Pandemic forces route change, other precautions for Iditarod
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – Traveling across the rugged, unforgiving and roadless Alaska terrain is already hard enough, but whatever comforts mushers previously had in the world’s most famous sled dog race will be cast aside this year due to the pandemic.
In years past, mushers would stop in any number of 24 villages that serve as checkpoints, where they could get a hot meal, maybe a shower and sleep – albeit “cheek to jowl” – in a warm building before getting back to the nearly 1,000mile (1,609-kilometer) Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. When the race starts Sunday north of Anchorage, they will spend the next week or so mostly camping in tents outside towns, and the only source of warmth – for comfort or to heat up frozen food and water – will come from their camp cookers.
This year’s Iditarod will be marked by pandemic precautions, a route change, no spectators, the smallest field of competitors in decades, the return of one former champion and the swan song of a fan favorite, all against the backdrop of pressure on the race and sponsors by an animal rights group.
The most noticeable change this year will be no spectators.
The route has also been shortened to 860 miles (1,384 kilometers). For the first time in the race’s 49-year history, the finish line will not be in Nome.
Instead, mushers will go from Willow to the mining ghost towns of Iditarod and Flat, and then back to Willow for the finish. This, Urbach notes, was the original vision of the race cofounder, the late Joe Redington.
For years, artists hoped to save an iconic mural painted by the late artist Rose Johnson in central Phoenix. Ultimately, those hopes ended when the mural was erased with a coat of beige paint.
The installation of a new mural to replace it will begin in March.
Titled “The Prayer of St. Francis,” Johnson painted the mural in 1998 and it was known for its diverse portrayals of people. Each panel of the mural featured people of all walks of life “uniting in the name of love,” according to a 2010 Arizona Republic description of the artwork shortly after Johnson’s death.
The mural covered much of a building that used to house Mercer Mortuary near Thomas Road and 16th Street. The building has been owned by the Civitan Foundation since 2019. Civitan is a nonprofit that provides job-skill training and employment opportunities for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
“Civitan hopes to carry on Johnson’s legacy by encouraging young artists to engage in designing a mural focused on the diverse, multi-dimensional and creative neighboring community, the unique character and history of the building, and Civitan
Foundation’s integral place in the community,” Donna Isaac of Public by Design, art consultant for Civitan, said in a press release.
Phoenix artists Lucretia Torva and Maggie Keane proposed to restore the mural with the help of community members in 2019, but Torva said their efforts were rejected.
Though they didn’t know Johnson personally, both artists admired her work and wanted to restore the mural. Over time the once vibrant paint had faded, chipped and had been tagged with graffiti.
“As a mural painter I knew it wasn’t going to last forever, it’s just that Rose Johnson was this piece of history, a unique figure, and as an art historian I respected her style and the complicated storytelling of that mural,” said artist Lucretia Torva.
“It was worth saving.”
The nonprofit said in its press release that despite best-laid plans before it took ownership of the building, six-figure financial and manpower costs required to restore the artwork were prohibitive.
Who was Rose Johnson?
Known for her large-scale public murals and modernist paintings, Johnson was born in Coventry, England, in 1960 and moved to Arizona as a young adult.
She spent more than 20 years working as an artist in Phoenix and Bisbee before moving to Bali to get married.
In 2009, Johnson and more than 20 others died in Bali after drinking homemade alcohol that had been tainted with methanol. She was 48.
Other works from Johnson can be found at the Jonquil Motel in Bisbee, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Casa Grande and Tempe. “The Prayer of Saint Francis” was her most recognized mural.
What happens next?
On Feb. 23, the Civitan Foundation confirmed it had selected muralist Isaac Caruso to paint the new piece on the building.
A call for artists to paint a new mural on the building was posted to the Arizona Commission on the Arts website last year. Of the 23 applicants, Caruso was selected from four finalists by a panel made up of two Civitan members, two community members, and an independent local artist, according to the press release.
The nonprofit said the mural is one piece of a renovation project that will transform the former mortuary into an expanded Civitan Foundation location that will house a thrift store, coffee shop and employment opportunities. The grand opening of the location will be shared at a later date.
One of Caruso’s most recent mural, a painting of the late Kobe and Gianna Bryant, is located at North Seventh Street and East St. Mary’s Way.
