I'm looking into moving to alaska (Cordova, Metlakatla: how much, live, store)

[garland anti-gangster]

how do u start a thread? im new

[Frostnip]

Originally Posted by ShipOfFools42

Are you calling it a city by common use Alaska terminology, or is a place with 9,000 people really a city? I know it isn't a village; I tend to use the term when it's not correct, and that was one of those times. I would call it a town. But I guess by Alaska standards it would be a city. I was just trying to get across the point that Sitka is isolated because of the fact that it is on an island. Not saying it's a bare bones village, but it's got no road access is what I was saying. And OP wanted road access.

It's incorporated as a city. It's also comparatively developed.

And as stiffnecked pointed out, you can get there by car.

[tigre79]

Nine thousand is pretty big by Alaska standards. I think Sitka is the biggest town/city outside of the Anchorage/MatSu, Fairbanks, or Juneau areas, isn't it? And yeah, this is the sort of thing someone who's never even visited probably shouldn't chime in on.

Hazrdus, what is it specifically that you're concerned with in regard to "isolating" your kids? And what does isolated mean to you? Do you need a road, or is ferry/plane access enough? Is it related to distance? For example, we're on the road system, but far enough out that trips to town are mostly just for shopping and doctor visits, so there are limited advantages from a kid's perspective. If you want to be near other towns, have you looked into the Kenai Peninsula?

[Metlakatla]

...oh geez....

Sitka's not a village. By Alaska standards it isn't isolated. You can get everything there that you need...but by the same token, by European standards it's extremely isolated.

Sometimes people think that the ferry trips in SE are going to be like those in the San Juans. Not at all the truth.


This is why the unemployment numbers in Sitka and other parts of Alaska can be deceptive: there are a LOT of people working seasonally in the cruise ship industry and in the fish processing industry in Sitka. A good percentage of them go elsewhere during the off season, and most of them apply for UI benefits. There are also quite a few who purposefully work seasonally who live there year round.

[blueflames50]

Originally Posted by garland anti-gangster

how do u start a thread? im new

welcome to the forum....send you a DM...ahhh something new to figure out too for you! hahaa..

[GrammasCabin]

You'd think the bickering between ship and stiff would be enough to change her mind about Alaska.

I'm still wondering, OP, why Alaska? Your reasons for choosing Alaska would help us determine if it would really work for you, and where.

[Metlakatla]

Originally Posted by GrammasCabin

You'd think the bickering between ship and stiff would be enough to change her mind about Alaska.

I'm still wondering, OP, why Alaska? Your reasons for choosing Alaska would help us determine if it would really work for you, and where.

I guess.

Ship may never have been here, but he also might have a more realistic idea of what a European citizen might consider remote than those of us in Alaska do. At times Sitka seems like a huge city to me but that's coming from POW.

Things are so much more close together in most other places that it's hard for people who've never experienced it to really get it; a lot of our first time Washington visitors express surprise when they find out that island hopping on the ferry system here is vastly different than what they've done in the San Juans.

[RayinAK]

The whole State of Alaska is Isolated from the US. Those little islands in the middle of nowhere are even worst, unless you have enough cash to get on the ferry or an airplane to hop in and out of there with kids in two

[GrammasCabin]

Originally Posted by Metlakatla

I guess.

Ship may never have been here, but he also might have a more realistic idea of what a European citizen might consider remote than those of us in Alaska do. At times Sitka seems like a huge city to me but that's coming from POW.

Things are so much more close together in most other places that it's hard for people who've never experienced it to really get it; a lot of our first time Washington visitors express surprise when they find out that island hopping on the ferry system here is vastly different than what they've done in the San Juans.

Wrangell's as big as I can take for any length of time, more than 24 hours in Ktkn. and I'm on overload.

What many folks don't understand about southeast is if you need to get to one town from the other it's not just minutes or an hour on the ferry. It's 6 hours from here to Ktn., always leaves in the middle of the night, you're out $160 just to get you & your car 90 miles from home & back and you're looking at least one night in a hotel before the boat comes back this way. If you need to take a vehicle during the tourist season you better make your reservation 6 months ahead. I'll never understand why Alaskans have no priority or lower fees, I guess we're just supposed to stay on our respective rocks.

[tigre79]

Wow, I figured the ferry system was better down there. Here we can't even go to Cordova, our nearest neighboring town, for a weekend without taking time off work because the ferry leaves Saturday evening and comes back Sunday morning. You'd have to take at least two days off work to spend half a weekend there, and an entire week off to get a whole Saturday and Sunday, and that's in the summer!