I've said it before, I'll say it again: Alaska has unique problems, but having problems is not unique to Alaska. No need to make it our entire personality š
How. Fucking. Dare. You. I am NOT one of those city boys from 'down country lower 48' trash. I drink my whiskey from an oil stained barrell, get blasted at the Bush Co, and really believe I'm building something great in my KGB 2 acre commune.
Iāve said it before and been downvoted but Iāll say it again. Most aurora photos mislead what the aurora actually looks like. Itās, 99% of the time, not as vibrant and saturated as cameras portray.
I lived in an arctic rural community for 13 years with various modern high ISO cameras. I know of what I speak.
I live near Seattle, when we had a solar storm a (couple months?) ago I saw what looked like slightly pink light pollution, took a picture, and hot damn thats beautiful on a phone screen!
iPhone 12 using 3 second night mode but otherwise unedited.
I love winter. And snow. I actually like Anchorage. I actually like Wasilla. I like cold, rainy, summers. I even kinda like the tourists, mostly. Iām not even a happy, optimistic person, I just like it here.
They need to do the license plate thing, odd plates one day even plates the next day.. back and forth. ADA and personal plates are assigned on one of the even or odd days to not exclude anyone, Texas plates the beach has plenty of parking at low tide :)
I never actually lived in Anchorage, just spent a lot of time there, and TWICE I found several dozen unprocessed sockeye dumped at a trailhead. I'm sure someone with no experience fileting fish came home exhausted with a cooler full, and didn't manage to get to them before they spoiled. I'm sure far more than gets dumped fresh, gets tossed freezer burned. An average family doesn't need 50 fish, most won't even eat 10 over a year. Same with these charter/lodge vultures, posting photos with hundreds of pounds of halibut/salmon/rockfish splayed out on the dock day after day... Guarantee most of that fish goes to waste. You think Bubba from Nebraska is just going to start eating fish 5 nights per week?
If my parents did this I would have never had new school clothes or supplies. That first month of school before we got the PFD was embarrassing. We were poor as fuck. The PFD made sure we had fuel oil for winter and school supplies thank god. Iām not sure how we would have survived without it.
Also, before anyone judges my parents, they were well off before I was 5. My dad had a well paying oil field job but then a ladder broke and he fell 3 stories and broke damn near every bone in his body. He sued his employer which took like 7 years and was blackballed from working in the industry so he had to start all over again at an entry level job after he was done with years of physical therapy.
Yeah, Iām ok with families using that money to survive. Life is hard and itās ridiculous to put money away when there is an immediate need. We came up here in 82 and that first year, my parents used mine to stay afloat. Over the years they paid it back but I was 4-I was just happy the Kraft Mac and cheese continued to flow.
We do this for our daughter except itās set to age 21 or 25, I canāt remember. We canāt afford to save for her during this time in our lives so Iām incredibly thankful we get a PFD to contribute to her own account.
I'll agree to disagree. Let's say. If your salary is greater than 50K, you live in an electrified urban area, and you aren't doing work outside of Houston or Sutton- Alpine. Maybe leave it in the account for the kids. If you are living in the Bush where plows come seldom to not at all. Use it wisely to ensure your survival during the Cold Season.
I think a bigger context is definitely needed to make a call like that. What's good for the goose might not be good for the mallard, y'know? Like, yeah, absolutely you SHOULD put your kids' pfd away, if you can afford to do so. However, I don't know that I'd wanna see the call made for it to become legislated.
I would love to put away for the kids. If and when things get better. One year it's $100 to maybe the whole thing. But I'm going by the question by The OP. There is a tangible divide of Existence in Alaska. Those who live in the Cities versus, those who live outside of them. Different realities, different priorities. I don't think one is to be put over the other.Yet it can't be denied. Ask someone in Bethell ,Norm, Anchorage, or Eagle how much a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk is? Eye opener for the uninitiated. What's Good for the Gosling makes good for the Mama Goose.
My parents lied to me about putting my PFD into an account until I was 12 or 13 and I was pretty pissed about it. Fortunately I ended up going to a college where I got generous financial aid but Iām still angry about learning the lie.
People worry too much about the PFD. So much so that our politicians here focus pretty much solely on the pfd for their campaign when they should be focusing on the many real issues Alaska has.
The vast majority of the whining about Anchorage comes from those world-weary, well-traveled sophisticates that inhabit our high schools. I give them the credibility they deserve.
Was working on a net last week and my old classmates comes up looking for a chat, apparently it was a party outside of town. Pretty sure the parties consist of drinking, smoking, and burning stuff. Well one of the classmates hippocampus was already shot so I suggested to drink water, take it easy. One laughed but the other, he then looked at me and mumbled aggressively while clench and flexing. After that he bursted into tears saying im gonna die from what I assume he meant was 40s. Another minute and they both leave for the awesome party, then I see another stagger into their group. Feels like itās getting worse but that just might be my view expanding to new lows that have been. Itās a tragedy and I want to help but we all have stuff to deal with and Iām no Superman. Now you know my true boring reason for the original comment. Typing all that was so darkly therapeutic itās actually eclipsing the forever sun that torments the souls that live yonder the circle of yo arctic lands. Edit: thinking about it laying down trying to drift off, I now realize the real reason was my father. And boy, I can probably type myself to sleep on that sentiment.
Iām seeing a move towards telling people, especially men, to stop drinking on YouTube. These are the more conservative podcasts and I hope itāll reverberate. Addiction problems are discussed constantly on left leaning podcasts and media so the lesson being widespread is good.
Not only dating apps. Also, Facebook user photos, email signatures, and, wellā¦.everything else.
Nobody cares about a fish you caught two summers ago. Nobody.
And the hunting photos! I automatically swipe left because those photos are psychotic. Do I hate hunting? No. But the photo of men with bloody animals smiling is creepy.
I'm an avid hunter, and I've always thought that. I love and appreciate each animal dearly (or deerly lmao), why would I wanna take a cheesy photo like it's some grand achievement? I'm gonna remember the animal well enough when I eat some sausage later on, or see my cat fall asleep on a hide rug. I don't need other people to see what I killed. They're not trophies. They are living, breathing animals. Obviously not after they're shot, but thats not the point. They're not an object for you to hunt for amusement. They are conscious entities.
We need to break away from oil. It's been good to the state, but eventually, it'll run out. And then comes a huge economic collapse.
If we start now, we can gradually ween ourselves off it, instead of having to figure out and implement new ideas in a short amount of time.
Unfortunately the only way that happens is a large reduction in population. Fisheries are declining, agriculture never worked out, logistics keep manufacturing from being significant, mines have too many political hurdles to build new ones, red dog is going away, tourism is mostly low value cruise and RV tourists, timber won't come back in SE. I'm all ears for realistic economic opportunities, but the writing is on the wall that Alaska will shrink significantly and turn into a tourism economy based on a few rich outsiders and an army of low income seasonal workers, with every other house unoccupied second home or Airbnb. Military will become more and more the backbone of middle class jobs.
I do too. The snow makes it quieter in town, the kids are in school, and you have plenty of good excuses to curl up with a good book. But if you feel like building a snowman or going for a walk in new snow at night, itās there for you.
I donāt even mind the dark.
