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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.

Are the rest of you armed when you go to Anchorage?

Yes!

I left in 2015. Up to that time I cannot say that I ever felt I needed to be armed. My dad used to yell me 'if you look for trouble you will find it'. I was born in anch in the early '50s and watched it grow from a medium sized town to the city it is today. I remember the place when Northern Lights Blvd was dirt. When the the back road through the Port was the way to get to Government Hill. Tudor road stopped in the swamp and Muldoon was the off base hangout for Ft Rich. soldiers. The Pipeline changed the place the most both city and State. Anchorage has always been the jump off or staging place for West Alaska. Merrill field used to be the busiest airfield per take offs and landings in the USA. Partially due to the numbers of students as well as support fot the outlying villages. I flew my cub off Merrill for years. The city is what it is, a fast growing urban place with all the good and bad that goes with such places. I am not sentimental about the place at all. I enjoyed the place until I decided I was tired of the cold and dark fall/winter days and the buggy damp summers. I liked the proximity of Anch to what I enjoyed most about Alaska. I like Fairbanks for much of the same reasons except Fbxs is too far from salt water. I suspect that if you expect Anch to be like it was 50-60 years ago you will be disappointed.

I’ve been to lots of big cities. LA, San Diego, Seattle, Portland, NY, Boston, Dallas, Miami, Chicago, etc., etc. I’ve never really thought Anchorage was as a bad as the out of towners make it out to be. It’s definitely not Alaska, it is a city, but making it out to be some war zone schithole just tells me you haven’t been many places.

Yes.
A friend was carjacked a while back in Anchorage. Another who was selling seafood from his camper vehicle was barred inside while a few guys stole the generator he had chained to his vehicle,
I'm not sentimental about Anchorage, but it has become a "schithole". The "homeless problem is out of control; not unusual to see people peeing or pooping right on the sidewalk off of Tudor. I can handle the crime, but I hate the way that Anchorage politics dictates to much of the rest of Alaska by the sheer amount of lib voters. Anchorage may not be as bad as many cities, but that ain't saying much.

Anchorage took a social nosedive during the pervert mayor’s term and the pretend mayor.

Coincidentally, both democrats.

Little Ethan oversaw the record number of homicides/murders (several years in a row), record carjackings, he killed the economy with some help from the largely D ass-embly, tried to make Anchorage a sanctuary city. Other than that, he’s a POS and probably the worst mayor Anchorage ever had.

IMHO.

Couldn't agree more. Almost anywhere you go in Anchorage you are in a relatively safe neighborhood. The rough areas, like Mt. View, Fairview, etc., are not THAT rough, most of the time, and they are very small parts of the city. Go to any big city outside and there are huge sections where the house windows all have bars on them and you can drive for an hour and not get out of the ghetto. Houston, Denver, Kansas City, etc., seem like they are 50% ghetto now. Try to drive across town in them and the traffic is so bad you can't get anywhere unless you pay to take a toll road. I live on the south end of Anchorage and work on the north and it takes me 20 minutes to make the trip. No other city this small has two Costco's, or two Cabelas/Bass Pro's. Ocean fishing is only a few hour drive away, and you don't have to know a landowner to go hunting.

Yeah, I figure I could do worse.

Seattle North.






Why wouldn't I be?

You’ll notice the only two people defending Anchorage live there. No one is going to shït in his own living room, so take it with a grain of salt.

Anchorage is also a "perfectly" designed Death-Trap/Kill-Zone in any area wide emergency.

I was in Anchorage during the last earthquake. Because of good building codes, the city held together very well. Whearas in other areas of the world, places crumbled and looting was rampant after eartquakes of similar magnitude.

I saw Anchorage folks work well together, and there was virtually no serious death and injury or looting.

When the dog team blew my hand out against a tree, anchorage surgeons and medical staff put it back together well.

If Anchorage was so bad, why is there a steady stream of thousands of Matsu valley folks into Anchorage every morning for work?

Being stationed at ft rich for 8 years, and having gone to college in Anchorage, Im thankful for the experience.

I personally can't live there in Anchorage because my upbringing, I grew up in the woods, far out of town. So the city thing or even the townie thing doesn't work for me. But that's a personal thing, doesn't give me the right to sht on the entirety of Anchorage........

Because the type of work they do requires them to be in Anchorage to find employment, but there’s no way in hell they’d actually live there, so they commute?

I mean, I get what you’re saying, but the answer to your question contradicts the point you’re trying to make. It basically points out that even though they work there, they aren’t willing to live there.

Let’s be honest, Anchorage is bad, but it’s all relative. It’s bad when the rest of Alaska is just down the road. If forced to choose, I’d still pick Anchorage over any other city in the lower 48, just because it’d keep me in Alaska. But, since I don’t have to choose, I avoid the place and only go down there when I have to, usually about once every 2-3 months.

......

Easy solution for you all that don't like Anchorage, stay the fugg out then.
Don't come and use our Costco, our Airport, Our hospitals, don't drive in for a paycheck and then bitch about how bad it is.
Anchorage isn't great, but it isn't as bas as a lot of medium sized cities that have all these amenities.

That sounds like a "almost" fair deal.........To be fair lets keep the Anchorage people the hell off of the Kenai Peninsula.

The most beautiful city in America.

Apparently still in business on Benson. At least that's what Google says.

I think they are long ago out of the sporting goods business. Now only sell the Garry King line of inflatable boats and rafts. Butch King has his guiding business down on the "Cinder River" area, on the Alaska Peninsula.