I am wondering..we may move back to the States. *sniff* Wondering where the crunchiest places to live are? Prefer West of the Mississippi:)

Is your city Crunchy? Clean? Well adjusted-lol!? Does it have Mountains? Hills?

Bummer! I would be totally bummed if I had to leave NZ :( Oregon is pretty crunchy(see the other post about the country fair,lol). Around Corvallis and Eugene there are a ton of crunchy people, and there are mountains/hills.

When is your expected move?

Well, it's to the East, but the Ithaca, NY area is just *beautiful* with rolling hills, gorges, lots of green! The city and surrounding area is pretty crunchy as well.

That's probably where we'll end up in the future.

The Southeast is NOT crunchy except for Asheville NC.

Portland Oregon is super crunchy, and a great place for kids!

Humboldt County in Northern Ca is super crunchy.

Boulder, Colorado.

Beautiful mountains, great weather, more alternative practitioners than allopathic physicians, 6 homebirth midwives in the phone book (used to be more listed), lots of bike and walking trails, great public transportation. Head office of Wild Oats, has a vegetarian/organic Co-op, Whole Foods, Vitamin Cottage and currently two Wild Oats stores (a new one being built) and a great farmer's market. I believe over 50% of the population has a university degree. Everyone looks very fit and healthy (for the most part), its where many Olympic athletes train. No bible bashing, home to the Naropa Institute (Buddist University). 40 percent of the children are not vaxed or "undervaxed", so if you don't vax, it is doubtful it would be a issue, also, CO has a philosophical exemption. You will see plenty of BF and slinging mamas around town. Plenty of alternative schools, and even a Waldorf inspired public school (which my youngest two attend).

Sounds too good to be true?! The downside is the cost of living is very high. It is somewhat more reasonable in the towns surrounding Boulder - Longmont, Louisville and Layfayette.

Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana

I want to go back, can you tell?? :wah:

Wonderful Farmer's Market
Health food stores
Incredible diversity
Doulas & Midwives
Actual B&M stores with organic clothes & a variety of diapers & wooden toys & soft soled shoes
Huge city library
Parks everywhere
lots of slingin' & public breastfeeding

Yeah, it's flat, but it's one of my favorite places we've lived!!!

I love most West Coast cities. But I also love where I live. I live in downtown Manhattan. NYC is super crunchy. I have no car, I use public transportation. I walk everywhere. I have no A/C, but the air this high is cool enough.

I can buy local veggies at farmer's markets all over the city. Lots of locally made clothing. ALL small businesses. I can shop only at locally owned or mom and pop stores. NO WAL MART! Many street fairs. Tons of babywearers, BFers, CDers.

Smaller spaces are more conducive to less crap collecting, getting by with less. No McMansions (though there are some overly large apartments). Community gardens everywhere.

The recycling program is awesome and well organized. There are cloth diaper services. I washed my own, but I have friends who love the service.

eta: There are many more benefits. Tons of culture. Free events like music at Lincoln Center, concerts in the park, Cuban musicians playing impromptu shows at the park, tons if parks and green spaces. The library (www.nypl.org) is awesome. I love it and the resources offered. There are several zoos, science centers, tons of museums, incredible diversity. Everything I could ever want :)

My favorite chrunchy cities:

Eugene, Or.
Missoula, Mt.
Boulder, Co.
Moab, Ut.
Eureka, Ca.
Taos, Nm.

If you've got money Madison WI is ok. So are Veroqua & Mt. Horeb both also in WI.

I'm preferable to Beloi though. It's not everyone's definition of "crunchy" and doesn't have a reputation of being so, but I find it very open minded, a very ethnically diverse population, small libral arts college, strong artistic community with an arts incubator, music festivals and free music weekly and an indie film festival, full of family friendly activities, inexpensive to live, good public transportation, close to organic, biodynamic farms, & weekly farmers market. We've got a nature center, bike paths, the river front and a good parks system. It's amazingly clean. Sure not all the houses are magazine quality but I've only seen 1 spot of grafiti and it was gone less then 3 hours later! We have some hills and are very close to Kettle Morain & rock cut state parks if you need more.

Chole

Boulder, Colorado
Olympia, Washington

I didn't realize Moab was a 'crunchy' city? Hmmm, someplace to look.

At first i didn't think that Honolulu Hawaii would be crunchy, but boy was i wrong. they are all sorts of crunchy things going on except the homebirth scene!! i know that midwifes are here but are totally underground. I know of a women on the Big Island that was a midwife in Eugene, OR and is praticing there. But other wise it is really coming to!! :happy:

We fell in love with Vermont...Montpelier to be exact. Tiny capital city, no McDonald's, no sprawl, no big box stores. Lots of room to roam just outside the city. Land and housing still quite cheap compared to Colorado or Washington or Oregon. Still only 5 hrs from NY and 3 hrs from Boston, 3 hrs to Montreal to escape the country when the $hit hits the fan. LOL!

