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I so miss that! Crazy as it sounds but there were some awesome stuff to be found at the Transfer site. Now all we have is high priced Thrift Stores.
That's true! When I worked at a storage place in Fbks, for some oddball reason someone left a ton of boxes of good stuff in the hall of one of the buildings. I had my son haul it all off to a transfer site. I think some people, when they move, just don't want to bring it all with them. I got tons of free stuff, including furniture, via that job.
Anchorage sells a lot of really old furniture for way too much money in their thrift stores. I am not going to pay $50 for a 70's style end table!
The boards are going to mostly consist of people who like living in the place, because a lot of what people do on these forums is help people trying to move to their area--so it only makes sense that most people willing to do that would like it! Then there's always some disaffected grumps.
All that aside, Anchorage in particular probably does not have very high retention rates. I think there is significant "brain drain". Many young people my age move to Portland, Austin, Seattle, and Chicago. There really are a ton of very young Anchorage "ex-pats" in those cities in particular.
I don't live in any of those cities, but I was born in Anchorage and left when I was 22. Spring being full of good smells and green foliage was a revelation. For many reasons, environmental and personal, I will never return to live. Just another perspective. Though I do think Alaska is a great place to visit for an outdoorsy vacation in the summer.
Someone mentioned being a starry-eyed vacationer; same here. Planning my third trip to Fairbanks in January 2013, to sample the dead-of-winter weather for a good two weeks.
Fell in love with the Fairbanks area in March 2011 and came back in Feb 2012--someone else mentioned being tired and grumpy in February and people did seem weather-worn after a very tough January, but were great to talk with.
Each trip provides more info but even if I could never manage to relocate, or decided I shouldn't, I can look forward to more trips. Would love to come up in the warmer months too, though at present I am still loving those night skies.
I did not dislike Anchorage, just didn't feel drawn to it in the same way though I did enjoy my brief stays there.
No matter where you go, living there and visiting are two different things, that's for sure.
Someone mentioned being a starry-eyed vacationer; same here. Planning my third trip to Fairbanks in January 2013, to sample the dead-of-winter weather for a good two weeks.
Fell in love with the Fairbanks area in March 2011 and came back in Feb 2012--someone else mentioned being tired and grumpy in February and people did seem weather-worn after a very tough January, but were great to talk with.
Each trip provides more info but even if I could never manage to relocate, or decided I shouldn't, I can look forward to more trips. Would love to come up in the warmer months too, though at present I am still loving those night skies.
I did not dislike Anchorage, just didn't feel drawn to it in the same way though I did enjoy my brief stays there.
No matter where you go, living there and visiting are two different things, that's for sure.
I moved to Alaska virtually blind. I had never been here before. Although, I did research for two years before I moved. This was before the WWW, and there was not much available on the Internet concerning Alaska. I read books, magazines, newspapers, and had a contact in Talkeetna that I could talk with via the phone. I also did not have a job or a place to live.
I fell in love with Alaska the same day I crossed the border on May 4, 1991. I knew from my research that Anchorage offered the best possibility for a job. I rented a motel room for a week, found a furnished apartment, and had a decent paying job two weeks later.
Twenty-one years later, I still make a comfortable living, but I am still bound to Anchorage. I do not possess the skills that would be in demand in places like Delta Junction, Glennallen, or Talkeetna. I lived in Anchorage for 12 years, and now live in the Valley and commute.
Glitch, it's amazing when thinking back to pre-web days, isn't it?
I remember moving to a place I'd visited for one day, then 18 months later packing up my car and driving there and, like you, not having a job or a place to live. Stayed 10 years.
I've been where I am now for 22 years and I like it [wouldn't have stayed so long if I didnt]--my reaction to the Alaska's interior was totally unexpected. However it goes I will always be glad I visited and look forward to future visits, even if a future move isn't in the cards.
No matter where you go, living there and visiting are two different things, that's for sure.
This is very true, and probably more true for Alaska than most places. I visited Anchorage once (in the summer) and loved it. Moved there, and hate it. It's a totally, completely different city when you live there, and especially when you live there in the winter!
Glitch, it's amazing when thinking back to pre-web days, isn't it?
It is even more amazing when thinking back to pre-VLSI days. How did we survive without all those "EVIL" computers?
