wow. this is shocking to me. ive grown up here in sitka, and have never hear of "scabs"... and never really thought of new people as "not wanted". we have a lot of coast gaurd families that move in and out of sitka, we have a boarding school where smaller villages send their high school students for a better education, we have a big hospital that houses people from all over alaska that need medical services, and yes, tourism is a huge part of the economy during the summer months along with fishing where, by the way, many many "regular" people come charter fishing and have found sitka welcoming year after year. i think that people who have not felt welcomed here might have come with the expectation that everyone would realize they are new and invite them to supper. sitka is a lot bigger than you might think. i see plenty of people daily that i have no idea who they are... sure, i recognize a lot of them, but i see new faces everytime i leave my house. does this mean i should invite them to dinner? if you want to make friends here, you need to get involved with the community! there are PLENTY of opportunities to do this. join a softball team, go to the gym, show up for a yoga or judo class, bring some food to the beach and share someones bbq pit, read the paper and go to a gathering of people with shared interests, go to the pbar and have a beer with anybody sitting there... DO something! you don't have to wait for sitkans to approach you! i can't even picture someone who took some kind of initiative to make friends with someone here that they would get shot down. i do agree that people tend to stick with their friends, but who doesn't!? if you put in an effort to say hello and tell someone your new in town, chances are they will hang out, give you some advice about where to go or what to do and show you alaskan hospitality
