Question about SE life (Anchorage, Ketchikan: health insurance, crime rate, how much)

[grupre]

I have a few questions if anyone would like to answer them:

1) Other than Juneau, is a car *really* necessary in towns like Haines, Wrangell, Ketchikan, Petersburg?

2) I see that APT supplies Internet and phone service in the SE. Is there anyone else and is satellite TV like Directv/Dishnetwork available. Also, does the weather knock out the Internet/TV often?

3) I didn't see alot mentioned on the forum about Craig, AK. Anyone from there, been there, good/bad to say about it.

4) Since it rains so much in the SE, do people have issues with wood rot, mold, etc., in/around their homes.

I've decided that when we move to Alaska it will be to the SE. Everyone seems to really praise Haines. Is Skagway as nice as Haines or is it a matter of opinion?

I was also reading that Ketchikan's crime rate is picking up almost as bad as Anchorage's. Is this due to tourism or what possibility besides?

[Metlakatla]

I wouldn't live without a vehicle anywhere in SE. I suppose it's doable but what's the point.

APT has us trapped and they're dumber than dirt. I have satellite though.

Rains all the time.

Skagway is not as nice as Haines.

I doubt tourism contributes to the crime in Ketchikan at all. The cruise ship people aren't terrible likely go be going on crime sprees.

I just got back from Craig and couldn't find a decent nightgown to save my life. Had to settle for a pair of sweats.

[cobolt]

I second the preference of Haines over Skagway. Haines has much more of a down-to-earth feel about it and Skagway is a real mess in the summer b/c of the tourists---well lots of places suffer the tourist syndrome but I just found Haines has a better "feel" to it.

[stiffnecked]

If you need a job to go along with your move I'd try Ketchikan or Juneau first. Also invest in a good set of ExtraTuffs. I even wear mine to church.

[Dusty Rhodes]

"ExtraTuffs" ? Por favor, what in the world are they? D

[stiffnecked]

Sorry about the misspelling. Take out the "E" XtraTuffs. The original Ketchikan Sneaker.

Army Navy Store -Alaska's North Slope Safety Clothing Outfitters

[Dusty Rhodes]

Oh, ....as is said, the picture is worth a thousand words. Thanks. D

[JavaPhil]

It's pretty much the uniform boot for people in wet climes in AK. Wolverines, Baffins or bunny boots for arctic weather.

[Metlakatla]

However---Ketchikan's rising crime rate (and I haven't seen the stats) could possibly be related to the cruise ship industry in that it brings in a large influx of workers from the lower 48 during the touron season.

I am quite sure that the majority of the seasonal workers are fine upstanding types. But in a small town it only takes a few. And Ketchikan has always been a fairly transitory place in that regard.

It's been said here quite a few times before but it bears saying again, given the constant questions concerning the crime rate in Alaska....if you stay out of certain places and away from a certain lifestyle, you're so much safer than most places in the lower 48.

[rotorhead]

Haines is indeed a nice place, if you can afford to live here.

People who grew up here and want to stay end up leaving town because they can't find jobs that will pay what you need to live here, the economic base is pretty thin. If you don't have either family in town, good social connections, or outside assistance, then you'd better have a job lined up BEFORE you pull up stakes and pack the moving truck. Same pretty much goes for all of SE to some extent, with perhaps the exception of Juneau (since it's so much larger than the rest of the SE towns). With the decline and/or collapse of the "traditional" industries such as timbercutting, mining, the log mills, and commercial fishing it can be hard to find anything other than seasonal or temporary work, especially in cruise ship hotspots like Skagway. It's true that tourism has largely replaced the so-called extractive industries in most of SE Alaska, but tourism is by nature a very seasonal and service-oriented revenue base.

That doesn't mean that you can't find work, there always seem to be dishwasher and cook jobs available wherever you go. The real question is...can you live off the wages that those kinds of jobs pay? If you're twenty-something and everything you own fits in the back of your VW Golf, things don't necessarily look so bad. If you're thirty-something and you have come to expect certain luxuries in life such as health insurance and furniture, it's not looking so good anymore. If you're forty-something and married with a couple of kids and a stay-at-home spouse, your job title better end with MD or DDS or something like that.

Best bet to see Alaska without being a trust fund baby...go to nursing school. There's hardly a place in the state that isn't looking for nurses right now, and it looks like it's gonna get a lot worse before it gets better as far as the nursing shortage goes.

In answer to your other questions, yes, AP&T pretty much has the internet monopoly here for slow and expensive DLS...if they even cover where you live. There is no cable internet here, yet, or maybe ever the ways it's looking right now. There is a satellite based internet provider that I've heard of, but it's something like a thousand bucks to get it installed and running and you still have to have a phone line for uploads. AP&T provides DLS where I live but it's METERED here, you pay according to how much you use. With my plan if you go over three gigs of combined up/download you pay through the nose for every gig over, and the speed is only 256k....for about $70/month. Three gigs actually covers a lot of territory, provided you're not a file sharer or addicted to YouTube.

Yes, you will need a car unless you really, really like walking everywhere, like home every couple of days with a heavy backpack of groceries... in the freezing rain....with the bears and the moose...in the dark. I live close enough to walk to downtown in about five minutes, but the affordable houses are typically much further out along the highway here in the Haines area. Maybe you're the type that already owns studded bicycle tires, but personally I don't have that much "character".

Does everything rot in the rain here? Oh yeah. Even on sunny days with the windows open it still takes the best part of the day for the dishes to dry. There are no old cars here, at least none that haven't lived somewhere else for most of their lives or required heroic mechanical intervention. Even concrete seems like it doesn't last around here from what I've seen. There's a reason why those trees are so tall and the grass seems so happy, you know.