along the shore to see a life-sized sculpture of a humpback whale.<\/p>\n

—<\/p>\n

Read more Opinion:<\/p>\n

Letter: Future uses of the Alaska Court Plaza on Fourth and Main Streets<\/a><\/p>\n

Ketchikan library needs support<\/a><\/p>\n

Points to Ponder: Nonpartisanship in local elections<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In his Sept. 9 commentary, Win Gruening was right to criticize the Empire Readers\u2019 Council (ERC) for speculating about the motives behind the head tax lawsuit filed against the City and Borough of Juneau. It\u2019s up to a federal judge to decide the merits of the case. And unless the parties settle out of court, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":19441,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":8,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-19440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19440","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\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19440"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=19440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}