Talk:Fairbanks, Alaska

Latest comment: 1 month ago by 2A0A:EF40:4E:8401:1594:285D:A904:BA58 in topic Status of Article

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NEDM edit

What the hell is "NEDM" on the city nickname? Mercer5089 21:54, 22 May 2007 (UTC)Reply

Yeah whoever put in "NEDM" as the nickname, I'm in FB off and on, know lots of Fairbankians, we never heard of it. Where'd it come from?

I think it was a reference to a YTMND meme: http://wiki.ytmnd.com/NEDM . It's probably an inside joke, nothing more. White 720 20:40, 30 May 2007 (UTC)Reply
Indeed. In my social circles, the nicknames for Fairbanks actually include 'Squarebanks', and more simply 'the 'Banks'.Bahb the Illuminated (talk) 04:00, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
I've lived here for 27 years and have never heard of NEDM as a nickname. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Mom2alaskankids (talkcontribs) 09:52, 22 December 2010 (UTC)Reply

Moose law edit

Ummm... I beleive the city has banned moose from having sex in the streets. -- Scott Burley 05:41, Nov 5, 2004 (UTC)

No, but there was a law, long since repealed, against giving moose alcohol. The story behind it is kind of funny -- a bar owner had a pet moose that would come to the bar, and patrons would give the moose beer. The city mayor took a dim view of having a drunken moose wandering the streets so got the city council to pass the law. 24.178.126.182 17:22, 30 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

Status of Article edit

This article is a rough draft, and was not proof-read to a great degree. I am currently working on getting the information from the State of Alaska's community information database copied over for each community in the State, at which point I will come back through and start editing/Wikifying. If this message is still here, that means I have yet to come back. Of course, please feel free to clean this up, hopefully to conform with the WikiProject_Cities standards. Thanks!! —akghetto talk 08:25, 16 December 2005 (UTC)Reply

Hi its kasia 2A0A:EF40:4E:8401:1594:285D:A904:BA58 (talk) 08:55, 16 March 2024 (UTC)Reply


why would they have sex in the streets thats kinda werid —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.237.154.251 (talk) 11:39, 29 January 2008 (UTC)Reply

Home Rule City edit

What is a Home Rule City? It would be great if someone could define the term here, or better yet, write an article about it (assuming it has a specific meaning under Alaskan law). --Angr (tɔk) 10:24, 12 January 2006 (UTC)Reply

In Alaska, a home-rule city simply means that it's a city with its own charter. This distinguishes it from a "general-law" city which refers to the state's laws regarding local government as sort of a substitute charter. Similar categories apply to boroughs as well. 24.178.126.182 17:22, 30 April 2006 (UTC)Reply

IPA edit

The IPA pronunciation as given seems dubious to me, especially that [æ], but I can't quite figure out what to put instead. Thoughts from anyone else? —Zero Gravitas 23:55, 25 May 2006 (UTC)Reply

Maybe that is an attempt to capture how Fairbanks would be rendered in with a southern (US) accent, but it doesn't look right for that either. I'm going to go ahead and change it to the way I pronounce Fairbanks (and I live here, and I have a fairly mainstream American accent). If somebody wants to explain the original IPA pronunciation guide, I'm certainly interested to hear ... take a look at the entries for fair and bank on wiktionary, fair has a US English pronunciation of /fɛɹ/ and bank has /æŋk/, see Help:IPA_for_English about the upside down r SethDelisle (talk) 21:37, 12 June 2008 (UTC)Reply

Media edit

User, Katrich added 88.5 (K-love) a popular Christian station to the media section and remove references to Fairbanks Open Radio, without any discussion: . http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fairbanks%2C_Alaska&diff=106786897&oldid=106721255

Katrich: thanks for adding K-Love it was an important addition. I feel that Fairbanks Open Radio is also an important development in the media landscape of Fairbanks and belongs in this section. SethDelisle 17:22, 12 April 2007 (UTC)Reply

Someone could add 91.9, which is AIR1, Christian Rock/Pop station. It has a good reception, don't know why it wasn't added. -- Jon —Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.230.81.233 (talk) 09:01, 1 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

Festival Fairbanks External Link edit

Restored external link to the best webcam in town. It was improperly removed as spam by some dude from California.

