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Spenard is a neighborhood in the Municipality of Anchorage, Alaska, United States and was historically a separate city from Anchorage. Spenard maintains the flavor of a separate community today, with "Spenardi Gras" being its primary community celebration that encourages a sense of solidarity and separation from the rest of Anchorage. Spenard is a central focus of bohemian lifestyle practitioners and artists and writers, and is well known for its numerous poetry jams, bicycle parties, and other similar events.
The road that bears its name, Spenard Road, begins at Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport at its southern end, and continues north toward downtown before ending at Westchester Lagoon, where it turns and becomes part of I Street.
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Before unification of the City of Anchorage and the Greater Anchorage Area Borough in 1975, Spenard was an unincorporated suburban community of Anchorage. It is arguably older than Anchorage itself,[ citation needed ] although records are not clear. Anchorage was founded on Ship Creek during construction of the Alaska Railroad. Spenard began as a lumber camp. The road from the lumber camp to the tent city on Ship Creek was subsequently named "Spenard Road" for Joe Spenard, an owner of the lumber camp. Joe Spenard built a dance hall/resort on the shores of Spenard Lake, which burned down after a brief period of great success.
Year | Pop. |
---|---|
1950 | 2,108 |
1960 | 9,074 |
1970 | 18,089 |
Source: [1] |
For years, Spenard contained one of many "red light districts" in the region (other red light districts were found in downtown Anchorage on Fourth Avenue, in Fairview, and in the nearby neighborhood of Mountain View). During construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, the City of Anchorage successfully cleaned up Fourth Avenue by literally bulldozing dozens of buildings. However, the proximity of Spenard to Anchorage International Airport resulted in unprecedented growth of bars, nightclubs, prostitution outlets, gambling clubs, and other disreputable businesses, which catered to pipeline workers laden with money after long stints in isolated construction camps. Today, Spenard still features a large number of bars and a somewhat higher rate of drunken crime than the rest of Anchorage, despite extensive efforts during the post-Pipeline era to "clean up" the community.
There is much redevelopment (in the form of mixed-use, transit-oriented development) planned for the Spenard Road corridor, especially in the vicinity of 36th Avenue & Spenard Road. [2] [3] [4] [5] In order to support this development, the neighborhood was placed on the People Mover's "frequent network", with the #40 bus operating every 15 minutes down Spenard Road on weekdays (weekend service operates every 30 minutes). There is also the #65 (once per hour), which takes neighborhood residents to/from the Dimond Center Mall via Jewel Lake Road.
Juneau, officially the City and Borough of Juneau, is the capital of the U.S. state of Alaska, located along the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. On July 1, 1970, the City of Juneau merged with the City of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current consolidated city-borough, which ranks as the second-largest municipality in the United States by area and is larger than either Rhode Island or Delaware.
Lazy Mountain is a census-designated place (CDP) in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, Alaska, United States. Located east of Palmer along the Matanuska River. At the 2020 census the population was 1,506, up from 1,479 in 2010.
Columbia City is a neighborhood in southeastern Seattle, Washington, within the city's Rainier Valley district. It has a landmark-protected historic business district and is one of the few Seattle neighborhoods with a long history of ethnic and income diversity.
Girdwood is a resort town within the southern extent of the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located near the end of the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet, Girdwood lies in a valley in the southwestern Chugach Mountains, surrounded by seven glaciers feeding into a number of creeks, which either converge within the valley or empty directly into the arm. Girdwood is typically accessed by the Seward Highway, with the main line of the Alaska Railroad paralleling the highway. By road distance, most of the community lies within 35 to 40 miles of Downtown Anchorage. The 2019 American Community Survey estimates a population of 1,742 in the valley.
The Seward Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska that extends 125 miles (201 km) from Seward to Anchorage. It was completed in 1951 and runs through the scenic Kenai Peninsula, Chugach National Forest, Turnagain Arm, and Kenai Mountains. The Seward Highway is numbered Alaska Route 9 (AK-9) for the first 37 miles (60 km) from Seward to the Sterling Highway and AK-1 for the remaining distance to Anchorage. At the junction with the Sterling Highway, AK-1 turns west towards Sterling and Homer. About eight miles (13 km) of the Seward Highway leading into Anchorage is built to freeway standards. In Anchorage, the Seward Highway terminates at an intersection with 5th Avenue, which AK-1 is routed to, and which then leads to the Glenn Highway freeway.
Chugiak is an unincorporated community in the Municipality of Anchorage in the U.S. state of Alaska, situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) northeast of downtown Anchorage.
After congress approved the completion of the Alaska Railroad from Seward to Fairbanks in 1914, it was decided that a new town should be built as a port and rail hub along the route. The decision was made to develop a site near Ship Creek on Cook Inlet. Survey parties visited the area in 1914 and researched possible routes for the rails and options for siting the new town. Anchorage was originally settled as a tent city near the mouth of Ship Creek in 1915, and a planned townsite was platted alongside the bluff to the south. Anchorage was mostly a company town for the Alaska Railroad for its first several decades of existence.
The City of Oklahoma City uses Special Zoning Districts as a tool to maintain the character of many neighborhood communities.
