Municipality of Anchorage: a good place to work, live and play.

• Author: Bargour, Tracy
• Position: Regional Focus - City overview

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The Municipality of Anchorage is one of Alaska's most prominent and populous urban areas. Nowhere else in the state contains such a substantial population concentrated in one place--and within easy reach of the Alaska wilderness.

Anchorage residents and visitors can enjoy all the amenities of a modern metro area, including shopping, museums, performing arts and other attractions. At the same time, they have convenient access to thousands of acres of park lands, outdoor recreation, abundant wildlife and beautiful surroundings. "If you combine our wonderful facilities set in this natural setting that makes for a quality of life that's hard to match anywhere," says Mayor Dan Sullivan.

STABLE ECONOMY

A major factor in the city's quality of life is its stable economy, which Sullivan views with optimism and realism. He says a "tale of two economies" is at work in Anchorage. The internal economy is in good position. The city has seen home values decline only about 1 percent, compared to a much higher decrease for the rest of the nation. Anchorage is starting to see a steady recovery from the economic downturn, maintaining a growth curve of 1.5 percent a year. Tourism is rebounding. The University Medical or U-Med district is also doing well. This growing part of Anchorage which contains the University of Alaska Anchorage, Alaska Pacific University, Providence Alaska Medical Center and Alaska Native Medical Center--is home to about 10 percent of the city's jobs.

The Native corporations are all also doing well, as they capitalize on opportunities within and outside state. "The good thing is all that money comes back to Alaska," Sullivan says. "Overall the Anchorage economy is in pretty darn good shape."

Bill Popp, president and CEO of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation paints a positive picture of the city's economy as a whole. According to Popp, the local economy has strengthened. "The economy has returned to modest, steady growth," he says. "It has returned to the pattern that went on 21 years before the recession."

Key employment sectors for Anchorage are government, health/education services, trade, business/professional services, leisure/hospitality and transportation. As of August 2011, Anchorage had gained about 1,300 jobs, Popp says, more than a 1.25 percent increase over the first eight months of last year. Unemployment was down to 5.8 in August--despite having a larger work force. The city's labor pool is about 155,000, which is up nearly 4,000. At the same time, Anchorage's unemployed part of the labor force is down about 9,000. "We're seeing a lot of growth that is not in retail or lower-end services sectors," Popp says.

While the retail industry is treading water this year, much of the employment growth derived from the business and professional service sector, including occupations such as architects and engineers, which gained about 300 jobs. However, Popp says there's no single reason why the business and professional services area is growing. Maybe it's because of increase in oil and gas and mining," he says. "We also see substantial dollars on the street from the state (for highway projects). We're seeing an interesting trend of some firms picking up a fair amount of business outside of Alaska and internationally."

Anchorage also experienced growth in the financial services industry, which saw an increase of about 100 jobs. The leisure and hospitality segment showed even more expansion, with the addition of 400 jobs. But the most dramatic gain was in the health care sector, where 750 jobs were added. Oil and gas was flat, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, Popp says. However, government employment is down about 300 federal and 100 state jobs. "We didn't expect it to be a significant factor this year, with the cutting of the budgets," he says.

Department of Labor Economist Neal Fried points out that Anchorage holds a unique position as the headquarters for many of Alaska's key industries, including oil and gas, mining, health care, transportation and financial services. Anchorage benefits from activity taking place everywhere else in Alaska. If you want to know what's going to happen with Anchorage, what will happen in the state will have a big influence, he says. "What's good for Alaska is good for Anchorage," he adds.

BOUNDARIES

Geographically, the Municipality of Anchorage occupies a strip of coastal lowland and extends up the lower alpine slopes of the Chugach Mountains. To the south sits Turnagain Arm, a fjord boasting some of the highest tides in the world. Knik Arm lies to the west and north while the Chugach Mountains form a boundary to the east.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the municipality has a total area of about 1,960 square miles, of which 1,697.2 square miles are land and 263.9 square miles are water. The Anchorage Municipality extends 80 miles, from Portage to the south and Eklutna to the north. It comprises Girdwood, Eagle River and Chugiak, as well as other smaller communities.

Historically, Anchorage originated in 1914 as the site of a railroad construction port for the Alaska Railroad. A tent city soon developed at Ship Creek Landing--the railroad's headquarters--and the community continued to grow. Anchorage was incorporated on November 23, 1920. In January 1964, it became a city and borough. In 1975, the city and borough consolidated, forming the unified government officially known as the Municipality of Anchorage.

DEMOGRAPHICS

As of the 2010 U.S. Census, Anchorage had 291,826 residents, almost half of the statewide population of 710,231, and 12.1 percent more than in 2000. Anchorage has become more ethnically diverse over the years, which has led to a lot of positive trends, according to Popp. "It's made for a more vibrant community."

Ethnic diversity is a particularly interesting aspect of Anchorage's demographics, according to Fried. "I think it surprises a lot of people," he says. "Even though Anchorage has grown fairly moderately, its diversity has grown much more dramatically. In 1980, 16 percent of our population was nonwhite. Now it's about one-third nonwhite."

RACIAL BREAKDOWN

Based on the 2010 Census, nonwhites comprised 34 percent of the city's population, compared to 28 percent in 2000 and 21 percent in 1990. When you look at the racial breakdown, Fried adds, the numbers are even more dramatic. Eight percent of Anchorage's residents were identified as Alaska Native or American...