Local businesses make their case against Juneau’s “Ship-Free Saturday” ballot proposition

An advocacy group is telling Juneau residents to vote no on a proposition set to appear on the local ballot this fall. It’s about whether large cruise ships should be banned on Saturdays starting next year. 

The Greater Juneau Chamber of Commerce hosted a forum Thursday featuring a panel of executive members of the group Protect Juneau’s Future sharing why they believe the proposition is bad for the local economy.

McHugh Pierre is the president and CEO of Goldbelt Incorporated, a local Alaska Native corporation. The company owns popular tourist attractions like the Goldbelt Tram downtown and has invested millions into a gondola project at Eaglecrest Ski Area. 

“I don’t want to be told when to do things and when not to do things, because when does it stop and start? Is it just visitors on Saturdays? Is it truck drivers on Tuesdays? Is it cultural storytellers on Wednesdays?” he said. “I don’t like any of it. It’s bad, and we just need to vote against it.”

Protect Juneau’s Future has been actively campaigning against the initiative from the get-go. They have orange signs hanging around town and ads on social media that discourage people from voting for it.  

Pierre and other members of the group, like Holly Johnson with Wings Airways & Taku Glacier Lodge, said their businesses rely on tourism. 

Johnson said even just taking away one day out of the week would be a major financial blow for her. And, it could get the city into hot water legally.

“This is not about Saturdays. It will never be good enough. All days of the week would never be good enough for the people that are really pushing this,” she said. “But they tacked on to something that was really emotional.”

But, the proposition does have support — it made it onto the ballot after a group of local activists gathered more than 2,300 signatures in favor of it this spring.  

Karla Hart is one of the activists who led the effort. In an interview in July, she said the number of signatures shows how much people in Juneau want to limit the growth of tourism. 

“I think it says that Juneau really seriously wants some hard stops on cruise industry impacts in their lives and that they haven’t received that from the city Assembly. And that they don’t think that those hard stops are coming unless citizens take action,” Hart said.

Local election ballots will be mailed to residents on Sept. 12. The last day to vote in Juneau’s by-mail election is Oct. 1.