There are some other really cool, crunchy towns in Vermont...Vergennes, Bristol, Burlington if you like bigger city (still tiny compared to most cities). All have co-ops, locally brewed beer, locally roasted coffee, local goat milk and cheese, local free range chicken, eggs, beef - basically we were able to find everything locally, organically raised or made. We saw one small, sedate strip mall the entire time we were in Vermont...and we combed most of the state.

Negatives are housing prices have gone up in the past few years as other New Englanders buy second, third, fourth homes up there, and jobs that pay well aren't easy to find.

Well my city isn't exactly crunchy but I will lie if it would make you live close to me Linda :D LOL! Santa Cruz is near here and crunchy but way too $$$
All kidding aside.. I am sorry if you have to move! I hope you find the perfect spot!

Sebastopol, California!!

I know of a women on the Big Island that was a midwife in Eugene, OR


That would be Clairebeth Loprinski huh Amy?

austin, texas! This is where Whole FOods was born!

Well my city isn't exactly crunchy but I will lie if it would make you live close to me Linda :D LOL! Santa Cruz is near here and crunchy but way too $$$
All kidding aside.. I am sorry if you have to move! I hope you find the perfect spot!

Ditto that. :)
& hills, hiking, beach, city near enough, but far enough yk?

I'll say anything to get you to move by me Linda! :heart:

I second Portland and Olympia. I live in Oly, WA and we have tons of crunchers around here... I also would suggest that if you want to be on the West Coast (Beach and Mountains with in a hour both ways... and lots of hills... I couldn't live with out the view of mountains) I would look into Bellingham, WA as well. I enjoy Oly's crunchy flair... but it gets VERY political and overdemanding occasionally for me... I had a friend who lived in Bellingham and in my weekend long visits there I found that it is WAY more laid back... it has an enviromental emphosis instead of a political one. I found that I really enjoyed this (or perhaps it just fit the way I live) and it is something to look into. I have also enjoyed many places in OR... most places there are with in 30 miles of somewhere progressive... which is what I am asking when I ask about a towns crunchy factor. :) Ureka, CA is another...

I have always picked places I would live by the proximity of a large college or U. You can bet that just about anywhere with a large college will be a bit more on the progressive side. They just happen to fall together. :D I have only been proven wrong once... they wern't progressive... they were tolerent. lol...

Love Val

Hey! What's wrong with Santa Fe? We would love to have you back here. :happy: I love your new sig pics too. :)

Just visited Nevada city and Grass Valley this weekend...both look crunchy and are near Tahoe!!

I'll say anything to get you to move by me Linda! :heart:

Hey now! None of that missy! LOL!
Ok how about you both move here? LOL!!

Hey-thank you so much for the input. I really appreciate it.

Val, is Bellingham expensive?

Elizableth-lol!!! You are so funny. Elizabeth-is there even one cruchy place inFlorida? I lived in Melbourne for 4 months in 2000. There was a Wild Oats there-but all of the produce was trucked from California-lol! My curly hair did not like the humidity:P

KD and Ian~even if it was crunchy by you-and it is in some places~ I don't think I could ever afford a house:)

Niri-thank you for the compliments on the pics:) Santa Fe is crunchy but didn't suit us at all. There are not any good IT jobs there unless dh wanted to work for the Labs which to him is unthinkable. I do miss all of the crunchy families there-and especially you! Your kids just get more beautiful.

Moab is interesting. I was wondering about Salt Lake too. We probably need a University or academic environment.

Vermont sounds so interesting to me. Dh will not even consider the east.

Lots to think about...missing home a lot. not letting it interfere with life, now. But, enough to reconsider everything. Yuck.

I love you guys




:heart: :heart:

Vermont is interesting, but I am mostly choosing it because my mom is now here in Florida and I don't want to be across the country from her. Sigh. Otherwise I'd be out on the West Coast, or near Boulder, or even up in Alaska again. (But not Fairbanks, I think I would choose Homer or Cordova - both very crunchy artists' communities.)

The thing about Vermont is the mountains are so dang small! And mostly covered in trees. :) More like large hills. I love the sweeping beauty of Rainier, Mt. Hood, the Rockies. Not to mention Alaska - we stopped the Bus every five minutes and got out and gasped with awe while we were driving through the Wrangell-St Elias Mountains.