Mayor? edit

A guy named "Jim Whitaker" was just on stage at the DNC, and they said he was the mayor of Fairbanks, but this article says it's the improbably named "Terry Strle". Can anyone determine the truth on this? john k (talk) 00:56, 27 August 2008 (UTC)Reply

Whitaker is the borough (similar to a county) mayor, while Strle is the city mayor. Don't know why they didn't come up with a different name for the executive of boroughs. --skew-t (talk) 09:14, 11 November 2008 (UTC)Reply
I just noticed this while adding another thread, even though it's a few years old. The original legislation establishing the legal structure of boroughs, which was passed by the 2nd Alaska State Legislature in 1961, came up with the term "chairman." Both the Alaska Constitution and Alaska Statutes were overhauled WRT municipal governments in 1972, at which time the term "mayor" was substituted. People with no historical perspective would in all likelihood appear very puzzled at the mention of "borough chairman." Really, though, this only appears to matter to Fairbanks, since most other communities in Alaska with separate boroughs and cities are all under 10,000 people in size, some quite a bit smaller than that.RadioKAOS (talk) 06:35, 29 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

Sports? edit

"The Carlson Center is home to University of Alaska Fairbanks athletics the Nanooks(which is a male polar bear)"

Huh? The University of Fairbanks athletics is a male polar bear? Isn't that against the NCAA rules? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 64.88.170.32 (talk) 20:57, 2 March 2009 (UTC)Reply

I'm not sure what NCAA rules it might violate, but Nanook is derived from the Inuit word nanook for polar bear (I'm not aware of it referring specifically to males). Nonetheless I removed the parenthetical as it is not particularly relevant to an article on the city, and can be found on the Alaska Nanooks article. --skew-t (talk) 17:51, 25 July 2009 (UTC)Reply

Crime in Fairbanks edit

From a personal understanding as a life-long resident, the crime rate in Fairbanks exceeds the national average, so much so, that in a 2004 News Miner article, it erroneously labeled Fairbanks as the Number 3 per-capita crime city after Detroit, MI and (I think it was) Fort Worth, TX.

I will compile a section on Crime when I have the time, or someone else can dig up the article in question at www.news-miner.com Bahb the Illuminated (talk) 00:21, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply

Found the Article in question, or at least the part of it you get to see for free from the News-Miner Archives. I was mistaken, it was number 4, and its from some book. I will attempt to find the book in question to cite it. [| See Link] Bahb the Illuminated (talk) 03:56, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
November 24, 2004
Staff Writer


Fairbanks has been labeled the fourth most dangerous metropolitan area in the nation by the publisher of a reference book, "City Crime Rankings."
According to Kansas-based Morgan Quitno Press, Alaska's Golden Heart City is more dangerous than Las Vegas, Miami and New Orleans metropolitan areas. Only the Detroit, Memphis, Tenn., and Sumpter, S.C., metropolitan areas fared worse in the rankings.
The publication above is disputed by a large number of government entities, but the statistical comparison makes since. A compilation of per capita crime statistics from 2006 is below, comparing Fairbanks to Detroit. In 5 of the 9 catagories, Fairbanks has a higher rate, and Detroit's lead is not that large in the catagory of Agravated Assault, while Fairbanks clearly dominates the catagories it is worse in.Bahb the Illuminated (talk) 08:58, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply
Fairbanks
Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
Violent Crime 819.8
Murder 3.0
Forcible Rape 203.5
Robbery 143.6
Aggravated Assault 469.8
Property Crime 5,771.8
Burglary 1,008.3
Larceny/Theft 4,245.8
Motor Vehicle Theft 517.6
Detroit
Rate per 100,000 inhabitants
Violent Crime 757.0
Murder 11.3
Forcible Rape 40.7
Robbery 227.7
Aggravated Assault 477.3
Property Crime 3,593.6
Burglary 815.5
Larceny/Theft 1,917.8
Motor Vehicle Theft 860.3
2007 was a banner year for murder in Fairbanks, beaten by 2009. Fairbanks MSA ranked 10th nationwide (13th if you count Puerto Rico) in per-capita murder that year. And Fairbanks has led the country in Forcible Rape as far back as I have compiled. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Bahb the Illuminated (talkcontribs) 11:53, 30 March 2010 (UTC)Reply