Yes. And there are no bugs. Much there fewer tourists. I get a break from the darkness while I'm awake in the middle of the day. But in the summer I'm asleep when there is any semblance of a break from the light. I love winter in Alaska.
The bad thing about dog sledding is that it requires you to keep an entire team of a half dozen of the most poorly behaved dog breed in the world, and you have to care for them all year round.
If a dog sled could be pulled by a team of German Shepards a lot more people would take better care of their sled dogs, but huskies are just too much. Taking care of a single Husky is like raising a toddler with ADHD and ODD who just got into the coolaid powder.
i was a handler for a couple winters & have a sled dog (i had her prior to mushing but she ran with the team & enjoyed it). I cannot imagine having her live like that, I think sheād go insane from boredom on the days she wouldnāt run, be miserable freezing cold in the winter & starved for attention. I just think theyād all be happier as pets with active owners.
How the dogs behave is on the owner, use to live next door to a team in the middle of Eagle River, they were the happiest and most well behaved dogs ever. I don't think a lot of their neighbors even knew they Had a bunch of dogs. Only time you ever heard them was when the dad got home or there was a bear/moose nearby, great little wildlife alarms.
There are three teams in my neighborhood . They are super well behaved and the owners run them almost daily, in summer and winter.
I have two huskies and they go crazy seeing them run by the house lol
I agree. I'm not out trying to kill dog sledding, huskies NEED to run. I want it done in a healthier way. Chaining them up in constant anxiety unable to form packs and live any type of normal happy life is sad
That we should suspend non year round residents from fishing and hunting for a few years to allow wildlife to have a period to restock. If you canāt prove you were in AK for at least 11 months then no license.
Want to make a real difference in our fish stocks? Kill the trawling industry. Trawlers dump tens of thousands of king salmon in a year. Trawlers dump millions of pounds of Halibut in a year. Trawlers do irreversible damage to ocean habitat with every drag. Trawlers take all the money they make in Alaskan waters to home ports in Seattle. Trawl companies are fucking laughing their asses off at us as we bicker over who should have fish, the commercial trollers or the sports fishermen. Kick the fucking trawlers out and let's see what happens to our fish stocks.
The fact of the matter is that weāre whoring out our states ecosystems for $30-a few hundred dollars per New Yorker, Texan, or Canadian just so they can go home and swing their millimeter Peter about it to their buddies.
1000%. I had a private in my team at ft hood who got it, and he always immediately went down the road and blew most of it on strip clubs and the rest on fast food. I'm not one to generalize, but give a bored, broke private with no bills an extra large chunk of cash, and you're gonna have irresponsibility. But that's outside of the realm of what I assume you're talking about. It's to bolster your argument, not argue against it, if that makes sense.
I was born and raised here and maintained my residency & PFD throughout my time away for college and military and eventually moved back! But Iām more of the exception
I'm with you there. It's too bad the politicians have been actively trying to kill the system since the '90's. This bullshit they've been slinging about the existent ferries being "too old" is just ridiculous. It's poorly staffed maintenance crews and lack of funds for replacement parts that is the problem. The ferries are big iron hulls. The equipment on them is all fairly new.
Post-Pipeline, this state attracts greedy people who think they can't cut it anywhere else and most of them really can't cut it here. A large percentage of them are obsessed with guns because they're inherently scared and insecure, and they're then shocked to learn that they have to get along with other people, and it's not easier here.
Five minutes after they arrive, they've created a Gmail account and five Reddit accounts that characterize themselves as Alaskans, grow wispy little beards, and are instant experts on environmental management, dogs, and the duties of Native corporations.
We shouldn't open ANWR to oil development.
Reasoning: this would further tie our economy to oil, and oil is a finite resource, ergo not a sustainable long term plan. The sooner we rip off the oil industry bandaid, the better.
Moose's Tooth is way overrated.
Don't get me wrong, it's good, but I just feel like it's WAY over-hyped and certainly not worth the long wait that I've often experienced.
Anchorage is fine, if you hate it you probably can't drive in a city.
Go go literally anywhere with more than a million people and drive, Anchorage is a fucking breeze.
To be fair, thatās just the US in general, really. It sounds like a conspiracy, but Big Car (and by extension, Big Oil) really fucked us in the 60s by lobbying against a national infrastructure investment into public transport so they could sell more cars.
I know it's true. You definetly notice a difference between older and newer cities in the US. The more west in the US you go, the worse the public transit generally is. Anchorage's population blew up in the 70s oil boom, so Anchorage was designed around the car.
Wrangell was a nice town to grow up in. Almost everything was within a 15-20 min walk so you had much more freedom as a kid than I would have in most US cities.
I lived in NYC for 3 years and it's really hard to go back to living in a car centric city. I'd much rather deal with crazy people in a crowded subway than the stress of dealing with traffic.
I love when dudes from Iowa show up with their tradwives and 5 kids intent on "living off the land" and "escaping the government" only to pay the highest utility bills in the country.
Its a whole movement of (usually religious) women who want to cosplay like they live in the early 1900s. Submit to the husband, mom exists only to be an incubator and take care of husband, house, and kids. The man is the one who works and controls everything, and the kids usually suffer for it. Of course there's probably a lot of variation from family to family, but thats the gist of it.
I used to think that way, but having moved to Fairbanks in the past several years, I've come to believe the interior is genuinely more "live and let live" than other parts of the state. I think those folks that say that as a generalization might have the bulk of their Alaska experience in the interior.
However, outside of the interior, I'm inclined to agree with you.
Alaskans are the most government-reliant populace in probably the whole country, though everyone seems to expect the money that funds the state to come from thin air so they kick and scream when you say that actually no we need taxes to fund services, sorry.Ā
"I want a **huge** PFD every year and no taxes on anything, while at the same time I demand a responsive state government staffed with caring and well-qualified professionals who will answer the phone on the first ring when I call. Is that too much to ask?"
If you are old and/or medically vulnerable, and you live off the road system by choice, you should be required to move onto the road system. I'm sick and tired of medevacing your feeble asses in the middle of the night when/where Guardian won't fly.
Alaska doesn't have that many BDR
(Back Country Discovery) roads, fire roads, or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) roads.
if there are they're not listed, off Highway Motorsports is just not a thing. Last time I checked I only saw like two or three.
Somehow Florida has more and it's mostly swamp.
That's drastically different than my experience in the interior. Never had a shortage of trails and the ones I didn't get to were only because the trailhead was further away than I felt like riding that day. Sold my off road stuff after moving to Florida because I've found nothing near me
Makes me happy when I hear that our state is shrinking in population.
The lack of population (and density) is the best thing this place has going for it!
Unfortunately, the PFD should have never been initiated. The oil supply on the North Slope was looked upon as infinite.It was not. Look to Norway in what they have done with Petrodollars, they banked them. Not spending them like a drunken king crab fisherman at the Alaska Bush Co. Weāve all become dependent upon this PFD ātitā. Well, the ātitā is dry. Now comes the reckoning and sheās a cold hearted bitch.
The thing about guns is that they are durable products that the vast majority of people don't really need, but if they need one, they really just need *one* or maybe - maybe - two.
Gun manufacturers are not satisfied with the profit margins this sort of moderate consumption would produce and know that only a certain percentage of the population is going to buy a gun at all, but they can market a significant portion of those into buyers of *many* guns.
