Culture Shock (Homer, Big Lake, Dillingham: houses, rent, jobs)

[kettlepot]

Originally Posted by rotorhead

.... I haven't seen any of the shows that people refer to these days....never even saw a single episode of "Northern Exposure" for example.

Since rotorhead mentioned "Northern Exposure" I guess it would be legit to ask this question.

There was an episode where one of the characters mentioned the Alaskan "Riviera."

Where would that be? The Kenai Peninsula or the Panhandle?

Thanks,
KP

Oh, and another poster mentioned that walking on the beach near Anchorage would risk death. Why? If you wear the proper clothing what would be the problem? Marauding Moose?

[DannyL]

This thread is starting to get funny, but I'll play along...
So tell me Dr Phil, how was my winter?

[soldn2slavery]

First, there is no beach, as in sandy beach around Anchorage. Second, the "sand" is more like quick sand. People have gotten stuck and died. Check the archives of ADN. com.

As for Northern Exposure, there was very little correct about that show. They also had an episode where they drove to Nome or Dillingham or someplace else. The Anchorage newspaper actually had a contest to see who could find the most mistakes in each episode.

[karlsch]

Originally Posted by soldn2slavery

As for Northern Exposure, there was very little correct about that show.

Here is an old ADN article:

A REAL BUSH DOCTOR

Metlakatla--Sam Hunkler, a young doctor working in this. small southeastern Alaska community, has been compared to Dr. Joel Fleishman, star of the CBS sitcom, Northern Exposure." Hunkler is the first to dismiss the comparison.

"I wish I had it that good," says Hunkler, a 35-year-old Ohio native with one year left on a three-year student loan obligation. "He has a social life; I have none. There are no restaurants, no movies, no distractions. And this is dry town. I just don't know of any place or any doctor in the state that has it like that."

The fictional Dr. Fleischman lives in a non-existent, thickly forested, mountainous Alaska village called Cicely which is populated with mythical, colorful characters. Fleischman is trapped there as he pays off his student loans. Though there is no Cicely, Alaska's health officials get dozens of calls from Lower 48 doctors and nurses in search of Fleischman's zany life. Tell them it doesn't exist, and they persist.

There are about 170 doctors working in Alaska under a federal program to pay back student loans that average about $55,000, according to Ken Bartline with the Alaska Area Native Health Service. Every year, Bartline has about 40 positions to fill. Rather than using "Northern Exposure" as a marketing ploy, Bartline has had to spend more time refuting the myths created by the show. When NBC's "Today Show" called looking for a Dr. Fleischman, the best Bar-tline's office could come up with was Hunkler.

"I chose to come here for some crazy reason, " Hunkler said. "You can't get more isolated than this. If someone wants to come up here and find something like that [Northern Exposure], well, good luck."
—Natalie Phillips

[DannyL]

Hey now, you guys better be careful about posting facts, you might end up labeled as "negative and disgrunted" like me...

[mal_flisk]

Frankly Danny, I put you with the school of telling people the worst so you keep the state as unpopulated as possible. I could be wrong. LOL

[Rainy]

I think Danny's posts are pretty right on. We all see people moving up here expecting to find something they never will find...who haven't really done the proper research et al....most of them go home within a year...

[DannyL]

thank you rainy, at least you, and maybe mal and lance understand the point I've been trying to get across.
Alaska is a wonderful place to live and raise kids, but you gotta be ready for it.
You ain't in Kansas anymore Toto.......

[Rainy]

It's kind of like this....like anything else that's remote and unknown, Alaska can be easy to romanticize. When it fails to fulfill whatever it was that a person wanted from it...and most of the time, it does...it isn't simply as simple as just driving back to Podunk. And when people include the permanent fund in their list of questions about it when they are considering moving up...well...

the first year the PF came out it was 1K per person and the residency restrictions weren't yet very stringently in place. There was a family who moved to Ketchikan who had 13 kids. They cashed in and split. You can bet they spent none of that money here and something tells me that those children didn't see a dime of the money either. I'm sure they weren't the only family to have done that.

The PF is no reason to move up here.

And so often it attracts people who aren't ready, as Danny said. People who think that the "wilderness" is going to answer all their life questions.

You need to be prepared to put more back into it than you take. That's something that even most of those of us who know it quite well struggle with on a daily basis.
'

[mal_flisk]

Living in a situation like the bush, or any other socially limited situation usually has a tendency to exacerbate any formerly minor faults and idiosyncracies and magnify them beyond normal, into possibly dangerous behavior, or in the case of many, focus the idiosyncracy into an obsession (usually minor enough to overlook, but I tend to laugh inside when I run into the folks with the stranger obsessions).

Moving to Alaska to escape one's problems is mere avoidance, and they tend to catch up with folks unless they're willing to fade into the bush.

Just a couple of observations on life in the great state.