As far as whether there is a crunchy place in Florida, yes...there actually are several huge organic farms in Gainesville. But you have to order through a produce co-op to get that produce. Why they don't sell to Whole Foods, I am not sure. I think Gainesville in general is much crunchier than here (Orlando area). Also the Tallahassee area has some crunch. See, both have big universities. Ironically, UCF is here in Orlando but it is NOT crunchy at ALL. Not even liberal or left-leaning.

Okay. Must. Get. Out. Now I remember why I am moving!

Missoula Montana. I don't live there, but not too far from it. I have heard that it is great there.

Salt Lake City is very uncrunchy and very religious. BUT the close proximity to scenic places was a major boon for me. The mountains are amazing! That city has over 2 million people now.

I love Missoula. Close to hotsprings-always important to me.

Salt Lake City is very uncrunchy and very religious. BUT the close proximity to scenic places was a major boon for me. The mountains are amazing! That city has over 2 million people now.


I live in SLC, and yes it is a different culture b/c of religion. It is less than half LDS (demographics were recently published in our paper). Of the LDS population, you tend to have either very LDS ppl or very-much-no-longer-LDS if that makes sense LOL. It is a small "big city" which I love. I would actually prefer larger, but, this size is very managable if that makes sense.

Yes, the nature here is gorgeous. The mtns are beautiful. Outdoor recreation anywhere you want it, any season. Skiing of course, mtn climbing, hiking, canyons everywhere. Any kind of sport, a local park has a killer tennis program w/tons of courts and group/private lessons available. If you are physically active it is a great place to live.

Rather than calling it "uncrunchy and very religious" I would use the term "very conservative." I've never seen a lot of bfing or cding around here, but haven't lived here since I've done that stuff. We have Wild Oats stores etc. An hour south is a midwifery school, and UofU has a CNM program.

If you're looking for a good academic environment, it is perfect. Univ of Utah is an incredible school and there are several other colleges around.

I very much dislike the political environment that is so conservative. Any other questions I'd be happy to answer. I've lived here only a year, but have visited regularly since a child, and have lived in a few other areas of Utah in my life. I would choose SLC over any of those other areas.

Yes, you're moving to Missoula!... See how many votes there are? And not just from biased people like me.

Here are just a small fraction of the pros:
-- Low, low crime rate
-- Great place to raise kids - we have every type of private/public/home/un-schooling group imaginable
-- Surrounded by mountains
-- Mild winters and summers
-- Missoula Children's Theater HQ
-- International Wildlife Film Festival HQ
-- Festival of the Book HQ
-- Big Sky Documentary Film Fest HQ
-- Home to the University of Montana
-- Great places for organic foods, three farmers' markets, three microbreweries and two wineries
-- Oh yeah... a fantastic natural diapering/parenting store run by a swell family you'd like ;)

Cons:
-- Housing prices high compared to cost of living, but definitely not as high as anywhere in Cali, or NM, or Colorado, I'd say

Seriously, Linda, if you ever need more info, drop me an e-mail (julietom@ruralinstitute.umt.edu) xxx Julie

OK, to be honest, I've only been to Missoula once, for 2 days, but got a very good first-impression. And it IS beautiful. I stayed in a cabin on the river about 35-40 minutes upstream, and never went into town after the 2 days' visit. The hills/river were to beatiful to leave while I still had time to stay. :)

Well my city isn't exactly crunchy but I will lie if it would make you live close to me Linda :D LOL! Santa Cruz is near here and crunchy but way too $$$
All kidding aside.. I am sorry if you have to move! I hope you find the perfect spot!
I was born and raised in Santa Cruz, Ca. it is super crunchy we left because we could not afford to live there
Jen

OK, to be honest, I've only been to Missoula once, for 2 days, but got a very good first-impression. And it IS beautiful. I stayed in a cabin on the river about 35-40 minutes upstream, and never went into town after the 2 days' visit. The hills/river were to beatiful to leave while I still had time to stay. :)

We are looking for jobs here~but they never seem to come up...I haven't been there-but I have a feeling I would love it:) If we move there will you come visit?
:monkeydan

Corvallis, Portland or Eugene Oregon. :happy:

I'm so homesick. :eyes:

I loved living in Oregon! We lived in Ashland for a year and loved it.

I would say that Boulder is fake crunchy. I have never seen so many strip malls and corporate stores in a so called hippie town. We were very disappointed in Boulder. We moved to Denver where I have met more crunchy folks and am able to shop more ma n pa than in Boulder. Our lease was for 6 months and we wanted out sooner! I would not vote Denver as crunchy either after living in crunchy towns for the past 8 years or so. I miss the cruncy towns we lived in, but dh has his business here and we need to stay put. We are in a lovely neighborhood of Denver and we are making the best of it :) I was terribly unhappy in BOulder.

