What is Alaska like? (Anchorage, Fairbanks: school, living in, cost of)

[Bob Blockus]

make friends who have outdoor hot tub spas at their house in Alaska. best way to view wilderness from hot tub spa. think masterspas.com is very good. yes indeed.

[akbound08]

gas prices in valdez is still 3.80 something. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

[Alaskapat528]

Originally Posted by akbound08

gas prices in valdez is still 3.80 something. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Welcome to Alaska.

[tlcmine]

There's a lot of oil moved around in Alaska, but not a lot of refineries (just one in Kenai, I think). So...no, it's not odd at all that we have to pay more to have it shipped somewhere, refined and sent back.

[Rance]

I live on the peninsula 25 miles from the refinery, and work in the oilfeild. So why am I paying more than Anchorage for gas and diesel?

[Лютый]

Originally Posted by FutureArchitect

Ive been planning on visiting Alaska when I get older.
What is it Like?
Also what are some of the Best areas?

Early get to visit Chukotka (Russia) and then Alaska seems to you the resort

[pgrdr]

People who love Alaska are crazy about it. However, most people who transplant from Outside (the lower 48) leave within 2-3 years. Alaskans think it is because of the weather and we call the first snow of the season "termination dust," but that isn't the real reason. If the culture wasn't such a shock to people moving from Outside, more of them would learn to deal with the weather.

It is fabulously beautiful outside of Anchorage itself and Anchorage sits in a gorgeous spot. However, except for the downtown core of just a few blocks, which has improved in the last couple of years, our city is dumpy. We have bad streets, little land use planning that shows any sophistication, or even a nod to aesthetics, and old ramshackle looking buildings that just sprawl through the city. In addition, we have a high number of homeless people with nowhere to go during the day, and street drunks wandering the city day and night. When we drive, we have to watch out for them just like we have to watch out for moose because one never knows when they might suddenly wander into traffic. That's pretty depressing to see every day.

We have a lot of poorly built housing that was thrown up during the oil heydays of the 1970s and early 1980s, and really old housing from the 1950s & 1960s, all of which sells for very high prices. Outside a person can buy large, gorgeous homes for what we pay for 1960s and 1970s homes with only a one car garage, if we are lucky enough to get a garage. There are some new developments, but they are either outrageously expensive or shoddily built, depending, and they are further out of the city, like suburbs. Downtown, tiny condos that maybe have parking for only one car sell for very high prices rivaling what one pays for an entire house sitting on a large yard!

We pay more for everything, including gas, because we are a trapped customer base. There is no competition because the pool is so small.

The quality of service here is much lower than people experience and expect Outside as well. Never go anywhere in a hurry in Alaska because one will only end up having a stroke or something getting stressed out. Hire people to work on your home and they may or may not show up, and if they do, they may or may not do a good job. For sure, though, they will be very expensive, regardless. We have the slowest internet speeds in the country, and a more expensive cable company that provides less for the money. Even government agencies provide poor service compared to what most newcomers are used to. Usually it isn't even worth explaining to someone providing a service what it is you want that they aren't delivering, because they just look blank-they don't get it so a person is just wasting time trying to get the same sort of quality they are used to from Outside. And people tend to be quiet. You can go out shopping for hours and hardly hear anyone, at least adults, talking much. People are quiet and they move slow (except for some in their big pickups flying down the road). Even cashiers usually don't talk to customers, and that is disconcerting to people used to being acknowledged, smiled at, and thanked when they are customers.

There are a lot of unusual characters in Alaska, and we have more than our share of people who live here because they don't like other people very much. We also have a high crime rate because of our isolation and because bad people come here to hide. Surprisingly, we have more air pollution than we should and high rates of diseases like cancer (probably because we eat so much seafood).

In the winter it is light out only about 5 hours a day in Anchorage, and even less in the interior. In summer, it is light out at least 20 hours a day in Anchorage. The weather is hard on everything--houses, cars, skin, etc., but it is also sort of fun. I like driving in the winter because everyone slows down and it is fun bumping over the snow. It is something of a free-for-all sometimes, though, because we lose lanes to snow and there are many stretches and intersections where there are no traffic lines in sight. (When the snow melts in April or May, there are still no lines on large stretches of many of our streets.)

