I really can't get a handle on Wasila Alaska

[hedgehog]

It's described as a VERY small town, yet it has this huge sports complex, two high schools and a hospital not to mention several strip malls. There must be a lot of other people living in the general area to support all this.


Also, I don't understand land prices. The land for the sports complex was originally available at $125,000. I can't believe that's the going price for a commercial lot. Maybe it costs more because it's on the highway, but rural land around here goes for maybe $1000 an acre.

[Skink]

1. She turned it on it's ear.

[vaberella]

2. Palin did all that. That woman brought that city to it's knees with a $20 million dollar debt.

She's pure evil, yet on Meet the Press today with Tom Brokaw with Polenty. Polenty said she could handle the Federal budget. <---Are you hearing this?!

[Ichingcarpenter]

3. This was the Mayor's office, I kid you not!

[Beartracks]

8. Sports complex or not, that IS a small town! :) n/t

[Athens30603]

16. Not for nothing, but...

...that's an office I could actually stand to work in.

[KharmaTrain]

4. And The Taxpayers Of The Town Got Soaked on That Sports Complex

I think it was DKos that had a story about how Palin could have bought the land for 170Gs but a developer/friend got the land first and then sold it to the city for $1.7 mil.

Sound typical...another GOOP land scam...fits right in with Gramps doing favors for his Arizona developer buddies. Or Don Young's Coconut Grove earmark...

[nc4bo]

6. Do you have that link handy in your browser's History.....thanks. nt

[KharmaTrain]

21. Here It Is...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/29/183255/841/290/579394

It links to the Anchorage Daily News story...

Cheers...

[nc4bo]

22. thanks!!! nt

[sandnsea]

5. Land here is $10,000 acre, easy

Lots in town are $100,000 - $130,000. As many people live in the rural areas as live in the city. A lot of rural towns have pools, skate parks, etc. A hockey ring is somewhat reasonable, depending on the area it serves. It's the kind of thing you have to have if you want to keep kids out of trouble.

[hedgehog]

7. Why are land prices so high? Is that because everyone wants to be on the main road

or within the utility grid or what? Is it that most people in Alaska live in the Anchorage area?

[snowbear]

9. Hedgehog.. I'm in Anchorage and can tell you..

..that the towns of Wasilla and Palmer (which are side-by-side) are about a 45 to 50 minute drive north of Anchorage in the "Matanuska Valley".

A lot of people who work in Anchorage actually communte every weekday all the way out there.

They have much more than a new multi-sports complex and arena out there. People who don't commute into Anchorage used to have to drive in here for everything.

But now they have stores up the kazoo.. including a large mall, Walmart Supercenter (as well as at least 2 other large grocery stores).. plus they opened a Lowes, Home Depot, Target (under construction), Walgreens (under construction) and I can't remember what else..

They also have tons of local restaurants as well as chains like McDonalds, Chilis, Burger King, etc..) and they have an Olive Garden (under construction)

It's rural in some respects... very scenic farmland surrounding it.. .. but also has a ton of lower-48 type businesses.

[skooooo]

13. Tell me why..

...drunk driving is such a problem in Wasilla??

[hedgehog]

14. See, that's the part I don't get. Where do all the people who

work in all those stores come from , let alone all the people who shop there? For comparison, I live just outside a city of 11,000 with another 13,000 in the adjacent rural towns. We barely support two medium sized grocery stores, 3 drugstores , a K Mart and a new Wal Mart. The betting is that the K-Mart is going to close. There's a Lowe's 10 miles north and another 10 miles south. We do have a lot of fast food joints, but they're all on Rt481 and are the only places between Oswego and Syracuse.

[sandnsea]

10. I'm on the Oregon Coast

Land prices are high all over the west. It's a combination of reasons, one being that so much of our land is forest and BLM. I don't know about Alaska, but Oregon is also highly regulated to protect farm land and prevent sprawl. Also, I personally think they zone the cities to push lot prices up so the local developers make good money on the lots they own. It's funny to watch land zoning lock up tight until some local gets the last lot sold, then they open up another development. There's good and bad to it. We didn't get hit as hard with the mortgage crunch because it's not terribly overdeveloped here. I'm guessing it's similar in Alaska.

[bbinacan]

11. Wasilla is in Matanuska-Susitna Borough

which has a population of 59,322 as of the 2000 census.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matanuska-Susitna_Borough,_Alaska

[TahitiNut]

12. Suburb of Anchorage. "Improved" land is expensive in that climate.

That said, Alaska has a total population of less than 650,000 people. Compare that to Detroit with a population of over 900,000. Add to the mix political/business cronyism that makes Chicago, Boston, or California politics look disorganized in comparison ... and it's a total 'nother world.

[Arctic Dave]

15. Wasilla is a suburb of Anchorage.

Anchorage is pretty much out of land because it sits between Cook Inlet and the Chugach Mountains, so people started moving out to the "valley" were, at one time, land was cheap. But, as demand went up, so did prices. And yes, you are right, being close to utilities makes that land more valuable. Also, all the new construction out in the valley has a lot to do with influx of suburbanites from Anchorage wanting the same amenities as in town.
So when people try to paint Palin as some rugged Alaskan individual she should be more closely defined as a suburban mom.

[hedgehog]

19. We're 10 miles from Lake Ontario with a lot of wooded land here

and the Adirondack Park nearby. You can live in a development and go hunting or fishing fairly easily. Of course, around hewre 10 or 20 houses constitutes a development! It's hard to explain to someone who lives in a big city suburb. We have a lot of deer and the occasional coyote running through the yards here. Last summer a deer crashed through the front window at the pharmacy I go to. So while we don't have moose or grizzlies, in some respects we're more remote than Wasilla. I have to travel 10 to 20 miles to get to a bookstore or movie theater depending on if I head north or south.


BTW - Wasilla annual snowfall 50"

Fulton, NY annual snowfall 140" or 200" depending on your source!

[Arctic Dave]

20. You are probably right. Wassila/Palmer is less rural

then were you are from. Ten or twenty years ago this area could be called "rural" but it is not what you would call in any shape or form remote like a village. Suburban best describes it then and now.

[WindRiverMan]

17. A bit of a rundown

Wasilla and a town called Palmer are both part of the Mat-Su valley, about forty miles up the road from Anchorage. Smallish towns more or less suburbs of Anchorage. Land in Alaska is VERY expensive because of the muskeg, good building land is hard to find. Also, we are bordered on one side by the ocean, another the mountains, and yet a third by Elmendorf Air Force Base. As such, land is hard to come by. Neither Wasilla nor Palmer are truly rural. They used to be, but no more. Think trailer park suburb and you have Wasilla.

[medicswife]

18. My brother lives there.......I don't know much about it though. I'm with

you...it is kind of a conundrum.