What’s a “sustainable future” for Juneau’s visitor industry? What are our responsibilities, as citizens and CBJ, to conceive and achieve that? We’ve invested much time, intellect, and caring this past year: Mendenhall Glacier and Recreation Area master plan; Blueprint Downtown Juneau; Tourism Best Management Practices, “climate change” effects of the large amount of fossil fuels burned by cruise ships and ports tours. What have we learned? How shall we think about this? What are our options? What shall we do?

Bill Leighty, 47-year Juneau resident and cruise ship tourism pioneer — owner of the Gold Creek Salmon Bake, end of Basin Road, 1972 – 1990 — cares a lot about Juneau’s tourism industry “Carrying Capacity” (CC). How shall we maintain a great Quality of Experience and Life for both visitors and residents, with minimum impact on Earth’s well-being? Need we declare and abide by a limit on annual total cruise ship passengers, perhaps substantially below the 1.3 million we expect in Summer 2019, lest we suffer a “Tragedy of the Commons”? Or, may we significantly increase our CC by wise investments in infrastructure, especially transportation via ground, air, and sea?

Here are links to video, memo, and spreadsheet analyses about CC, from Bill and from others.  Homework time. Please study, discuss, and decide.

• Bill Leighty’s 16-page memo to the Assembly and the public analyzing Juneau’s options for defining “Carrying Capacity” (CC) and limiting or expanding CC
• Bill Leighty’s analysis of the economic benefits and costs of investing to increase Juneau’s cruise ship “Carrying Capacity” (CC)
• Bill Leighty’s slide presentation at the 2019 JEDC Innovation Summit, 20 Feb 19, on “Carrying Capacity” (CC):  .pdf of a PowerPoint file