Help. Looking for nice areas. (Anchorage, Wasilla: high crime, homes, neighborhoods)

[Shamommy1]

Hey all. Looking for nice kid friendly areas in anchorage or really close to anchorage. Also, are there only country areas or are there cities? We plan to move their I'm more of a city girl. Are here any areas that are "city"?

Also, how close is walmart, target, Ross, etc? To anchorage?

Thanks everyone!

[jabogitlu]

Well, as far as city areas in Anchorage, well, there is Anchorage:

[Shamommy1]

I mean little towns near anchorage?

[Alaskan Mutt]

Anchorage is a city with almost 300,000 people. Just about all of the major retailers have stores in Anchorage. There are at least 3 Walmarts and one Target. Do not know about Ross.

Eagle River is just a few miles from Anchorage. There is no real downtown district there. Just a bunch of strip malls along the main road thru town.

[AKStafford]

So you are moving without having ever visited? You might be in for a bit of culture shock... Are you maybe military?
Going north from Anchorage you have:
Eagle River
Chugaik
Birchwood
Peters Creek
These are all technically in the Municipality of Anchorage. And they are more like neighborhoods than towns.
Anchorage has several Walmarts and a couple of Targets. No Ross in Alaska. Eagle River also has a Walmart.

And then you have Wasilla and Palmer in the "Valley". Wasilla has a Target and a Walmart.

South of Anchorage is the neighborhoods of Indian and Bird Creek and then the town of Girdwood. If you are going to be commuting to Anchorage, these are not the best options. The Seward Highway going south of Anchorage stays very busy.

[Dakster]

Originally Posted by Shamommy1

Hey all. Looking for nice kid friendly areas in anchorage or really close to anchorage. Also, are there only country areas or are there cities? We plan to move their I'm more of a city girl. Are here any areas that are "city"?

Also, how close is walmart, target, Ross, etc? To anchorage?

Thanks everyone!

Having just moved to Anchorage from a major metropolitan area - here is my impression.

I have so far found Anchorage itself to be more city like than Country. With exceptions, of course, I find the homes are on city-sized lots. My humble impression of what I think "country" is when I hear someone describe an area that way is that homes on large pieces of land (measured in acres) and not a lot of stores around them. Something that is in SHORT supply in Anchorage is buildable land.

Not all big box stores are there, but we didn't have any issues buying the things we normally consume. Unfortunately, even got to try out the Emergency Room when we were there. Fortunately, I found the nurses and doctor's there, very competent and nice.

As far as big city life - I just don't see Anchorage as being comparable to a New York, L.A., or Miami... Not that there are not a ton of wonderful things to do in Anchorage. In fact, the reason we choose to more to AK is because we don't like or want a New York, L.A., or Miami lifestyle... (We moved from Miami....)

[Shamommy1]

Originally Posted by AKStafford

So you are moving without having ever visited? You might be in for a bit of culture shock... Are you maybe military?
Going north from Anchorage you have:
Eagle River
Chugaik
Birchwood
Peters Creek
These are all technically in the Municipality of Anchorage. And they are more like neighborhoods than towns.
Anchorage has several Walmarts and a couple of Targets. No Ross in Alaska. Eagle River also has a Walmart.

And then you have Wasilla and Palmer in the "Valley". Wasilla has a Target and a Walmart.

South of Anchorage is the neighborhoods of Indian and Bird Creek and then the town of Girdwood. If you are going to be commuting to Anchorage, these are not the best options. The Seward Highway going south of Anchorage stays very busy.

Yes. My husband is military. We are coming next month to visit and get a feel. Just curious which areas to visit while we are there for the week!!!

[Shamommy1]

Which areas should we stay away from? We are wanting to be close to walmart target and the army base.
Is there like party city, dollar store? Stores like that? Payless?

[Dakster]

Is your husband going to be on the Army Base or the Air Force Base? (Elmendorf or Richardson?)... Yes, I know it is a Joint Base -- but the reason I am asking is that different areas of Anchorage (or Eagle River) are closer to one side. Since my wife is going to be working on Richardson, and not too far from that entry gate off the highway, we picked living in Eagle River. And we are tired of big city life... However, If she was going to be on the Elmendorf side, we would have picked an area in Anchorage proper.

Define what you mean by close and I am sure one of us here can help you pinpoint a location that is close to stores AND the gate your husband would want to use to get to work. My idea of close is within 10 minutes in good weather. When you can basically get from one side of Anchorage to the other, not in rush hour and in good weather within about 15 minutes, almost everything is "close" for me.

When I looked up crime stats in Anchorage, it was fairly easy to tell which areas I didn't want to live in.

[Shamommy1]

He's army. So the army side lol. And where did you look that up? What did you come up with? The areas I mean that are high crime rate?

By easy commute I mean exactly what u said, literally 10 minutes.

Also, anyone know any job opportunities? Where's the best place to look? I wouldn't mind looking on base, but something closer to eagle river, which I'm pretty sure that's where we are wanting to go.