We also lived in Ocean Beach, CA a community of San Diego, it was fun, but now renting/owning is sooo expensive. I love central coast of California. What can I say, I'm a west coast girl :)

Good luck Linda, if I can be of help, let me know!

We are looking for jobs here~but they never seem to come up...I haven't been there-but I have a feeling I would love it:) If we move there will you come visit?
:monkeydan

If I could get permission to stay at the cabin again (no problem), and could come up with the road-trip money (problem) I'd be there in enough time it takes to plan it and drive there. :)

Or you could just find some place closer to the west coast and make it easier on us over here. - 'Cause this move is all about us y'know. LOL! :D

If I could get permission to stay at the cabin again (no problem), and could come up with the road-trip money (problem) I'd be there in enough time it takes to plan it and drive there. :)

Or you could just find some place closer to the west coast and make it easier on us over here. - 'Cause this move is all about us y'know. LOL! :D

If I could squeeze in the trunk I will pay you gas $$ :lol:

Arcata CA is extra-crunchy -- great co-op, city water filtered by a giant natural wetland, great kid stuff, contra dancing, the Northwest Environmental Center, and I think the city council is still mostly Green Party. House prices are crazy though and there's a lot of gentrification in some parts; also some depression of the economy but if you are thrifty this may not be a problem.

I live in the burbs of Houston. We don't even show up on the crunch radar, ROFL!!! Its getting better though. We are starting to see people demand farmer's markets from local farmers, etc. We do have a few Whole Food markets around Houston but they won't come to the burbs because we "aren't the right demographic" :rolleyes:

We have so many walmarts, malls and strip centers its not even funny. I don't think the Houston area will ever be considered crunchy, but we are working on it. And every little bit helps. When we lived on the other side of Houston, we atleast had curbside recycling. Its hard to even find recycling here on this side of houston. We do atleast have a pretty happening freecycle.

I envy all of you that live in crunchier cities/states.

:sniff: well at least wherever you move, you still have to come to NM to visit the IL's right?! So I can see you then....LOL

But really my IL's live in MT, (Just outside of Lewistown, Hobson is the closest town, but where they live is called Sapphire Village (9 houses*LOL) if you've ever heard of yogo sapphire's thats where they come from... We would move there in a heartbeat, but the jobs just arent there...with DH theonly working and supporting (almost) 10 of us, it needs to be a decent paying job....sigh... so in the meantime we go every other year for 2-3 weeks and ride horses, play in the streams and rivers, go fishing and walking in the hills, etc... if you move there, we could visit you too.LOL :) Good luck, what a hard decision and everything...thinking of ya~

But really my IL's live in MT, (Just outside of Lewistown


I L O V E Montana!! I lived IN Yellowstone Park for 10 years and that by far was my favorite place to live. Forget crunchy it was spectacular!!

moab!! love it there. my uncle and aunt live there. I used to spend summers with them. Lots of hiking, biking, rafting. Lots of natural food stores. ya gotta live there to see everything. Just visiting, it will seem mor elike a tourist trap, but if you live there, there are so many hidden treasures. It has been awhile since I have been there. But I have always considered it crunchy. I know there were quite a few little shops where you could by ginseng, and other supplements in bulk and assemble the pills yourself. I've never seen anyone slinging, but i was a teenager back then, wasn't really paying attention. Great recycling program. you've got Arches, canyonlands, newspaper rock, dead horse point, the la sal mountains (gorgeous!)

an hour south of that is Monticello. Tiny little town, population 1200? i grew up there. Primarily LDS, but non judgemental. Great school.

if you are wanting new mexico, i recommend Farmington, or Shiprock.

We are moving to Salt Lake sometime in the next few months. wasn't it in salt lake that they had the breastfeeding sit in at a fast food place? i am thinking that if it isn't crunchy, that isn't going to make me change, and perhaps I can better it. :happy:

Good luck with your move!

Missoula is by far the best!! I grew up just an hour north of there and my husband and I are working hard to get back! If you are into outdoor activities this is the place to go. Great whitewater, skiing, hiking, horseback riding, snowmobiling, tons of stuff to do!! Everyone rides their bikes there. The suburban sprawl is starting to attack, but downtown rocks!! And, the outskirts are beautiful. There are alot of lakes nearby and free camping abounds!! It is so easy to pack up your car, drive 30 minutes and be out in the middle of no where!!!

If you must have the ocean, then Olympia WA is the next best option if you ask me. Lots of stuff to do there as well, just more people.

Have fun choosing!!

Sebastopol, California!!

That's what I was going to say. :D It's my home town where I was born and raised and where I'm working right this second. I live one town over now. I think the city council is mostly green party and the police even drive hybrids. http://www.cagreens.org/press/pr050218.htm