BS: Looking for Utopia

Subject: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Gypsy
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 10:54 PM

Well, this isn't really BS, but can think of no other heading. IF we were to move, where would we go? Would stay in the states, need to have a major music scene, low crime, and zero drugs. Sounds like Utopia or Mayberry to me! LOL! Would also want an airport within an hour or two, and a decent hospital. Small towns are better for us. Pretty much lets out the west coast. Where do YOU live? does what i am looking for exist? Any thoughts or inputs?

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 11:11 PM

Have I got the place for you! The one and only real and official Utopia itself is less than 20 miles away from here. Yes, indeed. Utopia, Ontario, Canada...a lovely ten-minute drive due west from the big city of Barrie, nestled in rolling hills where farmland alternates with big swaths of forested land, and there's even a provincial park just down the road.

I'm not kidding. The place really is called Utopia. I used to sail radio control sailboats in the old millpond there.

You will, however, have to leave the USA.

Major music scene? Umm...well, not exactly what I'd call "major"...but Toronto's not too far away. Low crime? Very low. Zero drugs...??????????? You have, like, got to be kidding, eh? There ain't no community with, like, ZERO drugs, eh? Hosers take drugs, man! But the drug scene in Utopia is real low key, man. You'd never even notice. Take my word on that. This is yer 100% harmless type drug scene. No gunfights. Airport within an hour or two? Abso-flippin'-lutely! Toronto.

There ya go. ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Ebbie
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 11:14 PM

Well, Juneau, Alaska is a pretty good fit. It is on the (northern) west coast, is a small town (30,000 spread across a 46-mile long, two-mile wide urban area), low crime (we do have some bicycle theft though- oh, and the occasional murder), good hospital, great music scene, no gangs (cops like it here, vital arts region (5 levels of live theatre, 2 symphonies, folk festival, Jazz and Classics festival, music from folk to opera in home and hall.)

Wild Spirit

Traveled north from Seattle in the year of '88
In search of 'Alaska' and praying I wasn't too late
I stopped in Juneau, on my way throught the great Inside
Fell in love with the city, it was the end of my ride

    Wild Spirit, Wild Spirit, O Juneau, I sing of thee!
    Thy breath is the wind, thy home is the mountains and sea
    Thy soul is the people who choose to live here with love
    Wild Spirit, unfettered but by high sky above!

We have no railroad and there's just one double-lane
When you hear a 'semi', it's just a tiny floatplane
With guitars and fiddles we sing away our cares
Sweet music escaping into the tangy air

We're bankers and hippies and government workers here
We're fishers and teachers and pilots of water and air
And great artists and writers- we all make this our home
In the whistlingest, huggingest, happiest town I've known.

Wild Spirit, Wild Spirit, O Juneau, I sing of thee!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Rapparee
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 11:15 PM

Define "major music scene." There is NO place with zero drugs. None, zip, nada. Not in the States, not in the world.

Where I am is the third largest city in Idaho (about 52,000 people). A decent university, a decent hospital, a small airport and a MAJOR air hub 2.5 hours down the road. 2.8% unemployment at the moment, cost of living is about 10% under the national average.

There's a bunch of stuff on the city's website.

There's a bluegrass festival and a bunch, a whole bunch, of local acoustic groups and even some of those "other" groups. The U attracts musical groups from around the country, from classical to heavy metal rock.

It's not a bad place, really. Average of 17" of precipitation (all sorts) per year, pretty decent air and water quality (and we want to keep it that way). 2.5 hours from Grand Teton NP, Yellowstone NP, Sun Valley.... Fishing, hunting, skiing (both sorts), rock climbing, hiking, biking, birding, you name it. Even golf and tennis.

And the housing is affordable!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Little Hawk
Date: 08 Oct 06 - 11:22 PM

Idaho is not bad. I was there in the late 80's for a few weeks. There's some beautiful mountain country around there.

What most people don't know is that Idaho was the first place in North America to have professional prostitutes even before white civilization had arrived. One of these ladies met Lewis and Clark on their arrival and immediately chatted them up, saying "You two look like real big spenders."

