Modern Anchorage enjoys a surprising amount of ethnic diversity, posing a challenge to the city’s culture, identity and services.
I was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest but somehow never made it to Alaska until last week. And like many in the “Lower 48,” my knowledge of this vast place was limited to some crude stereotypes: moose, snow and dog sleds.
I did not associate this state — launched into my generation’s popular imagination by Sarah Palin’s quip about Russia’s proximity to Alaska as proof of her foreign-policy chops — with superlative diversity or international savvy.