Riding a townie makes me feel like I live somewhere. That’s what I decided today as I biked around my new neighborhood in central Anchorage. Just south of downtown, Spenard appears at first to be collection of low-rent and middle income homes and busy four lane streets lined with omni-present strip malls.
Spenard got its slightly seedy start early in life. In the early 1900s, Spenard was a lumber camp outside Anchorage that eventually became a destination for rail workers hoping for a good evening on the town. The workers would follow a 3-mile wagon road out of town (now Spenard Road) and end up at Joe Spenard’s night club on the shores of Lake Spenard. Pretty soon, Spenard got the reputation that lingers today. It officially became part of Anchorage in 1975 during oil boom days when its proximity to the Anchorage International Airport and a clean-up effort downtown caused a proliferation of bars and brothels to sprout up. Ever since, Anchorage has been trying to “clean up” Spenard . (Here’s a column by Julia O’Malley about the latest attempts to fix Spenard Road.)
I haven’t lived here long enough to figure out if Spenard deserves it’s reputation. I met a nice cop the other day who sucked air through his teeth when I told him where I was living. “Yeah, we get a fair number of calls in there,” he said. “But mostly just petty stuff.” He was pretty delighted when I said Cam and I had used the Anchorage crime map before deciding we were willing to move on in. The map confirmed what he said--lots of thefts and vehicle break-ins but no violent crime. Now that I'm hardened against purse thefts, I've got tons of confidence. Another friend advised that we keep the house locked but said we'd be okay. My neighbor across the street has an American flag waving in front of his picket fence and flower baskets rotating in the breeze by the front door. It doesn’t feel too sleazy in Spenard today.
I did a big cruise around the neighborhood on my bike today and found much of the same. A big group of teens liked my bike and said so as I passed. I thought about telling the youngest one that he shouldn’t smoke cigarettes but let it go. A couple of guys outside the pull-tab joint and mini-mart liked my bike too and an older guy helped me get the chain guard rearranged when it started making a racket.
I biked over to a work friend’s house and we’re all excited for the Indian food restaurant to open two blocks from my house. They’re going to come over and we’ll push the baby stroller down to enjoy a curry when they open up.
From my seat, Spenard today is sprinkled with the old and new—yoga studios and cigarette stores and they seem to happily co-exist in a way that I haven't seen in other towns. There’s new restaurants and ancient bars, bike stores and motels. I think there’s a music festival in Spenard today that we might go check out. I’ll let you know how it goes.
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