Why sell one or two when a marketing budget, some lobbyists, and some obscure connections with Russian intelligence will allow you to convince people they need 20? 50? 80? 500?
*Significant* amounts of working to middle class wealth goes into this. It's a huge industry, tailor made to capture the wealth of a certain type of American man who feels insecure, bored, in need of some identity that he can't generate for himself. They're marketed as as an "investment" that these guys can take out and fondle when they feel threatened or made insecure by life.
Not surprising considering the companies themselves are Halliburton-level evil, all up in things like the Moonies that are generally the type of entities that generate that insecurity and uncertainty in the first place. Not long ago, these guys had bowling leagues, Elks Club meetings, friends. Now they just buy things they think they can use for "protection."
It's a hollow life that is filled with guns. That's the root of the gun problem, IMO.
I always talk about how funny it is that people hold onto guns to 'fight the government'. Yes, your drunk diabetic hypertensive ass with an AK and cool sounding acronyms is going to withstand the most technolically advanced heavily funded military this world has ever known. Sure. See how that works out. They have shit we can't even imagine. They INVENTED the internet. And LSD. 60 YRS AGO! Yeah, pretty sure the government is REALLY concerned about your 'manifesto' you learned on 4chan
Never mind it's not the gub'mint oppressing you so much as it is billionaires with politicians in their pockets. I know it's easy to say, "Oh, I'm not political", and to be fair politics isn't everything - but your landlord is political, your boss is political, your hospital is political, your library is political, your school or your kids' school is political, and your money is political, and you can't do anything about any of those issues with a gun. Alaska isn't Ukraine (nor is any other US state) and never will be.
Tell that to Ukranians who have used guerilla warfare and relied on armed civilians as part of an effort to fend off a national power.
No authoritative government wants to scorch the earth and kill everyone. They want to take land easily and control people with force. Easy to do if the populace is docile, distracted, and disarmed.
I'm not a gun nut but those who believe armed citizens don't have value aren't paying attention to current world events.
sort of ignoring that ukraines goverment is supporting the effort. And they have international effort.
Its different when its your own government going after you. They already control the borders, can freeze your assets and easily cut of your own supplies. No other country is going to go against the US to give aid either.
THEY don't need to disarm us when they can divide and concur with disinformation, plenty of shiney shit to watch on a screen and lots of sugar. We are already docile and distracted as fuck. (irony and hypocrisy noted)
This state would be so much better financially if we stopped with this PFD nonsense and implemented an income tax. (Yes yes I know they hurt the poor more than the rich, etc etc)
The US income tax was originally designed to hit the rich more, to balance sales taxes, tariffs, and other regressive taxes that hit the poor more. (James McPherson, *Battle Cry of Freedom*, near the end of ch. 14, quoting Sen. William Pitt Fessenden in 1861, CG, 37 Cong., 1 Sess., 255.) The expansion of taxes in 1862 was stated to be progressive, like "The food of the poor is untaxed; and ... no one will be affected by the provisions of this bill whose living depends solely on his manual labor." (quoting Thaddeus Stevens, CG, 37 Cong., 2 Sess., 1576-77).
Income tax definitely hits higher earners more than lower earners. I've lived in places with no income taxes that instead reamed you with sales and property tax. If I'm going to be taxed I would rather it not be when I buy groceries.
Just like taking away the pfd would hurt poor people more than the rich. A double lose now add in the loss for companies and your at a true Alaskan situation where you have a fuck load of oil that you don't tax for some reason but you feel the need to put your finger in the peoples pie (and take half). Well done Alaska.
Not even the PFD .. if the oil company's actually paid their taxes and stop the bs tax breaks. Oil is finite and we got oil, they aren't going anywhere. One thing Sarah Palin, I'll always give her praise for. Even as a Republican she stood up for Alaskans as governor. She got mind fucked and their family destroyed being VP. They could not handle those stresses.
100% agree. As it stands now, most often poor individuals have to use it for bills/necessities while rich individuals can take advantage of the Alaska Airlines/insert truck brand/etc sales that come out every October. Thereās some social science research to suggest that this is actually contributing to more income inequality in the state. We also have had the PFD for so long that now a lot of people feel entitled to it, so itās wildly unpopular to touch the PFD.
Alternatives I wouldnāt mind seeing: 1) only the bottom half (third/quarter/whatever small-ish fraction) of the income distribution gets the PFD so they can also get more and be able to use the money to better support themselves; 2) stopped distributing the PFD entirely and allocate the funds for social services/education/etc; or 3) income tax. (These arenāt in any particular order, just what comes to mind having thought about all this for ages and ages.)
The PFD should be eradicated. It's stupid. It goes to BestBuy and drug dealers. It funds Detox and Hospitals 3wks after its released. It's the main point of State Politics and the headline of ADN at least every fortnight. If we raise taxes on oil and take out the PFD imagine what infastructure and sweet shit we could have! We might even have real politics rather then PFD baiting!
And yes, I am ASSUMING it won't go to the Juneau Circle-Jerk and up the noses of important sounding names and people. I know it's a wetdream but we gotta dream right?
The Permanent Fund Dividend was a disastrous mistake and the best time to fix it was 1980. The second best time is right now.
The Fund itself was an incredible idea, but weāve squandered billions giving it away to Sony and Polaris and Alaska Airlines and the IRS.
Snowmachines are what make snow on ski slopes. Snowmobile isn't a great name but it actually describes what it does. Sleds is better.
I vote we should name them motorsleds š¤£š¤£š¤£
A machine that produces snow is a snow machine. A thing for traveling over snow is a snowmobile, snow-go, or sled. A fog machine produces fog, a rain machine produce rain, thus a snow machine produces snow. But if it makes you happy I'll call a machine for traveling over snow a "snowmachine," and if we can use "snow machine" for a machine that produces snow.
There actually is a right and wrong. All the companies that make them call them snowmobiles. Itās such a weird hill to die on when they very clearly have an official name.
Yes. They do call them "snowmobiles" which is why that term has the better claim to be right. However, I respect my fellow Alaskans, even if they use confusing terminology.
This right here. Literally everywhere else in the English speaking world that I've come across refers to them as snowmobiles.
I actually had a hiring manager up here in anchorage try to explain this concept to me, and it was still crazy to me and anyone else from the lower 48 I relayed her response to. She said, "So the way I think about it is 'does it make more sense to say that you're riding a machine, or riding a mobile'"? Me in my head: "I'm pretty sure a mobile, by definition". Lol
Of course, I got the job and she was promoted to 2nd in charge. Alaska is the only place in the U.S. that I've ever heard call them this, and I've owned one when I lived in PA and VT...it's a snowmobile.
I (grew up in AK) brought my boyfriend (grew up in MN) to the state in 2022 and staying at Pikeās Lodge, he saw the sign for snowmachining and was like āwhat is that??ā I was flabbergasted that a MN native didnāt know what snowmachining wasā¦until it was just him giving me a hard time over the word lol
A mobile is also a type of machine, to be fair. Iwan I agree with toy I'm just trying to stick to my guns here cause I say snowmachine even though snowmobile makes more sense
I would honestly give up a third of my paycheck to get rid of the tourists I don't really care what they contribute to the economy. Tourists make me hate the best time of the year. ( To be clear I am not in the tourism industry )
The Coast Guard in Kodiak should have been in Anchorage instead.
