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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

#171

Post by Turing_Machine »

_delirium wrote: post #11

This arrangement looks a lot better than the norm in that area. The typical 200-person remote Alaskan town is more of a shantytown, a depressing collection of low-quality single-story shacks. This at least looks like solid construction, probably more weatherproof than the norm, and with some indoor community spaces. Seems like a decent solution for such a town, in the rare case where the capital to build such a build…

Whittier isn't anything like "remote" by Alaska standards.

It's on the rail system and (now) the road system.

Most Alaska towns and villages aren't.

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

#172

Post by haroldp »

weeksie wrote: post #166
haroldp wrote: post #165

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Anchor Inn had the nice arcade. It had Ms PacMan, Defender, Burger Time, Tempest, Space Invaders, Time Pilot and a couple pinball machines including "Playboy," oh my! Oh and a decent jukebox, even. The Sportsman's had Mario Brothers and Galaxian tucked into different corners.

Oh yeah! That jukebox had Whitesnake, man! :D And yeah, the arcade at the Anchor was way better but the Sportsman was much more chill about me taking up one of their pool tables, if I recall. Sportsman also had Goonies, I think. Not that I was any good at it. I remember being super fascinated with collecting old railroad spikes from the trainyards as well. That and putting pennies on the tracks when we were waiting f…

Railroad spikes (and assorted railroad spike art projects) and flattened pennies, check. The very best things to collect/scavenge though were the glass floats lost from Japanese fishing nets.

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

#173

Post by wtbob »

frik wrote: post #157
btilly wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why do they build such tall buildings in an earth quake area? The basic answer is that they had no idea what kind of earthquake was possible there. That earthquake is #3 on the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#Largest_ea... and was the second megathrust earthquake recorded since the geological knowledge existed to figure out what they were. (The first being Chile in 1960.)

For the destroyed building yes. But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article.

> But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article.

I think that building also dates back to the war.

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

#174

Post by dedward »

prawn wrote: post #113
haroldp wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well the Army installed great heavy-duty double paned windows that you could totally open and close. However, they were kind of bulky and ugly, so many people (especially on the North side with a view of the Sound), have replaced them with big unopenable picture windows. Whittier is really not THAT cold most of the time.

Was it a bit stifling, even with air-con/ventilation, not being able to open windows for fresh air? I don't think I could get used to that!

When it's -100 outside, you get used to it.

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

#175

Post by leke »

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…

Tell me about the cannabis.

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

#176

Post by stormbrew »

pcthrowaway wrote: post #85
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…

It would be a great place to hold out with a large group if you had a way to obtain and import supplies and you cleared the building first. You'd probably be able to spot anyone coming or going (living or undead), and it would be likely that very few zombies would be in the surrounding land. Also, of course zombie fiction requires a major suspension of disbelief in this regard, but the damp/cold weather would cause t…

Contrary to popular belief, while temperatures do go down on average as you go further north, the really pronounced difference is how much it varies between its extremes. Realize that in the summer in these northern places, the sun is shining (or at least in twilight) past midnight, and comes back up very early in the morning, only a handful of hours later [1]. It actually gets quite warm [2].

[1] http://www.alaska.org/weather/daylight-hours/whittier/june

[2] http://weatherspark.com/averages/33093/6/Whittier-Alaska-Uni...

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

#179

Post by clarky07 »

haroldp wrote: post #120
munificent wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> had certain appeals Like what?

One man's backwater mudpuddle is another man's relaxing natural paradise.

while i can see that appeal for people who want to get away from it all, but i can't fathom that those same people would want to live in the same building with 200 other people. it seems like the worst of both worlds.

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

#180

Post by bkeroack »

This article inspired me to browse Google Maps around the area. Surprisingly I found this US/Canada border crossing that is completely unguarded: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dawson,+YT,+Canada/@62.615...

Literally just signs by the side of the road. Even the Top of the World Highway has a Customs inspection shack (which is farther north and seemingly more remote).

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