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This thread will be interesting to occasionally glance at, and skim over. As these 3 cities are ones I've done a limited amount of google street viewing and picture searches on, but hadn't visited myself.
Anchorage seems like a larger city than Fargo or Sioux Falls.
I would much rather reside in Fargo than Sioux Falls.
Fargo always has seemed much, much more vibrant to me.
Fargo just seemed much more well-rounded. Fargo I would recommend for families, senior-citizens, singles and everyone who is okay with a very long and cold winter.
Sioux Falls seems like an extremely family-oriented city, much more so than Fargo.
Sioux Falls seemed like a very clean city but very quiet.
Based on what I have read, Sioux Falls has excellent health care for a city of it's size. Fargo is good also, but it seems like Sioux Falls has an excellent healthcare infrastructure.
Downtown: I prefer Downtown Fargo. Fargo has an extremely vibrant and large downtown for a city of it's size. Sioux Falls has a good downtown, but downtown Fargo is very vibrant and they have a 2nd good-sized downtown next to downtown Fargo, in the city of Moorhead.
Shopping: I couldn't say one is better than the other. West Acres and Empire Mall are both very nice.
Surburbs: A very last majority of the population in Fargo and Sioux Falls reside in the city.
Things to Do: Fargo is one of the more vibrant cities in the country for a city of it's size. Sioux Falls seemed much quieter to me when ever I have been there.
Anchorage seems like a larger city than Fargo or Sioux Falls.
I would much rather reside in Fargo than Sioux Falls.
Fargo always has seemed much, much more vibrant to me.
Fargo just seemed much more well-rounded. Fargo I would recommend for families, senior-citizens, singles and everyone who is okay with a very long and cold winter.
Sioux Falls seems like an extremely family-oriented city, much more so than Fargo.
Sioux Falls seemed like a very clean city but very quiet.
Based on what I have read, Sioux Falls has excellent health care for a city of it's size. Fargo is good also, but it seems like Sioux Falls has an excellent healthcare infrastructure.
Downtown: I prefer Downtown Fargo. Fargo has an extremely vibrant and large downtown for a city of it's size. Sioux Falls has a good downtown, but downtown Fargo is very vibrant and they have a 2nd good-sized downtown next to downtown Fargo, in the city of Moorhead.
Shopping: I couldn't say one is better than the other. West Acres and Empire Mall are both very nice.
Surburbs: A very last majority of the population in Fargo and Sioux Falls reside in the city.
Things to Do: Fargo is one of the more vibrant cities in the country for a city of it's size. Sioux Falls seemed much quieter to me when ever I have been there.
Though I've more street viewed and looked over images of both cities, I do remember Sioux Falls had some sort of nice park with a waterfall within town. Which I thought was pretty cool.
And for colleges, Fargo, Moorhead, and Sioux Falls all had at least 1 college or sometimes more within it. Fargo having North Dakota State, Moorhead(MN) having Minnesota State-Moorhead, and Sioux Falls having Augustana College and University of Sioux Falls.
Anchorage proper is at least 50% larger than either Fargo or Sioux Falls, and the metro is again at least 1/3rd larger, but it doesn't really feel bigger because the 'core' of the city feels comparable - maybe even a little smaller - than either. The Anchorage area is roughly 400K but it is spread out over nearly 3000 square miles, which is a lot larger than either Fargo or Sioux Falls combined.
Anchorage also has a different feel because a much larger percentage of its residents are gov't employees, particularly military (Elmendorf AFB and Ft Richardson are both large military installations and tens of thousands of people in the area are either servicemembers, their family, or contractors).
Anchorage is a bit more multicultural due to being a port city, being a major stopover between North America and Asia. The airport is much larger than either Hector or Joe Foss Field, due to the above reason, and the fact that Anchorage gets a lot more tourists.
Anchorage is also a lot more expensive because of its extreme isolation - Fargo and Sioux Falls are isolated in their own right, but are still in the lower 48 and accessible by multiple interstates. The only way to reach Anchorage by car is to take the ALCAN and that is an extremely long drive (and I have done it).
Anchorage easily has the biggest crime problem of the three cities (particularly regarding violent crime like rape and murder - and also has a huge drug and alcohol problem which is probably connected to the crime rate), which is also connected to the fact that it is also by far the most impoverished. Fargo and Sioux Falls are both fairly safe cities, though both are somewhat prone to property crime.