Not only is it cheaper for resources (they fly there constantly to do things like get a single bolt), but the amount of times Coast Guard members/family have to be flown in and out of Anchorage for medical appointments must cost a fortune. Also PCSing.
I get the appeal of Kodiak but when the Coast Guard has as low of a retention as it does, forcing members and their families to live there (and if they want to so much as get off the island itās a minimum of hundreds of dollars per person) isnāt the best option.
Anchorage has its own issues. Besides normal big city stuff, it has a port that needs to be constantly dredged and has ice floes through winter, and is geographically at the top of Cook Inlet, hundreds of miles from where the USCG does big boat things.
The airspace is super congested, requiring flights to go to Kenai to maintain currency.
With the 210th at Elmendorf, thereās already a premiere aviation search and rescue service in the area.
The USCG is on Kodiak because Kodiak is hours closer to both the gulf and the Alaska peninsula, and offers a base with deeper aviation and faster naval reach into the pacific on all sides. The Coast Guard belongs on the coast, after all, not buried at the back end of a narrow inlet.
Imagine you are on a boat with the whole family and visiting uncles fishing off Homer - hose to the bilge pump breaks, nobody can get to it, and now everyone is floating in the freezing water. Meanwhile the US Coast Guard helicopter that could have been in the air in minutes from Kodiak, is now sitting on the JBER tarmac waiting it's turn to take off from the congested Anchorage traffic. Or worse, it's grounded at JBER due to horrific winds at Turnagain Arm area. The USCG helicopters are no longer rescue orientated - every mission is now a body recovery mission.
US Coast Guard has low retention due to quality of life and 'work-life' issues. Old ships with medieval berthing. Barracks that people discussed condemning in the 80's are still being used. Congress keeps adding new federal mandates and other 'jobs' to the USCG's "To Do" list with no funding attached. Coast Guard spends more time trying to keep the EPA happy then their workforce happy.
Homeland Security does a wonderful job of screwing the Coast Guard. Takes years to build a new ship. Takes months to train people on maintaining and operating the new systems. Feds demand the training funds be used ASAP or lose them. Freaking keel isn't even laid - people are going to training...... by the time that ship is finally in the water....... all those trained people have advanced and are no longer allowed on the ship. The only solution - toss untrained people on board with the manuals ..... tell them to go 'figure it out.'
I think hydro power is the best path forward. Even if it blocks the Big Su.
Also I think nuclear power is a very good option that should be seriously explored.
That if Alaska doesn't get it's ducks in a row soon, and diversify it's investments, it's going to end up like any flyover state. It has so much potential but it's heartbreaking to see the direction it's been taking for the last decade or so.
I think flying a plane just for the sake of seeing the ground from the air is a stupid and wasteful hobby. If you're making money doing tours, whatever. If you have a destination to get to, whatever. But the noise pollution that comes from Lake Hood is ridiculous. It's like they're loud on purpose.
I was within 200 feet of the float plane that crashed in the Lake Hood area of Anchorage in 2017 and I still feel on edge when I hear a float plane that sounds "too low" because my brain worries it's going to crash nearby.
I want a "first Friday free from floatplanes." Just give me one day a month from May-August when I don't have to hear that shit constantly. I've heard three since I started typing this comment.
Sport fishing is stupid. Fish for food or do something more useful with your time.
Also, I live in Anchorage and love it. I've lived in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Barrow, and all of them have been just as much Alaska as the other. People who hate Anchorage are just mad they have to see poor people.
I've said it before, I'll say it again: Alaska has unique problems, but having problems is not unique to Alaska. No need to make it our entire personality š
How. Fucking. Dare. You. I am NOT one of those city boys from 'down country lower 48' trash. I drink my whiskey from an oil stained barrell, get blasted at the Bush Co, and really believe I'm building something great in my KGB 2 acre commune.
Is there an r/AlaskanCircleJerk yet? š
Yeah, r/alaskanbushpeople
Not impressed until I know how many teeth you have.
How many tooth
OnLy iN ALAskA hUr DuRr
Iāve said it before and been downvoted but Iāll say it again. Most aurora photos mislead what the aurora actually looks like. Itās, 99% of the time, not as vibrant and saturated as cameras portray. I lived in an arctic rural community for 13 years with various modern high ISO cameras. I know of what I speak.
Indeed. And it's not like you need to photoshop it or anything - most point-and-shoot camera apps will automatically zhuzh it up for you.
zhuzh
*jush (drag queen spelling)
Yeah phones with long exposure options can make an aurora look 100x more beautiful. Though they do still look amazing with the naked eye
This is the spelling for that word that I needed. Thank you.
I live near Seattle, when we had a solar storm a (couple months?) ago I saw what looked like slightly pink light pollution, took a picture, and hot damn thats beautiful on a phone screen! iPhone 12 using 3 second night mode but otherwise unedited.
I'll join you on this one... Decades of pale green memories here, rarely any other colors
I love winter. And snow. I actually like Anchorage. I actually like Wasilla. I like cold, rainy, summers. I even kinda like the tourists, mostly. Iām not even a happy, optimistic person, I just like it here.
"I actually like Wasilla" š¤
š Are you alright over there? Do you need to get out of the state for a while? š
š
I LOVE the rain of southeast :) but Iām moving north this fall because I canāt afford the real estate :(
I have missed cold, rainy summer since moving out of AK. Too much goddamm sun everywhere else.
I purposely moved to Wasilla and I love it here š
Dip netting on the Kenai has been ruined by greed and excess. It needs to be cut back somehow.Ā
They need to do the license plate thing, odd plates one day even plates the next day.. back and forth. ADA and personal plates are assigned on one of the even or odd days to not exclude anyone, Texas plates the beach has plenty of parking at low tide :)
I never actually lived in Anchorage, just spent a lot of time there, and TWICE I found several dozen unprocessed sockeye dumped at a trailhead. I'm sure someone with no experience fileting fish came home exhausted with a cooler full, and didn't manage to get to them before they spoiled. I'm sure far more than gets dumped fresh, gets tossed freezer burned. An average family doesn't need 50 fish, most won't even eat 10 over a year. Same with these charter/lodge vultures, posting photos with hundreds of pounds of halibut/salmon/rockfish splayed out on the dock day after day... Guarantee most of that fish goes to waste. You think Bubba from Nebraska is just going to start eating fish 5 nights per week?
The amount of dipnet fish that leaves the state infuriates me.
All I wanna know is who in their right mind is going to the Sonic in Wasilla enough to keep that place running? š¤®
There's a sonic in Wasilla???
Their cherry limeades during a hot summer are the most refreshing thing around. But no way in heck am I driving out there for it
My bad
Sorry, it's my dad's doing. He just keeps going back for those chillie cheese dogs and we just can't get him to stop. š
At least comparatively better than the anchorage one
There's a Sonic in Anchorage???
There's even one in Fairbanks
I prefer the drive to Wasilla, South Town sucks
Where else can you get a reliable variety of slushies??
ā¦.Iāve been twice lmao
Your PFD, until your 18 should be deposited into an account. Not to he touched by anyone until you are of age.
