There really is some irony of Anchorage holding municipal elections on April Fool's. The city is a mess, budget shortfalls, rising crime, a school district that's in financial crisis and out of control homelessness. Add to that the 5th highest property taxes on the country and it seems hopeless.

Municipal elections today, every single incumbent on the city council and school board responsible for this mess gets re-elected. The city council is always a 10-2 vote on every issue, it's the 10 liberal Anchorage members against the 2 conservative Eagle River members. The one bright spot is an at large seat in south Anchorage was won by a conservative so it's now 9-3. Then every single bond issue and tax increase on the ballot was passed.

So yeah, the city is a mess, let's re-elect those responsible then throw more money at it. Yeah, that'll fix it.

It looks like voter apathy is at play as well. I just pulled up the unofficial results and it looks like 39k out of the 238k voted (i.e. 16.43%). That is pathetic.

I had dinner Saturday night with a friend who works on the slope, spends time in Anchorage, and still has a summer place in Alaska. He also said that Anchorage is a mess with crime, homelessness, budgets, etc. and mentioned that a there has been an uptick in violence against police.