Minority businesses gain momentum.

• Author: Berger, Michael
• Position: Ethnic groups contribute to Alaska's economic development

Ethnic groups are making an impact on the state's economy.

Alaska's cities and villages are slowly adapting to new faces. From Dutch Harbor to Barrow, Fairbanks to Ketchikan, minority-owned businesses are moving to a position of prominence in their communities.

A steady flow of African-American migrants from the Lower 48 during pipeline construction and military expansion, as well as immigrants from Far East nations, Central and South America, and the state's 85,000 Alaska Natives, create a diverse business landscape. The Alaska Department of Labor State Data Center (ASDC) says about one in seven small businesses is minority owned, compared to one in 25 before the 1980 census.

Bob Weldon, now an accountant in Juneau, worked for the state on the 1990 census. He was surprised how the ethnic makeup of Alaska changed since 1980.

"In the early 1980s, it seemed like most minority businesses were very low-key," says Weldon. "Many immigrants didn't speak English that well, so they didn't advertise that much. Only a small part of their communities' business kept most from going out of business. I think now that some of Alaska's newcomers have seen that it's possible to make money here. They are bringing up their families and expanding their business influences."

Anchorage has changed the most, according to Weldon. Certain parts of town are slowly becoming ethnic centers similar to New York's Lower East Side in the early 1900s. Fireweed Lane in midtown supports over 20 Korean-owned small establishments including an entire strip mall, a travel agency and three restaurants. African-American businesses, some of Anchorage's oldest minority undertakings, are spread over the city's map.

Anchorage, with a total 1990 population of 226,338, is home base for 14,569 American Indians, Eskimos and Aleuts. Over 14,500 African-Americans and Alaska's most recent wave of immigrants, Asians and Pacific Islanders, 10,900 strong, arrived by 1990.

Of 26,751 Juneau Borough residents, 3,462 people are Native Americans, over 1,100 are from Asia or the Pacific Islands, about 749 are of Hispanic descent, and nearly 300 are African Americans.

Up in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, with Alaska's second largest community population, there are over 5,500 African Americans, about 5,300 Native Americans, 2,900 Hispanics, and close to 2,000 Asians and Pacific Islanders.

Rex Nutter, director of the community planning department for the Fairbanks North Star Borough, says, "Most of the immigrants coming to Alaska go to Anchorage first to find work and settle. But after a while, when they find it hard to get started, some of them drift up to Fairbanks and the surrounding area. The problem in Fairbanks is that there aren't a lot of unskilled positions open here. We don't have any fishing and not much timber activity, so most immigrants just move on to the coast or back to Anchorage."

Here's an in-depth look at some of Alaska's minority entrepreneurs.

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Most Koreans began to arrive in Alaska from Lower 48 cities like New York, Los Angeles and Seattle just after trans-Alaska pipeline construction began over 20 years ago. They brought a plan to grow a business community in Anchorage, a family-owned network able to supply fellow Koreans with jobs and with the prospect of further future investment. In 1980...