Is it just me or is Alaska attracting a bad element lately? (Anchorage: crime rate, hotel)

[Metlakatla]

Thing have changed. Used to not think twice about leaving the keys in my truck when I run into the store. Figured you'd have to be awfully stupid to steal my truck. These days, there's just a different feeling to POW. Craig and Klawock and both resemble apocalyptic hellscapes in places. Serious slums in the middle of a beautiful wilderness. I'm going to be bitching to City Council about their city-owned-and-maintained trailer court because the place is worse than a dump in the Philippines or other Third World nightmare (this doesn't have anything to do with people from the Philippines; we ave very few of them here). Anyone else notice a distinct decline in their communities in recent years?

[RayinAK]

Yes, Met. The "bad element" you are referring to is also moving to Fairbanks and vicinity. But the real bad one is probably related to the drug trade.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

Yes, Met. The "bad element" you are referring to is also moving to Fairbanks and vicinity. But the real bad one is probably related to the drug trade.

I follow a couple of the Fairbanks Facebook pages, and yes, I do have the impression that the bad element has reached there as well.

[puff5655]

I heard a report that more gangs are moving into Anchorage because they can make a lot more money selling up here than in the lower 48.. Makes sense.

[AKStafford]

I grew up in Hoonah. They are trying to deal with it in their community: ‘A little storm’: A call to anti-drug action in Hoonah | Juneau Empire - Alaska's Capital City Online Newspaper
Here in the Valley, we've got a couple of Facebook groups highlighting criminal activity. So I don't know if things are worse or just more reported.

[riceme]

There has been a lot of theft in the area ranging from mail to heavy equipment to snowmachines and ATM machines. I have read and heard of several cases where people's cabins or homes were broken into and robbed while they were at home, asleep. To take it to a whole different place, on Friday, a young lady was roofied at the Oasis. A few weeks ago, two businesses in Fox were shot up with a .45... one of them was the welding shop, which is scary.

I lock everything up now, pretty much all the time. I never used to.

[Music_Man]

Until we start shooting back it will get worse!

[Frostnip]

I don't think it's anything new. We got a little spoiled by the drop in crime rate in the aughts.

Both the public and law enforcement are only getting broker, so it'll probably get worse before it gets better.

[akpls]

I've begun to notice it both in Fairbanks and Anchorage especially over the past year. We were down in Anchorage this past weekend and stayed at a pretty decent midtown hotel, but I still noticed what could be considered "sketchy" individuals hanging around the parking lot looking like they were checking things out for whatever reason. One Anchorageite I talked to said they have seen a huge increase in property crimes recently....car break-ins, thefts from yards, etc.

[Metlakatla]

It's relatively new to me. It did not used to be this way in this community. There's a noticeable increase in sketchy people from the last time I lived here for any length of time.