Thank you to whoever put in a Crime Section. Bahb the Illuminated (talk) 23:46, 26 December 2014 (UTC)Reply

Climate data edit

Just a little fyi. Corrected the climate data table to reflect the actual numbers represented in the sources (primarily the weather channel). They were all screwed up, as someone had put minus signs all over the place. Made it look like Fairbanks is very close to the south pole, which I - correct me if I'm wrong - highly doubt. Thorsager (talk) 15:52, 29 March 2011 (UTC)Reply


While browsing through, I noticed that the record low is listed as -62F, but it is listed as -66F in the table a few paragraphs below. 63.140.104.111 (talk) 08:52, 29 October 2012 (UTC)Reply

A claim is made that Fairbanks borders humid continental climate zone. However given that only about 10" / 275 mm precip falls each year that seems unlikely by the common definition - it'd appear to be close to a semi-arid climate instead. Ref 16 to the online book isn't helpful when we don't know where in the reference this info is supposed to be coming from. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 96.2.160.131 (talk) 03:08, 4 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

I reworded it, and it looks someone else has changed a bit in the meantime as wel. Soap 19:28, 24 June 2018 (UTC)Reply


I've noticed that somebody is playing with numbers to try to make it look like Fairbanks' average temperature is declining. The specific climate center address to which the user had linked is not there, and a look at the source "Temperature Changes in Alaska 1949-2013" does not seem to agree with the sentiment that Fairbanks is getting colder overall:

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/ClimTrends/Change/TempChange.html

The article currently reads "If only the years 1977–2012 are considered, Fairbanks' average annual temperature has dropped by 1.7 °F." Compare that claim to the climate graph for Fairbanks:

http://climate.gi.alaska.edu/Trends/PAFA.png

First, using only the years 1977-2012 is especially odd, as 1981-2010 is the current standard for evaluating "normal" temperatures in US cities. Then there's the fact that the study they're citing did not use 1977 as a start date, either. Furthermore, despite a couple of cold years, the overall trend is still positive. It is true that using only a linear trend can mask the dynamics of temperature change, and the conclusion of the research team was that no *additional* warming has happened since 1977, but the study does not appear to say that there is a decline in the temperature. So while the statement appears to be factually correct, it is a bit misleading.

However, rather than changing this section, since I'm not a usual editor on this page, I thought I'd throw this out to the Fairbanks regulars to see what you all think.

Dhumanist (talk) 16:34, 4 February 2015 (UTC)Reply

This seems to have been removed by someone else. i would say that there should be no arguing about global warming in the climate data sections of cities, since we already have a climate change debate article.Soap 19:28, 24 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

Seasonal lag edit

currently is says The pattern of fall being colder than spring and a relatively early (late June/early July) peak in the year's average highest temperatures is due to the city's strategic location in a valley, far from any large body of water. This specific combination of features is virtually nonexistent elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere.

the observation is correct but Im not sure about the causation. i'd like to save the first sentence but there is no way that it can be proven. the second sentence i would like to remove both because i dont like the wording ("virtually nonexistent") and because its arguable, c.f. tucson AZ and environs, where June is the peak because the monsoon cuts temperatures later. Soap 19:28, 24 June 2018 (UTC)Reply

I take this back because although superficially it looks like the desert southwest has low seasonal lag, this is not quite true .... it has a very early minimum in late December (even earlier than Alaska), and a very early maximum in June (also earlier than Alaska), but this second peak is because the monsoon that hits in late summer lowers the temperatures. By contrast, Alaska has low seasonal lag all year round, not just in December and June.

