Anchorage: 'flat is good': roll with the punches and beat the odds.

• Author: Bohi, Heidi
• Position: TOWNS IN TRANSITION

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Cost of living, cutbacks, long-range planning, budget deficit, transportation and traffic issues, education, streets and road maintenance, city infrastructure, economic diversification, social perils, environmental issues, public health, employment--these are just some of the challenges facing every city in the country.

And Anchorage is no exception. America's current economic mess also is becoming a fiscal crisis for local governments and cities that face budget shortfalls for 2009 and 2010, some of the worst in 50 years--and are expected to become even worse in 2010 and 2011. Even Anchorage, as it settles into its new administration with one eye on the prize and the other on the practicalities of running Alaska's largest city, faces a $10 million to $20 million deficit in 2011.

Which is why Mayor Dan Sullivan says he is going to re-focus priorities on basic city issues. "City government isn't that complicated and it should not be made complicated," he says matter-of-factly, as he prepares to mark his one-year anniversary in office this July. "We're going to focus on a few things and do them very well."

AN EYE TO THE FUTURE

Public safety, restoring the city's fiscal health, and economic development are what the mayor says he hears are the top concerns of locals living in the corridor from Girdwood to Eagle River. Although he's never been one who will play along to get along when it comes to handling his naysayers, when it comes to his hometown of 51 years, he pays close attention to the voters who sent him to City Hall with almost 57 percent of the vote.

As has been the case with his mayoral predecessors, too, public safety is again on the top of the list of what's important to residents. Over the past six years, crime has risen dramatically in the categories of aggravated assault, simple assault, rape and robbery. Although the statistics for murder are down from last year--the numbers fluctuate from about 10 to 20 murders a year--the final statistics for 2009 have not been confirmed in this area.

Although the administration does not know the reason for increases or decreases in police department statistics, as part of its efforts to figure out how to effectively place police officers in neighborhoods, the municipality has made funds available for commissioning a "deployment audit" of the department within the next year so the city can arm newly appointed Chief of Police Mark Mew with data for determining the best...