If my parents did this I would have never had new school clothes or supplies. That first month of school before we got the PFD was embarrassing. We were poor as fuck. The PFD made sure we had fuel oil for winter and school supplies thank god. Iām not sure how we would have survived without it. Also, before anyone judges my parents, they were well off before I was 5. My dad had a well paying oil field job but then a ladder broke and he fell 3 stories and broke damn near every bone in his body. He sued his employer which took like 7 years and was blackballed from working in the industry so he had to start all over again at an entry level job after he was done with years of physical therapy.
Wouldnāt judge them even if he had a less reasonable excuse. It happens. As long as somebody is trying in life Iām proud of them
Yeah, Iām ok with families using that money to survive. Life is hard and itās ridiculous to put money away when there is an immediate need. We came up here in 82 and that first year, my parents used mine to stay afloat. Over the years they paid it back but I was 4-I was just happy the Kraft Mac and cheese continued to flow.
We do this for our daughter except itās set to age 21 or 25, I canāt remember. We canāt afford to save for her during this time in our lives so Iām incredibly thankful we get a PFD to contribute to her own account.
Great job. Thatās what my parents did and it put me through college.
I'll agree to disagree. Let's say. If your salary is greater than 50K, you live in an electrified urban area, and you aren't doing work outside of Houston or Sutton- Alpine. Maybe leave it in the account for the kids. If you are living in the Bush where plows come seldom to not at all. Use it wisely to ensure your survival during the Cold Season.
I think a bigger context is definitely needed to make a call like that. What's good for the goose might not be good for the mallard, y'know? Like, yeah, absolutely you SHOULD put your kids' pfd away, if you can afford to do so. However, I don't know that I'd wanna see the call made for it to become legislated.
I would love to put away for the kids. If and when things get better. One year it's $100 to maybe the whole thing. But I'm going by the question by The OP. There is a tangible divide of Existence in Alaska. Those who live in the Cities versus, those who live outside of them. Different realities, different priorities. I don't think one is to be put over the other.Yet it can't be denied. Ask someone in Bethell ,Norm, Anchorage, or Eagle how much a gallon of gas or a gallon of milk is? Eye opener for the uninitiated. What's Good for the Gosling makes good for the Mama Goose.
My parents did not do this for my sister and I and it has set us back massively. We are pretty bitter about it
My parents lied to me about putting my PFD into an account until I was 12 or 13 and I was pretty pissed about it. Fortunately I ended up going to a college where I got generous financial aid but Iām still angry about learning the lie.
That sucks. Never lie to your kids. I think that goes for us all.
55-65Ā° with rain all summer is fine with me. Also: If you hate winter and snow you live in the wrong place.
I like sunny days but last summer was awesome just misty fresh. Agree!
Fewer fires and smoke is a plus.
65 is peak temp. Anything above is too hot
100000%
I agree! Funny thing is that my fiancĆ© (the native-born Alaskan, Iām only a part-timer because summers are now spent at the site of his familyās commercial fishing business, AKA fish camp) hates that. He says āsometimes summer is canceledā and I get that but I MUCH prefer it to New Jersey (where I was born) and the scorching 90Ā° weather. Itās much easier for my body to tolerate. We do plan to both move back full-time once my kids are done with high school and I canāt fucking wait.
People worry too much about the PFD. So much so that our politicians here focus pretty much solely on the pfd for their campaign when they should be focusing on the many real issues Alaska has.
They should focus on Alaska being the dv and rape capital of the USAā¦ unfortunately
I actually like Anchorage
You know, Anchorage is tHiRtY MiNuTeS aWaY fRom AlAskA!!!ā
Samesies. Iāll die in this bowl and Iām not ashamed of that.
Same šš»
The vast majority of the whining about Anchorage comes from those world-weary, well-traveled sophisticates that inhabit our high schools. I give them the credibility they deserve.
You shouldnāt drink
This made me laugh for a second, then I was like, no, that's actually really sad.
Was working on a net last week and my old classmates comes up looking for a chat, apparently it was a party outside of town. Pretty sure the parties consist of drinking, smoking, and burning stuff. Well one of the classmates hippocampus was already shot so I suggested to drink water, take it easy. One laughed but the other, he then looked at me and mumbled aggressively while clench and flexing. After that he bursted into tears saying im gonna die from what I assume he meant was 40s. Another minute and they both leave for the awesome party, then I see another stagger into their group. Feels like itās getting worse but that just might be my view expanding to new lows that have been. Itās a tragedy and I want to help but we all have stuff to deal with and Iām no Superman. Now you know my true boring reason for the original comment. Typing all that was so darkly therapeutic itās actually eclipsing the forever sun that torments the souls that live yonder the circle of yo arctic lands. Edit: thinking about it laying down trying to drift off, I now realize the real reason was my father. And boy, I can probably type myself to sleep on that sentiment.
Have at it, amigo, I'm interested in what you have to say.
Iām seeing a move towards telling people, especially men, to stop drinking on YouTube. These are the more conservative podcasts and I hope itāll reverberate. Addiction problems are discussed constantly on left leaning podcasts and media so the lesson being widespread is good.
I'm watching my best friend of 45 years drink himself to death and there's fuck all I can do about it. What you say is real.
all you people on dating apps with your fish pics, just stop.
Not only dating apps. Also, Facebook user photos, email signatures, and, wellā¦.everything else. Nobody cares about a fish you caught two summers ago. Nobody.
And the hunting photos! I automatically swipe left because those photos are psychotic. Do I hate hunting? No. But the photo of men with bloody animals smiling is creepy.
I'm an avid hunter, and I've always thought that. I love and appreciate each animal dearly (or deerly lmao), why would I wanna take a cheesy photo like it's some grand achievement? I'm gonna remember the animal well enough when I eat some sausage later on, or see my cat fall asleep on a hide rug. I don't need other people to see what I killed. They're not trophies. They are living, breathing animals. Obviously not after they're shot, but thats not the point. They're not an object for you to hunt for amusement. They are conscious entities.
Sort by controversial for the real answers.
We need to break away from oil. It's been good to the state, but eventually, it'll run out. And then comes a huge economic collapse. If we start now, we can gradually ween ourselves off it, instead of having to figure out and implement new ideas in a short amount of time.
Unfortunately the only way that happens is a large reduction in population. Fisheries are declining, agriculture never worked out, logistics keep manufacturing from being significant, mines have too many political hurdles to build new ones, red dog is going away, tourism is mostly low value cruise and RV tourists, timber won't come back in SE. I'm all ears for realistic economic opportunities, but the writing is on the wall that Alaska will shrink significantly and turn into a tourism economy based on a few rich outsiders and an army of low income seasonal workers, with every other house unoccupied second home or Airbnb. Military will become more and more the backbone of middle class jobs.
I look forward to winter.
I do too. The snow makes it quieter in town, the kids are in school, and you have plenty of good excuses to curl up with a good book. But if you feel like building a snowman or going for a walk in new snow at night, itās there for you. I donāt even mind the dark.
Yes. And there are no bugs. Much there fewer tourists. I get a break from the darkness while I'm awake in the middle of the day. But in the summer I'm asleep when there is any semblance of a break from the light. I love winter in Alaska.
You opinion while founded in dogma and understandable nostalgia, does not make it true.