Alaskans like to think of ourselves as helpful and generous, but in actuality I don't think that is true for many of us, at least not compared to people in many other communities. Citizens here tend to be pretty self-interested, not caring what their property looks like to their neighbors, if they are infringing on their neighbor's quality of life when they put large objects and tall structures next door, who their dogs are terrorizing, and not wanting to pay taxes for social programs, city services, and general upkeep of the city and state. We pay the fewest taxes of anywhere else in the country, take in oil revenues, and tons of federal money, but still complain about the few taxes we do pay. So I'm not sure why we carry this myth of generosity about ourselves in our heads!

We have fewer consumer goods buying options and what we do have is more expensive. Frankly, just like the cable company and the other utilities, I think a lot of retailers take advantage of Alaskans by gouging us. The usual line is, "Well, it's Alaska!" But so what? This is 2009, not 1960. Technology alone should have made most things more reasonable. In addition, except in the summer when there is some local agriculture, our produce arrives old and it is expensive. Grocery stores here routinely sell things past their sell by dates, at full Alaska cost. There are a few large companies that ship things to us for reasonable shipping rates, but many will not ship here at all, and others that do, gouge us on the shipping.

Concepts like liability haven't caught up to us (which explains our political scandals) so it is routine to go into businesses and have to move things one Could fall over, or to live in buildings that have problems around it that Outside property owners wouldn't dare risk. I get a kick out of that actually. Even our medical providers break medical privacy laws as though federal law doesn't apply to them! I don't get a kick out of that.

Medical care is close to 30 percent more than Outside, and we have a small pool of providers so they have no competition. Most of them refuse to belong to insurance networks so we pay more out of pocket even when we have insurance. Frankly, it borders on price collusion with some of the specialists. Also, they lobbied and got some law passed that makes it basically impossible to ever file a malpractice suit against an Alaskan doctor.

One thing I really like about Alaska is that it is very casual. Also, all kinds of people rub shoulders, paying no attention to what makes each different from the other. Alaskans may not want to take care of their neighbors, but they don't care what their neighbors are wearing or doing either. In that way, it is a live and let live culture that is nice. Also, the politics up here are lively and interesting. The live and let live culture and the incredible beauty is why Alaskans who truly love Alaska, do so.

Hope that helps, and it is worth coming to Alaska just for the experience. Many consider it a young person's state because the weather, prices, and lifestyle get harder to take once a person is older. Just wait to buy a home and a house full of furniture until after you know you want to stay long-term, so that you don't end up one of those who have to sell everything off on Craigslist to leave in a hurry. (<;

[landes]

wow! thanks for that post!

[Mollym313]

Do you think certain experiences/climate that people come from will affect how well they adjust to Alaska. I live in Missouri and the weather is less than desirable but I do like it here. There is a big downfall here though just as I'm sure there is in Alaska too. I am very excited at the prospect of moving to Alaska but I am anything but naive. I love the outdoors but theres not much to look at around here. I love the snow but lately we have been getting inches of freezing rain instead of the pretty white stuff.

Although I have been in MO from 20 years, I spent my childhood years in Oregon. I am just curious to know if there is a common factor for those that only last a couple of years there.

[jeterific2000]

Originally Posted by pgrdr

People who love Alaska are crazy about it. However, most people who transplant from Outside (the lower 48) leave within 2-3 years. Alaskans think it is because of the weather and we call the first snow of the season "termination dust," but that isn't the real reason. If the culture wasn't such a shock to people moving from Outside, more of them would learn to deal with the weather.

It is fabulously beautiful outside of Anchorage itself and Anchorage sits in a gorgeous spot. However, except for the downtown core of just a few blocks, which has improved in the last couple of years, our city is dumpy. We have bad streets, little land use planning that shows any sophistication, or even a nod to aesthetics, and old ramshackle looking buildings that just sprawl through the city. In addition, we have a high number of homeless people with nowhere to go during the day, and street drunks wandering the city day and night. When we drive, we have to watch out for them just like we have to watch out for moose because one never knows when they might suddenly wander into traffic. That's pretty depressing to see every day.

We have a lot of poorly built housing that was thrown up during the oil heydays of the 1970s and early 1980s, and really old housing from the 1950s & 1960s, all of which sells for very high prices. Outside a person can buy large, gorgeous homes for what we pay for 1960s and 1970s homes with only a one car garage, if we are lucky enough to get a garage. There are some new developments, but they are either outrageously expensive or shoddily built, depending, and they are further out of the city, like suburbs. Downtown, tiny condos that maybe have parking for only one car sell for very high prices rivaling what one pays for an entire house sitting on a large yard!

We pay more for everything, including gas, because we are a trapped customer base. There is no competition because the pool is so small.

