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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a Native Alaskan or just being Alaskan
 
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Poop Cupcake
Dec 31, 2005

 I was in Alaska staying with some friends in early July, in Meadow Lakes. It's a few minutes outside of Wasilla. Alaska is an incredibly beautiful state. Contrasting this was so much dubious quality construction up there. Unfinished plywood shacks next to hillsides that are visibly sliding down, inhabited buildings with partially collapsed roofs. My friends explained this as lack of code enforcement coupled with severe poverty in a lot of areas. How does the state handle these kinds of housing situations where buildings are in dangerous spots, aren't providing adequate protection from the elements, etc.?

* # ¿ Aug 26, 2014 14:59
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# ¿ May 15, 2024 09:38
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Poop Cupcake
Dec 31, 2005

Kazak_Hstan posted:

I'm from Wasilla originally, and no offense to your friend, but Meadow Lakes is a shithole even by Wasilla standards. It is 't even necessarily a case of code enforcement in many cases, as much as the lack of code. It is not much of an exaggeration to suggest that calling for more stringent zoning will g you called a communist in the Valley.

As far as the poverty you saw in Meadow Lakes, it's pretty vanilla compared to much of the bush.

In developed areas where property tax assessment and collection is established, people often lose these kinds of properties because they can't pay taxes, at least where the land has value. Elsewhere, it's spotty. There are a lot of people who live at the end of tiny roads, and it's hard for the state / borough to know whats going on there.
They live all the way out there so they could afford a larger piece of property than they would have been able to get closer to Anchorage where one of them works. The house and the neighborhood they're in is comfortable, but yeah once you start to get around you can see the falling apart shacks all over the place. One of them used to work with CPS up in Bethel and really hated it (the job and the city). I used to have a negative opinion of the state from all of the things I heard about the horrible child abuse and neglect that happens in some of these very rural areas. Every state is going to have these problems, but it seems like it's an extra challenge in Alaska due to how rural and isolated so many communities are.

Is the current crisis in Ukraine impacting how the Russian community gets along with everyone else?

* # ¿ Aug 26, 2014 19:54
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Poop Cupcake
Dec 31, 2005

Von Humboldt posted:

Have to ask, what brought you up? I have family out there.

A good friend of mine lives up there. We met in college (in Florida, of all places), and now he's back in Alaska. His family moved there when he was pretty young. I'm actually shipping up a couple boxes to stuff to them today, mostly home-made hot sauces and blueberry preserves. :kimchi: I gotta tell you, the strawberries out of his garden were better than any Florida strawberry I've ever had.

* # ¿ Sep 5, 2014 14:07
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The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Ask me about being a Native Alaskan or just being Alaskan