About Alaska.. (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Ketchikan: houses, unemployment, construction)

[Alaskapat528]

Alaska seems to now be the "place" to be. I am curious about the following:

1. How long have you lived in Alaska?
(and what part of Alaska do you live in?)

2. What state did you move from?

3. What do you love and hate about Alaska?

4. With so many people moving here - do you feel Alaska is quickly becoming like any other lower 48 State?

[RayinAK]

1. I have lived in AK since 1979, a few years around Anchorage, and and the rest around Fairbanks. I am a Vietnam Era veteran, and came to Alaska, where I later retired, with the military.

2. I enlisted in Hartford (East coast)

3. Love everything about Alaska, and dislike the new breeds of tree and bunny huggers that are coming to Alaska to tell us how to do our thing and act according to their view of life. We must "accept" them instead of them accepting us for what we are.

4. Their last straw, the end of their rope, looking for new pastures, trying to see the other side of the mountain, some trying to get away from the law, some running from something, some believing that money grows on trees and the roads are paved with gold, and a great number with the military like I did.

Some try forever to realize some dream, but as with everything else some dreams are never fulfilled, much like when one dates at lot. One goes from date to date, from city to city, from a job to the next, from one project to another...to another, never finishing the first and making that one a masterpiece. But then some of us take the time to enjoy life for what it is, for happiness is all around us if we only take the time to see it.

I have the feeling that folks from the lower-48 believe that they will land a high-paying job the soonest they arrive here. They don't realize that there is a line of local carpenters, plumbers, teachers, nurses, police, firefighters, mechanics, and so on...already waiting for the best jobs to come along. A lot of the newcomers end-up in the unemployment line, in Welfare, etc., because they don't realize how expensive rent, utilities, and food are in Alaska. Most of the products found in the stores in town, from food to lumber, is brought into Alaska from outside, and that adds to their cost a great deal. Alaska is also being hit by the housing construction slump, although right now not as bad as in the lower-48, since it always takes a few years for AK to catch-up. Give it a year or two. All that could change if there is a push for gas, oil, and mining

[Rance]

This is my 40th year here.

I was moved here with my family from southern Minnesota.

I fell in love the minute I stepped off the jet.

I don't see the lower 48 mentality too bad in my area of south central AK.

[Metlakatla]

Alaska seems to now be the "place" to be. I am curious about the following:

1. How long have you lived in Alaska?
(and what part of Alaska do you live in?)

Since the teens. My teens, not the last century's. But I have family who's been here for a few generations. I've lived on POW, Ketchikan, an island on the panhandle far from any road system, marine or otherwise, Skagway, the upper Susitna, and Denali.

2. What state did you move from?

Oregon.

3. What do you love and hate about Alaska?

Love/hate...absolutes are difficult for me. Hate: Tourons who bring a "we're spending money in your little hick backwater" aren't worth scraping off my shoes, though I've done exactly that a time or two. The ones who treat the young people working at service jobs like their personal lackeys are the worst. After I croak I'm gonna come back as an angel of revenge and hide under the bench outside of the ice cream shop in Skagway and tie all their white tennis shoe laces together while they're sitting there slopping down their 9th ice cream cone of the day.

Loggers and the destruction they've brought to the Tongass, both culturally and physically, POW in particular. As the Prince put it, "This forest is dear to my heart. But I hate the people who live in it". That was in response to a particular trailer dwelling ex logger turned lord knows what besides a filthy drunk who was quoted in the national Geographic last year as saying, "It's a rain forest. It was put here to log".

Love...alpenglow, the Alaska Range at 40 below, summer days when all but the top of Denali is covered in clouds and the summit looks like its floating in the sky...Talkeetna......




4. With so many people moving here - do you feel Alaska is quickly becoming like any other lower 48 State?

Maybe on like any other but it's starting to resemble Eastern Washington in parts.

[Metlakatla]

Whoops...

Maybe on like any other but it's starting to resemble Eastern Washington in parts.

Maybe not like any other part...too late to edit.

[akck]

1. 20+ years, all in SE

2. Lived in Washington and Oregon

3. Love the scenery, people and low population density. Hate the airfare cost to go south on a vacation.

4. No, probably is more of a local condition mainly around Anchorage.

[Xa'at]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Alaska seems to now be the "place" to be. I am curious about the following:

1. How long have you lived in Alaska?
(and what part of Alaska do you live in?)

2. What state did you move from?

3. What do you love and hate about Alaska?

4. With so many people moving here - do you feel Alaska is quickly becoming like any other lower 48 State?

Hmm, this might end up being a long post.
1.
Well, I was born here. I've come and gone a few times over the years- seeking adventure, cheaper travel, what have you. But I've always come back because in my heart of hearts I know this is where I'm meant to be.