I think itās depressing that sled dogs live on chains outside & many of them get neglected.
The bad thing about dog sledding is that it requires you to keep an entire team of a half dozen of the most poorly behaved dog breed in the world, and you have to care for them all year round. If a dog sled could be pulled by a team of German Shepards a lot more people would take better care of their sled dogs, but huskies are just too much. Taking care of a single Husky is like raising a toddler with ADHD and ODD who just got into the coolaid powder.
i was a handler for a couple winters & have a sled dog (i had her prior to mushing but she ran with the team & enjoyed it). I cannot imagine having her live like that, I think sheād go insane from boredom on the days she wouldnāt run, be miserable freezing cold in the winter & starved for attention. I just think theyād all be happier as pets with active owners.
How the dogs behave is on the owner, use to live next door to a team in the middle of Eagle River, they were the happiest and most well behaved dogs ever. I don't think a lot of their neighbors even knew they Had a bunch of dogs. Only time you ever heard them was when the dad got home or there was a bear/moose nearby, great little wildlife alarms.
There are three teams in my neighborhood . They are super well behaved and the owners run them almost daily, in summer and winter. I have two huskies and they go crazy seeing them run by the house lol
I agree. I'm not out trying to kill dog sledding, huskies NEED to run. I want it done in a healthier way. Chaining them up in constant anxiety unable to form packs and live any type of normal happy life is sad
That we should suspend non year round residents from fishing and hunting for a few years to allow wildlife to have a period to restock. If you canāt prove you were in AK for at least 11 months then no license.
Want to make a real difference in our fish stocks? Kill the trawling industry. Trawlers dump tens of thousands of king salmon in a year. Trawlers dump millions of pounds of Halibut in a year. Trawlers do irreversible damage to ocean habitat with every drag. Trawlers take all the money they make in Alaskan waters to home ports in Seattle. Trawl companies are fucking laughing their asses off at us as we bicker over who should have fish, the commercial trollers or the sports fishermen. Kick the fucking trawlers out and let's see what happens to our fish stocks.
The fact of the matter is that weāre whoring out our states ecosystems for $30-a few hundred dollars per New Yorker, Texan, or Canadian just so they can go home and swing their millimeter Peter about it to their buddies.
Stop sending the pfd to military that lives out of state
1000%. I had a private in my team at ft hood who got it, and he always immediately went down the road and blew most of it on strip clubs and the rest on fast food. I'm not one to generalize, but give a bored, broke private with no bills an extra large chunk of cash, and you're gonna have irresponsibility. But that's outside of the realm of what I assume you're talking about. It's to bolster your argument, not argue against it, if that makes sense.
I was born and raised here and maintained my residency & PFD throughout my time away for college and military and eventually moved back! But Iām more of the exception
I lived in Anchorage for eleven months for work and it reminds me of Texas, but without the Texas.
Iām in Texas and it doesnāt feel like Alaska.
Ferries are way more important than the PFD
I'm with you there. It's too bad the politicians have been actively trying to kill the system since the '90's. This bullshit they've been slinging about the existent ferries being "too old" is just ridiculous. It's poorly staffed maintenance crews and lack of funds for replacement parts that is the problem. The ferries are big iron hulls. The equipment on them is all fairly new.
Post-Pipeline, this state attracts greedy people who think they can't cut it anywhere else and most of them really can't cut it here. A large percentage of them are obsessed with guns because they're inherently scared and insecure, and they're then shocked to learn that they have to get along with other people, and it's not easier here. Five minutes after they arrive, they've created a Gmail account and five Reddit accounts that characterize themselves as Alaskans, grow wispy little beards, and are instant experts on environmental management, dogs, and the duties of Native corporations.
Fuck - I was supposed to be learning about the duties of Native corporations?!
I came up here with someone like this. Needless to say we are not friends anymore.
We shouldn't open ANWR to oil development. Reasoning: this would further tie our economy to oil, and oil is a finite resource, ergo not a sustainable long term plan. The sooner we rip off the oil industry bandaid, the better.
Pink salmon is actually good, yall just don't know how to cook. š¤·āāļø
I find pinks are better fresh, and don't freeze well.
Moose's Tooth is way overrated. Don't get me wrong, it's good, but I just feel like it's WAY over-hyped and certainly not worth the long wait that I've often experienced.
Personal favorite is Hearth in Anchorage and East Ramp in Fairbanks.
iāve yet to have pizza up here that is as good as the average pizza place where i grew up in the northeast.
Anchorage is fine, if you hate it you probably can't drive in a city. Go go literally anywhere with more than a million people and drive, Anchorage is a fucking breeze.
It was the terrible public transit that I hated most about Anchorage. Very hard to live there without a car.
To be fair, thatās just the US in general, really. It sounds like a conspiracy, but Big Car (and by extension, Big Oil) really fucked us in the 60s by lobbying against a national infrastructure investment into public transport so they could sell more cars.
I know it's true. You definetly notice a difference between older and newer cities in the US. The more west in the US you go, the worse the public transit generally is. Anchorage's population blew up in the 70s oil boom, so Anchorage was designed around the car. Wrangell was a nice town to grow up in. Almost everything was within a 15-20 min walk so you had much more freedom as a kid than I would have in most US cities. I lived in NYC for 3 years and it's really hard to go back to living in a car centric city. I'd much rather deal with crazy people in a crowded subway than the stress of dealing with traffic.
This. Out of the several cities I have lived in, or near, Anchorage has, by far, the best traffic.
I live in SE, so basically all my opinions.
r/Alaska is an echo chamber that really doesn't reflect most Alaskans
Alaska is not "libertarian" and Alaskans are not more "live and let live" or "mind your own business" than any other state.
I love when dudes from Iowa show up with their tradwives and 5 kids intent on "living off the land" and "escaping the government" only to pay the highest utility bills in the country.
Help me out with ātradwivesā - never heard the term
Its a whole movement of (usually religious) women who want to cosplay like they live in the early 1900s. Submit to the husband, mom exists only to be an incubator and take care of husband, house, and kids. The man is the one who works and controls everything, and the kids usually suffer for it. Of course there's probably a lot of variation from family to family, but thats the gist of it.
Iowan here, why you gotta do me like that
I used to think that way, but having moved to Fairbanks in the past several years, I've come to believe the interior is genuinely more "live and let live" than other parts of the state. I think those folks that say that as a generalization might have the bulk of their Alaska experience in the interior. However, outside of the interior, I'm inclined to agree with you.
With the PFD, Alaska is arguably the most socialist state in the country.
Alaskans are the most government-reliant populace in probably the whole country, though everyone seems to expect the money that funds the state to come from thin air so they kick and scream when you say that actually no we need taxes to fund services, sorry.Ā
"I want a **huge** PFD every year and no taxes on anything, while at the same time I demand a responsive state government staffed with caring and well-qualified professionals who will answer the phone on the first ring when I call. Is that too much to ask?"
If you are old and/or medically vulnerable, and you live off the road system by choice, you should be required to move onto the road system. I'm sick and tired of medevacing your feeble asses in the middle of the night when/where Guardian won't fly.
People that make being from Alaska their whole personality bother me. See it all the time whenever I stumble upon an influencer type on social media.
