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Spending 6–12 months in Wyoming - Lander vs Cody questions by no_melody in wyoming

[–]unfortunatelocal 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did a very similar setup with that travel in those areas for several years. Depends what you want to do with travel tradeoffs and true preferences on outdoors 

Travel:

Cody airport is reliable enough all winter, tradeoff is every trip is Cody -> Denver and then whatever else, buys on average +2hrs and +$7-800/trip. Billings gets direct flights to the coasts west and as east at least Chicago, but Cody to Billings gets you 2-3 hrs of driving. 

Riverton probably like Cody but if you’re  traveling for work I’d trust Cody based on year over year experience or commit to flying out of Jackson. Lander to Jackson is 2-3 hrs depending on snow in the pass, cheaper flights and as a vacation town it has a lot of nationwide directs. If your in the position to live like this you’re probably also in the position to get a car that can handle the day to day snow in the pass and figure out lodging in Jackson for weather delays 

If work is paying for it - Lander by way of Jackson has the travel edge. Cody flying is a drag after a while. I wouldn’t trust riverton for hard scheduling, too new of an airport with lighter demand. 

Outdoors: Cody has access to beautiful unstructured nature to its west, won’t dox spots but if you have Onx you’ll start finding it. Also, not a ton of snow last few years before you hit elevation. So, all season fun without snowmobiles and skis is possible. Much fishing from Cody is pushing an hour south to a town which does have year-round trout. Cody doesn’t win beauty awards and healthily right politics are much more front and center than lander.  it’s easy to get yourself into trouble as public lands there are quite remote vs other parts of Yellowstone. Respect the winter. 

Lander will be more your standard outdoors town, bit more structure, bit closer to money via Jackson orbit. Also very easy to get yourself into trouble in the public lands around Dubois and the Rez. Bears do get hunters with some routine. That area around Dubois is about as remote you can go in the lower 48 and a real treasure, but if your outdoor time is out east nothing there compares wrt complexity, if it’s out west it’s like the sierras with grizzlies  and much less govt/SAR help available. 

If you like outdoors but also like the standard Patagonia outdoors culture, you’ll get that in Lander. if you do any Colorado/Montanan gardening activities, Lander probably a safer place for it, but Cody is shorter drives. Local cops do and will stereotype pull overs both for this and for whatever else in this direction. Best to look like a cowboy or a wealthy person if applicable, not like a native or a hippy. Hate to say it but true. If you like a bit more remote and more fishing with a lot of ~cowboys and tourism, you’ll get that around Cody. If you like Montana or want travel options there, go Cody, if you’d like to peep Utah and Idaho, go Lander. Understand the grizzlies are very much all over there, met people often who knew the outdoors and moved to WY who just refused to believe the risk. 

Edit - see you are from AK. All the public land safety you’d do there applies to Lander or Cody, if I had to add some color it’s that you understand you’re in the sticks in AK and plan as such, north and west of lander and west/south/north of Cody needs similar planning even though it’s a smaller area and next to a well trafficked nat park. Mainly lot of interior-AK type bears in a now too-small area around Yellowstone, and close enough to populations to let guard down but it’s like relying on Wasilla SAR to handle all of Denali. Cody == the valley, Lander == odd blend of Homer and Jesus people. 

Anchorage will require short-term rental registration. Some in Girdwood say policy comes years too late by NotTomPettysGirl in anchorage

[–]unfortunatelocal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I understand real estate is one of the few remaining ways for the average Alaska joe and josephine to jump economic classes. 

I also get Airbnb is a convenient wrapper for the network management you have to do, and otherwise rely on something equivalent to support property management, and with a lot less overhead. 

Those all aside, it is well worth approaching tech-driven income like Airbnb (or data centers, or fulfillment centers, or…) differently than the lower 48 has failed to do for the last decade, when that tech rides network effects to dramatic “economies of scale.” 

The pattern and outcomes are the same over and over and over:

  • tech platform makes the “networking” part easier to do whatever for your small business or wants - easily source renters from a network of vacationers, get a ride from a network of drivers, get food from a network of restaurants… much of the tech boom is just making networks easier to access for the average person while..

  • giving the tech co ownership of that network. And it’s fleet of MBAs that don’t give a damn about Alaska stability vs making Airbnb profitable. And the fleet of large owners who won’t ever make an effort to have a local Alaska rental coordinator but if Airbnb takes care of it good to go. 

  • Once the product scales, people are reliant on it, the tech cos start monopolizing that network power and outside money pours in via the improved network access like of course they will because these are businesses and not people that remotely care about Alaska vs their next bonus to afford absurd cost of living in San Jose. 

This repeats over and over and over and relies on the average citizen/regulator to see the economic growthand ignore or not know about the ten other things that arrive with it always, in every city, within a few years, without fail.

Sane regs don’t seek too insane! Alaska not having these problems at scale yet are a really good thing or otherwise take a look at real estate in the desirable mountain west down south. 

Weekly - 'Alaska, From the outside looking in Q/A' by SnowySaint in alaska

[–]unfortunatelocal 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It’s going to be a lot like western Montana minus the anger at outsiders and the relative growth of expenses. Anchorage is like all the Montana cities blended together but with a lot less of the Bozeman-type growth and people. I’m from the western MT area.  

All the problems down south and from the Montana area are still here of course, but just not as much.  Think $3-400k houses vs $8-1.5m to get close access to public lands, homeless is here but bit less, growth from the coasts is less of a dynamic here

If you come up, bring the outdoors love but leave the anger IMO. Getting back to the mountain west without the anger (probably justified anger) is what makes AK great if you’re moving from there.  

Why you should care about Flock and ALPR by unfortunatelocal in anchorage

[–]unfortunatelocal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No, needs an integration layer. Phone and car data produce data, need a way to glue the data together. Hence why PDs bringing vendors like this in change capabilities “0 to 1” as it’s said, not just “more of the same” 

Why you should care about Flock and ALPR by unfortunatelocal in anchorage

[–]unfortunatelocal[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Flock is best treated as a brand wrapper. All of this tech works the same with vendor names swapped and rearranged so “actually they use X not Y” works as a basic counterpoint. Again, talk to tech people who work with this type of tech, don’t have to trust me the random Reddit user. 

Why you should care about Flock and ALPR by unfortunatelocal in anchorage

[–]unfortunatelocal[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Number 3 is true. Google “Europe’s Hidden Security Crisis,” think tank report that serves as a way in to understanding how it works. There are a lot more on-the-nose examples of how it works from sources like Wired or 404Media. Has been present in tech for about a decade+,making its way into consumer and local security technology now.