The Anchorage Assembly decided Tuesday night that the name of Alaska’s deceased congressman be added to the port in the city in the end.
It took approximately an hour of awkward discussions and procedural maneuvering until the Assembly came to an up-or-down motion for changing the title of Port of Alaska to Port of Alaska to the Don Young Port of Alaska.
Together with his widow Anne Garland Young following the meeting in person the name change was passed by a vote of 10-2. The members Karen Bronga and Meg Zaletel did not vote in favor.
The Mayor Dave Bronson said Young was in his office just a week prior to his death in 2022. He had demanded to name the port in his honor.
“Quite honestly, that’s the reason we’re here today,”” Bronson said. “Don was a friend of the mind. He was an honest gentleman of the very best. And I thought it was right that the dean (the) House got the port named for him, which was actually his request.”
Assembly chair Chris Constant supported the name change, but he was against the idea of putting Young out as saintly.
“It’s not sincere to record a truthful account of Don Young’s life the story of his life from Alaska,” Constant said. “It was wonderful and terrible, but it was everything. It was life! It is not a good idea to practice hoaxing stories to make them appear more authentic and creating false narratives regarding people.”
Constant was an Democrat stated that he was a fan of Young who was an Republican particularly for his actions at the close of his career. Constant focused on Young’s comments following the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection within the U.S. Capitol and his vote in favor of the huge national infrastructure law. Constant stated both of them as Young disapproving of his party’s policy to safeguard Alaska as well as the entire nation.
Don Young died in the month of March in 2022. He was the highest-ranking Congressman Congress that time and was and represented Alaska within the House of Representatives continuously since 1973.
The name change is a partial denial of a renaming panel’s recommendations. The panel wished for the place that was mentioned in the name be changed and it was changed to “The Don Young Port of Anchorage.”
The facility was historically called”the Port of Anchorage up until when the Assembly changed it’s name into it being the Port of Alaska during the year 2017. This was an symbolic change and was a way to signal to lawmakers who finance infrastructure projects that the port’s significance to the state as a whole. In terms of weight, the majority of products that go to Alaska are shipped through this port.
