Safest places to live in (Anchorage, Wasilla: for sale, hotel, home) - Alaska (AK) - City-Data Forum

Sarah03 · 04-12-2010, 01:57 PM

Hello everyone!

I currently live in CA, big city, a lot of people, and really sick of it. I don't mind there being a mall or two, but seriously, all these people!! I've been thinking a lot lately of moving, moving to a place where I believe it would be better. I know it will be a culture shock in AK vs. being in CA.

I just want to move to a place where I can safely raise a family (when I finally get married). I want a city that has excellent education, safe to play on the streets in front of the house, not small housing but not mansions, nice streets, not next to a lake but not too far from one. I don't want my backyard to be a lake or a forest, I'm too scared of the wild animals (in the future) doing something to the house, pets, children, etc. I need a place where there are jobs available. And finally, the internet... i hate dial-up, if there's a specific area with all these things I'd like to have PLUS awesome working internet services available, that'd be great.

I do however, like the Indian culture (and the men are a plus

). I was raised on Mexican Indian culture, not exactly the same as Native AK Indians, i know, but it's close enough. I miss it, no one here is like that anymore. I wanted to live in a place that had that culture again. I've been to Canada, they don't exactly love Americans and they let me know it. I've tried and failed miserably.

If anyone has tips that'd be great - thank you in advanced for reading my post, greatly appreciated

AKStafford · 04-12-2010, 02:48 PM

Wasilla.

Moose Whisperer · 04-12-2010, 03:45 PM

Depends what you consider “safe”. If you are going by Mission Viejo as a benchmark, few places in Alaska will measure up. Wasilla will probably feel like a ghetto to you (actually, it feels that way to many of us already up here

). Palmer has a nice small town feel to it. Parts of Eagle River and Anchorage have that safe “Orange County” feel to them. Many of the other smaller communities scattered throughout the rail belt however are so different from what you are used to that it’s hard to say. You just need to visit and experience them for yourself.

Marty Van Diest · 04-12-2010, 03:54 PM

Mission Viejo...wow man! I went to Orange High my Junior year in High School, that was in 1969, hence the wow man! Talk about culture shock for a village boy, just the opposite of what you would experience moving from there to say...Akiak. I remember we played Mission Viejo in football.

You need to take a visiting trip. It might be so foreign to you that you won't be able to handle it. On the other hand, you could be like the Ohio couple I met a few years ago on their first trip to Alaska. They called their teenage kids at home from their hotel in Seward and told the kids to put a for sale sign in the yard. They have been here ever since.