well to be quite frank that place formerly known as Barrow looks absolutely miserable. I mean yeah it's cold obviously but I can't really complain about that...but it also has no bars, no alcohol sales...alcohol is legal if you import it yourself but you have to get a permit and it sounds like a mess...and obviously due to the isolation there might as well be no such thing as emo there. I imagine even cell service is spotty. And everything is expensive (like I hear those plastic wrapped pepperoni pizzas people like to make easy for things like sports watching parties that you find at every grocery store are like $17 apiece there) because of how it has to be imported...supposedly there are good jobs because of the oil industry but still, bleh. Just thinking about that place makes me uneasy! I mean yeah him and his friend will be just visiting, but still.
Lots of rural Alaskan towns don't have bars or legal alcohol sales given how bad the crime problem is; Utqiagvik is not unique in that regard.
That's more just saying how bad rural Alaska is in general rather than a defense of Utqiagvik.