No more free parking in Anchorage (?)

The big difference that I see in this matter, is those RVers that use pavement parking for a night and are on their way to their destination, Which I would put Gary in that group. Then there is the other groups, one of which is trying to use the parking lot of a store, for a campground, staying multiple nights or weeks. Here in Stuart, we have RVers, that are really mobile homeless people, usually in vans, old RVs, old trailers, etc. They will pull into the local Wal Mart Super Store and set up housekeeping until they are sent on down the road by the Sheriff's department. Big sign up to the effect of no overnight camping but only enforced if a person stays more of a night or two, misuses the store, panhandling the other shoppers, etc.

They must have a circuit that they use for parking for I wll see the same RVs here for a couple of weeks, then gone for a month or two and back again. These folks use the store public restrooms as their personal bathhouses much of the time. A couple of weeks ago, I walked into the men's room and there standing at one of the sinks, was an older unkempt looking man, stark naked taking a bath out of the sink. Had water all over the floor, making a real mess that some store employee was going to have to clean up.

I think a lot of RVers will use public/private parking for a one or two night stop, on their way to their destination, at times at the big box stores, etc. Personally I tend to prefer hospital parking lots fro an overnite stay if I am not at a campground.

Like I said, I will tend to stay at the Hi Country Campground in Whitehorse, when we are there as I know it will be a multi night stay. Then when heading on north, we may just boondock till we get to Fairbanks, sometimes stopping in Tok at a campground for a couple of days. I just don't understand the allure of camping on the pavement for longer periods of time when there are usually beautiful spots to boondock in the same general area. Security? Idea of roughing it, is slow service at Starbucks or Kentucky Fried?

If we don't want or need, the services provided by a FHU campground, we will find a nice boondock spot and at least have the joy of stepping out the RV door onto dirt/grass/gravel and not pavement. LOL Probably one of the things I like about spending a week on the Denali Highway in Alaska. Literally hundreds of places to pull off the road and set up camp, in the wilderness setting. We also enjoy a campfire in the evenings many nights, so the government campgrounds are nice in that most have fire pits. On occasion I have seen pavement campers set up their propane fueled fire pots and set around it like they are out in the wild and woolly country side. LOL

Most RVing is not cheap, no matter how you do it in a motorized vehicle. I have a nephew, that owned a VW camper van for several years and that was about the lowest cost RVing I have seen. He got about 20 mpg, ate and slept in it and would pavement park most nights, occasionally finding a free boondocking spot. As a single guy, it worked for him till he got married, then bye bye VW Vanagon.

On my first driving trip to Alaska from Oklahoma, in 1962, I had a Ford Falcon, a surplus two man tent, a surplus sleeping bag and a tarp. Found if I would buy a large bucket of fried chicken and biscuits, when passing through the larger towns, that would cover my eats for about 3 days. I didn't stay in a private campground till I reached Fairbanks, most of the time just pulled off the road and set up camp. I like the way I camp these days in my truck camper and 5th wheel much better. LOL

When I am old and about to die, and my kids ask me what I did with all the money I made in my lifetime, I can tell them, most of it I spent running back and forth to Alaska, the rest I just wasted. LOL

I'm sorry, but I so dis-agree with the members who feel that parking for free is somehow un-Democratic or whatever. Lots of you shop Wal-Mart..for one very good reason, right? Prices. But you get all holier than thou over paying for cheek by jowl, graveled parking lots called RV Campsites that you pay up to $50.00 a night for. If my math is correct..and it seldom is...even at $30.00 a night, that is one thousand bucks in a month and many Alaska trips are of a 3 or 4 month duration. Three or four thousand bucks...I like the sound of that..in my bank account, not in anothers. I am happy for those of you that can easily put that $ figure out, on top of the rest of your costs. Me? Not a chance.

I am not a Wal-Mart parker tho...for no other reason other than I dislike the crowd.


Gary Haupt

The following is somewhere between "tongue in cheek" and a "rant", my intense dislike of the one party system here is the reason.

Well once again California is leading the way in providing a solution. Sacramento (the legislature)has introduced a bill to effectively negate all local government laws regarding sleeping/living on the streets of California.

