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Retiring to Alaska?
TMMT

Posted on 10/18/2009 6:33:13 PM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour

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To: Age of Reason

I was the crime reporter for the Ketchikan Daily News, so I know what those statistics will tell you. The crime was terrible - often personal, almost always linked to alcohol and drugs. In Ketchikan, the crime rate in the Tlingit community was sad beyond words.

That still means you probably won’t be a victim of crime if you don’t drink, don’t go to the bars, don’t use drugs, and stay away from the endless party. And since I’ve actually seen the crimes and victims, I know that much of the crime is personal - friends fighting, domestic violence, family feuds. The crime rate is not the same as the way criminal behavior is expressed - and like I said, I know this because it used to be my job. There just isn’t the kind of random stranger-on-stranger crime you sometimes get in the lower 48.

It’s still a great place to live.


61 posted on 10/18/2009 8:59:50 PM PDT by redpoll
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To: Marysecretary
"Ohhhhh yes. Are you in Anchorage?"

No, I live in Wasilla. Are you thinking of coming up?

62 posted on 10/18/2009 9:16:09 PM PDT by redhead (The libs are SCARED TO DEATH, folks! :o))
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To: redpoll

What about burglary?

The statistics I posted for Ketchikan, for example, show it to be many times that of New York City.

I live alone, and I wouldn’t relish worrying whether my things will be there when I come home, especially if I’m away visiting friends and relatives in the lower 48.


63 posted on 10/18/2009 9:20:57 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: redpoll

Any insect borne diseases?

(The thing I hate most about the state I’ve decided on, is a small but rapidly rising incidence lyme disease and equine encephalitis.)

I love the outdoors—but something like that (lyme and eee are no joke—they’re much worse than most people realize) would take the fun out of it. I’d rather worry about very big bears.


64 posted on 10/18/2009 9:25:00 PM PDT by Age of Reason
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To: redpoll

And then there is Valdez. There is the anecdote about the phone call from an Alaskan to his relative in Valdez asking how’s the weather over there? “Clear and still” was the answer. “Clear” up to my neck and “still” snowing, that is.

Having lived here for over 30 winters, I can say that is no exaggeration. It’s not for nothing it’s called the snow capital of the US. Probably North America. Snow gets really deep here.


65 posted on 10/18/2009 9:25:03 PM PDT by sasportas
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To: redpoll
LOL! My gosh, were you following me around years ago?? I lived in Juneau/Douglas then Valdez, then Outside for a while, and back to AK five years ago. THIS IS HOME. I never felt right anywhere I lived outside. I'm so glad to be home I don't care how long the winters are. As long as my furnace runs and the electricity stays on, I'm a happy lady. Even a bad winter (like last year's December) is better than Minnesota's, anyway. Man, I was never in such a MISERABLE place in all my life in the winter. That's probably what got me thinking about coming home.

Alaska: HOME, SWEET HOME. I've been other places recently enough to know that this is where I have to be.

66 posted on 10/18/2009 9:26:13 PM PDT by redhead (The libs are SCARED TO DEATH, folks! :o))
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To: Age of Reason

You need to come up and experience it for yourself, then. Sounds like you have been listening to gossip. It’s not for weaklings, but it is a beautiful, challenging, and rewarding life.


67 posted on 10/18/2009 9:30:08 PM PDT by redhead (The libs are SCARED TO DEATH, folks! :o))
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To: sasportas
"And then there is Valdez. There is the anecdote about the phone call from an Alaskan to his relative in Valdez asking how’s the weather over there? “Clear and still” was the answer. “Clear” up to my neck and “still” snowing, that is."

LOLOLOL!!! Yep! Hubby plowed snow in Valdez for 18 years, while I shoveled it off the roof. We used to say, "If you like snow, you'll LOVE Valdez!" Fifty feet was the average in the early 80's for a winter. Any change yet?

68 posted on 10/18/2009 9:34:43 PM PDT by redhead (The libs are SCARED TO DEATH, folks! :o))
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To: redhead

50 feet? You must be talking about the winter of ‘89. We set the record that year. Most winters its around 30 feet average.


