Is there animosity or rivalry between Anchorage and Fairbanks? (Barrow: universities, live)

[RayinAK]

I have been living in Alaska for many years, in both Anchorage and Fairbanks. I can't tell of any animosity between the two cities other than when sports such as UA hokey is involved. But I imagine that newcomers to Alaska either have a different attitude than what Alaskans have-or perhaps associate with people who have such an attitude-and therefore see things that we don't.

[shortstepmike]

People in Anchorage have a city "give me" mentality and in Fairbanks "mine, stay away from it"..lol

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by shortstepmike

People in Anchorage have a city "give me" mentality and in Fairbanks "mine, stay away from it"..lol

That's true.

[heathen]

Originally Posted by AK76

I will go as far to say that many who live in the Fairbanks/North Pole area are generaly anti-social, but that does not make FB/NP an exception, that is a common trait in Alaska, people enjoy their independance and many prefer anonymity.

I think regional rivalry is ridiculous, but I do not waste any energy, or worry over it to begin with. At least many have respect and appreciation for a fellow "Alaskan", though, sadly, that is fading rapidly. Alaska is no where near as "friendly" as it once was.

I should clarify my post: I'm not advocating real animosity -- I've enjoyed living in both the interior and southcentral (and joined in the verbal tomato slinging on both sides). I just think it's a positive thing that a large contingent of Fairbanks residents "would never live in Anchorage," and vice versa. I like that Alaska tends to draw people who have a connection with their surroundings, rather than could-live-anywhere couch potatoes.

[MattieJensen]

Originally Posted by Glitch

Anchorage is a nice place to shop, but nobody wants to live there.

It was a nice place to refuel before heading to Asia, but that's about all. Oh, yeah and the Costco store to pick up some inflight consumables.

We prefer the backwoods style of no-banks.

[Atkutuq]

Alaska ain't what it used to be. Too many mean people with f'd up attitudes moved here long ago; and brought their relatives.

[MattieJensen]

Originally Posted by Atkutuq

Alaska ain't what it used to be. Too many mean people with f'd up attitudes moved here long ago; and brought their relatives.

Kinda like the people of WalMart!

[cjs123]

Originally Posted by MattieJensen

Kinda like the people of WalMart!

Thanks for the reminder. I had completely forgotten about that site and just checked it out for my state.

Yikes!

(At least I know I won't be on there because I got fed up and stopped shopping there about a year ago--not that I wear anything worthy of that site ).

[highlife2]

There is lagitimate rivelry and animosity between UAA and UAF. UAF currently has most of the engineering programs but UAA has done studies that becuase most of the good programs are in the middle of a hell hole (fairbanks), alot of students are opting to go out of state and a significant number of those students do not return to the state. There is a huge effort going on by UAA to HUGELY boost their engineering and science programs and eventually draw funding away from UAF. There is no reason for there to be ANY undergraduate studies at UAF and even 85% of the graduate classes can be done from UAA. Only very niche research needs to be conducted at UAF.

So with the shut down of the refinery becuase of the EPA and the slow death of UAF the only other thing supporting fairbanks is the base and there is strong talk of drawing down iselson. The base will never shut down but the only reason they need it is for the free air space to train pilots and maybe a first response wing but Russia is not our enemy anymore.

My guess is that in the next 10 years fairbanks will be nothing more than a small staging area for north slope support, a few niche grad classes/research and a hand full of air force personel for training ops.

Fairbanks has some of the coldest temperatures on recored in the world (other than antarctica), there is no reason for it to be any bigger than palmer. Very few people want to deal with -50F temperatures for significant periods during the winter.

[akpls]

Originally Posted by highlife2

There is lagitimate rivelry and.......

I bet you went to UAA.