Caruso will gather stories and ideas
from the community and begin drafting the initial design. Donna Isaac said that she and Caruso are currently discussing other ways for the community to give input.
Torva was hopeful that the Johnson mural could have been saved, but when she heard the news that it was gone, so was her hope.
“My feeling is that this is an ongoing problem when people don’t listen to professional artists, like they don’t take us seriously, like my 40 years of experience doing this doesn’t mean anything,” she said.
“The community wanted to save the Rose Johnson mural.”
OUTER LIMITS ACROSS
1 Include so other recipients don’t know, briefly 4 California neighbor,
familiarly
8 Bulk
12 Gloomy
18 Pleased sigh 19 Genesis victim 20 Train
21 Painful
22 It’s “gravy” to some
Italian Americans 25 Tropical vines 26 Frau’s partner
27 Hit one in the trees,
maybe
28 Off course
30 Bunch of bills 32 Somme soul 33 Gothic architecture
feature
36 Tender spots 39 Preserved, in a way 41 “Melrose Place”
complex
44 Derelict
46 Fine, lightweight
cloth 47 Obamacare, for
short
48 Venus, at times 52 With passion 55 Mao’s successor 56 Cartoonist Peter 57 AOL alternative 60 Events with bulls
and barrels
61 Like desert climates, comparatively 62 Stern with a bow 64 Bit of statuary 65 Like some pkgs. 68 Real estate listing
datum
71 D.C. bigwig 72 Classical name of
Troy
Puzzle answers, 7C
Fool Fervently wishes “For honest men and bonie __”: Burns
78 Star Wars initials 79 Bar mitzvah staple 80 Wells race 84 Tropical Chinese
tree
85 Grade school
presentation
88 “I’ll take what I can
get,” in classifieds 89 Hearing tube 94 Foray
95 Favor asker’s leadin
101 Archaeological site 102 Damascus’ land 103 Introduction
104 ’70s extremist gp. 105 “The A-Team” actor 106 WNBA great
Weatherspoon 108 Off the wall
111 Playground retort 114 Long battles 116 America’s most popular dogs in 2017 Go-ahead
Big cat hybrid Beauty chain with a salon inside each store
123 Black gold
124 Assignations 125 Ages
126 Coordinate
127 GATT successor DOWN
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Fins in registers 74 75 76 120 121 122 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
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Tiny queen Ling of “The Crow” Put inside Remains awhile One of the Weasley twins Dream, in Dijon Corporate alias abbr.
Back Gobble (up) Dirty money Bad looks
Like the zone between two tropics Many are mailed in Altar avowal
No __: menu notice Plato’s “tenth Muse” Thin Beneficiary Publicity, slangily 63 65 66 67 69 70 73 77 80 81
82 83 85 86 87 90 91 92 93 96 97 98 99 100 107 109
110 112 113 114 115 117 118 119
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She, in Italy Old-fashioned warning
Stick in one’s craw Contractors’ figs. Network with regular pledge drives
Little newts “Laugh-In” segment Munch Museum city Convened
Leb. neighbor Put on TV NY airport named for a mayor
“Go team!”
Even though it’s performing better than many U.S. airports thanks to our pleasant winter climate and plentiful outdoor activities, Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport continues to see the pandemic affecting the number of travelers passing through.
But even as passenger numbers held steady in January at about half the number in January 2020, Sky Harbor continues to prepare for the future.
The pandemic forced the airport to put some capital projects on hold but two — the second phase of the PHX Sky Train, which will connect the terminals to the Rental Car Center, and the construction of an eighth concourse in Terminal 4 — are on track and scheduled to open in 2022.
Here are three more pieces of Sky Harbor Airport news as well as two sales to know about if you’re considering a trip in the near future.
PHX Sky Train is back open (mostly)
After undergoing maintenance, the PHX Sky Train is running again between the East Economy Parking Lot and the terminals — with a few exceptions if you’re flying in the early morning hours.
“There are short (90-minute) temporary service suspensions between East Economy Parking and Terminal 4 scheduled to take place between 1-2:30 a.m. on 10 more dates this month,” Greg Roybal, spokesperson for Phoenix Sky Harbor International said by email.