Anchorage, officially the Municipality of Anchorage, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Alaska. With a population of 291,247 at the 2020 census, it contains nearly 40 percent of the state's population. The Anchorage metropolitan area, which includes Anchorage and the neighboring Matanuska-Susitna Borough, had a population of 398,328 in 2020, accounting for more than half the state's population. At 1,706 sq mi (4,420 km2) of land area, the city is the fourth-largest by area in the U.S.
Joseph A. Spenard (1879–1934) was an early settler of Anchorage, Alaska. Lake Spenard, Spenard Road, and the community of Spenard, Alaska bear his name.
Government Hill is a neighborhood in the northwest part of Anchorage, Alaska, United States, sitting in between Anchorage's downtown area and the western reaches of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, specifically the portion formerly known as Elmendorf Air Force Base. The neighborhood is named for the "hill" it sits on of about 115 feet (35 m) bearing the same name, which is actually a bluff which rises alongside the northern banks of Ship Creek. The origins of the name date to 1915, when a federal land reserve was created in the area for the Alaska Engineering Commission, then heavily involved in constructing the Alaska Railroad nearby.
Downtown Anchorage is a neighborhood in the U.S. city of Anchorage, Alaska. Considered the central business district of Anchorage, Downtown has many office buildings, cultural points of interest, shopping areas, as well as dining and nightlife attractions. Today's Downtown was the original site of the Anchorage Land Auction in 1915, which gave rise to today's present-day grid street pattern. The actual original townsite was a tent city located off the banks of Ship Creek, at present-day Government Hill.
The Anchorage Police Department (APD) is the police department of the Municipality of Anchorage in Alaska. Functioning as a service area of the Municipality, its patrol area includes the core "Anchorage bowl", the Seward Highway corridor from Potter Creek south to McHugh Creek, and the Glenn Highway corridor north of the Anchorage bowl to the municipality's border with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, including the communities of Eagle River, Chugiak and Eklutna. Through a memorandum of understanding, APD also handles calls on Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson which involve civilian suspects or victims. Serving Alaska's largest city, APD is also the only metropolitan agency and the largest municipal police force in Alaska.
Mr. Whitekeys, also known as W. Keys, is a musician, recording artist, entrepreneur, writer, media personality and ornithologist in the U.S. state of Alaska. He was the owner and operator of a nightclub called the Fly By Night Club, located in the Spenard neighborhood of Anchorage, from 1980 to 2006. In part due to his flamboyant public persona and penchant for humor, he figures prominently in the modern history and folklore of Spenard. He has released sporadic recordings starting in 1972, mostly under the band name The Fabulous Spamtones.
The Minnesota Drive Expressway is a 7.560-mile-long (12.167 km) south–north expressway located in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, United States. The expressway includes a small portion of O'Malley Road, which is also built to expressway standards. The highway travels from the southern region of Anchorage northward to North Star neighborhood area, and bisects the community of Spenard. The first section of the highway was constructed around 1950, and the entire highway was upgraded to expressway standards by the year of 1985. The entire length of the expressway is listed on the National Highway System, a network of roads important to the country's economy, defense, and mobility.
Tikahtnu Commons is a 900,000 square foot power center located on a 95-acre parcel in Anchorage, Alaska, United States. It is owned by Cook Inlet Region, Inc., an Alaska Native corporation and Browman Development Company, a California corporation. The shopping center consists of several large anchor stores, dozens of smaller restaurants, shops and services, and a 16-screen Regal Cinemas theater. Tikahtnu is the word for Cook Inlet in the Dena'ina language. Tikahtnu Commons is home to many firsts for Alaska, including the state's first Kohl's, PetSmart and IMAX theater. It is the largest shopping center in the state and is even large by national comparison. The International Council of Shopping Centers states that power centers in the United States typically range from 250,000 to 600,000 square feet with an average of 420,160 square feet (39,034 m2). Construction of the center began in 2007 and by the summer of 2015, it had been developed to roughly 98% capacity. Anchors include Lowes, Old Navy, Petsmart, Kohls, Burlington, Target, Best Buy, Regal Cinemas, and Costco.
Mountain View is a neighborhood in northeast Anchorage, Alaska, with approximately 7,300 residents. Mountain View is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the United States. It is between the Glenn Highway and Elmendorf Air Force Base, west of McCarrey Street and east of Post Road. It is a working-class neighborhood, with a median household income of approximately $51,000 and a poverty rate of approximately 26%.
Fairview is a neighborhood in Anchorage, Alaska just east of Downtown Anchorage and west of the Merrill Field Airport. The area is a working-class neighborhood of approximately 7,200 residents, with a median household income of approximately $55,000 and a poverty rate of approximately 21%.
The Westchester Lagoon is a combination of two artificial lakes which form a coastal lagoon near Downtown Anchorage, Alaska. On the lagoons western end, a raised, earthen levee offers right of way for the Alaska Railroad. The levee separates the lagoon from Cook Inlet's Knik Arm, although a large culvert allows spawning salmon swimming upstream from Cook Inlet to use the Chester Creek outflow they will find there. The Tony Knowles Coastal Trail system passes this end of the lagoon, before turning east and passing the Bootleggers Cove neighborhood to the north of the lagoon and continuing further inland into Anchorage. The lagoons eastern boundary is Spenard Road. To the south are single and multi-family homes, Hillcrest Drive and West Anchorage High School. The lagoon is bisected by Minnesota Drive, forming two distinct lakes.