What Happened to Anchorage Alaska?

I was born and raised there. It was good as a kid because there's a lot of nature and fresh air, but as I hit my teens I quickly realized that people were pretty close-minded and that the only real opportunities there are in tourism or the oil industry. When oil was expensive, everyone was happy and when it was cheap, everyone got laid off. Since oil is a dwindling resource and the state doesn't use the money to actually invest in anything, you can't become a medical doctor or a lawyer at any university in the state and there is only one nursing school in Anchorage, that you kind of have to leave to learn anything that's not directly helpful to the oil or tourism industries. Most kids dream of leaving. I did over a decade ago and don't miss it.

I visited Alaska over the summer, and Anchorage just felt very sad. Lots of homeless, especially natives, and a lack of any strong downtown.

People who haven't lived in Alaska view it as an outdoor place. But for more than half the year it's very much an indoor place, conducive to spending long hours drinking at the bar. I lived in Anchorage for one year in 89-90. The winters are long, cold and dark with little to do. I couldn't handle it personally. But to each their own.

I lived most of my life in Alaska, though not in Anchorage. People that live outside Anchorage think of it as kind of a suburb of Seattle rather than part of Alaska. It's more or less the airline hub where you change from a small plane to a large one for your annual pilgrimage to somewhere tropical, or for business in the lower 48. That's it. Alaska is big, big, very big and with few roads. Anchorage is little more than a central transportation hub.

I lived in Anchorage from 1991-97 while working at a local TV station there. That was a pretty good time to be there, but like the video explained, the town is heavily dependent on the oil industry, which has been declining there for almost the past 20 years. Add in the high cost of living, the long cold winters, along with the darkness that happens for half the year. It’s a rough place to live, and you have to be committed to live there permanently. For me, working in broadcasting means you have to move on, if you want to move up, and I did my time there. Many go up to Anchorage, live there for a couple of years for the adventure of it, before they ultimately return back down to the lower 48.

Finished my tour with U.S. Customs in Anchorage, we lived there from 2000 to 2008. Our two youngest sons spent their formative years there. They look back with happy memories, and still consider Anchorage their home town. Much of what was said in the video is true, but many "positives" were omitted as well. Cleanest drinking water of any metropolitan area in the U.S. The best and most extensive system of dedicated bike trails going thru beautiful wooded areas of any city in the U.S. The indefinable charm of having an 800 lb. MOOSE wander thru your city neighborhood and browse in your front yard. Yes, it's true, a military and resource based economy located in the Far North probably has a population ceiling that limits unlimited growth. Which is just fine with many of the residents of Anchorage, who for several decades have said Anchorage ("Los Anchorage " they phrased it) was becoming much too big.

It started as a tent city, and has reverted back to it's roots as a...tent city.

I just wanted to say thank you for using a real voice to narrate this. I am sick and tired of these lazy channels using fake robot voice narrators.

Anchorage’s population has always stuck around 300,000. It’s mainly because a lot of young people don’t like to live in a place with 6 months of winter. If there were more incentives and places for the community to get together you’d probably see more people stick around.

I've visited Anchorage 3 times, also lived there for 4 1/2 months while working in tourism. I very much enjoyed spending a summer there but had to rein myself in with spending, since most things are expensive compared to Arizona, where I normally live. I fell in love with the landscape but could never see myself living there year-round; couldn't handle winters. I saw all the homeless and wondered if there were enough shelters for them in the winter.

I am a manager in a large national corporation and recently took on anchorage in my territory. Spectacular scenery outside town, all around. But it is shocking how entrenched the homeless population is, and no doubt crime. It didn’t occur to me that a location with such extreme weather would have a large population living in the elements. I guess I thought that to live there you had to have the resources to withstand…I understand that last winter they herded everyone into a sports complex, where they proceeded to prey on each other.

When I lived in Anchorage in the 70's to early 80's there was minimal major crime. Now the gangs have shown up and killings are at a high. Last time I visited was in 2010 and the whole city seemed to be in a state of decay.

I loved my time living in Anchorage, Alaska, from 2000 to 2004. My stepfather and my mother moved here. I went to Mountain View Elementary School (some of the best times of my childhood). My teacher, Ms. Anderson, is still there! I went to Clark Middle School for a couple of months before my family moved to California. In 2005, I moved back to live with my father in Michigan and have been here ever since. I would love to go back and revisit old friends, relatives, old grounds, and remembrances of the good times.

I lived there 2015-18 and my heart is still there. It is easily my favorite city.

I visited multiple areas in Alaska in the early 2000's as part of my work, including Anchorage. The winter months are absolutely brutal for multiple reasons, including severe lack of sunlight. Not mentioned here is that Alaska is in the top 3 states in terms of suicide rate, and has very serious drug and alcohol problems. It takes a very unique personality to thrive in Alaska, there are some who can.

Great story! I was born on kodiak before Statehood, and I have worked and lived from one end of the state to the other end of it. it would be very easy for me to add much more content to this story, but I will spare that, an just say I like what you have done, thank you.

The one big thing many people dont know about anchorage is that it has one of the worlds largest freight airports, certainly through the night widebody freight flights land and takeoff every 5 mins arriving feom all parts of the globe, because of alaskas position between the east and west its a major stop off airport for freight airlines.

Grew up in Taos, NM and lived in Albuquerque for many years. I'm familiar with what its like to live in cities isolated from the rest of the world. Or so I thought until I moved to N. Wisconsin; I've never been so homesick in my life. The winters here last half the year and they're brutal. Even Minn. And Chicago being within driving distance doesn't make it much better. I can't imagine what it must be like living within a stone's throw of the arctic circle.

I lived there as a military brat from 1962 to 1965 . I was born in 1951, so do the math. As a kid, I absolutely loved it. Lots to do outdoors all year-round. You have to get used to the mosquitos in the summer and the cold in the winter. A great place to be a young boy. We moved away before the pipeline brought in prosperity and crime. My wife asked about going back for a visit, but I told her that I loved the memories as it was back in the day.

I went to Anchorage in July. It looked like any mid sized city but downtown was kind of lacking. The kind of person that would thrive in Anchorage is someone that would not do well elsewhere. Think of someone who went there to "start over". It's a shame because despite its problems, it's not a terrible place. Very pretty actually.