You can view those dates and where to catch a shuttle at https://www.skyharbor.com.
Sky Harbor has new mobile-friendly maps
If you’ve ever tried to find out what restaurants and shops are near your gate at Sky Harbor, you’ve probably experienced the frustration of trying to use its online maps. They were pretty clunky and not easy to use on a mobile device.
Not anymore. LocusLabs has updated the airport’s maps to make them more dynamic and easy to use on cellphones and other devices. Check out the improved maps at https://maps.skyharbor.aero.
Another lounge coming to Sky Harbor
The Phoenix Aviation Advisory Board recently voted to recommend that the city’s Transportation, Infrastructure and Innovation Subcommittee start looking for four food and beverage establishments and four retail outlets for Terminal 4’s new concourse. It’s set to open in 2022 and host Southwest Airlines flights.
Along with an open-air bar, where presumably you could enjoy an adult beverage and have a line of sight to when your flight starts boarding, the airport also revealed that the concourse would host a new general-use lounge.
A general-use lounge is not a perk of a specific airline, it’s run by a company that has partnerships with airlines or credit cards to allow those customers to have access. Often, general-use lounges let any traveler buy a day pass. For example, on March 1 you could find a Groupon for the Escape Lounge in Terminal 4 for $25.
The new lounge is one for members of Priority Pass, a beloved perk of the Chase Sapphire Preferred credit card, to keep an eye on. Members lost access to a Sky Harbor lounge when Priority Pass ended its relationship with The Club lounge in 2019. The Club closed later that year before the new American Express Centurion lounge and the generaluse Escape Lounge opened in January 2020.
You can connect with Arizona Republic Consumer Travel Reporter Melissa Yeager through email at melissa.yeager@azcentral.com. You can also follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
The federal government by way of the U.S. Forest Service has delayed the land swap at Oak Flat, an area about 70 miles east of Phoenix considered sacred by Apaches and other Southwestern tribes.
The fight over a plan to greatly expand the copper mining operation at the property has been going on for years.
Gov. Doug Ducey believes it should be over, that the project should move forward.
He said in a statement, “I am extremely disappointed in the administration’s decision to cease progress on Arizona’s Resolution Copper project, which is set to grow jobs and is estimated to create a direct and indirect economic impact of more than $1 billion to Arizona’s
economy every year.”
The Oak Flat project would be run by Resolution Copper, which is owned by British-Australian mining firms Rio Tinto and BHP.
The process is called block cave mining, a massive underground digging
operation. Experts say that, eventually, the land above would sink, creating a crater nearly 2 miles in diameter and about 800 to 1,000 feet deep.
The first time I wrote about Oak Flat, in 2015, I quoted an essay from The New York Times by Lydia Millet, which said in part: “If Oak Flat were a Christian holy site, or for that matter Jewish or Muslim, no senator who wished to remain in office would dare to sneak a backdoor deal for its destruction into a spending bill — no matter what mining-company profits or jobs might result. But this is Indian religion. Clearly the Arizona congressional delegation isn’t afraid of a couple of million conquered natives.”
To bring that argument closer to home, imagine if an enormous copper deposit was found deep underground beneath the Mission San Xavier del Bac south of Tucson, or beneath the Chapel of the Holy Cross in the buttes of Sedona, or the Temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Mesa.
Would there be a chance in hell that it would go forward? Or that we’d even be
having an argument?
The fact is, we have an unholy view of
Native American holy sites. We don’t buy them. We don’t believe them.
This isn’t the first time the owners of Resolution Copper have found themselves in a situation like this.
Not too long ago the chairman of Rio Tinto resigned following the outcry in Australia when the company destroyed a 46,000-year-old sacred Indigenous site.
The company blew up the Juukan Gorge caves in Western Australia to expand an iron ore mine.
Aboriginal people had been fighting for years to protect the caves, which had enormous archaeological and cultural value.
In the end, money trumped the beliefs of native people.
It’s been that way for a long time. Arizona Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who has been fighting against the Oak Flat deal for years, said in 2015, “Congress shouldn’t be in the business of helping big corporations at others’ expense, and it certainly shouldn’t break faith with Native American communities.”
In the end, the conflict in Oak Flat is between faith and money.
Between that which some consider holy.
And the unholy way we look at them.