Talk:Anchorage, Alaska

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To-do list for Anchorage, Alaska:	edit · history · watch · refresh
compare current state of the article to "Information on Anchorage" from the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce to address any lingering plagiarism (see this write-up for details) the main History section on Anchorage can be moved to a seperate article Main article: History of Anchorage, Alaska and expand it along with pictures of Anchorage in the early days and today improve History section on main article, kinda like Seattle's History section on it's main article with Founding, Major events, and Economic history For help, go to Seattle or Ann Arbor to check out their articles or History sections. Seattle, Washington and Ann Arbor, Michigan are Featured articles, and we can do the same on Anchorage, Alaska's article as well. Also check out the article on History of Alaska, it is also a Featured article. expand Government section (the section can be renamed Government and politics) the section on Museums is in list form and can be improved by converting them into sentence format (prose) Sports section write articles for red links: Mulcahy Stadium Anchorage Bucs Baseball Club Anchorage Glacier Pilots Great Alaska Shootout make out logo images of: Anchorage Bucs Baseball Club Great Alaska Shootout Other sections of main article write articles for red links: Lake Spenard General_Communications,_Inc. Alaska Center for the Performing Arts International Ice Carving Competition Anchorage Concert Association Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum Anchorage Fire Department Museum Russian Orthodox Museum Wolf Song of Alaska Alaska Museum of Natural History Heritage Library Museum Alaska Regional Hospital Alaska Native Medical Center We need the help of the Wikipedia community on improving this article.
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Archives

2004 - September 2006

Contents 1 "Metropolitan Area"? 2 Nightlife 3 What Happened? 4 climate number wrong 5 Anchorage bigger in area than Rhode Island and Delaware combined? 6 Contiguous v. continental 7 Notable former residents? 8 Not an independent city 9 Volcanic ash date incorrect

[edit] "Metropolitan Area"?

The article's preamble says that Anchorage has 2/5 of the state's population (meaning the Anchorage municipality--Anchorage, Girdwood, Eagle River--but that its "Metropolitan Area" holds over 50%. This number needs a citation and I would like to know what definition of "Metropolitan Area" is being used here, and which communities outside of the Municipality count as part of Anchorage's "Metropolitan Area." 66.58.219.109 00:55, 31 July 2007 (UTC)

Hello! New user here, so bear with me...

I live in Anchorage, and when I first saw this, it was just as surprising to me as well! So I checked out the U.S. Census Bureau's website some years ago, and found that they started defining an "Anchorage-Mat-Su Metropolitan Statistical Area" in 2005, whose population is the sum of residents in both the Municipality of Anchorage and the Matanuska-Susitna Borough to the north. (I cannot post the citation now, but it is in there.) This does make some sense for regional economy-reporting reasons due to the thousands of commuters we get every day from Palmer, Wasilla, and beyond. The Anchorage Daily News often gives us statistics on jobs and growth for both regions combined, and if this statistical reporting method helps better provide information consistent with Wikipedia's goals for the article, the figure should probably stay, albeit with some notation.

However, and this is from my 16 years of experience living here, I have to strongly emphasize that people living in various cities in the region, even towns in the Municipality like Eagle River, Chugiak, etc. strictly maintain a separate identity from the urbanized "Anchorage Bowl" itself. Lots of people I know who live in these towns moved there from Anchorage with the sole purpose of getting away from Anchorage in the first place :) , seemingly to find a more "genuine Alaska." So, I wouldn't go rushing to write an "Anchorage-Mat-Su MSA" article just yet, although the Mat-Su is the fastest-growing region in Alaska, and the growth pattern mirrors many Outside major cities' style of suburban expansion. So, depending on if you're looking to provide information useful to an economist or entrepreneur, or portraying the local beliefs of hometown-identity, there would be different interpretations of a "Metropolitan Area." I hope this clarified the issue some.

--Ak49north 08:33, 30 September 2007 (UTC)

Okay, I found the Census page about the Anchorage MSA: Anchorage, AK Metro Area - ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates: 2006.

The map of the MSA showing the MOA and Mat-Su Borough is on the right; this is from the Census Bureau's website. The Fairbanks North Star Borough can be seen to the north, which the Census Bureau also considers its own MSA despite its small population (approx. 85,000).

--Ak49north 06:56, 1 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Nightlife

The "Nightlife" section appears to be focused too much on highlighting the attributes of certain bars. ("Great service", "big screen TV", etc). Do we really need to list the individual clubs? If we do can we find a way to be more NPOV about it? -Will Beback 20:18, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] What Happened?

All I have to say is that this article looked MUCH better and cleaner 3 months ago, when I don't know what happened. Do we really need the list of neighborhoods in Anchorage in the main article? Nicholas.tan 16:25, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] climate number wrong

i live in anchorage and in the summer BeckBoy Ak 03:57, 22 November 2006 (UTC)it rarely if ever gets to 80 degrees. litteraly almost never.

You're right. The range given for highs in the summer is 55 to 80, a range so large that it is meaningless (as an aside, the highs in Houston in December are usually between 22 and 85; for St. Louis in December highs are usually between -5 and 76). I meant to do a partial rewrite of it yesterday but got distracted 3 times! Thanks for reminding us (me). I'll get to it soon. Ufwuct 06:43, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Anyway. The table is in Fahrenheit only. Someone should also add the Celcius numbers for the rest of the world.

[edit] Anchorage bigger in area than Rhode Island and Delaware combined?

That's what the intro says, but the info box puts Anchorage's area at around 1961 sq. mi. while Delaware alone is over 2400 sq. mi. Can someone justify the bigger than both claim before I remove it? - Jeff Worthington 20:36, 22 November 2006 (UTC)

Looks suspect to me, too. -- Shunpiker 18:32, 23 November 2006 (UTC)

Fact-checked and updated: Anchorage (1,961 sq. mi.) is larger than Rhode Island (1,545 sq. mi.) but not Delaware (2,489 sq. mi.) -- Shunpiker 22:47, 3 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Contiguous v. continental

Revising another user's uncivil comment: Remember that "continental US" includes Alaska but "contiguous US" does not. Calliopejen1 03:46, 8 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Notable former residents?

None or almost none of the listed notable residents currently reside in Anchorage. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 146.63.25.48 (talk) 21:51, 4 October 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Not an independent city

I removed this "Category:Independent cities in the United States", because, according to the Alaska article, a city-borough is legally a borough, which would mean,that it is the opposite of an independent city, thanks Iamanadam (talk) 15:05, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Volcanic ash date incorrect

The history section states that the latest volcanic ash fall in Anc. was in '85. I was born in '86 and I definitely remember an ash fall, maybe '90, give or take a year. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 32.163.40.213 (talk) 07:58, 29 January 2008 (UTC)