For Living wise Anchorage ,Alaska or San Francisco , CA?

Question

My friend lives in sanfrancisco and she doesnt have access to the internet from her house (some sort of a power outage) anyways she lives in SF , CA She is thinking on moving to Anchorage AK.

Does anyone have any good sites or any expieriance... to campare please? Thanks and nooo critisizing plz!

sorry for my spelling i know which words i spelled wrong srrys writng super fast!

Answer 1

My quals: I was born in SF, grew in the SFBA and now live in Kenai Alaska. My wife was born in Palo Alto, went to UCSF and we're up here now.

But we had 3 years in Seattle in between. The slower pace of life in Seattle versus SF, lower property prices, less traffic, and closer recreation got us think about more (much more!) of the same in Alaska.

Housing is a lot cheaper in AK than SF. Jobs are pretty easy to find if you're good at something. Word gets around in a small town much more so than in the big city - (both good words and bad words!)

Food is more and produce is not so fresh.

Recreation of all kinds is much closer and much more spectacular. That would be the best reason to come up, IMO - someone who really liked to hike, ski, fish, watch wildlife, etc. Because the winters are long and cold. Summers are pleasant and have 20 hours of sunlight.

People are more friendly, more helpful up here. And more relaxed about time. No one honks their horn (unless there's a moose ahead!). A traffic jam is 4 people at the red light ahead.

Unless you're in Anchorage, there are less opportunities for high culture like the opera, symphony, etc. But we go to more events in our small town than we ever did in SF or Seattle because we know the people who are performing.

Traveling back to see families and friends can be expensive, but lots of people will want to come visit her if she's up here.

We figured we were still young, no kids, a good time to have an adventure. Maybe for a couple of years. We're still here, raising our kids. Not much ethnic food available, but otherwise it seems a better place for us.

And since she's a woman - that whole "ten guys for every girl" thing? No longer true. That was the pipeline days in the mid 1970s. Women, especially outdoorsy ones, still get to take their pick, but the genders are pretty even nowadays.

Oh, and my two moving-to-Alaska warnings: If your life is screwed up (unemployed, drugs, custody battle, whatever) in SF, don't come up here to escape it. Lots of people do, but you'll be unemployed, addicted, whatever AND have to catch the bus at -20F! It is much easier to be a screw-up in a moderate climate.

And don't come up thinking there's tons of work on the pipeline or at fish canneries, etc. Yes, there's a lot of work, but for people who have those skills, a clean record, and present themselves well (or will bust their butts at low wages). Somehow those boom-days stories from the pipeline persist 30 years later.