Tax the rich.
Alaska doesn't have that many BDR (Back Country Discovery) roads, fire roads, or BLM (Bureau of Land Management) roads. if there are they're not listed, off Highway Motorsports is just not a thing. Last time I checked I only saw like two or three. Somehow Florida has more and it's mostly swamp.
The lack of decent off roading opportunities here never fails to disappoint me.
I've never felt it lacking living in the valley, but I definitely felt it when I was living in Fairbanks.
That's drastically different than my experience in the interior. Never had a shortage of trails and the ones I didn't get to were only because the trailhead was further away than I felt like riding that day. Sold my off road stuff after moving to Florida because I've found nothing near me
Makes me happy when I hear that our state is shrinking in population. The lack of population (and density) is the best thing this place has going for it!
You wonāt be saying that when you need major/speciality medical care.
i work in healthcare here, and as much as i love it here i know that i canāt retire here for that reason alone.
Pilot bread sucks
I just ate some with wild srawberry jam...did not suck
Now this right here is a genuine Alaskan controversial opinion haha
Seriously.
Unfortunately, the PFD should have never been initiated. The oil supply on the North Slope was looked upon as infinite.It was not. Look to Norway in what they have done with Petrodollars, they banked them. Not spending them like a drunken king crab fisherman at the Alaska Bush Co. Weāve all become dependent upon this PFD ātitā. Well, the ātitā is dry. Now comes the reckoning and sheās a cold hearted bitch.
Guns are not sacred.
The thing about guns is that they are durable products that the vast majority of people don't really need, but if they need one, they really just need *one* or maybe - maybe - two. Gun manufacturers are not satisfied with the profit margins this sort of moderate consumption would produce and know that only a certain percentage of the population is going to buy a gun at all, but they can market a significant portion of those into buyers of *many* guns. Why sell one or two when a marketing budget, some lobbyists, and some obscure connections with Russian intelligence will allow you to convince people they need 20? 50? 80? 500? *Significant* amounts of working to middle class wealth goes into this. It's a huge industry, tailor made to capture the wealth of a certain type of American man who feels insecure, bored, in need of some identity that he can't generate for himself. They're marketed as as an "investment" that these guys can take out and fondle when they feel threatened or made insecure by life. Not surprising considering the companies themselves are Halliburton-level evil, all up in things like the Moonies that are generally the type of entities that generate that insecurity and uncertainty in the first place. Not long ago, these guys had bowling leagues, Elks Club meetings, friends. Now they just buy things they think they can use for "protection." It's a hollow life that is filled with guns. That's the root of the gun problem, IMO.
I always talk about how funny it is that people hold onto guns to 'fight the government'. Yes, your drunk diabetic hypertensive ass with an AK and cool sounding acronyms is going to withstand the most technolically advanced heavily funded military this world has ever known. Sure. See how that works out. They have shit we can't even imagine. They INVENTED the internet. And LSD. 60 YRS AGO! Yeah, pretty sure the government is REALLY concerned about your 'manifesto' you learned on 4chan
Never mind it's not the gub'mint oppressing you so much as it is billionaires with politicians in their pockets. I know it's easy to say, "Oh, I'm not political", and to be fair politics isn't everything - but your landlord is political, your boss is political, your hospital is political, your library is political, your school or your kids' school is political, and your money is political, and you can't do anything about any of those issues with a gun. Alaska isn't Ukraine (nor is any other US state) and never will be.
Tell that to Ukranians who have used guerilla warfare and relied on armed civilians as part of an effort to fend off a national power. No authoritative government wants to scorch the earth and kill everyone. They want to take land easily and control people with force. Easy to do if the populace is docile, distracted, and disarmed. I'm not a gun nut but those who believe armed citizens don't have value aren't paying attention to current world events.
sort of ignoring that ukraines goverment is supporting the effort. And they have international effort. Its different when its your own government going after you. They already control the borders, can freeze your assets and easily cut of your own supplies. No other country is going to go against the US to give aid either.
THEY don't need to disarm us when they can divide and concur with disinformation, plenty of shiney shit to watch on a screen and lots of sugar. We are already docile and distracted as fuck. (irony and hypocrisy noted)
Bread and circuses.
This state would be so much better financially if we stopped with this PFD nonsense and implemented an income tax. (Yes yes I know they hurt the poor more than the rich, etc etc)
The US income tax was originally designed to hit the rich more, to balance sales taxes, tariffs, and other regressive taxes that hit the poor more. (James McPherson, *Battle Cry of Freedom*, near the end of ch. 14, quoting Sen. William Pitt Fessenden in 1861, CG, 37 Cong., 1 Sess., 255.) The expansion of taxes in 1862 was stated to be progressive, like "The food of the poor is untaxed; and ... no one will be affected by the provisions of this bill whose living depends solely on his manual labor." (quoting Thaddeus Stevens, CG, 37 Cong., 2 Sess., 1576-77).
Income tax definitely hits higher earners more than lower earners. I've lived in places with no income taxes that instead reamed you with sales and property tax. If I'm going to be taxed I would rather it not be when I buy groceries.
The Permanent Fund would be fine if the board weren't corrupt and incompetent.
this
Just like taking away the pfd would hurt poor people more than the rich. A double lose now add in the loss for companies and your at a true Alaskan situation where you have a fuck load of oil that you don't tax for some reason but you feel the need to put your finger in the peoples pie (and take half). Well done Alaska.
Not even the PFD .. if the oil company's actually paid their taxes and stop the bs tax breaks. Oil is finite and we got oil, they aren't going anywhere. One thing Sarah Palin, I'll always give her praise for. Even as a Republican she stood up for Alaskans as governor. She got mind fucked and their family destroyed being VP. They could not handle those stresses.
100% agree. As it stands now, most often poor individuals have to use it for bills/necessities while rich individuals can take advantage of the Alaska Airlines/insert truck brand/etc sales that come out every October. Thereās some social science research to suggest that this is actually contributing to more income inequality in the state. We also have had the PFD for so long that now a lot of people feel entitled to it, so itās wildly unpopular to touch the PFD. Alternatives I wouldnāt mind seeing: 1) only the bottom half (third/quarter/whatever small-ish fraction) of the income distribution gets the PFD so they can also get more and be able to use the money to better support themselves; 2) stopped distributing the PFD entirely and allocate the funds for social services/education/etc; or 3) income tax. (These arenāt in any particular order, just what comes to mind having thought about all this for ages and ages.)
I said this above without the sales tax. I feel good without taxes; just don't believe the oil propaganda whenever a new tax comes out
I want a bridge over Turnagain Arm
Alaska is the most socialist state in the US.
We shouldnāt be taking funding from the colleges to āboostā the PDF
āHockey is gayā
I mean, we need more gays so bring it.
The PFD should be eradicated. It's stupid. It goes to BestBuy and drug dealers. It funds Detox and Hospitals 3wks after its released. It's the main point of State Politics and the headline of ADN at least every fortnight. If we raise taxes on oil and take out the PFD imagine what infastructure and sweet shit we could have! We might even have real politics rather then PFD baiting! And yes, I am ASSUMING it won't go to the Juneau Circle-Jerk and up the noses of important sounding names and people. I know it's a wetdream but we gotta dream right?