This is not a drive by RV park owners or home owners who wish to negate the CCR's of their HOA;s but the belief that there is a "Human Right" to have a home. So anyone who has access to an RV will be able to park it anywhere on any street in California to overnight or to live in their RV.

A small but mostly conservative town on the coast has in place a very active city sponsored program to provide free services to homeless folks. The purpose of taxing the residents to provide these services was to improve the quality of life they moved there for. Free parking, food, housing and sanitation facilities are provided to anyone who needs it for a limited but reasonable period of time. If this proposed law passes, their program for helping the homeless will be prohibited because it is part and parcel of the law prohibiting sleeping in public location.

But it will allow RVers to park 0n the streets of a beach town without regard to time limits or how it impacts the folks paying to house, clothe and feed the homeless.

So when, not if, but when this law passes, those of you who are passing through will be able to park on any city street you want. Of course all STATE owned highways will be exempt.

Here was the last posted sign I saw in the Whitehorse Wal Mart. I suspect most nights during the summer time, the WM is the busiest RV overnight spot in Whitehorse. Not too different than the Fred Meyer store in Soldotna, except that Fred Meyer has an employee that sees to it that RVs park in the designated area and have a sewer dump and fresh water fill point. Wal Mart, Whitehorse, may have to go to such a system to get things organized or in time I suspect the town will ban overnight parking as they are talking about doing in Anchorage.



We like to stay at the Hi Country RV Campground, up on the hill, on the highway, but an evening shopping trip down to Wal Mart found this. I was counting the rigs and quit when I got to 50 of them. Some, as Suzie says just move in, awnings and slides out, lawn chairs out, grills going, just like they were camping and they will stay for the duration of the time they are in Whitehorse.



Looked like an Avion caravan was there. LOL Never had seen so many of those old classics in one place before. LOL

Due to the RV parking at the Whitehorse Walmart, I do NOT shop at the Walmart in the summer months. Even though they "limit" the area that RVs can park in, the RVs park all over the lot, some for the whole summer. Some take up to four spaces.

Makes it hard to drive there and park to shop. So I just avoid the place.

This winter they made the fulltimers move out, which has helped, but possibly the summer residents will move back in.

PackerBacker wrote:
To me it's the same as any other government park entity, be it either a state park, provincial park or federal park providing the consumer/user a choice when visiting the region.

No, it's not only you, I feel the same way.

As noted on the other thread dealing with this topic, I've got a slightly different perspective on this issue:

- As a once (for 40+ years) and future (80 days and counting) resident of Los Anchorage and a current property owner, I'd certainly support this ordinance: I have no doubt that Lottie (yes I know her) has some self-interest here, but having seen the Wal-Marts and a few other areas in the summer time, strictly IMO, it is not a terribly appealing sight.
- As noted above, if this was a desired profit center for Wal-Mart, Cabelas, etc, I'm sure they could provide the impetus to (probably successfully) oppose the ordinance
- The RV campground options in Anchorage suck. Period. That being said, either North or South offers better options within an hour's drive.
- IMNSHO, other than stocking up, there ain't much to recommend Anchorage to the RV crowd. Use it as a base for flightseeing trips or to hike the Chugach, but there's not much else there that is truly an attraction.
- ....and it's just as easy to stock up in Palmer/Wasilla as it is in Anchorage except for Sams and Costco.
- I don't think that the MOA or any other home rule city (or the State) has any business setting up an RV park, a hotel, whatever to compete with private business.
- This "ordinance" is being what?, evaluated, discussed, looked at, by one member of the Assembly. Without any judgment or opinion offered, this member is not necessarily popular outside of her district. Whether that has any bearing on the eventual success of the ordinance remains to be seen.

To me it's the same as any other government park entity, be it either a state park, provincial park or federal park providing the consumer/user a choice when visiting the region.

PackerBacker wrote:
There are many municipalities in throughout the country that have camping facilities, it's not uncommon. Usually they are integrated with municipal park initiatives; great idea in my opinion.

And I feel there is a big difference between having campsites in a park and developing a stand alone campground. I can see the logic in a small town with no competing private campground, but for a city to develop a park to directly compete with existing private parks would be wrong in my opinion.

There are many municipalities in throughout the country that have camping facilities, it's not uncommon. Usually they are integrated with municipal park initiatives; great idea in my opinion.