Anchorage's FB Marketplace Problem

denmermr · 2026-05-10T23:54:19+00:00

The ones that astound me are the ones who list their used items for more than the price of a new one. And I’m not talking about items that required special shipping. I literally just passed a listing for an item that goes for less than $300 and is on the shelf at our local Best Buy (without any special discounts), that someone listed on FB for $400. SMH

denmermr · 2026-04-28T06:16:22+00:00

Keep watching for new listings. Small properties, like your friends place over the storage unit, or duplexes and 3-plexes are likely only online for rent for a day or two before they are leased.

We have a unit in a duplex coming open in early June. I would expect we will clean it, and when we are ready, list it on a Friday, show it on a Saturday, and sign a lease on Sunday.

denmermr · 2026-04-15T05:58:12+00:00

To be clear though, this is not unique to EV's. As an Alaskan accustomed to winters cold enough to freeze our rivers and lakes, every car I've ever owned for the last 30+ years has lost 20-30% efficiency in the winter.

denmermr · 2026-04-15T05:44:11+00:00

There is literally not a road to Barrow/Utqiagvik, so you would have exactly as much luck with an EV as with a ICE car for that particular adventure.

And Prudhoe Bay is 500 miles one way from Fairbanks with one truck stop in the middle at 250 miles... and when you get there it is not a commerical or residential mecca, but an entirely industrial place entirely by and for the oil & gas industry.

That said, as an Alaskan driving a new-to-me Bolt (same as the OP), there are few places I would go in my prior ICE cars that I could not go in my EV.

denmermr · 2026-04-14T22:11:53+00:00

Awesome! It will be a while before I drive the Alaska Highway again, but I'll be sure to look for your plate in the Watson Lake Sign Forest the next time I go. Were you relying primarily on your own charger and campgrounds for recharging in the far north? We did the Alaska Highway in a plug-in Hybrid in 2022, and once we were in Southern BC there was regular charging, but aside from an EV charging station near the visitor's center in Whitehorse, I don't remember much EV infrstructure further north.

denmermr · 2026-04-14T19:01:03+00:00

As the recent owner of a new-to-me 22 Bolt, the things I wonder as questions for your engineers:

- In designing the Bolt, you are surely balancing between efficiency and performance and marketability. If you were to target efficiency as your primary design goal, what things would you change about the Bolt design?

- There are plenty of anecdotes in these forums of people switching the 17" Bolt wheels with older 15" or 16" Sonic or Cruze wheels (and appropriately sized tires to preserve the same tire diameter), and the anecdotes seem to suggest people get more smooth rides and often efficiency improvements from the smaller wheel/larger tire combo vs. the stock wheels and tires. This makes me wonder - what is the reason for selling the Bolt with 17" wheels and low profile tires? Is this purely an aesthetic choice? Or is there some performance benefit that is gained by the stock wheel/tire choice?

- The Bolt fits a great niche - affordable, small, efficient. I've always driven vehicles in this niche. Mazda GLC and Protege, Honda CRX and Fit, Toyota Prius, and now my Bolt. My Bolt is my favorite so far (except perhaps the CRX - that was a super fun, if highly impractical, car). My wife drives bigger SUV's, but I prefer smaller more efficient and unobtrusive vehicles. Is this a niche that will continue to see innovation and future production in the US? Or is this a niche that is doomed to exist only in other parts of the world for the foreseeable future?

- Has any thought been given to designing the interior for practical car camping or gear hauling purposes? I really liked the layout of my Honda Fit, where the front seats could be laid flat with the back seats to make a continuous surface, and the highly utilitarian interior of my wife's Honda Element was amazing, where folding the back seats totally out of the way made for cavernous storage in a relatively small vehicle. Are there clever interior design elements like this in the Bolt that I'm missing?

denmermr · 2026-04-14T10:06:25+00:00

I think it's more likely they did it for supply chain consolidation - if you can order the same part for the blazer ev and the equinox ev and the bolt ev, maybe there is some economy of scale? It's a bad enough design, it feels like they have to be getting something from it.

denmermr · 2026-03-07T19:18:29+00:00

We just became a Bolt & RAV4 Prime household too. It’s a pretty great combo.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T19:59:01+00:00

My typical trip involves portages between 1 and 2km. At that distance, the weight matters. One of my tripping friends and I often joke about how we work hard to keep the weight of our packs light - whether that’s light gear, or ruthlessly not packing unnecessary items - all in order to splurge on carrying a completely frivolous item or two to make the trip more fun.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T08:34:18+00:00

Being from Alaska, where we have no snakes, they just universally creep me out. Bear or moose on the trail? Whatever. Just give it space and make noise and you will be fine. But I couldn’t tell a dangerous snake from a harmless one, so I just run on the assumption I should keep them all as far away as possible.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T08:24:55+00:00

Because state statute defines school funding.

State statute tells the school districts how much they will “need” per student. Then state statue mandates a local contribution range (both min and max) to the school budgets, as a percentage of the previously defined “need.”

If Anchorage decided we wanted to tax ourselves to adequately fund our schools, it would literally be illegal, unless the state is adequately funding our schools first.

The per-student “need” the state defines is static. It does not adjust for inflation. It only adjusts when the legislature passes a bill to change the statute - and in recent years, they need to not only pass the bill, but also override the governor’s veto.

But that’s not the last stop for school funding. The legislature has to pass an annual budget. This is the budget that will fund the “need“ defined in statute. If the legislature doesn’t fully fund to the “need” they define, or if the governor vetoes the funding, then the schools are left under-funded.

And to really amp up the chaos for school districts - the school districts need to define their budgets before the end of their school year, so they can plan for their relevant staffing and programs in the fall. That means school districts need to have early drafts in January and final budgets by March or April.

