Talk:Anchorage, Alaska

Photos

I was in Anchorage last week for almost 4 days. In between falling and badly bruising my ankle before I left, and pouring down rain the last couple of days before I came back, I managed to get around to quite a few places and take photos. The major stumbling block now is having the time to sort through the camera, cleaning up anything which may require cleaning up, and uploading them. As is the case with a lot of Alaska, the photos currently on Commons are far too weighted towards tourist photos, which don't show a whole lot of town.RadioKAOS (talk) 02:50, 4 September 2012 (UTC)

2014 update: My various woes which have led to my lacking the free time necessary to take on even more tasks have been chronicled elsewhere. Let's just say that when I do get around to it, there's gonna be a lot of photos to tackle, but it should be pretty rewarding in the end. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 00:14, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Notable people section

I did not see a Notable People section for Anchorage. Am I missing it, or is there a link somewhere? I did not want to create one becase I thought I must be overlooking it. I wanted to add Steve Smith (wide receiver, born 1985), reference NFL Enterprises LLC. Thanks!--Fraulein451 (talk) 17:12, 26 November 2012 (UTC)

There are two problems. The first problem is size. I counted a total of 376 entries within the Category:People from Anchorage, Alaska tree. That doesn't include many hundreds more notable people associated with Anchorage who lack articles. The second problem is context. One of Wikipedia's serious faults is that editors have chosen to take "from" to mean "born and(/or) raised" and little else. The name you picked, Steve Smith, pretty well illustrates that. The body of the article begins: "Smith was born in Anchorage, Alaska. He played at Taft High School in the San Fernando Valley". So how is Smith's notability really at all related to Anchorage, unlike, say, Mario Chalmers or Mao Tosi (who were star athletes at Bartlett and East, respectively)?

For comparison of what not to do, look at Soldotna, Alaska#Notable people. From appearance's sake, that list is dominated by modern-day pseudo-celebrities (some whose notability is iffy at best) who were born at Central Peninsula Hospital but otherwise have little or no connection to Soldotna. At the same time, it offers the appearance that we're avoiding acknowledging notable people whose notability is very much intertwined with Soldotna's history. An even more glaring example would be Prince of Wales Island (Alaska)#Notable ex-residents. The first (and for a while, only) entry is Holly Madison, who spent a few years of her childhood in Craig, and is notable for being Hugh Hefner's girlfriend and appearing on a reality television show. OTOH, no mention of Charles August Sulzer, whose notability mostly centers around his activities as a resident of POWI.

For a city the size of Anchorage, I would support a standalone list. I will not support a list which is limited to the notion of "born and raised" being a sole or primary measure of inclusion in the list, however. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 00:14, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Strange "averages"

"Average daytime summer temperatures range from approximately 55 to 78 °F (13 to 26 °C); average daytime winter temperatures are about 5 to 30 °F (−15 to −1.1 °C)."

I don't know quite what to make of this. The average LOW for January is only 11, so what does it mean to say the average daytime temperature is from "5 to 30"? How was this "average" calculated? Are these actually just usual temperatures, rather than "averages"? (An average seems to imply a mathematical formula for calculating, but these seem to be just someone's impression of the usual temperature range.) — Preceding unsigned comment added by GeneCallahan (talk • contribs) 21:51, 4 December 2013 (UTC)

That is strange indeed. There seems to be some confusion about what "average" means, because an average cannot, by nature, have a range. According to the source cited, averging the years between 1981 and 2010, the average low for January is 11 degree F, and the average high is 22. The overall average (including highs and lows) is 16.6 F. That the numbers do not come close to matching the source is a clear indicator that something is wrong, but, to top it off, there is no variable in the source for daytime/nighttime averages. This should be corrected to match the source, but I can't get to it right now. I'll try when I get back, unless someone else wants to. Zaereth (talk) 00:58, 7 December 2013 (UTC)

Structure

Hi. I'm going through all the US Cities (as per List of United States cities by population) in an effort to provide some uniformity in structure. Anyone have an issue with me restructuring this article as per Wikipedia:WikiProject Cities/US Guideline. I won't be changing any content, merely the order. Occasionally, I will also move a picture just to clean up spacing issues. I've already gone through the top 20 or so on the above list, if you'd like to see how they turned out. Thoughts? Onel5969 (talk) 19:49, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Well, you never know on WP what some people might be upset by, but I certainly don't see any reason to object to that. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:30, 27 February 2014 (UTC)

Alaska City?

I just tried my luck and searched if there is a "Alaska City", but got (Redirected from Alaska City, Alaska). I wonder why is that, since there is no mention about that in the article. Quite strange. 82.141.126.28 (talk) 16:26, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

I've re-targeted that redirect to a more helpful location. Beeblebrox (talk) 20:49, 10 May 2014 (UTC)

I looked and noticed that the redir was created by Merovingian (talk · contribs). That user also created a redir for the Juneau article which was also called into question. In that case, there was a faint reference to back up the notion that "Fliptown" may have been considered an early name for Juneau. I stand by my opinion that it could be taken as a derogatory reference to Juneau's long-standing Filipino community. Anyway, in this case, I would tend to believe that Merovingian may have come across a reference to the name, but only created the redir without taking the additional time to explain it in the body of the article (or even in the more appropriate history article). Like Juneau, Anchorage had a variety of preliminary names before settling on its permanent name. I've never come across "Alaska City", however; mostly what I've seen are variations involving "Anchorage", "Knik" and "Ship Creek". RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 00:14, 12 May 2014 (UTC)

Form of government

The government of the city is, as far as I can tell, a strong-mayor setup rather than council-manager. However I won't change this if somebody can prove otherwise. 216.137.192.89 (talk) 15:57, 24 January 2015 (UTC)