"Who are you?" said Lewis. "I da ho," she replied. And that's how the state got it's name. ;-)

(At least that's what Shane told me, eh, Rapaire?)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 02:49 AM

There's a very pretty little town in the southwestern section of Texas called Utopia.

From the literary standpoint, this quote explains it the best way I understand it (one of my committee members specialized in Utopian literature)

"The word UTOPIA stands in common usage for the ultimate in human folly or human hope -- vain dreams of perfection in a Never-Never Land or rational efforts to remake man's environment and his institutions and even his own erring nature, so as to enrich the possibilities of the common life. Sir Thomas More, the coiner of this word, was aware of both implications. Lest anyone else should miss them, he elaborated his paradox in a quatrain which, unfortunately, has sometimes been omitted from English translations of his Utopia, the book that at last gave a name to a much earlier series of efforts to picture ideal commonwealths. More was a punster, in an age when the keenest minds delighted to play tricks with language, and when it was not always wise to speak too plainly. In his little verse he explained that utopia might refer either to the Greek 'eutopia', which means the good place, or to 'outopia', which means no place". --Lewis Mumford (in The Story of Utopias, 1922).

(that came from this page)

Utopia was never intended to be the equivalent of Nirvana, yet that seems to be how it is sometimes intended in modern usage.

Meanwhile, I will eventually try to move back to Ecotopia, where I come from, when my kids are grown and I am once again free to move about the country. I think you could look at someplace like Hot Springs, Arkansas to meet the requirements you listed in the first post about size, music, airport and hospital proximity, etc. Not necessarily in Hot Springs, but somewhere between there and Little Rock. And there are lots of little towns out around Nashville or between Nashville and Bowling Green, KY, that might fit your wishes and your pocketbook. And of course, don't forget the music scene in Austin, Texas, though it is in Tornado Alley, and gets really hot in the summer. You'd have to find a town out a ways, like Fredericksburg or such. It is do-able.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 08:18 AM

Sounds like quite alot of New Zealand would fit your bill. One of the small towns not too far from either of the cities. They even speak English, of sorts....

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 09:08 AM

Eek is in the US. So is Dead Horse. They're both kinda cold in the winter, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Gypsy
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 10:40 PM

Well, actually had considered Canada, but was trying to narrow the scope. Have a good friend from Quebec, and it sounds pretty terrific. You are all correct......i will find no place that is drug free. But i would really like to find an area where they are low key, and not poisoning the enviroment like the average meth lab does. And the violence that goes with it. These are all good for thought, thank you so much for sharing! Any other places i should look into?

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Rapparee
Date: 09 Oct 06 - 11:43 PM

Let me point out that Pocatello, once the Meth Lab Capital of Idaho and bordering states, has REALLY lost the title since the FMC plant closed. That plant used to produce elemental phosphorous, necessary for making meth.

While meth is around here, it's no more prevalent now than it is in other places. Little of it is locally made anymore.

Just don't kid yourself into thinking that your dream place exists, because it doesn't. You'll have to compromise -- just as life itself is a compromise, just as you compromise every day just to stay alive.

We had a terrible murder here a couple weeks ago; a 16 year old was stabbed to death. Within a couple days the police had two of her classmates in custody (both male) and, apparently, a pretty airtight case. This was the first, and so far only, murder this year or last (I think). The cops did shoot and kill a wanted violent sexual felon who was in violation of his parole; he opened fire and three cops responded; a cop was hit in the leg as well. Again, a rare occurence.

Overall, this is a good place to live. Many places are. But you can't escape the bad and the ugly, either.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 01:02 AM

And I hear they have a good library in Pocatello.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 03:55 AM

A historical note that might be of interest:

About ten or twelve years ago a young couple moved into one of the near-dead towns in the Texas panhandle. Although this was the county seat, and had a courthouse and postoffice, the town population had dwindled to about a dozen (probably counting the two horses), only about four houses were occupied, there were no nearby businesses, and most of the buildings were falling down.

The couple started gathering up a few of the old properties, and started a small art shop. They managed to attract a couple of "regionally famous artists" for a few exhibitions in one of the old houses that they cleaned up to use as a gallery.

