I grew up in Anchorage in the late 60s and 70s. A truly great place then for a city. We hauled my dad's J5 Cruiser hulk right through the middle of Anchorage from Lake Hood to Government Hill roped to the back of a Plymouth sedan! Nobody even linked an eye as we drove through town. That's how Anchorage was. Still pretty good into the early 90s, but yes, the pipeline boom began it's downward trend and the dumping of bunches of immigrants on Anchorage by Catholic Social Services, and bunches of Samoans making Anchorage their new sugar daddy, and people coming up for the bennies... that has ruined Anchorage. Then the libs began to colonize Anchorage to turn Alaska blue and have been very successful. It is no longer Alaskan in flavor by any stretch of the imagination.
When I lived in Dillingham in the 80s and 90s, it was truly wonderful to come into Anchorage and live it up, but these days, when I visit my son and his family or my daughter and her family, I drive straight to their houses and drive straight from their houses and try not to stop if I can. I really dislike that place.
