... And Anchorage would be humble Oakland by comparison. That's part of the vision of Wasilla Mayor Verne Rupright for his city's future, he told Bloomberg News, in the aftermath of "Palinmania." Or, if Wasilla can't be San Francisco, Rupright is willing to settle for being Alaska's Silicon Valley.
Wasilla ... is scurrying to forge a post-Palin identity now that the onetime mayor and Alaska governor appears to have deserted politics -- and the city -- in favor of bus tours, Fox News, Twitter, reality television and big-money book deals.
Hoping to avoid the fates of Hope, Ark., Plains, Ga., and other presidential hometown backwaters that briefly garnered national attention merely to return to being backwaters, Wasilla is in the midst of a rebranding campaign. The city's elite are hoping to jettison their hockey mom, lock 'n' load image in favor of a yuppified bedroom community.
And a big key to that dream, Bloomberg points out, is the proposed Knik Arm bridge -- call it the Golden Gate to Mat-Su, if you'd like.
"Once we get that bridge, in 20 or 30 years, we'll be San Francisco," says Mayor Rupright. Then he gestures toward Anchorage. "And that'll be Oakland."
One problem: Not all Wasillans share the dreams of their civic elite.
The self-described "colonists" who settled in Wasilla 30 years ago don't want much to do with anywhere else, particularly Anchorage, where one finds Subarus, brick-oven pizza and Democrats. Meanwhile, the Anchorage elite view a potentially civilized Wasilla with skepticism.
Read more of this riveting East Coast view of Southcentral Alaska provincialism at Bloomberg BusinessWeek.