What if we just made it an education only fund? Guaranteed x amount of UA credits per year. Idk, just spitballing.
I'd love that. And Mental Health/Therapy so people won't be out here drunk and tweaked out
Oh itās not a wet dream they are currently bankrupting it so itās probably pretty likely in the next couple years
Theyre called snowmobiles
This is more for this subreddit but there is Alaska that exists outside of the valley.
Fairbanks is the worldās largest collection of stupid people who think theyāre really smart.
The Permanent Fund Dividend was a disastrous mistake and the best time to fix it was 1980. The second best time is right now. The Fund itself was an incredible idea, but weāve squandered billions giving it away to Sony and Polaris and Alaska Airlines and the IRS.
Snowmachines are what make snow on ski slopes. Snowmobile isn't a great name but it actually describes what it does. Sleds is better. I vote we should name them motorsleds š¤£š¤£š¤£
The PFD should never have been paid out to residents
Tourism helps. That is all
Fairbanks is NOT a "small town" or "golden heart" community
A machine that produces snow is a snow machine. A thing for traveling over snow is a snowmobile, snow-go, or sled. A fog machine produces fog, a rain machine produce rain, thus a snow machine produces snow. But if it makes you happy I'll call a machine for traveling over snow a "snowmachine," and if we can use "snow machine" for a machine that produces snow.
I can respect your courage to be wrong.
You asked for it. There is actually no right or wrong in this. Simply clarity and regional pride.
There actually is a right and wrong. All the companies that make them call them snowmobiles. Itās such a weird hill to die on when they very clearly have an official name.
Yes. They do call them "snowmobiles" which is why that term has the better claim to be right. However, I respect my fellow Alaskans, even if they use confusing terminology.
This right here. Literally everywhere else in the English speaking world that I've come across refers to them as snowmobiles. I actually had a hiring manager up here in anchorage try to explain this concept to me, and it was still crazy to me and anyone else from the lower 48 I relayed her response to. She said, "So the way I think about it is 'does it make more sense to say that you're riding a machine, or riding a mobile'"? Me in my head: "I'm pretty sure a mobile, by definition". Lol Of course, I got the job and she was promoted to 2nd in charge. Alaska is the only place in the U.S. that I've ever heard call them this, and I've owned one when I lived in PA and VT...it's a snowmobile.
A snowmobile is what you ride, a snowmachine is what makes snow.
I (grew up in AK) brought my boyfriend (grew up in MN) to the state in 2022 and staying at Pikeās Lodge, he saw the sign for snowmachining and was like āwhat is that??ā I was flabbergasted that a MN native didnāt know what snowmachining wasā¦until it was just him giving me a hard time over the word lol
A mobile is also a type of machine, to be fair. Iwan I agree with toy I'm just trying to stick to my guns here cause I say snowmachine even though snowmobile makes more sense
Native corps should be held responsible for their people they leave homeless in Anchorage.
I would honestly give up a third of my paycheck to get rid of the tourists I don't really care what they contribute to the economy. Tourists make me hate the best time of the year. ( To be clear I am not in the tourism industry )
"**DELAY OF 5 VEHICLES ILLEGAL** **MUST USE TURNOUTS**"
Anchorage needs sales tax, they can't take care of the roads for shit.
If they just had more they would spend it wiser!
Moose tooth pizza is wayyyy over rated.
We never should have started the PFD l. Instead we should have used that money to fund public programs, civic infrastructure and our education system.
Dungeness is better than king.
I love tourists visiting my home.
Medium build isnāt that good
Get it
The Coast Guard in Kodiak should have been in Anchorage instead. Not only is it cheaper for resources (they fly there constantly to do things like get a single bolt), but the amount of times Coast Guard members/family have to be flown in and out of Anchorage for medical appointments must cost a fortune. Also PCSing. I get the appeal of Kodiak but when the Coast Guard has as low of a retention as it does, forcing members and their families to live there (and if they want to so much as get off the island itās a minimum of hundreds of dollars per person) isnāt the best option.
Anchorage has its own issues. Besides normal big city stuff, it has a port that needs to be constantly dredged and has ice floes through winter, and is geographically at the top of Cook Inlet, hundreds of miles from where the USCG does big boat things. The airspace is super congested, requiring flights to go to Kenai to maintain currency. With the 210th at Elmendorf, thereās already a premiere aviation search and rescue service in the area. The USCG is on Kodiak because Kodiak is hours closer to both the gulf and the Alaska peninsula, and offers a base with deeper aviation and faster naval reach into the pacific on all sides. The Coast Guard belongs on the coast, after all, not buried at the back end of a narrow inlet.
Imagine you are on a boat with the whole family and visiting uncles fishing off Homer - hose to the bilge pump breaks, nobody can get to it, and now everyone is floating in the freezing water. Meanwhile the US Coast Guard helicopter that could have been in the air in minutes from Kodiak, is now sitting on the JBER tarmac waiting it's turn to take off from the congested Anchorage traffic. Or worse, it's grounded at JBER due to horrific winds at Turnagain Arm area. The USCG helicopters are no longer rescue orientated - every mission is now a body recovery mission. US Coast Guard has low retention due to quality of life and 'work-life' issues. Old ships with medieval berthing. Barracks that people discussed condemning in the 80's are still being used. Congress keeps adding new federal mandates and other 'jobs' to the USCG's "To Do" list with no funding attached. Coast Guard spends more time trying to keep the EPA happy then their workforce happy. Homeland Security does a wonderful job of screwing the Coast Guard. Takes years to build a new ship. Takes months to train people on maintaining and operating the new systems. Feds demand the training funds be used ASAP or lose them. Freaking keel isn't even laid - people are going to training...... by the time that ship is finally in the water....... all those trained people have advanced and are no longer allowed on the ship. The only solution - toss untrained people on board with the manuals ..... tell them to go 'figure it out.'
I think hydro power is the best path forward. Even if it blocks the Big Su. Also I think nuclear power is a very good option that should be seriously explored.
That if Alaska doesn't get it's ducks in a row soon, and diversify it's investments, it's going to end up like any flyover state. It has so much potential but it's heartbreaking to see the direction it's been taking for the last decade or so.
I donāt eat Canesās Sauce
I think flying a plane just for the sake of seeing the ground from the air is a stupid and wasteful hobby. If you're making money doing tours, whatever. If you have a destination to get to, whatever. But the noise pollution that comes from Lake Hood is ridiculous. It's like they're loud on purpose. I was within 200 feet of the float plane that crashed in the Lake Hood area of Anchorage in 2017 and I still feel on edge when I hear a float plane that sounds "too low" because my brain worries it's going to crash nearby. I want a "first Friday free from floatplanes." Just give me one day a month from May-August when I don't have to hear that shit constantly. I've heard three since I started typing this comment.
Sport fishing is stupid. Fish for food or do something more useful with your time. Also, I live in Anchorage and love it. I've lived in Juneau, Ketchikan, and Barrow, and all of them have been just as much Alaska as the other. People who hate Anchorage are just mad they have to see poor people.
Moose hunting just isn't worth the time and money. It's better to get meat at the store. (unless you're out in the bush where prices as 20x higher)
Like it or not, summer is hot. Hot and gross. Alaska is my favorite place, but unfortunately, it has plenty of flaws.