Biggest downside to living here

A lot of sites can tell you the greats about a place. The reality is sometimes it just sucks.

Here are some things to consider before you decide to jump ship and live in a small town like this.

1. Like a lot of places, we are always perpetually behind the times by 5-10 years. I mean, one of the biggest things that we all got excited for maybe 2 years ago was the first ever Sonic opened up. We also don't always have the best tech for internet or medical. On the medical side, we will have to send people out to either Seattle or Anchorage for very specialized procedures. For example, I had a neuro issue and the closest place for me to see a great specialist was in Anchorage, Alaska.

2. Mental health is a big problem. There are high amounts of cases where people end up with S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder). Now, this does happen everywhere, but a lot of people get excited about the beauty and forget that 9 months out of the year we have next to no daylight and temperatures so cold you don't even feel the warmth of the sun. Most people do not expect how dark it really gets. Those books about vampires living in Alaska, well... we sometimes think we are.

3. It is expensive. People may be excited we dont have sales tax and that we get a PFD (permanent fund dividend). The truth is everything is shipped here by barge and by truck. Here we are the last stop on the supply chain road and shipping costs range anywhere from $14 to $1,000+. That is just to get it up here not including the cost to buy said goods. Once it goes to the villages it is a normal occurrence for a gallon of milk to cost anywhere from 7 to 10 bucks. When the summer comes around getting fresh produce costs more than the stuff at the store. So we pay taxes on goods through our shipping costs.

4. Tourists all summer long. Most of our income comes from people coming up here to vacation both winter and summer. Its not that we are upset about making money off this industry but alot of people who come up here are very rude to us locals. We love people visiting but don't expect a lot of ⁰¥ az,#@stuff you see in bigger cities or in the rest of the US.

5. Concerts of popular artists don't happen that often. We get more comedy shows than concerts. Most artists will go to Anchorage or Palmer. most famous person I know and seen up here was Gabriel Iglesias. We had to travel to Anchorage to see Werid Al Yakavich. So concerts of more famous people happen in bigger cities or have to travel out of state. Which gets expensive fast.

Don't worry about too much this post is ti help with the negative of your moving to Fairbanks consider list. If these dont seem so bad to you welcome to an amazing place to call home.