Matanuska-Susitna Borough

But yeah, you're absolutely right.

It's in what's called the Matanuska-Susitna Valley.

That's why the booth at the fair, it's called the Mat-Su Dems.

Mat-Su is short for Matanuska-Susitna.

And that's the borough that basically operates week The borough is where we have all 40 districts can come to vote.

And again, that's not an anchorage.

And I wanted to see more of Alaska because Alaska is a huge, huge state.

So I ended up getting a job as a contractor in the school district an hour north of Anchorage is Mat-Su Borough.

And so the Mat-Su Borough School District was my first job.

assignment in Alaska.

And then I decided to maintain employment there.

Thank you.

That's an absolutely valid point.

So where I live in the Mat-Su borough, that is an hour north of Anchorage.

I'm Ava White.

Affordable housing is in short supply nearly everywhere in Alaska, but when it comes to new home construction, one part of the state is leaps and bounds ahead of everywhere else, the Matanuska-Susitna borough.

But next door, in Anchorage, home construction is slow.

So what's the difference? As Alaska Public Media's Hannah Flohr found out, there are many reasons, and some of them depend on who you ask.

I honestly don't know what's going on with my, with my local elections.

I could not talk anything about that except for I'm in the Mat-Su Borough, which is sor- short for Matanuska-Susitna Borough, and our, our mayor, Edna DeVries, is...

She's running for governor.

Did I tell...