Gonna be busy for a while .... when I get a chance I might follow through on this, noting that the low seasonal lag also appears in the Cold Pole of Siberia, at a comparable strength. Verkhoyansk, Yakutsk, etc. Perhaps the best solution is to cut both sentences a bit, to produce something like:

The pattern of fall being colder than spring and a relatively early (late June/early July) peak in the year's average highest temperatures is very rare in the Northern Hemisphere, though it appears also in parts of Siberia.? I seem to prefer concise wording wherever i go. Soap 18:16, 22 August 2018 (UTC)Reply

It's been over a year so I decided to just remove it. We can only speculate as to the cause of the pattern. We even contradict ourselves in the next paragraph by attributing it .... or at least the rapid cooling in late summer and autumn .... to the Pacific Decadal Oscillation. So... if the PDO is the primary cause, it would explain why a similar pattern also occurs in Siberia. This may not seem like the whole solution, but really, if you added 5F to all temperatures from August to December, the pattern would disappear. This may also explain why the Pacific NW and much of the inland mountain west shows the pattern in winter (but not summer). Soap 19:04, 27 October 2019 (UTC)Reply

Photos forthcoming (hopefully) edit

Of course, most of the Fairbanks photos currently found on here are strictly touristy. I've taken a bunch of photos around town, mostly at or near UAF as well as a bunch around downtown, which I hope I'll have time to put on Flickr tomorrow.RadioKAOS (talk) 23:39, 25 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

What photos I had time to upload today are either on Commons or on my Flickr photostream (found here). Please note two things about the latter: 1) Selected photos are marked "all rights reserved," usually for specific reasons. The majority of the photos are marked with the appropriate CC licensing; and 2) since I've received little to no sympathy or support while attempting a career change, I'm broke. Can't afford the pro option or even a better camera. This might present resolution issues. The Commons files were cropped from the originals. If this does present a problem, feel free to contact me and find out if I have any time to rectify it. In summary, I figured it was time to do at least something here, considering that of the four photos found on the page, three were taken within a half-block of each other. Reminds me of a famous quote from the 1970s when Harold Gillam, mayor of Fairbanks and son of a legendary Alaskan bush pilot, chastised the old guard of Fairbanks, reminding them that "there's more to this town than the corner of Second and Cushman."RadioKAOS (talk) 06:18, 29 May 2011 (UTC)Reply

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Climate (2018 edits) edit

I removed Because of the warm summers and mild winters in relative to its northern latitude, Fairbanks also qualifies as a humid continental climate. Due to the lack of a semi-permanent high pressure system, akin to the Siberian Anticyclone, coupled with the strong influence of the warm Alaska Current, the winters in Fairbanks, and most of interior Alaska, are significantly warmer than other locations at similar or lower latitudes in Central Asia, China, Canada, and Siberia. In comparison, Mohe, China is drastically and more consistently colder in the winter period despite being 12° further south in latitude, while having a similar elevation. With record highs above 50°F for every month between November and March, Fairbanks winter is highly variable and not a true representation of a subarctic climate. which was added recently. While the information is well researched and mostly accurate, I think it's inappropriate to include here. It looks like the writer is arguing that Fairbanks should be grouped with cities like Minneapolis and Boston because it has a few unusual traits. But nearly all cities have some unusual traits ... Fairbanks is still within the subarctic climate zone, and is just as much a part of it as is any other such city. Soap 18:48, 18 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

I trimmed a few more things that looked to me to have been intended as an argument rather than presenting the bare facts. We shouldnt need to be selling an idea; climate data is just a series of numbers. Soap 19:02, 18 July 2018 (UTC)Reply

In my limited experience of being in Fairbanks in winter, “warm” is not a word that comes to mind when describing it. It has recently become clear to me that there is a lot of WP:SYNTH going on in climate classification. It’s not an area I specialize in but I strongly agree with you that we should let the numbers speak for themselves and not add our own interpretations. Beeblebrox (talk) 19:12, 18 July 2018 (UTC)Reply