Anchorage Neighborhoods for families (apartment, rental, crime)

[MoStro]

Hi,
My husband has a field assignment in Anchorage from May-September. We will moving there for the summer with our young family (2.5 yr old and 3 month old). What are good neighborhoods for families with young children? Where are neighborhoods we should avoid? Best parks for kids and for jogging since I'm a runner Thanks for any help.

[grandma4mom5]

Do you have an apartment lined up? What housing did you have in mind? The Loussac library has a great playground. Kincaid park is good for play and jogging, but there are moose and bear everywhere. There are jogging/bike trails through the city, Coastal trail is one, but beware of going alone. Bears tend to run after moving objects more than slow ones. And at least one trail runs along a stream, which bears like for salmon. Moose can be more unpredictable than bears, and just as deadly. Plenty of websites to check, the muni has a good website with a list of playgrounds by area of town. You don't say where you are coming from, so sticker shock might be a possibility. Decent housing is limited and you're late in the game if you'll be coming next month. There are a lot of openings being advertised as summer seems to be the moving season. But seasonal workers are usually settling in now too. For such a short rental time Weidner properties should be avoided. South Anchorage tends to have "safer" neighborhoods than north, but crime is no respecter. Beware of signing anything sight unseen. Pictures don't always tell the whole story.

[MoStro]

Thank you for the information. We are coming from Florida, the sticker shock isn't that different from where we are from . Thanks for the information on the bears and moose around the jogging trails, not something we tend to worry about down here so that's very helpful information. I will check out the muni website as well. Unfortunately we didn't have a choice about the timing of the trip, hopefully we will still be able to find something.

[stiffnecked]

If you stay on the paved portion of the costal trail that runs through Kincaid Park you'll have absolutely zero problems with the moose. That comes from 5 years of hiking out there almost daily. It's a nice trail and many people use that portion without problems every day. The problems occur when people get off on the numerous other trails that run through the park. And most of those problems could be avoided if people just paid attention. Kincaid is my prefered park location.