Family considering Anchorage move (Fairbanks: rental, credit, house)

[Dakster]

RUB it in some more there Riceme...

(good for you, gladbyou got it figured out)

[riceme]

Hahaha Well life isn't all unicorns and rainbows out here... no washer & dryer. I tell myself that it's going to be forced socialization to go to the laundromat each week, but I am just not that nice. I usually go run errands during each cycle.

[6.7traveler]

^You don't use the fox laundromat do you? The water there turned a bunch of my nice white shirts brown and dingy last year . The laundromat in town has way better machines but is a freak show of humanity.

I agree that it's much cheaper and closer to live rurally outside of Fairbanks than it is in anchorage and still be pretty close to town, especially if you opt for a dry cabin. The minor inconvienences are well worth saving $1000+ a month in rent. Plus who would want to live in fairbanks proper with the cold temps and bad air when you can live in the hills.

I rented a nice cabin last year outside of fox for $200 a month. The only minor stipulations was that it came with 10 sled dogs to take care of, didn't have power or water, and you needed 4 wheel drive to make it up the 1/4 mile driveway - if you were lucky enough to make it up at all otherwise you had to park at the bottom and walk. Killer view though .

Oops just realized this was in the anchorage sub forum sorry for the hijack.

And one more thing- as bad as fairbanks can be it's 1000000 times better than anchorage .

[riceme]

Noooo, I do not use the Fox laundromat!! Sorry, I wish I would have thought to tell you about the water there when you were living up off the Elliott. I really don't know how that place stays open because I know of no locals that use it and it's not like there are any gringos out here. The water is bad and it's really expensive... no up side. To be completely honest, I kind of enjoy the freak show of humanity at the laundromat. It's epic people-watching. I have witnessed some of the weirdest things...

I don't mind the temperature or the air in NP or Fairbanks, I just don't like town and NP just isn't really my bag. Traffic makes me feel like I'm gonna stroke out and frankly, I don't like people that much. I have served my time with the whole dry cabin episode. I really don't mind having an outhouse and I don't mind hauling water. I do mind having to haul all your **** all over creation just to take a ****ing shower.

[USERXXXX]

Originally Posted by gogogo35

What is the culture like in Anchorage? My husband and I both have graduate degrees and are very liberal (will vote for Bernie or Hillary, pro-choice) and love the outdoors. We have lived in Portland, OR, and Austin, TX, and love those places; I am from Montana, so I have been around rural and more conservative areas as well.

My ideal: A colder climate (currently living in TX) where we can easily find other liberal families, not a lot of pressure on kids (e.g., overscheduling), easy access to mountains and nature.

Anchorage seems to fit the bill on the outdoors parts, but I wonder whether we could find similar families.

Thanks.

I have a hard time understanding living in Alaska. Everything is expensive there..Income may not raise according to expense..

Austin is way better for liberals to live with a lot of high paying job..

[Aztecgoddess]

Disclaimer; sort of non related to OPs question... sort of.

I've been reading CD for quite a while, the Alaska sub-forum being a favorite among U.S. sections if may I add. Threads like this come upo quite often, people wondering what is like living in such vast and wild frontier land. More than less i notice Alaskans tend to discourage outsiders about moving in, I cannot help to think of several reasons for this, perhaps; Alaskans are tired of newcomers complaining about the state and how things are better run back in [insert any place in the lower 48] or maybe Alaskans don't want transplants to come and change their modus vivendi by importing ideologies/policies that might destroy the state?
Anyone care to enlighten me?

Thx and I do apologize if my grammatical structure is a little off beat.

[Dakster]

I'll answer your question based on a L48'r who moved up and likes it in Alaska.

First, I agree with most of your suppositions. I left my previous state and area because overall I didn't like it anymore. I don't want to change AK to be like it either. Some people do. They say they are leaving XXX to 'live free' and then they come up and try to change AK to be like that XXX. One example, If you don't like people hunting animals - don't come to AK. Not saying YOU have to hunt either. The other part, I don't see people not wanting folks to come up - what I do notice is that in AK people are more candid. This is how it is, no spin or sugar coating it. Anyone who has been in AK for a period of time has seen a L48's crash and burn in AK and it isn't pretty. So more of 'fair warning' that this is what it's like and this is what we see newcomers complain about or get up and go back to XXX over. Going to most other forums, for life in general, they are not talking about outhouses and hauling water to their dry cabin and hoping their 4WD vehicle makes it to the front of the cabin. Even in our limited time up there (going on 2 years now) we have seen families go back within days/weeks of arriving and some that can't afford to. Do you want someone to move near you and be miserable?

In the L48, it's a lot cheaper and easier to move. Not so much in AK. When I go back to where I was from, I tell people I live in Alaska and they ask how I like living in a foreign country. I just respond, "Yep, the USA is a great place to live, you should visit it one day."

Now granted, we live near the largest city in Alaska that one could argue is not the real Alaska, so it's easier for us to adjust. Although we have been to Fairbanks and I don't think we would have an issue. I would like to live more like Riceme and 6.7Traveler do too - rather than 'in town'. That is harder to do around Anchorage as already stated.

[GnomadAK]

Really the reason that Alaskans tend to discourage outsiders from moving up is to protect them. Alaska is unlike anywhere else in the US and too often cheechakos are not prepared for the expense, the isolation (Alaska is almost like a sub-continent in relation to the rest of the US) and too often it ends badly. It's not discouragement as much as education and you can learn it beforehand from Alaskans or Alaska can teach you herself and she can be a harsh instructor.

There is the reality show Alaska and then there is the real AK and while a dry cabin sounds fine in theory it's no fun at -40. That frontier lifestyle takes a lot of time to survive and unless you take your value from the life itself there isn't anything left at the end of it, not much of a retirement plan. And if you fail there is no easy way back.....too often the baggage that brought people to the end of the road makes them particularly unsuited for the life there.

[riceme]

Originally Posted by GnomadAK

Really the reason that Alaskans tend to discourage outsiders from moving up is to protect them. Alaska is unlike anywhere else in the US and too often cheechakos are not prepared for the expense, the isolation (Alaska is almost like a sub-continent in relation to the rest of the US) and too often it ends badly. It's not discouragement as much as education and you can learn it beforehand from Alaskans or Alaska can teach you herself and she can be a harsh instructor.

There is the reality show Alaska and then there is the real AK and while a dry cabin sounds fine in theory it's no fun at -40. That frontier lifestyle takes a lot of time to survive and unless you take your value from the life itself there isn't anything left at the end of it, not much of a retirement plan. And if you fail there is no easy way back.....too often the baggage that brought people to the end of the road makes them particularly unsuited for the life there.

^This is my answer to the question as well. Very well put.

It can be very frustrating when we try to help protect someone that we see is about to put themselves (and maybe their family as well) in danger and they ignore us after they've asked for our advice. Or when they flat tell us we're wrong.

-48ers have very romantic notions about Alaska and frontier life, but sh*t gets very real very fast when winter comes... and then stays for seven months.

[Dakster]

You are being generous with winter being only 7 months...

Gnomad - Not everyone that wants to come up is an end of the roader though...