Urban Rural Unity Study (U.R. US)
Minutes of Meeting with Mayors3/21/00

Preamble subcommittee and
Quality, delivery and control of local services
subcommittee

Janie Leask asked the mayors to respond to the following questions:

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Is your community rural or urban?
Do you perceive a divide between rural and urban Alaska? If so, what
will happen if we do nothing?

Session 1
Mayors:Green, Blatchford, Palin, Zeine

Northwest Arctic Borough -- Mayor Chuck Green (Kotzebue)
Kotzebue is a rural community. The is a legislative divide. However, most
people in urban Alaska are sensitive to rural Alaska.

Seward -- Mayor Ed Blatchford
Seward is a older town, and still follows home rule set by original charter.
Legislators consider Seward urban because it is part of the Kenai Peninsula.
Only a split exists in the legislature.

Wasilla -- Mayor Sara Palin
Wasilla is urban. The divide exists with an ''us and them'' perception on both
sides. Her husband is native, and they have experienced racism in both urban
and rural Alaska. In the legislators minds there is a definite divide.

Group discussion:What will happen if we do nothing?

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Native corporations will have an increasing influence on the economic and
other political decisions.
Arctic Borough -- now accepting what the legislature is doing -- but we are
going to start taking steps to help ourselves. There is a denial by the larger
communities that they rely on the smaller communities for survival.
Seward -- other entities outside of Alaska will begin to take advantage of our
state.
Increasing despair, hopelessness, alcoholism and suicide in the rural
communities. Alaska will spend more money on these problems, including
higher incarceration rates.

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