Here is a look at different attributes between Durango and Anchorage
Durango
Population: 17,216
Average Income: $53,173
Median House Price: $357,700
Unemployment: 6.6 percent
Days Per Year of Sunshine: 300
Average July Temperature: 85
Annual average snowfall: 71 inches
Area: 6.8 square miles
Nearest city with population of 1 million or more: Phoenix
Competitive advantages: Stacked up against Anchorage, Durango has few apparent competitive advantages. With just more than 17,000 residents, it is a fraction of Anchorage’s size. But Durango’s tiny population is passionate and has a history of converting its weaknesses into strengths.
Interesting attributes: Recreationally, Durango enjoys an embarrassment of riches, including ample opportunities for skiing, cycling, hiking, river rafting and climbing. It’s also an epicurean paradise, with more restaurants per capita than San Francisco. Over the years, Durango has produced several tabloid scandals involving adolescents. While locals sometimes sniff at the wayward antics of our teenagers, Durangoans exhibit a wholly indulgent attitude toward lawbreaking and high-spirited displays when it comes to dog owners and dogs.
Perennial problems: Though to outsiders Durango might appear to be an idyllic mountain town, the city is wracked with social problems, including an intractable parking crisis, bitter tensions over whether to implement a plastic-bag fee within city limits and regular people’s unrelenting struggle to afford housing on low wages. During recent road construction, traffic jams – a new phenomenon in Durango – have horrified locals.
Other titles under its belt: TripAdvisor singled out Durango as the Top Value Ski Spot in North America. Publications also have proclaimed Durango one of the “24 Best Places to Live and Work” (Sunset magazine), “Top 10 US Travel Destinations” (Lonely Planet) and “Best Places to Live” (Men’s Journal).
Anchorage
Population: 298,610
Average Income: $76,495
Median House Price: $277,100
Unemployment: 5.4 percent
Days Per Year of Sunshine: 126
Average July Temperature: 66
Annual average snowfall: 75.5
Area: 1,961 square miles
Nearest city with population of 1 million or more: Los Angeles
Competitive advantages: Anchorage is Alaska’s most populous city, containing more than 40 percent of the state’s total population. In fact, among the 50 states, only New York boasts a higher percentage of residents who live in its most populous city.
Interesting attributes: Home to Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport, Anchorage also is a major port, as well as a hub of the Alaska Railroad. According to its official municipal website, its major industries include government and military, petroleum and tourism.
Perennial problems: On Winter Solstice, Anchorage residents enjoy just 5 hours, 28 minutes of daylight. Because Anchorage is proximate to volcanoes, ash clouds pose a constant threat to airplanes. Though it lies within one of the most tectonically active regions in the world, making Anchorage extremely vulnerable to earthquakes, there is good news: In 2012, Anchorage’s government calculated that the probability of a tsunami hitting the Anchorage area was “extremely low.”
Other titles under its belt: The National Civic League has named Anchorage an All-America City four times, most recently in 2002. Kiplinger, a firm specializing in personal finance, also dubbed it the most tax-friendly city in the United States.
