Spenard is about neglected neighborhoods, seedy pasts, but it is also a deeply American experiment that actually seems to be working without being fashionable. An unpopular ugly child who has grown to be a local folk hero.
Friday, September 19, 2008
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Fish Creek Fall
In the air lately, the pungent aroma of fall which seems unique to Spenard fills my nostrils. I'm not exactly sure which plants compose the distinctive scent that is the harbinger of winter. I think it's the high-bush cranberries or perhaps the frightening mutant fungi, then again it could be the decomposing cigarette butts. During the last couple of weeks, honks of geese overhead remind me that I need to inventory winter gear for our kids. I haven't heard our feathered tourists in a few days and am left wondering if they've all gone.
Spenard is the second oldest neighborhood in Anchorage, it was actually a separate town from Anchorage. It's one of the few neighborhoods within mid-town which maintained its arboreal character. Fish Creek, an important wildlife corridor, runs through Spenard, it enters near Arctic and 36th, runs west through trailer parks, body shops, and behind Center Bowl before disappearing under Minnesota and reappearing on the other side. It meanders by SBS and heads west towards Northwood and finally crosses Spenard near Gwennies and the Harley-Davidson Shop. After crossing Spenard it finally gains recognition at Fish Creek Park which is the start of a short green belt that ends at Barbara Street Park.
The creek, which at times seems to be begging to be put out of its misery continues to flow north across some beautiful properties along Brookside Drive until it parallels the railroad tracks which it follows as it crosses under Northern Lights Boulevard at Forest Park Drive. There it seems to capture the momentum of a more affluent neighborhood. It ducks under the tracks and through a short section of forest until it finally becomes idyllic habitat to birds, moose, and foxes. Lush green grasses and a series of serpentine paths seem to create a story book ending to a dirty struggling trickle which had no head waters. If you took a look at Fish Creek at a point Just south of McCain Loop and then again at the Coastal Trail, it'd be pretty hard to believe they were the one and same.
Spenard is the second oldest neighborhood in Anchorage, it was actually a separate town from Anchorage. It's one of the few neighborhoods within mid-town which maintained its arboreal character. Fish Creek, an important wildlife corridor, runs through Spenard, it enters near Arctic and 36th, runs west through trailer parks, body shops, and behind Center Bowl before disappearing under Minnesota and reappearing on the other side. It meanders by SBS and heads west towards Northwood and finally crosses Spenard near Gwennies and the Harley-Davidson Shop. After crossing Spenard it finally gains recognition at Fish Creek Park which is the start of a short green belt that ends at Barbara Street Park.
The creek, which at times seems to be begging to be put out of its misery continues to flow north across some beautiful properties along Brookside Drive until it parallels the railroad tracks which it follows as it crosses under Northern Lights Boulevard at Forest Park Drive. There it seems to capture the momentum of a more affluent neighborhood. It ducks under the tracks and through a short section of forest until it finally becomes idyllic habitat to birds, moose, and foxes. Lush green grasses and a series of serpentine paths seem to create a story book ending to a dirty struggling trickle which had no head waters. If you took a look at Fish Creek at a point Just south of McCain Loop and then again at the Coastal Trail, it'd be pretty hard to believe they were the one and same.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
the beginning
Over the course of the last ten years or so, certain areas of Spenard have been experiencing some sort of renaissance. One of the most notable locales is the area whose epicenter is the Bear Tooth or perhaps REI. It doesn't seem too long ago that the mall in which REI stands was mostly vacant and tenuously toeing the line of collapse. Now a regular Mecca of gore-tex, tofu sandwiches, lattes, bagels, and books, the mall has all the ingredients to attract yoga enthusiasts from afar (actually not too far, just across Northern Lights).
I remember when REI was located in the current Brown Jug liquor store at the corner of Northern Lights and Spenard, and the Bear Tooth used to be Denali Theater. The Theater's original marquee still stands above Play it Again Sports. Shortly before the theater shut down, they used to offer $1.01 movies, usually movies which have already played at the more popular theaters. It was sponsored or ran by KGOT radio who donated the one lonely cent to charity. It was a decent cheap date if you could suffer through sitting on the springs poking through the seats. AMH and Quick Tow has been there through all of it, the bohemianification, yuppification, and gen-X-ification, and now as i understand it gen-Y and gen-M.
Spenard Road seems to be a curvy windy aberration within in a city which demands structured grids. At one end is Chilkoot Charlie's and at the other a relatively new congestion of bad airport hotels and crappy chain restaurants. The two seem to be holding the ends of a jump rope which makes up Spenard. There's a lot more to say about Spenard, but this is just the first post and it's late for me. Anybody remember 'Foodland'? How about the relationship between Foodland, Annabel the elephant, and the Alaska Zoo?
Check out some wiki-info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenard
I remember when REI was located in the current Brown Jug liquor store at the corner of Northern Lights and Spenard, and the Bear Tooth used to be Denali Theater. The Theater's original marquee still stands above Play it Again Sports. Shortly before the theater shut down, they used to offer $1.01 movies, usually movies which have already played at the more popular theaters. It was sponsored or ran by KGOT radio who donated the one lonely cent to charity. It was a decent cheap date if you could suffer through sitting on the springs poking through the seats. AMH and Quick Tow has been there through all of it, the bohemianification, yuppification, and gen-X-ification, and now as i understand it gen-Y and gen-M.
Spenard Road seems to be a curvy windy aberration within in a city which demands structured grids. At one end is Chilkoot Charlie's and at the other a relatively new congestion of bad airport hotels and crappy chain restaurants. The two seem to be holding the ends of a jump rope which makes up Spenard. There's a lot more to say about Spenard, but this is just the first post and it's late for me. Anybody remember 'Foodland'? How about the relationship between Foodland, Annabel the elephant, and the Alaska Zoo?
Check out some wiki-info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spenard
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