Nuisance stairway up cliff removed

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Oct. 22 (UPI) -- A set of concrete steps up a cliff face in Anchorage, Alaska, that had become a magnet for drunks and drug dealers has been destroyed, officials said.

The stairway, built in 1967 to make getting around easier for pedestrians in the Grandview Gardens neighborhood, were covered with a roof four years later. James Gray, who lives next door, said when he was a boy he used to go there with his friends to smoke cigarettes illicitly but in recent years the steps attracted a rougher crowd.

The city took the roof off Monday morning and finished the demolition by the end of the day, The Anchorage Daily News reported.

"We're so happy," Gray said. "I tell you I'm drinking champagne tonight."

Gray and other neighbors said partying on the steps spread into their yards, creating late-night noise and vandalism.

Officials said removing the roof would have opened up the stairs. But they would have been an icy hazard come winter.