69 posted on 10/18/2009 9:38:52 PM PDT by sasportas
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To: redpoll

Thank you for that great personal “look” at the real Alaska. I hope the guy who originally asked (Magical Mysterious Tour, I think) at least gives it a try. We’re living in Charlotte, NC after nearly a lifetime of Florida living and island cruising. I like it here very much and the seasons are truly beautiful. Seems like something is always blooming. The mums and pansies in winter along with the Japanese cherry trees in January and February. The Bradford pear trees, which are all over the place, start blooming in March. Then everything starts back over again. Crape myrtles are STILL blooming in places but we haven’t had a frost yet. Could be this week.

I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your post about Alaska and do plan to one day go there except maybe only by cruise ship. Come visit Charlotte sometime, it’s called the “City of Trees” and is starting to be in full glory right now.


70 posted on 10/18/2009 10:04:20 PM PDT by boatbums (Pro-woman, pro-child, pro-life!)
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To: Age of Reason

>>>What about burglary?

The statistics I posted for Ketchikan, for example, show it to be many times that of New York City.

I live alone, and I wouldn’t relish worrying whether my things will be there when I come home, especially if I’m away visiting friends and relatives in the lower 48.<<<

There are 14,000 people in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. There are 8 million people in New York. I’ll bet I can go directly to the neighborhoods in Ketchikan where those 53 burglaries occurred, too. My uncle lives on 86th and Second Avenue in Manhattan, and he has never been burglarized - but go uptown 30 blocks and it’s a world of difference. Same in Ketchikan.

By the way, one of the years I was in Ketchikan there were eight murders - many times that of New York, too. All but one involved a family feud in Saxman, the Tlingit village south of town. One was a drunken domestic assault.

I hate to say this, but most of those crimes on that list took place in the Native community. Sad but true. The same is true in Fairbanks and Anchorage, too. Culture plays a part in these sorts of things. The sexual assault in the Native community is unbelievably high, and it is dealt with in the Native community with resignation. It would make you cry to see what I have seen.

On the other hand, I was never a victim of crime, ever, in Ketchikan, even though I was a young man and went down to the Marine Bar and the Arctic Bar more than once. Those who lived in Ketchikan in the 1980s will know what that means.

You might be amused by the personal fact that there was a place where I was almost murdered (in a robbery), my car was broken into multiple times, I was assaulted twice, and I was carjacked. That was in Salem, Oregon. It was the neighborhood I lived in that made all the difference. Alaska operates the same way.


71 posted on 10/18/2009 10:12:54 PM PDT by redpoll
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To: imfrmdixie

Asheville proper is moonbat.


72 posted on 10/19/2009 1:16:34 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

You’re here with me in Nashville aren’t you ?


73 posted on 10/19/2009 1:24:27 AM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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To: The Magical Mischief Tour

I really enjoyed living in Alaska for four years. It is a beautiful place and everyone should visit Denali and the south central coast sometime in their life.

I suspect we may get to live there again one day when family is different (aging In-Laws).

However, it would be a hard life as I would get old. That much of the year with ice and snow is tough getting around when you get up in years. Lots of slips and falls are tough on the elderly.

It can be a great place, but not an easy place.

Also be aware that there are many great hard-working conservatives, there are many from the West coast that promote the liberal agenda as well. It is an interesting mix of hunters and protect the wildlife at all costs.

A mix of those that want to develop the resources and those that believe 100 million acres of parks and wildlife refuges are not enough.


74 posted on 10/19/2009 6:44:07 AM PDT by thackney (klife is fragile, handle with prayer)
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To: redhead

No, I’ve been there twice but now am on dialysis three days a week and I hate to travel. IF I get a kidney and could find someone to go with me, I’d give it a lot of consideration.


75 posted on 10/19/2009 7:48:13 AM PDT by Marysecretary (GOD IS STILL IN CONTROL!)
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To: fieldmarshaldj

You’re absolutely right about that! The “vortexes in the mountains” have drawn them by kajillions but it doesn’t take away from the beauty of the area and the “normal” folks who also live there.


76 posted on 10/19/2009 10:39:03 AM PDT by imfrmdixie
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To: redpoll

“Alaska is the world’s biggest small town”

How true that is! I met people I had known somewhere in the lower 48 quite frequently.


77 posted on 10/19/2009 10:42:41 AM PDT by imfrmdixie
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To: imfrmdixie

Last time my parents went through there recently, my mother got panicky when she was downtown because of all the filthy hippies looking like homeless people all milling about.


78 posted on 10/19/2009 6:17:16 PM PDT by fieldmarshaldj (~"This is what happens when you find a stranger in the Alps !"~~)
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