The quality of service here is much lower than people experience and expect Outside as well. Never go anywhere in a hurry in Alaska because one will only end up having a stroke or something getting stressed out. Hire people to work on your home and they may or may not show up, and if they do, they may or may not do a good job. For sure, though, they will be very expensive, regardless. We have the slowest internet speeds in the country, and a more expensive cable company that provides less for the money. Even government agencies provide poor service compared to what most newcomers are used to. Usually it isn't even worth explaining to someone providing a service what it is you want that they aren't delivering, because they just look blank-they don't get it so a person is just wasting time trying to get the same sort of quality they are used to from Outside. And people tend to be quiet. You can go out shopping for hours and hardly hear anyone, at least adults, talking much. People are quiet and they move slow (except for some in their big pickups flying down the road). Even cashiers usually don't talk to customers, and that is disconcerting to people used to being acknowledged, smiled at, and thanked when they are customers.

There are a lot of unusual characters in Alaska, and we have more than our share of people who live here because they don't like other people very much. We also have a high crime rate because of our isolation and because bad people come here to hide. Surprisingly, we have more air pollution than we should and high rates of diseases like cancer (probably because we eat so much seafood).

In the winter it is light out only about 5 hours a day in Anchorage, and even less in the interior. In summer, it is light out at least 20 hours a day in Anchorage. The weather is hard on everything--houses, cars, skin, etc., but it is also sort of fun. I like driving in the winter because everyone slows down and it is fun bumping over the snow. It is something of a free-for-all sometimes, though, because we lose lanes to snow and there are many stretches and intersections where there are no traffic lines in sight. (When the snow melts in April or May, there are still no lines on large stretches of many of our streets.)

Alaskans like to think of ourselves as helpful and generous, but in actuality I don't think that is true for many of us, at least not compared to people in many other communities. Citizens here tend to be pretty self-interested, not caring what their property looks like to their neighbors, if they are infringing on their neighbor's quality of life when they put large objects and tall structures next door, who their dogs are terrorizing, and not wanting to pay taxes for social programs, city services, and general upkeep of the city and state. We pay the fewest taxes of anywhere else in the country, take in oil revenues, and tons of federal money, but still complain about the few taxes we do pay. So I'm not sure why we carry this myth of generosity about ourselves in our heads!

We have fewer consumer goods buying options and what we do have is more expensive. Frankly, just like the cable company and the other utilities, I think a lot of retailers take advantage of Alaskans by gouging us. The usual line is, "Well, it's Alaska!" But so what? This is 2009, not 1960. Technology alone should have made most things more reasonable. In addition, except in the summer when there is some local agriculture, our produce arrives old and it is expensive. Grocery stores here routinely sell things past their sell by dates, at full Alaska cost. There are a few large companies that ship things to us for reasonable shipping rates, but many will not ship here at all, and others that do, gouge us on the shipping.

Concepts like liability haven't caught up to us (which explains our political scandals) so it is routine to go into businesses and have to move things one Could fall over, or to live in buildings that have problems around it that Outside property owners wouldn't dare risk. I get a kick out of that actually. Even our medical providers break medical privacy laws as though federal law doesn't apply to them! I don't get a kick out of that.

Medical care is close to 30 percent more than Outside, and we have a small pool of providers so they have no competition. Most of them refuse to belong to insurance networks so we pay more out of pocket even when we have insurance. Frankly, it borders on price collusion with some of the specialists. Also, they lobbied and got some law passed that makes it basically impossible to ever file a malpractice suit against an Alaskan doctor.

One thing I really like about Alaska is that it is very casual. Also, all kinds of people rub shoulders, paying no attention to what makes each different from the other. Alaskans may not want to take care of their neighbors, but they don't care what their neighbors are wearing or doing either. In that way, it is a live and let live culture that is nice. Also, the politics up here are lively and interesting. The live and let live culture and the incredible beauty is why Alaskans who truly love Alaska, do so.

Hope that helps, and it is worth coming to Alaska just for the experience. Many consider it a young person's state because the weather, prices, and lifestyle get harder to take once a person is older. Just wait to buy a home and a house full of furniture until after you know you want to stay long-term, so that you don't end up one of those who have to sell everything off on Craigslist to leave in a hurry. (<;

i thank you for your honesty, but i have to say it's not very encouraging! i am moving there in oct. because my husband will be stationed at fort wainwright. i don't have a choice and i am a city girl from new york, so i know it will be a culture shock, but i will go into it with an open mind and hope i can make it through the 3 years..also, we have a 4 yr old so i am hoping he will get good schooling....