Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

stories.californiasunday.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

71–80 of 188 posts

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

#71

Post by haroldp »

grecy wrote: post #27
sanoli wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, this town is not only remote, but during the winter you have to pretty much dug in and stay inside. No going anywhere. It's not the same as just being somewhere isolated and remote, and you have to take that into consideration. Some people might enjoy it anyway.

> 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…

Today is a beautiful day in Whittier:

http://whittierak.yukontel.com/

But most of the time it is snowing or raining. And it usually doesn't rain down. With the wind, it rains straight in your face.

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

#72

Post by ars »

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…

How does property ownership work? Do people rent or own?

Do they pay condo fees?

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

#73

Post by percept »

kayge wrote: post #41

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" ... cle…

"he has recently been in talks with two reality television production companies and the producers of a Gerard Butler submarine movie."

http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie...

Not quite the same, I guess.

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

#74

Post by cecilpl »

grecy wrote: post #57
rconti wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read somewhere that Whitehorse has the highest number of bicycle commuters per capita. I rode my motorcycle through there a few years ago, and it was quite beautiful.. but I don't get why so many bike commuters. I guess compared to a big city it has no transit or less transit? But less spread out than a typical suburban area? The statistic would have surprised me in an area with mild weather year-round; nothing abo…

The vast majority of people that live here do so because of the amazing array of wilderness outdoor activities on offer mere minutes from town. I've lived in a lot of places in Western Canada, and none of them hold a candle to Whitehorse in this regard. I don't know for sure, but my guess on a bike riding stat is that there are a lot of people living here that are outdoor/fitness freaks. Most of them are super freaks…

That's indeed true. My sister lives in Whitehorse, and she says that pretty much everyone who lives there is an outdoor enthusiast. If you aren't, you just won't fit in.

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

#75

Post by bennettfeely »

lucaspiller wrote: post #43
cgh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 Viln…

Just as a little fun fact Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongola is the coldest capital city in the world. Right now Accuweather says it's -18°F (0°C). It regularly dips below -40°F/C in the winter.

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

#76

Post by yitchelle »

grecy wrote: post #27
sanoli wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The thing is, this town is not only remote, but during the winter you have to pretty much dug in and stay inside. No going anywhere. It's not the same as just being somewhere isolated and remote, and you have to take that into consideration. Some people might enjoy it anyway.

> 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…

Just for my curiosity, how often are the winter weather good enough for you to venture outside?

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

#77

Post by cgh »

detaro wrote: post #46
cgh wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Actually, I just meant "cities of a certain size" more than anything else.

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

#80

Post by theoh »

mod wrote: post #37
rapidally wrote: post #24

Why is this on hackernews? Stick to tech.

Because I, a hacker and the target audience of Hacker News, find it very, very interesting.

It's not one of Eric S. Raymond's talking points, but the backwoodsman aspect of hacker culture seems really important, and also, probably, fatal to its long-term spread.
Post reply on HN