Shopping is more or less a draw. Both Fargo and Sioux Falls have larger, nicer malls than Anchorage (Sioux Falls has the Empire Mall which has nearly 200 stores and is over twice the size of anything Anchorage has to offer, and West Acres is about 100-120 stores which is still larger than any mall in Anchorage. The Fifth Avenue mall 'feels' the largest as it is a 5-level mall and is also located in the heart of downtown but definitely comes up short when it comes to variety. Anchorage doesn't really pull its weight when it comes to amenities like shopping and dining, probably due to its extreme isolation. But there are multiple smaller malls in the Anchorage area while West Acres and Sioux Empire are pretty much the end-all, be-all for Fargo and Sioux Falls.
Downtown Anchorage feels the biggest and the busiest of the three, with far more large office buildings and a lot more dining/shopping going on in that area. Fargo is probably second and Sioux Falls downtown is downright pitiful for a city of nearly 200K. It has the feel of a very large, misplaced suburb of the Twin Cities and might be the least urban-feeling 100K+ city in the country that isn't actually a suburb.
Schools - for K-12, it would probably go in the order of Fargo, then Sioux Falls, then Anchorage. Fargo and Anchorage are also home to large state universities while Sioux Falls is home to Augustana College, a small private Lutheran institution.
Suburbs - I guess Fargo wins by default as it is the only one with real, live suburbs (West Fargo at least). Moorhead residents probably object to be considered a suburb even though it's only 1/3rd the size of Fargo. Anchorage has some 'nearby' cities like Eagle River (which is largely settled by military families), Wasilla, and Palmer, but aside from Eagle River, most of these cities are at least 45 minutes away from Anchorage proper and in the winter months can make for a slow and even dangerous commute. Sioux Falls, like Anchorage, doesn't really have any suburbs but has multiple 'bedroom communities' like Brandon and Tea. None of them are very large (10K at the most).
Things to do - easily Anchorage. Excellent hiking - Flat Top, Pioneer Peak, etc. You can view local wildlife up close and personal - moose will literally be seen crossing the street, and occasional bears as well. Seward has whale watching about 90 minutes-2 hrs away, plus has an aquarium. Skiing (both downhill and cross-country) are popular in the winter months. Snowmobiling (or 'snow machining') can be done in all three cities in the winter, plus ice fishing as well. Hunting can be done not far from all three cities, but Anchorage definitely has a higher percentage of firearm owners and not all of them own guns for hunting purposes, there is a legit need for personal protection in some of the shadier areas of the city.
Not one bit. Anchorage has more of a Rust Belt vibe. Closest peer city I can think of is maybe Youngstown, OH. Both cities are stagnant, dirty, and have multiple sketchy areas. Fargo and Sioux Falls are both richer than Anchorage (yeah incomes might be higher in Anchorage, but the COL is astronomically high) and have a more diversified economy and more white collar jobs, while Anchorage's economy is largely driven by government and tourism.
Fargo is less than three hours from the US-Canadian border and doesn't have a very strong Canadian vibe either. Hockey is bigger in North Dakota than either Alaska or South Dakota, but it's not culturally ingrained like it is in much of Canada. No Tim Horton's in Fargo that I remember, plus North Dakota (along with Alaska and South Dakota) are staunchly conservative states with much higher church attendance and much higher gun ownership.
Downtown area -- Anchorage's downtown caters more to tourists. Fargo has a nice downtown with shopping, dining, and residential components. Sioux Falls has a decent downtown, though I'd rank it lowest of these three. Though, the downtown park (with the city's eponymous waterfall) is nice.
Shopping -- More souvenir stores in Anchorage than in the other two. Not sure about "regular" shopping. I believe that both Fargo and Sioux Falls have Target, whereas Anchorage does not, so that's a strike against Anchorage in my book.
Airport -- The one in Anchorage is much, much busier, though a lot of the traffic is freight. Passenger service is very heavily seasonal in most markets, except for a few core links like Seattle. Fargo and Sioux Falls both have small, regional airports that are served by feeder routes to nearby hubs.
Schools -- I don't know. From what I've heard, the ones in Fargo and Sioux Falls are better than the ones in Anchorage.
Suburbs -- All three of these cities tend to be kind of stand-alone, with only a few suburbs and then you're in the rural areas. My "quick and dirty" impression is that the ones in Sioux Falls are the nicest of the bunch.
Things to Do -- Anchorage wins this for city proper, and absolutely blows the others away when you expand the offerings to the entire state.
As for where I'd prefer to live, it's not Anchorage. Not that I didn't like the city, but it doesn't hold enough appeal to me to be a place that I'd want to spend some number of years in. The other two are neck-and-neck in my book, as I think both of them would be fine places to live (except for the cold weather). I'll give Fargo the edge, because I like its downtown area better. But I think I could be happy in either place.
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