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjs123
I remember moving to a place I'd visited for one day, then 18 months later packing up my car and driving there and, like you, not having a job or a place to live. Stayed 10 years.
It certainly made moving more of an adventure then than it does today. I never stayed in more than one place longer than three years, until I moved to Alaska. I still fall in love with the drive into Anchorage, even though I have made the same drive every weekday for the last nine years. It is like living in a surrealistic awe-inspiring painting.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cjs123
I've been where I am now for 22 years and I like it [wouldn't have stayed so long if I didnt]--my reaction to the Alaska's interior was totally unexpected. However it goes I will always be glad I visited and look forward to future visits, even if a future move isn't in the cards.
I would say that if you found someplace you like, and have already spent 22 years there as a testament to how much you like the place, that you are probably better off staying where you are and visiting.
I am like you, if I do not like it someplace, I move someplace else. I would like to live in Delta Junction, but that will have to wait a few more years.
It is even more amazing when thinking back to pre-VLSI days. How did we survive without all those "EVIL" computers?
It certainly made moving more of an adventure then than it does today. I never stayed in more than one place longer than three years, until I moved to Alaska. I still fall in love with the drive into Anchorage, even though I have made the same drive every weekday for the last nine years. It is like living in a surrealistic awe-inspiring painting.
I would say that if you found someplace you like, and have already spent 22 years there as a testament to how much you like the place, that you are probably better off staying where you are and visiting.
I am like you, if I do not like it someplace, I move someplace else. I would like to live in Delta Junction, but that will have to wait a few more years.
Delta Junction can be a very nice place to live, it just doesn't have many jobs in my field. It would be an excellent place to start a new business, though. This town is very much in need of many services or stores.
This may be the all time worst city in the U.S., possibly the world. I don't even know where to begin. I would die happy if I never had to see another goose-down "over-skirt" that cost $300, on a middle age woman. If you don't live here, you can't imagine what it's like to traverse through snow mazes and sheets of crackling ice in April (after having done it the past 7 months). The only living creatures I ever see in this place are ravens (for a few months you may see the little sweet singing ones), a reindeer downtown, the poor horse that is forced to pull tourists around the Captain Cook, and a few ancient (as in prehistoric looking) moose crossing roads with looks on their faces that seem to say, "Where the f have I landed and how do I keep on moving away?"
Besides the ugly, mismatched buildings that literally look like god from the 80s threw them down randomly from the sky and let them land, the locally proclaimed "pristine" coastal trail is nothing more than some pavement next to some mud flats that you can't go on for fear of sinking. To all the people that have always lived here and call this area "the great outdoors," THIS PLACE SUCKS ASS!!!!
There are no hot springs, real beaches or ocean, hiking trails with actual REAL TREES, moss, and forest smells. There are no rivers or lakes that you can actually swim in. There are no waves to surf.
It is truly the only place I have ever lived where I cannot feel the land or the earth at all. The only vague feeling I get from it, at times (during the winter) is a subtle shoving feeling as though it's trying to push me down and crack my bones. I hate the snow. It's suffocating and endless and not romantic and not pretty.
Ok. Geography and outdoors, now onto the people and social life. Even writing that looks funny. Besides the "group people" that seem to get off by going to REI meetings and knitting clubs, it seems that the main things people do here are winter sports (hate them), church (no), crafts (no), or drinking every night. The Bear Tooth is ok, but only in this god-forsaken city will you see a line of idiots a mile long standing outside it in 10 degree weather waiting to get into a three-month old movie because there is literally NOTHING else to do. This is also the only place I've ever lived (it's been nearly two years now), where I have not made ONE friend outside my job. People here do not talk to eachother. There are no real neighborhoods. The "neighborhoods" are so class stratified, that children and the elderly seem to be cut off from the working professionals. I have not seen one child playing in my neighborhood. Nor have I seen anyone over the age of 50. Everyone here in my hood are white, working professionals between the ages of 30-50...yawn. Most go to church and yoga and walk their dogs at the same times each day...yawn.
There are no children, no punks, no hippies, no elderly, no blacks, no people with really shiny eyes...sometimes living in this place, I feel like I'm on the Walking Dead.
I absolutely LOVE my job and so will try to make it one more year. I know I need to change my perspective of this place, but I truly don't know what do first, or how to change it.