They cleaned up a small lot out behind the art shop, put in a little pavillion and a few lights, and started having Saturday night dances whenever the weather was nice. Eventually the dances got pretty much regular in season, and attendance is pretty good.

A little expansion of the business led to a frame shop in the historic old hotel, and a bit of hustling around got them a small federal grant sufficient to build the new regional "Wolf Creek Museum." They found enough in the way of "artifacts" donated or lent by local people to begin to think about expanding the original 8,000 sq ft (a guess) museum within the first five years or so.

Several "locals" who didn't know they had a life are now active sorting, cleaning, setting up displays and writing local history at the museum.

The new "art settlement" attracted a blacksmith who seems to be pretty busy, mostly making craft show stuff, I think. And all that traffic prompted the possible re-opening of an old filling station - now (maybe) to be a hamburger stand - that had been out of business for at least twenty years.

I think the nearest town with a grade school and high school, and a bank, is about 17 or 18 miles away. (The town library there does have a good high speed internet connection.) The nearest Walmart and large hospital are about 85 miles away, across the border in Oklahoma, although there's a smaller hospital about half way (also in OK) to that "big city."

Now if they had a luthier and somebody to work leather, and possibly a pottery shop, or someone with a loom or two ... and there are probably locals who would maybe help with a quilt shop ...

And Frankie McWhorter and his "ExLax Symphony" (music to move you ... a local nickname) may be world famous, but they could probably use a few more good musicians for Friday and Saturday night whoop 'em ups.

If joining that sort of start-up colony doesn't appeal, there's an "abandoned" lumber yard with a really big tin shed perfect for the "hobbyist who thinks big" in that little town with the bank and the library, although I don't know how cheaply they'd let it go.

There's an abandoned church across the street from that little hospital half way to the big city that I've heard would go really cheap, and you could start your own town meeting hall and throw all kinds of parties maybe.

Of course, it's easier if you can find what you're looking for; but at least in this instance there's proof you can still make what your lookin' for if you're a little bit creative.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 09:11 AM

I suspect that you always make what you're looking for, whether it be in New York City or Fishhook, Illinois or Corn Creek, Idaho. It depends upon how much work you are willing to put into it.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Genie
Date: 10 Oct 06 - 08:33 PM

Well, we have a town called "Boring" in Oregon, Pretty aptly named and probably pretty close to drug-free and crime-free. Plus it's basically right on the Columbia River in the Gorge - far enough from Portland to be rural but close enough should you need what big evil cities have to offer.

Meanwhile you can visit Alanis Morissette's "Utopia" on her album "Under Rug Swept."    Click HERE for an A/V clip.

Genie
;)

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 08:15 AM

A Brief History of Utopia

An Australian real place.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 10:15 AM

Have you tried Sir Thomas Moore?





Sorry, I couldn't resist.......

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Amos
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 12:55 PM

We'll have no Moore of that, sir!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Kaleea
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 01:07 PM

With enough money, one could build any kind of Utopia they choose. Till I get that much $$, Juneau, Alaska is sounding pretty good. I've never been there. Maybe I could even find a a nice feller to support me in the style to which I would like to become accustomed? You know, like retired-with a real income instead of soc sec that is a joke. OK, you're right, I'm describing the imaginary place called Utopia!

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Raptor
Date: 11 Oct 06 - 02:09 PM

I've seen Utopia Ontario and it is aptly named.

Raptor

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Genie
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 12:22 PM

You guys mean Sir Thomas More, don't you? The guy Henry VIII had beheaded (because Merrie Olde England was far from Utopia).

Not to be confused with the poet Thomas Moore.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Bunnahabhain
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 12:34 PM

Well, I did. My typing often leaves much to be desired though, and my spelling is appealing as well...

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Rapparee
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 12:41 PM

Neither is with us any Mo(o)re.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 12 Oct 06 - 07:33 PM

No such place as Utopia - except you have the ability to make a little bit of it wherever you go.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Oct 06 - 07:36 PM

We already covered More. here. Oct. 9. Look at the block quote.

Subject: RE: BS: Looking for Utopia
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 14 Oct 06 - 09:30 AM

Yes, no Mo(o)re, please.