Date: Sat, 10 Jan 2015 12:13:43 -0800
From: Tamar Lindsay <dicconf at dmarc-yahoo.com>
Subject: [WSFA] a single-building community
To: WSFAlist original <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

SF stories have been written about single-building communities
for decades. I wonder how many authors knew about this one?

https://stories.californiasunday.com/2015-01-04/begich-towers-whittier-alas=
ka/

Whittier, Alaska, is a town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in=
 a 14-story former Army barracks built in 1956. The building, called Begich=
 Towers, holds a police station, a health clinic, a church, and a laundroma=
t. Its hallways resemble those of a school or a detention center. One can o=
ften find residents shuffling around in slippers and pajamas. The only way =
to get to Whittier by land is to drive through a two-and-a-half-mile, one-l=
ane railroad tunnel that shuts down at night.

In summer, cruise ships, charter boats, and commercial fishing vessels brin=
g thousands of visitors to Whittier=E2=80=99s harbor on the west side of Pr=
ince William Sound. In winter, though, the city gets about 250 inches of sn=
ow, and 60 mph winds are not uncommon. The weather is so brutal that childr=
en commute from Begich Towers to school through a tunnel. In the months whe=
n visitors are scant and seasonal businesses are all boarded up, what asser=
ts itself is the strange intimacy of a place where at any hour a resident c=
an knock on the police chief=E2=80=99s apartment door, where students get h=
omework help at their teacher=E2=80=99s kitchen table, and where the pastor=
 conducts baptisms in an inflatable pool in the basement.=E2=80=AF=E2=80=94=
=E2=80=89Erin Sheehy
===