Happy new year

By Naomi Klouda

With an old year out the door, this time we can celebrate the end of a decade and the beginning of a new one. The decade was launched by fears of a massive computer virus called Y2K brought on by the double OO digits, a reality that never materialized. It was marked by national tragedy in the 9-11 terrorism attacks on New York’s twin towers. It was a decade that saw two wars escalate in the Middle East, and the election of the nation’s first African-American president. A time of economic turmoil twisted the fates of many Americans along the way, in housing finance scams coupled to stock market and banking failures.
Alaska, in its remote corner of the planet, was remarkably spared much of the strain catapulting the rest of the country. Most jobs, and in some areas, real estate remained robust through 2009. But, we felt its impact in numerous ways. Economic struggles impacted the Kenai Peninsula and Homer in a loss of tourism numbers. We saw houses listed for sale that remained on the market for more than a year and often two or three. We saw lost jobs and friends move out for opportunities elsewhere. And, we felt the pain of wars from which the country can’t seem to extricate itself, fought by Alaska’s youth. Several of them came home in body bags. By the end of the decade, the national economy remains in need of a lot of healing, but banks are no longer going under and housing is recovering.
Homer, a proactive community at the end of the road, has taken study of national problems. The city has one of the only climate action plans in place to reduce energy use, a habit catching on among local businesses who often saw the light first. Its residents and businesses are exploring alternative energy in hydro, wind and solar devices.
A growing Homer Sustainability movement involves schools in growing their own gardens, a buoyant group of local farmers yielding crops for local consumption and for institutions like South Peninsula Hospital. Kyra Wagner, the unofficial “director” of that movement, tells us we now have a VISTA volunteer to help elaborate the effort. Issues like health, explored by the South Peninsula Communities Health Plan task force, are benefiting from solid actions taken to supply more support to residents. Added to this is the realization of how much an economy can detract from health in its stress, and so, we begin to hear more about ways to add to the economic health of Homer in such ways as the ‘check local’ program. Even in the holiday season, more ideas such as a “Show Homer Local Love” campaign launched by the Homer Tribune continues to move the effort forward. Just in time for us to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Homer Tribune. Like many local businesses dependent only their own ingenuity and no umbrella corporation to watch over them, we know what it is like to survive during challenging times.
The idea in an insecure world is to gain security by supplying as much as we can locally. Food is an obvious place to start. Energy is another. Protecting the local economy for job growth, to ward off job loss, provides for a solution to a problem that can get worse if we don’t act now.
As 2011 is ushered in, it is our hope that the community continues to be an impassioned hamlet pooling ideas for ways to protect the beauty of Kachemak Bay in the coming year, and ways to protect its people in their individual quests for health.
Happy New Year, Homer.