The Wasilla Report

Good morning from Wasilla Alaska. I don't usually write about local areas I live in-even temporarily, yet today I shall make an exception since there are several items of concern that otherwise comprise a sort of writer's block.

This is the time of year in the main part of the state that king salmon return to spawn upriver. Yesterday the state issued a 4 day closure of the Kuskokwim River because of low numbers of fish returning-at least a few need to migrate upriver.

I believe that the spawning season affects social psychology as well-people in Wasilla get more violent and criminally inclined-perhaps even the state Government's Permanent Fund Office is also affected by the June spawning season as it does then issue its denials of eligibility notices to many.

I have owned a home in Alaska since 1990-or did until trading the last of it to a surgeon to pay for hernia laparoscopy repair in January 2010. When Commissioner Butcher's Perm Fund office issued a denial of my P.F.D. check for this year it said I needed to show some evidence that I had ever intended Alaska to be my home. I replied that I have an honorable discharge from the Alaska Army National Guard, and honor's degree from the University of Alaska at Juneau and so forth pointing out that these are all on-line state records, yet will wait with extra stress to learn if they restore my check on a timely way so I can leave this part of the state so affected by June spawn season craziness.

The other item that occurred the night before the P.F.D. denial notice was very unusual yet informative. Five youths between 19 and 23 years of age arrived like a gang at my tent at night kicking it and appearing in a somewhat intimidating array. I learned that they had two purposes; to terrorize homeless people arriving from Anchorage into leaving Wasilla, and to find a new campsite for themselves.

Homeless people in Anchorage were a big news item last winter. The city sought to evict the people from city parks and after wrangling with the A.C.L.U. imposed a two week eviction schedule. Mayor Sullivan made no realistic alternative provisions for the homeless of the city to move into as an alternative. One cannot just leave this part of Alaska. One is stranded if broke and the Canadians want a U.S. passport and adequate funds to pass through the border at Beaver Creek.

I did stay at the Anchorage homeless shelter last winter for seven days. The people that built it were in a different era, and now it is sorely over-used. At night people sleep on the floor on mats two feet wide in rows five deep and many in length. The two hundred and fifty winter residents occupy all of the floor space except for a one mat wide aisle left to pass through. Over flow sleeping space is available at Bean's Cafe nearby, yet that two can reach capacity of cold winter nights. With the eviction of homeless individuals from tents they may have nowhere to go.
One may catch a bus to Palmer or Wasilla of course. I arrived in Anchorage last April from Juneau to look for a paint job after quitting a job that required occasional very heavy lifting at a seafood processor a month after 13,000 triple hernia surgery. A more reasonable job was required without potential new damage to groin or abdomen-besides, I had torn my rotator cuff and never got surgical repair four or five years ago, and still have extra bone chips in an ankle.

I search for work in the Wasilla area as a painter (of exteriors sometimes ), and have had bear problems in S.E. camping numerous times. I can't afford to buy a new tent as I would need to if I moved too far away from town, so I prefer to be within a few miles of a library where the only threats are human and falling, freeze dried trees in the wind.

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2011/06/11/1702607/city-begins-cleanup-of-homeless.html

I am not persuaded that the main part of the state of Alaska has a good social attitude as it might have formerly, yet one must return to the main theme of this article on homeless phenomena and the lack of security in Wasilla Alaska presented by vigilante youth gangs and dope growers.
The gang leader said he was going to shoot me as I stood in front of my tent, so I took out a buck knife and readied to provide a retaliatory thoracic insult in event he produced a gun. He took out a knife and cut my hand just a little. I said I did not want to hurt him and eventually he put his knife away. We had a conversation lasting two hours thereafter, as that Sunday night they two or three would not leave until nearly midnight.

I learned that besides the infrequent roving youth gang seeking to sweep and clear Wasilla of any homeless people arriving from Anchorage there are other terrorist items one might encounter in the area. Besides corrupt police forces (I have no evidence of that and am quite skeptical as they are generally subject to adequate oversight in northern states at least) there are marijuana growers. Marijuana is the largest cash crop in the Wasilla-Palmer area these days, so it is said, and they may be violent too, supposedly.

The other topic of danger mentioned was meth producers that manufacture the drug illicitly in forests. They may use infrared deer motion sensors with automatic cameras to learn who goes in 'their' forest. Meth crystals may grow up a string suspended in some way in a plastic container buried in the ground and then sold for 50 dollars for a small crystal. In some way propane is involved in the manufacturing process.

From my point of view, I have no interest in meth production techniques or marijuana growing. I also learned that an .8% proof bottle of a beer like substance is called a 40 in reference to the number of ounces of liquid it has. The guys passed around a '40' and smoked some dope in a pipe. Marijuana in small amounts is legal in Alaska.
My summer reading program is moving along. I have some good pictures of moose on my cell phone, yet my computer is broken and I have no camera to get anything of quality. I have several books with of material to publish yet must wait until the computer is repaired-I need to earn a 150 dollars for that and still hope to find something to paint.

I do not anticipate that the homeless of Anchorage actually will arrive in Wasilla in large numbers or at all in an exodus of eviction from Anchorage. I looked for much of last summer in Anchorage and found nothing. I looked all winter for a seafood processing job and the closest I got was when Unisea of Dutch Harbor and Japan said in September that I was hired for the January season this year. So in January they were supposed to send the itinerary via Gmail. It worked for others yet for me they said it does not work, so after a week of long distance walks to get to a phone and useless calls to their office in Seattle-they mailed the itinerary to Wrangell Alaska-not to close to Anchorage.

I was fairly unhappy with the Japanese corporation for not putting me to work in January, yet did consciously forgive them before the tsunami hit in March. My belief is that some of the seafood processors won't hire people over 50 because they might use workers comp more often that younger people. I was the only grey haired guy in some of the job hiring interview briefings.

Anchorage is a city where getting any sort of work can be very difficult. It is a privileged city and has even low level janitorial jobs locked up through agencies that place the retarded in them to a certain extent. That is, it is very difficult to find just any free enterprise opportunity in Anchorage and one can't just ride a bike someplace else to look as in the south. If the corporations won't hire you-that knocks out much of the employment possibilities.

The city of Anchorage should have constructed winter camping facilities for those that don't want to live packed in like sardines to contract airborne illness lasting for months. The camp sites need to be free in order to accommodate the broke. They should have good privacy and good surveillance by adequate internet cameras and possible on-site security. It is just too cold in Anchorage to compel people to improvise shelter-event tents freeze to the ground for the rest of the winter after a while. It is possible to believe that people governing from indoors lack competence at how to provide realistic facilities at low cost that work for independent, poor people stranded in the aloof and sometimes vicious Wasilla-Anchorage social and physical environment.