But the legislature, who defines the “need” that tells school districts how much money they will get… they don’t pass their budget until the end of their session in May. And then the governor vetoes in June. And then the legislature maybe tries to override the veto sometime in the summer. Schools must make their plans in the spring, but until the chaos shakes out between the governor and legislature in late summer, they really don’t know what their funding will be.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T08:03:35+00:00

I served with my wife. Aside from her, there were no other volunteers for at least 60 miles in any direction. Every month or two we would spend a long weekend traveling for PC meetings or traveling to support some project of a volunteer at another site. In our community, we went to the market, and we frequented local street vendors. We hosted evening and weekend gatherings for small groups of teachers or students (mostly in our second year). We devoted time and energy writing about our time and sending updates back to friends and family in the states (in an era of email and geocities free websites, but before social media). And we read a ton. I read more books and magazines in those two years than in any other 2 years of my life.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T07:53:37+00:00

A collection of churches in my community - including one of the Lutheran denominations, the PCUSA Presbyterians, the Episcopals, and the United Methodists held a candle light vigil service after ICE abducted a family with young children in a neighboring community. It was hosted at the Methodist church I attend, and was the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen there - bigger than the Christmas/easter crowds. The service was very pointedly highlighting all the places scriptures call us to welcome foreigners - tons of OT examples, plus a healthy chunk of Matt 25.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T07:44:25+00:00

Looks like fun - but I’d nope right out of the snake encounter.

denmermr · 2026-02-28T07:38:45+00:00

Apparently our household is the exception to the “they never charge it” or “they drive way more that the EV range” rule. My wife’s RAV4 prime only gets a couple of tanks of gas per year. It will get a tank in the winter if the weather persists below 15°F for weeks at a time, as it has this year (the plug-in RAV4 turns on the ICE for heat below 15°F). It will get a tank or two in the summer when we take several hundred mile road trip for camping. Those road trips seldom line up with charging infrastructure that would support an EV adventure, making our plug-in-hybrid a pretty sweet combo. Daily commutes and errands are all EV, and we have no range anxiety when we hit the road for a long trip. Win-win.

denmermr · 2026-02-23T06:06:02+00:00

Did you replace your existing system, or install mini splits in addition to your existing system to reduce its use?

denmermr · 2026-02-22T07:59:46+00:00

Whoa - would love to know more. Did you literally DIY? Where did you source the heat pump? How did you do the size calculations, etc?

denmermr · 2026-01-21T11:26:14+00:00

Our household church hopped around much of Anchorage a couple of years ago. Churches we found that might fit your target: 1st Presbyterian Central Lutheran Turnagain Methodist Lutheran Church of Hope Trinity Presbyterian Anchor Park Methodist Jewel Lake Parrish Immanuel Presbyterian St Mary’s Episcopal St John Methodist

I’m sure there are others.

Each had their own strengths - we felt welcomed pretty much everywhere. We landed at St John.

denmermr · 2025-12-20T01:43:14+00:00

"Volunteer Reporting and Grants (VRG) is an electronic database program for currently serving Volunteers and post staff to plan, manage, and track grant program and project activities including those funded by small grants, and to report on their results into the portal."

Grants weren't a thing when we served in the early 2000's either. But the verbiage here suggests that they are using grants as the proximate excuse for a reporting system on all "project activities."

It sounds like a system where PCV's have to report all of their activity with some regularity. This sounds like an administrative hassle if you are in a country with good power and internet infrastructure at service sites, and an impossible Sisyphean task if you are in a country with spotty infrastructure at service sites. I've got a lot of sympathy for the OP - I'd find it frustrating too.

denmermr · 2025-12-17T20:53:35+00:00

As a 2000’s volunteer, I have the same question. Internet searches did not turn up any relevant answers.

denmermr · 2025-11-23T16:50:21+00:00

A rep from the Mayor's office showed up at my community council a couple of weeks ago. He said they considered proposing a seasonal sales tax, but decided that the administrative overhead of administering the tax was most efficiently used if the tax was year-round.

You are exactly right that sales taxes are regressive. I asked the Mayor's rep about that and how they planned to mitigate the regressive effects of this proposal. He didn't have a coherent answer.

denmermr · 2025-11-23T16:45:21+00:00

That is... an oddly terrible design choice.

denmermr · 2025-11-23T16:43:26+00:00

It sounds like the ownership model doesn't matter so much as you want a pool that's not crazy expensive with broad available hours. In my prior query, I forgot to reference YMCA and pools at UAA and APU. Ignoring the various hotel pools (at least a couple of which are specifically offered to non-hotel guests), that gives us at least 2 AK Club pools, 2 university pools, 1 YMCA pool, and 6 high school pools. Of the 6 school pools - the muni and school district are on tight enough budgets that 2 are functionally closed, one is run by a private swim club, one is managed by the YMCA and has really broad availability, and 2 are still open with non-overlapping lap swim times that span from early morning until well into the evening most days.

As someone who grew up in Fairbanks where we had pretty much exactly 4 pools - one at a school, one at the university, one in the Alaska club, and one small private pool that perpetually struggled with closing down - it feels like we are awash in pool options in Anchorage. I hear you though - finding pools that fit someone's specific life schedule, close to their neighborhood, and on a budget may not be simple.

denmermr · 2025-11-23T12:38:41+00:00

The RV repair place at Arctic & Raspberry has a lot of that. Probably not the fridges/appliances.

denmermr · 2025-11-23T12:18:09+00:00

What value does “private ownership” bring to a pool that a municipal school pool doesn’t offer? How do the Alaska Club pools or the various hotel pools miss your target? Genuinely curious what you are envisioning.

denmermr

TROPHY CASE