Opinion: The Anchorage housing debate has gone BANANAs

I grew up in 1970s Muldoon. I came of age in Anchorage of the 1980s and, dare I say, the “character” of my established neighborhood changed. In the immortal words of Chrissie Hynde, “My city was gone.” I could spend this entire piece listing the changes in Anchorage to where it’s unrecognizable to my youth, but that’s not the point.

I find it oh so frustrating seeing piece after piece written by members of our community speaking out against accessory dwelling units or rezoning to allow multifamily units to be built in areas previously off-limits. These people are not NIMBYs. They are worse. They are BANANAs: Build Absolutely Nothing And Near Anything. The city, era and conditions that allowed for zoning only single-family homes no longer exist in this community. It’s simply a luxury, like a great many things, that we can no longer afford, afford being the key word.

I am a voracious YouTube watcher, and I watched a piece on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DujE88IozWA" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DujE88IozWA">a mill that had existed</a> in Seeley Lake, Montana, for 75 years. They were shutting down. Why? They couldn’t find enough workers. Why? Because the local water system could not support more housing, and the community refused to invest in building an adequate one. Get that? No housing, no employees. The BANANAs don’t seem to get that while they are comfortable in their gentrified neighborhood, the people who make their $7 lattes, the ones who bag their groceries and make the pizzas, they need affordable housing or they leave. Many already have. There is no commerce without employees.

Guess what else? These established neighborhoods are not zoned for hotels, but in these neighborhoods are hundreds of small hotels being operated every single day. They are called short-term rentals, and I don’t see the BANANAs speaking out about those. Are these hotels changing the character of the neighborhood?

Which brings us to the tax portion. I read a piece by someone who doesn’t like the <a href="https://www.adn.com/opinions/2025/10/17/opinion-want-more-anchorage-housing-cut-red-tape-and-dont-raise-taxes-on-short-term-rentals/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.adn.com/opinions/2025/10/17/opinion-want-more-anchorage-housing-cut-red-tape-and-dont-raise-taxes-on-short-term-rentals/">proposed 5% tax</a> on short-term rentals. It’s not fair, he says. Fair? Hotels, they have to pass inspections, they have to meet code, they must have fire suppression and alarms and, yes, exist in a zoned area. The way I see it, the 5% tax levels the field or, at best, gives us fewer short-term rentals and more housing.

In this very publication, it’s pointed out the Defense Department <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2026/09/27/assembly-members-weigh-how-jber-expansion-may-further-compress-anchorages-housing-market/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2026/09/27/assembly-members-weigh-how-jber-expansion-may-further-compress-anchorages-housing-market/">is sending us a projected 2,500 more service members</a> who will be living in and near this community, and they are not building housing for all of them. Then, in another piece, United Way pointed out the cost of living here <a href="https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2026/09/28/new-report-shows-far-more-alaskans-are-struggling-financially-than-federal-data-suggests/" target="_blank" rel="" title="https://www.adn.com/business-economy/2026/09/28/new-report-shows-far-more-alaskans-are-struggling-financially-than-federal-data-suggests/">is worse than previously thought</a>. This, of course, includes housing and its associated cost.

If you want fewer tents, fewer shelters, fewer people sleeping on sidewalks, less outmigration of working-age adults, then you have to accept reality: You adapt or you die like Seeley Lake, Montana. Allow our local government to work with the private sector to find solutions and build, baby, build …

Shawn O’Donnell is a third-generation Alaskan who raised a fourth. He desperately wants the conditions for a possible fifth to exist in the coming years.

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Source: Anchorage Daily News ↗ · Oct 15, 2026 · 13:35 · 0 views