2.
see above

3.
Loves:
I love how the mist feels on my cheek when it rains. I love the way the jagged mountain peaks jut out of the clouds like some sort of earthly heaven. I love sunrises, sunsets, alpenglow, moonlight, rainbows, auroras and that weird way that snow sparkles in the midday sun. I love being surrounded by sensible, accepting people who actually care about the earth and their community and will as a general rule try anything at least once. I love the taste of salmon, freshly grilled right there on the beach. I love whales, eagles, bears, anemones, and even ravens. I love waking up every morning looking forward to things I might see, pictures I might take.
Hates:
I hate the disrespect I see on a daily basis toward our native cultures. I hate the mentality of greed that leads us sell out our precious wilderness, our livelihood, and worst of all our basic morality, to the highest bidder. I hate it when people come to my home thinking only of what they can take from it, rather than what they could actually be a part of if only they tried. I hate it when people think that just because they've been here for years and years that makes them a better person.

4.
No, thankfully. I think we will always be unique, but that's not to say I also don't think there are certain things that we could learn from the lesser 48 (if only to avoid making the same mistakes they did) just as there is much they could learn from us.

[ASpilot2be]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Alaska seems to now be the "place" to be. I am curious about the following:

1. How long have you lived in Alaska?
(and what part of Alaska do you live in?)

2. What state did you move from?

3. What do you love and hate about Alaska?

4. With so many people moving here - do you feel Alaska is quickly becoming like any other lower 48 State?

1. Born in the geat state.

2. See above.

3. I love just about everything about the state. The one thing I really hate is the crazy shipping charges.

4. Nope. Alaska will always be Alaska.

[karfar]

Originally Posted by Xa'at

Hates:
I hate the disrespect I see on a daily basis toward our native cultures. I hate the mentality of greed that leads us sell out our precious wilderness, our livelihood, and worst of all our basic morality, to the highest bidder. I hate it when people come to my home thinking only of what they can take from it, rather than what they could actually be a part of if only they tried. I hate it when people think that just because they've been here for years and years that makes them a better person.

Even though this is on a different level, I think the distaste some of you feel for the lower 48 is how we Wisconsinites feel about people from Illinois, specifically how they bring their money & move up to the North Woods, build their big-ass houses on the lake & instead of living w/the trees, they choose to cut them down to make room for their 4-plus bedrooms & manicured lawns. Not only are they taking away the North Woods literally, but they're spilling their fertilizers & pesticides for their lawns into the water & polluting it w/their jet skis & speed boats. Plus, the addition of large chain stores such as Walmart. Now, if anything, why couldn't they have built a Target, I'd be much more tolerant of that. While I hate that Walmart is there, I have to say it can be convenient at times if you need something that you wouldn't be able to get in the town stores.

[susitna-flower]

Originally Posted by Alaskapat528

Alaska seems to now be the "place" to be. I am curious about the following:

1. How long have you lived in Alaska?
(and what part of Alaska do you live in?)

I've lived in AK since 1959....in the upper Susitna Valley.

2. What state did you move from?

Colorado / Oklahoma as just a kid....don't claim them any more!

3. What do you love and hate about Alaska?

I don't hate anything, but it is about time for me to start being a snow bird, as so many do....along about August I start feeling winter coming on, and as with many would love to be in warmer climates.

What I love? Well if you have ever lived here and gone outside for any reason there are two things you can identify with. Driving home, you are really hit with an emotion that will shake you to your core when you drive through the mountains right before Palmer....it brings tears to your eyes. OR if you fly home, you are there when you get to the Alaska Airlines gate in Seattle.....you know what I mean....all of a sudden you are around people you understand and feel comfortable with.

4. With so many people moving here - do you feel Alaska is quickly becoming like any other lower 48 State?

There are many answers as to why.....My dad it was because as Robert Service said, he walked a road less traveled. So many have come here looking for riches, some found it, many haven't, and some found riches, not in their wallets.

A new term I have heard lately tells part of what is happening now, which is a bit disturbing to many old time Alaskans........when the COW's come home. Californians, Oregonians, and Washingtonians.....and their heartfelt belief that they should tell us what to do with our home.....

I think the true helping spirit of Alaska is being ruined by so many people coming up with their attitudes, you can see this in Anchorage mainly, with their fair share of LA "gangs" as well....this hasn't spread too much thank goodness. BUT one interesting thing that most wouldn't know unless you moved out to some of the outer villages, and that is that there is a huge new influence in the last 10-20 years of immigration from SE Asia which seems to be out of proportion to what I envisioned appropriate to our immigration laws. Mostly hard working folks though.

Historically Alaska has been a refuge for law breakers.....I think this still is a part of life, though just as much I like to put it like this.....CHARACTERS! My little town is a true example.....more characters per square mile than you can imagine....but just let someone cross any one of them, and they will all pull together....OR if a home catches fire, for example, everyone will pull together, put it out, and rebuild it just like in the "old days" no matter how unpleasant a cranky character they are! I LOVE it!