Anchorage, Alaska (June 04/03) - Fifteen or so years ago, downtown Anchorage was a seedy, scary place.

Anchorage deputy police chief Bill Miller says "chronic trouble" used to hang out on 4th Avenue, in and around back alley bars and strip clubs with names like the Wild Cherry.

The slightly old-school cop recalls those times almost fondly, smiling as he says they were more fun for police. But he readily acknowledges downtown wasn't safe after dinner.

Things have changed since then. Gone are most of those bars. Crime has dropped downtown and the streets are spic and span.

On a recent trip to Anchorage, RCMP Insp. Pat McCloskey went for a stroll one night looking for trouble spots. He reported having difficulty finding any --- although a "lady of the night" stuck her foot out and invited him to trip over it.

So what caused the transformation?

Part of the change is the result of police getting tougher on bar owners and bar employees. Cops began building cases against bar owners, proving they were ignoring the rules by selling alcohol to intoxicated people, allowing drug dealers to sell on the premises or even allowing intoxicated people to remain in the bar.

When enough of a case was built, liquor licenses were revoked. These licenses are worth a lot of money, says Miller. "Strict enforcement forces bar owners to tighten up."

The city also started buying up these buildings. In the late 1980s, many of them were torn down. Since then more bars have popped up in areas outside downtown, says Miller, but they aren't the same breed of bar.

The cops don't get many complaints about clean bars. "We don't mind calls for service as long as it's management making the call, saying we've got this idiot here..."

Anchorage, however changed, is no social utopia. Alaska has the highest rate of alcohol consumption and the highest rate of sexual assault in the United States, according to Carrie Longoria of the Safe City Program of Anchorage.

Miller says many of the assaults are committed by acquaintances of the victims - for instance, by men who prey on intoxicated women, stop them on the street and ask if they need a ride home. According to Miller, 42 per cent of victims are native females and 70 percent are repeat victims.

Downtown business group gets involved

Eight years ago, a group of business people decided to begin attacking problems still plaguing the downtown core -- such as break-ins, property damage and graffiti.

They discovered they needed 50 per cent of downtown business owners to vote in favour of forming a business improvement district. This would allow them to "assess" business owners, which is a fancy word for tax.

Getting the 50 percent vote wasn't easy, says Becky Beck, director of the Anchorage Downtown Partnership (ADP). She credits, in part, a former mayor for having the business connections to make it happen.

ADP chose to tax property owners based on property value. All businesses in the 103-square-foot zone pay annual amounts ranging from $60 to $1,700.

Home owners can opt out and government is exempt, although the federal government pays a fee in lieu of the tax .

ADP uses the proceeds -- about $460,000 a year -- to hire four "security ambassadors" and four maintenance technicians who enhance services already provided by the city.

Dressed in black and yellow uniforms (street people call them bumble bees), they head out in the wee morning hours to ensure street people are warm and dry -- but also not sleeping in doorways to business owners arrive.

They are connected by radio to the maintenance technicians and the community services patrol, which is the service that picks up intoxicated people and brings them to the city's sobering up station.

During the summer months when more people are downtown, these security workers frequent tourist areas and give directions and information.

The maintenance workers' main job is to help keep the downtown area clean. In the winter, they shovel snow off 25 miles of sidewalk.

"We'll empty garbage cans if they are overflowing even if it's a city garbage can," says Beck.

They also keep up two of the parks downtown. In the summer, among other jobs, they make sure bubble gum is scraped off the side walks. "People call us if there is human feces in parks," says Beck. "It can be a fairly nasty job."

They are paid $10US an hour to start.

"I think the reason it works so well is that people don't see themselves as cleaning the street giving directions. They see themselves as making a contribution to a better downtown."

ADP runs

community patrol

ADP also holds the $933,000 city contract to operate the community patrol services and sobering up station. Beck said running these services ties in with their other programs.

Hiring the 40 (full and part-time) staff for this service was tricky even for a city without a notorious labour shortage.

Staff get spit on, hit, and must take precautions to avoid of getting scabies, lice and pneumonia. "Eighty per cent of individuals we see have some kind of disease you don't want to come in contact with."

There's a 50 per cent turnover rate each year. Staff are paid $10US an hour to start. Those with basic medical training get $12.

Despite this setback, the partnership's work has paid off. They have a solid income with an additional voluntary fee ranging from $150 to $2,000 for membership.

In exchange for joining, ADP advocates for its members, holds meetings and public forums to discuss problems and development projects.

Even bar owners are on board. An owner of one of the "less desirable" bars in town is on the ADP board, says Beck.

Referring to the bars, Beck says: "They really do contribute to the downtown economy. "We just need to find ways that work best for both of us to work together."

Hilary Morgan, who runs a transition house for street people called Homeward Bound, provides some light-hearted criticism about ADP.

"They kind of want everyone to become upstanding citizens," says Morgan. "When they don't, I think they get annoyed."

Still there's no denying, downtown Anchorage feels safe and looks clean. Beck is determined to keep improving things.

"People ask me how are the streets? I say they're 70 per cent. They could be better."