Posted: 1/22/2011 9:41:30 AM EDT
| I might be offered a job in Anchorage. What are the pros and cons to living there? |
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From a non Alaskan that has been living near Anchorage the last couple years(minus a year in Afghanistan). I do not own or rent a home, so I won't speak of home prices/property tax.
Pros: 30 minute drive and you can see all the Alaskan sights you see on the Discovery channel––beautiful scenery Good shopping Decent prices on merchandise compared to the rest of Alaska Tons of shit to do from biking, skiing, ATV/Snowmachine riding, fishing, hunting, hiking, relaxing, whatever––-all right here or a short drive away Awesome 24 hour days during the summer when it isn't raining for 30+ straight days Cons: Parts of Anchorage are crowded and crime ridden Lots of homeless Motherfuckers have no clue how to drive here(and I'm originally from Mass) Streets are poorly laid out and have lots of traffic No place to shoot(there are 2 clubs, both expensive. One is run by range nazis, and the other is ridiculously crowded during peak times). There is a range on Fort Rich if you military. I take the 45 mile drive to go shooting elsewhere. Long winter Big giant deer things like to walk through your yard leaving big turd nuggets or across the highway slowing down traffic Big furry critters will dig through your trash or surprise the heck out of you when you walk to the car in the dark You'll have the typical Alaska issues as well. Lots of places won't ship here, or it is cost prohibitive to do so.––-take advantage of flat rate boxes and Amazon's free shipping Things are expensive, but not ridiculously so Ammo is where you'll take it up the ass. Regular gas is $3.46 and diesel is $3.69 closest to me right now––-it has gone up about 10 cents over the last week or so. I like it here so much I decided to stay for another 3 years and another trip to Afghanistan |
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100% agree on the piss poor ability of the drivers of Cheechakoville. Add to that the retarded city planning and road building and you get a mess. I have been through rush hour traffic in a half dozen major cities and none of them compare to the clusterfuck that is Anchorage.
I evacuated there a decade ago and it was one of the best things I ever did. |
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Quoted: From a non Alaskan that has been living near Anchorage the last couple years(minus a year in Afghanistan). I do not own or rent a home, so I won't speak of home prices/property tax. Pros: 30 minute drive and you can see all the Alaskan sights you see on the Discovery channel––beautiful scenery Good shopping Decent prices on merchandise compared to the rest of Alaska Tons of shit to do from biking, skiing, ATV/Snowmachine riding, fishing, hunting, hiking, relaxing, whatever––-all right here or a short drive away Awesome 24 hour days during the summer when it isn't raining for 30+ straight days Cons: Parts of Anchorage are crowded and crime ridden Lots of homeless Motherfuckers have no clue how to drive here(and I'm originally from Mass) Streets are poorly laid out and have lots of traffic No place to shoot(there are 2 clubs, both expensive. One is run by range nazis, and the other is ridiculously crowded during peak times). There is a range on Fort Rich if you military. I take the 45 mile drive to go shooting elsewhere. Long winter Big giant deer things like to walk through your yard leaving big turd nuggets or across the highway slowing down traffic Big furry critters will dig through your trash or surprise the heck out of you when you walk to the car in the dark You'll have the typical Alaska issues as well. Lots of places won't ship here, or it is cost prohibitive to do so.––-take advantage of flat rate boxes and Amazon's free shipping Things are expensive, but not ridiculously so Ammo is where you'll take it up the ass. Regular gas is $3.46 and diesel is $3.69 closest to me right now––-it has gone up about 10 cents over the last week or so. I like it here so much I decided to stay for another 3 years and another trip to Afghanistan Yes Anchorage is 30 minutes for Alaska in any direction. Housing is expensive. IIRC the median house price is in the neighborhood of 250-260k |
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Quoted:
Big giant deer things like to walk through your yard leaving big turd nuggets or across the highway slowing down traffic Quoting myself...did anyone see the chain reaction cow moose versus car on the Glenn today? Northbound Glenn between Turpin and Muldoon...Cow moose dead in the slow lane, rolled over Suburban(or similiar) in the median, then a 1/4 mile down another rolled vehicle and another car in the ditch. APD and Fire were still pulling people out of one of them. I'm hoping all are OK. |
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The weather fucking sucks. Summers used to be awesome but it fucking rains all summer now. I have lived here for my life. The summers used to compensate for 9 month winters but it isn't lately and Al Gore needs to explain why it it isn't getting warmer. Two things make Anchorage suck: 1. Traffic 2. Weather And you can't change them. |
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FWIW, traffic isn't really that bad. Yeah it's not great, but compared to other places I've lived in the country it's not a big deal. The roads themselves suck though, the winters are hard on the road surfaces. I've lived in areas where more people than what live in this state are trying to commute to a downtown area all at once, now that sucks.
This is probably not the best time to ask that question. Everyone's suffering from cabin fever and vitamin D deficiency and may not be in their right mind 
Ask again in the summer when the days are long a the fish are running 
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um yeah some things are not shippable through canada so their prices are sky high, ammo, primers, powder, and hot babes. there are shortages of all of those. the women situation can be fixed partially by the application of the local microbrews...  Its funny you say that. I saw plenty of hot babes up there in the fall of 2009. I doubt they were imported just for my benefit. 
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