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A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

stories.californiasunday.com

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Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#41

Post by kayge »

I live in Alaska and have visited Whittier multiple times. Every time we go, my wife and I comment about how great of a setting it would be for a zombie apocalypse movie.

"Oh it's only accessible by water or the main tunnel, it's easy to secure" "oops we forgot about securing the old train tunnel" "oh no they're in the apartment building, let's go hide out in the creepy old abandoned building down the street"

... clearly I'm not going to be writing the screenplay, but the location has a lot of potential!

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#42

Post by arethuza »

Coincoin wrote: post #25

This reminds me of Fermont[1], a remote Canadian city in northern Quebec that I visited when I was young. There is this 1.3 km long building shaped like a wall with all services, shops, restaurants and apartments in it. The wall protects the rest of the city from northern winds. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont

Also reminds me of some French ski resorts - I think Tignes Le Lac has one huge long building, one of the area of La Plagne as well.

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#43

Post by lucaspiller »

cgh wrote: post #29
lucaspiller wrote: post #13

This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates. Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a…

The coldest city in Europe is Helsinki. According to Wikipedia, the average high is 9 C and the average low is 2.9 C. For Whittier, the average high is 7.3 C and the low is 1.7 C. Can you give some examples of these many European cities that are colder, on average?

Not sure where you got that Helsinki is the coldest city, I'm not even sure it's the coldest capital. There are plenty of colder cities, take a look at Kiruna as an example (which was also featured here a few weeks ago):

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kiruna#Climate

Edit: Ah I think I understand, my original comment was referring to being cold in the depths of winter, not the average temperature. Right now I'm in Vilnius the capital of Lithuania, it get's colder than Whittier (and Helsinki) in the winter but a lot hotter in the summer, so the average isn't that bad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilnius#Climate

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#44

Post by seanmcdirmid »

grecy wrote: post #36
seanmcdirmid wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My mom grew up in the panhandle (Ketchikan) which rarely even sees snow, I guess (but lots of rain).

That's a LONG way South of me :)

We did the drive from Washington to Anchorage when I was 6 or 7. It was a very beautiful, to say the least, and I have many memories of that part of Canada (BC and Yukon) etched into my head.

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#45

Post by grecy »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #39
grecy wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and stay inside Huh? Why would you stay inside when you live in such a beautiful place? I live in the Yukon - it's -37C today and it's absolutely beautiful outside. I rode to work today, and just did a 1 hour round trip walk to the library to drop off some books. I'll go for a ~2 hour snow shoe tonight in the dark with my headlamp. I saw the Northern Lights last night, so I'll take my camera tonight. Winter is actu…

Reminds me of Harbin, on the bus trip from Changchun in the winter I watched the mercury fall from -20 to -35. It wasn't really that bad (my digital camera battery failed me at the ice sculptures, however).

Yesterday I drove 1225km from British Colombia to my home in the Yukon. I started the day at -5C, saw it hit -39C on the drive and finished at -36C.

It was the most beautiful blue-sky sunny day and sunset. The full moon, Northern Lights and herd of Caribou helped too :)

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#46

Post by detaro »

cgh wrote: post #29
lucaspiller wrote: post #13

This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates. Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a…

The coldest city in Europe is Helsinki. According to Wikipedia, the average high is 9 C and the average low is 2.9 C. For Whittier, the average high is 7.3 C and the low is 1.7 C. Can you give some examples of these many European cities that are colder, on average?

You probably mean Helsinki is the coldest capital in Europe?

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#47

Post by Someone1234 »

alandarev wrote: post #40
haroldp wrote: post #28

W00h! I grew up in Whittier, AK. Ask me Anything! Haha, seriously, I moved to Whittier at the age of 2 in 1974 and lived there until 1986. The big change there since I left has been the tunnel. When I was there you had to drive your car up onto a railroad flatcar (and pay a steep ticket price) to get out. Anchorage is only 55 miles away, but really it's two mountains away. The railroad sold passenger service only as…

I will grasp this amazing opportunity and flood you with these questions: 1. Why the town even exists? Article tells nothing about its purpose. 2. What are the most jobs? Is there any production? 3. How did it feel to live in such a small community?

I can answer #1 it is a major cruise port. Many Alaskan cruises start in Whittier. If you ever take an Alaska cruise you'll likely take the train into Whittier then get on the ship without spending a lot of time there.

It is a town of only 200 some odd people.

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#49

Post by _delirium »

cgh wrote: post #29
lucaspiller wrote: post #13

This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates. Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a…

The coldest city in Europe is Helsinki. According to Wikipedia, the average high is 9 C and the average low is 2.9 C. For Whittier, the average high is 7.3 C and the low is 1.7 C. Can you give some examples of these many European cities that are colder, on average?

If the comparison is winter temperatures, rather than year-round averages, it would make more sense to compare the coldest month (otherwise you mix together the effect of cold winters and cool summers, which are very different experientially). Helsinki has colder winters than Whittier does, though not by a huge margin. Whittier's coldest month is January, with average high -0.4 C (31 F) and average low -5.1 C (23 F). Helsinki's is February, with average high -1.9 (29 F) and average low -7.4 C (19 F). Whittier has a lower year-round average because it has cooler summers (highs around 60 F / 15 C, versus Helsinki's ~70 F / 20 C).

Helsinki is a pretty temperate city for Finland, though, being on the southeastern coast. Oulu and Tampere are a lot colder!

Re: A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

#50

Post by ceejayoz »

rukittenme wrote: post #7
megatroll wrote: post #4

It would be interesting to see what these people do for a living. Why are they there? There are children, so there must be families who have decided to move there.

I imagine fishing, oil and gas, and Alaska's (edit) $2,000 stipend for residents is what keeps them there.

Given Alaska's high cost of living, that $2k doesn't make much of a dent.
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