On Wasilla’s growing pains

The city of Wasilla this week took up a handful of ordinances that would seem to be more at home in a larger city like Anchorage.

In quick succession, the city council voted to ticket panhandlers, fine businesses that make an excessive amount of police calls, and crack down on fly-by-night gypsy cab operations. The city’s planning commission is also set to look at rules restricting all-terrain vehicle usage in city limits.

At least two of those ordinances were actually built with the Anchorage ordinances as a starting point.

“We’re right in a boom cycle, and it’s not letting up on us,” Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright said at the meeting. “We’re starting to get every problem that every major city in the state has had for years.”

It’s part of the challenge that often comes with the kind of growth the greater Wasilla area has seen in recent years. There has been an identifiable uptick in gypsy cabs. There are indeed troublesome businesses in the city limits. More panhandlers can be found in the city than in years past.

You can quibble with how the city chose to try and address these things, but it’s certainly nice to see a problem identified and a solution offered and implemented.

We also like that these ordinances, while addressing a problem, took pains to make the rules clear and minimally invasive. The city hasn’t set up a huge taxi bureaucracy, nor will police officers toss all panhandlers in jail. Indeed, according to the city attorney, ticketed panhandlers will be allowed to work off their debt with something as simple and as wholesome as raking a senior citizen’s yard.

So we applaud the city’s moves to get a handle on its burgeoning big-city problems. But we would be remiss if we didn’t also urge local governments here to get ahead of the curve, put plans in place to weather the coming changes.

If it’s happening in Wasilla, it’s sure to happen soon everywhere else.