david robertsSpeaking of Alaska, one of the most intriguing (& possibly goofy) political strategies I've heard proposed in the last few years is that Dems & friendly biz types should work to make Anchorage a proper west-coast city. Attract the knowledge class, turn AK blue ... profit.
The idea is that it wouldn't take very many people moving to Anchorage to turn AK blue, and it's a lower-effort strategy to shift the balance in the Senate than many others. You just need to get a few big anchor white-collar employers there & the young Dems would follow.
SmokeyGeo@drvolts the urbanists are all saying ppl should live in Manhattan, or Brooklyn at worst; on the west coast, San Francisco. Or trying to concentrate ppl in the Boston area, add bike lanes to keep them within Boston/Cambridge/Somerville so if you're past route 128 you're in the hinterlands. What gives
Andres@smokeygeo @drvolts No, the urbanists are saying that people who WANT to live in Manhattan/Brooklyn/SF should be able to. If they want. That's different than saying that people SHOULD live there.
David L 
@drvolts I think there are easier states for this sort of strategy. Anchorage and Alaska generally are hard places for employers to operate, and employees to live, unless they really need to be there. Extremely expensive, far away from everyone else, and brutal weather.
David Alpert@drvolts Why not start with Montana, or Wyoming, or both?
@drvolts Heck a lot of people from CA have already moved to Montana.
Murshed Zaheed@alpert @drvolts Lot of Californians have moved to Montana but from what I have gathered that migration has made MT redder. From what I have heard - folks are not moving from CA's coastal cities but more from the inland areas which have always been right leaning. Would be interested in seeing some clear data on it though.
Douglas Phillips Books@alpert Montana already has potential with one Democrat senator and a good university city (Missoula). Wyoming is a pretty miserable place for young people to live.
@drvolts
I have long thought the same thing about Dakotas or Wyoming, but these are terrible places for any business to relocate. Alaska has a slightly better chance since Anchorage is on the air route to Asia. But Anchorage has no university, important for most businesses.
I have long thought the same thing about Dakotas or Wyoming, but these are terrible places for any business to relocate. Alaska has a slightly better chance since Anchorage is on the air route to Asia. But Anchorage has no university, important for most businesses.
Daryl Sng@drvolts ah, but are the big anchor employers of anchor age?
silentw@drvolts something really seems rotten to me about encouraging people to move somewhere solely to turn a state 'blue', it's playing directly into the replacement-type propaganda that everyone on the right is parroting
in addition, how the hell are you going to guarantee or work towards the safety of these people moving to AK? It's REALLY easy to kill someone with plausible deniability in a state where the winters get below freezing, especially if they didn't grow up in the cold.
EDIT: haha holy shit he's even talking about "the knowledge class," what kind of ivory-tower centrist-poisoned horseshit is this
@drvolts it’s also far enough north that it’ll be protected from at least the first wave of climate refugees as the tropics become uninhabitable
Martin MacKerel@ShadSterling @drvolts lol the people moving there will *be* the first wave of climate refugees
Rob_B_Rains@drvolts why not Cheyenne WY too?
Peter PrincipleI can see you've never spent a winter in Anchorage.