Mayor Palin Sped Town's Turn From Frontier to Suburb

Sarah Palin’s image as an intrepid frontierswoman comes largely from her 10 years as city councilwoman and then mayor of Wasilla, Alaska, home of the Iditarod dog-sled race. But the Iditarod’s start had to be moved north because of Wasilla’s numerous new driveways, the Wall Street Journal reports. Palin's legacy is the fast-tracking of the suburbanization of the town, which now has a Wal-Mart and a Pizza Hut.

Residents complain that their once-wild town, in one critic's words, “feels more like Anchorage, more and more." And Palin the mayoral candidate is remembered for injecting partisan politics into a race usually seen as a neighborly contest, Time reports. "It was always a nonpartisan job," says an opponent. "But with her, the state GOP came in and started affecting the race." (More Alaska stories.)