Maybe an opportunity there for me.
And tell me about a newspaper called The Juneau Empire.
Any Alaskans here?
One bump for the lunch crowd (and morning in Alaska Daylight Time).
No one has any background on it? I’ve got an opportunity to maybe move there.
See your PM.
Just read a book called “Smile While You’re Lying: Confessions of a Rogue Travel Writer.”
Among other things, the author describes growing up in Juneau in the 70s. It’s a fun book anyway; check it out.
My wife lived in Juneau for a couple years. I grew up in Fairbanks, which is Alaska, but have never been to Juneau, although I’ve been to other parts of the Southeast.
Southeast Alaska is a whole different planet than the interior where I grew up, it’s much more like northern Seattle. Actually Juneau is literally halfway between Fairbanks and Seattle. Rain, rain, rain. Mountains, fjords, islands. And rain, rain, rain. Nother thing about Juneau, there are no roads linking it to the rest of the world. Only way out is by boat or by plane. So if you don’t like being isolated in a fairly small town, you probably wouldn’t like it much. It is the capitol city, so you get a few more visitors than you might otherwise. The legislators love it because they can hide from their constituents there.
Don’t know nothing about the local paper.
I can try to answer specific questions as best I can, or forward them to my wife.
Why, is it on an Island?
No, it’s boxed in by mountains and glaciers.
(From Wikipedia, of course.)
Lots of lovely scenery, though!
And the Juneau Empire is the only paper there…
I lived there for a year about twenty years ago, so I’m sure some things have changed a lot. Some things, however, are sure to have not.
Juneau’s got a small downtown (largely tourist shops) and is spread for several miles along a narrow strip between the mountains and the Gastineau Channel. The public transportation system was halfway decent, but I had a hard time getting around without a car.
I don’t remember there being a whole lot of nightlife, and the only cultural spot I enjoyed going to (the Orpheum Cafe) suffered an ignoble demise sometime in the early 90s.
Nonetheless there are some pretty cool people up there and if you look around you’ll probably have a good experience if you go. The scenery is lovely and if you like cold, clear, crisp winters then Juneau will suit you just fine.
John McPhee goes into some detail about Juneau in Coming into the Country. Don’t recollect him mentioning the Juneau Empire though, not that it would have fallen under his breadth of focus. If you’re going to spend any time up there [url=http://www.amazon.com/Coming-into-Country-John-McPhee/dp/0374522871it’s a pretty good primer.
Go for it man, always go for unique opportunties elsewhere. Even if it sucks really bad, 10 years later you’ll be like “Damn, I’m glad I went.”
it is a really beautiful city. they have ravens and eagles instead of sparrows and pidgeons. i spent a week there and thought it was very livable. things are higher in price because of being brought in by air and sea. if you are an outdoorsy person it is a good place to be.
the weather is milder than most of what people think of frozen alaska. think rainforesty.
i would jump at a chance to live in alaska.
I was there for one day last month as a tourist. You’ll never have to worry about running out of jewelry. The Red Dog Saloon seemed like enough reason to move there.
I just read, in a Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin, that the paper published an article in the last few years titled “Will the Antichrist Be a Homosexual?”
So there ya go.
Joe
And what sort of awesome isn’t that?
Thanks for the info, my friends. I am still, as they say, collating data. But I appreciate all the tips and tricks and insight.
THAT is an awesome title. Even better for a folk song. I wish I knew how to play the guitar.
In “Going To Extremes” by Joe McGinniss, he describes the scenery around Juneau as heartbreakingly beautiful because the cloud cover obscures the magnificent mountains and they are only glimpsed infrequently. There are lots of other fascinating stories about other parts of Alaska, too. What I remember was he theorizes “the nuts in this country have all rolled Westward, met the ocean, and have nowhere to go but up to Alaska.” (words to that effect).
I’d agree with that assessment, having encountered a number of them when I worked, visited and lived there. Instead of the 1 or 2% you might come across ‘outside’, up there they’re more on the order of between 5 and 10%. There’s a lot of really cool, normal people there and I don’t remember any other place where the populace in general was so welcoming. But there’s also a lot of folks there that went there specifically to get away from it all, that and because they didn’t fit in elsewhere. They’re all pretty harmless really but with more than a few you’ll actually have a conscious thought about how it’s appropriate that these guys are so far removed from a crowded society.
Google suggests that it’s from the Mat-Su Valley Frontiersman, Wasilla’s local paper.
Really? I might have mixed them up. Still funny, though…
Joe