Do you think Alaska needs new cities? (live, health)
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Mineral and oil resources, discovery and extraction. What shaped the dynamics of the state more than those? WWII should probably be included as well; the Battle of the Aleutian Islands and the construction of the ALCAN.
The fur trade shaped some of the area during its early history. Anchorage is an important port city, which was founded thanks to the railroad. Fishing is an important part of Alaska's economy. Air transportation as well. Tourism is an important part of the economy too.
The fur trade shaped some of the area during its early history. Anchorage is an important port city, which was founded thanks to the railroad. Fishing is an important part of Alaska's economy. Air transportation as well. Tourism is an important part of the economy too.
Granted, but they pale in comparison to the overall dramatic influence imposed on the state as a result of oil, gold, copper, zinc...
The ALCAN built by the Army as a critical artery for transporting man, machine and supplies to combat the Japanese invasion of North America via the Aleutians is still critical today for allowing transport by civilians and military alike.
The topic itself is offensive. If Alaskans wanted more communities, they'd be living there already. If outsiders want to come here, there are already places for them to come live. If they don't like the options, perhaps they should reconsider their destination of choice.
Alaska is different. There are countless ways, but the most obvious that come to mind are isolation, location, weather, inhospitable environment, isolation, location and weather. Prioritize it any way you want, the reasons are all valid. And so why would outsiders want to come here and create a new "community" or live here for a time and then want that to happen? Why not just go away, go back to where you came from, take your toys and pollution and consumerism with you and just stay away.
I regret the direction the place has taken to place it where it is today. I would vote NO to federal monies for just about everything if it meant we could get off the tit and back to self-sufficiency. If you don't like that, go someplace where there are plenty of government pigs to suckle from. More and more and MORE I await a legitimate succession petition, would side with the folks who have vision to let the state sustain itself.
I quit reading all the posts in this, so I may be way of base of topic, but it sure did fire me up. More communities? And did you say 'NEED?" Just typing it got me all riled up and ready to spit again. It's me who needs to go away, far enough into the bush were ham is communication and not a commodity. At least I don't need a community to do it...
In southeast Alaska, Port Alexander, a small community at the southern tip of Baranof island, seceded from the City & Borough of Sitka. It now funds its own EMS, utilities, etc., and receives funds from the state for maintenance of dock facilities, etc., just as other municipalities. The residents owned that decision and have made the effort one of satisfying result, albeit not having a tax base to draw from requires residents to step up and contribute to all that must be done to make the independence work. It's a cooperative interest and the community itself is comprised of generations of families who did not want interference with their way of life. Difficult? From some perspectives. Success? All agree, yes. A unique place? Without a doubt, and those folks have no middle-man government to interfere with what they want for their community. Why does that seem so difficult for Alaska-at-large to grasp? We have the resources, we have the military base infrastructure, we have the people who would support. Fear disguised as rhetorical argument is what stops us. We certainly seem to be afraid to step away from that sow. Alaska, sovereign, would be independent from recognizing federal ownership of any portion of Alaska (good luck with that, you say), but stop and think about what it means beyond the knee-jerk reasoning of no inflow of goods, fuel, protection, etc. That's exactly what the government wants its citizenry to believe, rely on - everything government-provided, a socialist welfare population that can no longer do for themselves and are comfortable with that way of life, soon to envision nothing else but mother's milk and no teeth.
But we were talking about Alaska needing more communities. Kind of like it needs more roads, eh?
I think if major employers in anchorage ran satellite office say in Wasilla it would decongest Anchorage. That way people could move to the valley without the mass traffic commute in. Not sure how that could be incentivized though, companies have no real motivation to do that. It would also remove the need for a bridge because people could expand out to pt mackinzie and commute to Wasilla which is not too bad compared to commuting in to anchorage.
If we could make it work it could be used as a model to decongest other big cities. Perhaps impose huge taxes on companies that have more than X number of people communting in to help maintain roads and deal with the expenses of a company that operates out of a congested area and refuses to expand its office space.
So, you're talking about penalizing a corporation for the lifestyle choices of its employees?
Talk about a "socialist welfare population" ....
How else do you decongest an area and encourage expansion WITHOUT having a mass stream of traffic all comming into a down town area. Why shouldnt companies have to pay to help maintain that infrastucture that they benifit from. Im not talking about mom and pop sandwich shop, im talking about a companie that has several hundred to a 1000 employees that are traveling on roads and causing massive traffic so that they can all get to their employers inconvient office location. I think companies like that should pay out. Just like I think the north dakota oil fields should be paying out taxes having all their trucks and employees tearing up the town.
I think a more equitable and logical solution is to regulate land use, but that often also raises peoples' hackles irrationally. It can also be difficult to implement because growth often occurs in unincorporated areas, with annexation later following to "pick up the pieces" and deal with some ass-backwards development concept. This may not be the case in the Anchorage area, since the city has such a large land area, but my experience with Anchorage is that midtown, north Muldoon, Dimond, etc. were developed and planned very poorly, with a corresponding decrease in available, proximate buildable land and thus an increase in people living in Eagle River or further.
Define the location(s) of business, incorporate retail and housing to provide for a mixed-use experience, and provide for transportation for those people who want to live in the 'burbs. This works well in Toronto (among many others), where park-and-rides provide a link between surrounding towns and the metro center.
i don't live in Alaska, but i think the more city's means more crime more drugs more tax's and just more problems for the people.alaska is known for it's frontier and the beauty of the land rivers and lakes and mountains.if you build more city's you bring more people and they will want to bring in more pollution.and they will want to bring there way to do things not knowing that they will destroy what they came to see.
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