When people from here ask me how I like Anchorage and I tell them, they immediately ask me, "Well, what do you like to do?"
Well, I don't like to do things with random groups of strangers (the much talked about "meet up groups" Anchoragites will tell you about). I like to have the option to hang with friends. I like to walk on the beach. I love swimming in the green Nehalem River. I like having BBQd salmon with my friends in Wheeler. I like going to the hot springs. I like yoga. I like hiking over Neahkanie mountain and never even thinking about bears! I like playing video poker sometimes and winning $100.00 on Divinchi Diamonds. I like taking road trips to different cities and states. I like buying a plane ticket to visit friends in Philly or Phoenix and paying much less than $500.00 round trip.
Anchorage, I do love to hate you. I don't know how to stop.
This may be the all time worst city in the U.S., possibly the world. I don't even know where to begin. I would die happy if I never had to see another goose-down "over-skirt" that cost $300, on a middle age woman. If you don't live here, you can't imagine what it's like to traverse through snow mazes and sheets of crackling ice in April (after having done it the past 7 months). The only living creatures I ever see in this place are ravens (for a few months you may see the little sweet singing ones), a reindeer downtown, the poor horse that is forced to pull tourists around the Captain Cook, and a few ancient (as in prehistoric looking) moose crossing roads with looks on their faces that seem to say, "Where the f have I landed and how do I keep on moving away?"
Besides the ugly, mismatched buildings that literally look like god from the 80s threw them down randomly from the sky and let them land, the locally proclaimed "pristine" coastal trail is nothing more than some pavement next to some mud flats that you can't go on for fear of sinking. To all the people that have always lived here and call this area "the great outdoors," THIS PLACE SUCKS ASS!!!!
There are no hot springs, real beaches or ocean, hiking trails with actual REAL TREES, moss, and forest smells. There are no rivers or lakes that you can actually swim in. There are no waves to surf.
It is truly the only place I have ever lived where I cannot feel the land or the earth at all. The only vague feeling I get from it, at times (during the winter) is a subtle shoving feeling as though it's trying to push me down and crack my bones. I hate the snow. It's suffocating and endless and not romantic and not pretty.
Ok. Geography and outdoors, now onto the people and social life. Even writing that looks funny. Besides the "group people" that seem to get off by going to REI meetings and knitting clubs, it seems that the main things people do here are winter sports (hate them), church (no), crafts (no), or drinking every night. The Bear Tooth is ok, but only in this god-forsaken city will you see a line of idiots a mile long standing outside it in 10 degree weather waiting to get into a three-month old movie because there is literally NOTHING else to do. This is also the only place I've ever lived (it's been nearly two years now), where I have not made ONE friend outside my job. People here do not talk to eachother. There are no real neighborhoods. The "neighborhoods" are so class stratified, that children and the elderly seem to be cut off from the working professionals. I have not seen one child playing in my neighborhood. Nor have I seen anyone over the age of 50. Everyone here in my hood are white, working professionals between the ages of 30-50...yawn. Most go to church and yoga and walk their dogs at the same times each day...yawn.
There are no children, no punks, no hippies, no elderly, no blacks, no people with really shiny eyes...sometimes living in this place, I feel like I'm on the Walking Dead.
I absolutely LOVE my job and so will try to make it one more year. I know I need to change my perspective of this place, but I truly don't know what do first, or how to change it.
When people from here ask me how I like Anchorage and I tell them, they immediately ask me, "Well, what do you like to do?"
Well, I don't like to do things with random groups of strangers (the much talked about "meet up groups" Anchoragites will tell you about). I like to have the option to hang with friends. I like to walk on the beach. I love swimming in the green Nehalem River. I like having BBQd salmon with my friends in Wheeler. I like going to the hot springs. I like yoga. I like hiking over Neahkanie mountain and never even thinking about bears! I like playing video poker sometimes and winning $100.00 on Divinchi Diamonds. I like taking road trips to different cities and states. I like buying a plane ticket to visit friends in Philly or Phoenix and paying much less than $500.00 round trip.
Anchorage, I do love to hate you. I don't know how to stop.
Do not hold it back, tell us how you REALLY feel.
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I have never hated a place more...
