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View Poll Results: What Is The Most Liberal College Town In The Western US?
Eugene, OR 6 11.32%
Corvallis, OR 1 1.89%
Ashland, OR 1 1.89%
Porland, OR 2 3.77%
Olympia, WA 3 5.66%
Bellingham, WA 0 0%
Seattle, WA 3 5.66%
Berkeley, CA 27 50.94%
Santa Cruz, CA 5 9.43%
Boulder, CO 3 5.66%
Flagstaff, AZ 1 1.89%
Santa Fe-Albuquerque, NM 1 1.89%
Voters: 53. You may not vote on this poll

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Old 12-17-2009, 06:13 PM
 
857 posts, read 1,722,741 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Sandpointian View Post
SC is far more corporatized than it was in the past. Downtown is now longer as electic or creative as it once was.

SC used to have an identity. Now it wants to be a cross between Seattle, Palo Alto, and Berkeley. It is wannabe in a big way.

And much like you see in other countries, the arrival of the newbies has pushed out the older generation to the fringes. For a taste of old Santa Cruz, go to Ben Lomond, Felton, & Boulder Creek on 9 and to Soquel and Freedom down on 1. But sadly, those places have probably changed as well...

My favorite barbershop is right next to Bookshop Santa Cruz. Hopefully, they are still there. Those guys were part of the older Santa Cruz, where cars, bikes, family farms, and music predominated. Now one sees is lattes and self-righteous trust fund babies...
I'm looking for a place that is not, in your words, "corporatized," although I have no problems with corporations co-existing w/ smaller businesses.

I'm looking for a place that is eclectic, and not trendy.

I visited Boulder and was very disappointed in how upscale and trendy it is, with "smart growth infilling" with expensive 4 story townhouses.

College towns such as Durango and Flagstaff are on the road in the same direction.

So far, places like South Lake Tahoe maintains originality and large lot sizes.

Would you have a suggestion?

The "Best Cities for Singles" and "Creative Class" are of no help in this regards, with "corporatized" cities such as Boulder, Seattle, San Francisco, and Madison always in the top 10.
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Old 12-17-2009, 11:29 PM
 
Location: Foot of the Rockies
90,316 posts, read 120,147,178 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead View Post
Plenty of good candidats, but a big omission,

You left out my illustrious alma mater, Arcata, CA, home of Humboldt State.

Eugene is liberal, with plenty of trustafarians, self-righteous vegans, eco-warriors who just stumbled out of the Forerunner that Daddy bought,etc. However, it is a big enough town, and close to Springfield, so I think you could certainly find a reasonably affordable place with an array of political perspectives within ten mile radius. A pretty place, and fun, but a bit wet for me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR View Post
Wow I sure did miss that one!

Any others?

Your description of Eugene sounds similar to Boulder on City-Data. Do you think Eugene is more liberal than Boulder?

btw, I did not re-locate this forum to the colleges site. I have no interests in Universities. I am moving it to Boulder.
I was just going to say the same thing, CCCVDUR, that Eugene sounds a lot like Boulder, superficially. The deal with Boulder is that it is really part of the Denver metro area, and many people live in Denver and work in Boulder and vice versa, so it's not really quite as nuts as it seems. The federal labs in Boulder attract a certain sort of person that is semi-liberal, if you get my drift.
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Old 12-18-2009, 01:25 AM
 
3,536 posts, read 5,883,720 times
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Umm...Isla Vista, CA. We were placed under martial law during the 1960s for burning a bank. We held one of the largest college protests against the Iraq War. We have a park named People's Park. It's pretty liberal.
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Old 12-19-2009, 01:26 AM
 
857 posts, read 1,722,741 times
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Default Isla Vista, CA

Quote:
Originally Posted by that1guy View Post
Umm...Isla Vista, CA. We were placed under martial law during the 1960s for burning a bank. We held one of the largest college protests against the Iraq War. We have a park named People's Park. It's pretty liberal.
Very interesting because I keep hearing that Santa Barbara (next to Isla Vista) is conservative.

Is Isla Vista a lone liberal portion of the area?
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Old 12-19-2009, 01:41 AM
 
Location: Southwest Washington
2,316 posts, read 7,787,069 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead View Post
Eugene is liberal, with plenty of trustafarians, self-righteous vegans, eco-warriors who just stumbled out of the Forerunner that Daddy bought,etc. However, it is a big enough town, and close to Springfield, so I think you could certainly find a reasonably affordable place with an array of political perspectives within ten mile radius. A pretty place, and fun, but a bit wet for me.
I heartily disagree. Eugene is very down to earth with a lot of "true" hippie sort of personalities and does without a lot of the pretense and richy-richness you find in places like Portland, Olympia, Ashland (and, I'm assuming, Asheville, Madison, Santa Cruz, etc). That's why I love Eugene so much.

That description is really more fitting of those other places than Eugene. Businesses that make Eugene their home include Springfield Creamery (makers of Nancy's yogurt, owned by the Kesey [as in Ken Kesey] family), the US's largest granola producer (whose name I can't recall right now), Market of Choice (wonderful Oregon grocer), Yogi tea, and so on and so forth.

I'd say it's very liberal in the literal sense, rather than the contemporary political sense, although Eugene residents played a large part in the Battle of Seattle (WTO riots) and it also was home to many eco-terrorists (who were involved with ELF and ALF, the groups who firebombed Hummer dealerships and burned down McDonald's restaurants). Supposedly this sort of activity has landed every person with a Eugene zip code on the terrorist watch list.
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Old 12-20-2009, 01:07 AM
 
857 posts, read 1,722,741 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fiddlehead View Post
Eugene is liberal, with plenty of trustafarians, self-righteous vegans, eco-warriors who just stumbled out of the Forerunner that Daddy bought,etc. However, it is a big enough town, and close to Springfield, so I think you could certainly find a reasonably affordable place with an array of political perspectives within ten mile radius. A pretty place, and fun, but a bit wet for me.
Backdrifter, below, disagrees with Fiddlehead, above:

Quote:
Originally Posted by backdrifter View Post
I heartily disagree. Eugene is very down to earth with a lot of "true" hippie sort of personalities and does without a lot of the pretense and richy-richness you find in places like Portland, Olympia, Ashland (and, I'm assuming, Asheville, Madison, Santa Cruz, etc). That's why I love Eugene so much.

That description is really more fitting of those other places than Eugene. Businesses that make Eugene their home include Springfield Creamery (makers of Nancy's yogurt, owned by the Kesey [as in Ken Kesey] family), the US's largest granola producer (whose name I can't recall right now), Market of Choice (wonderful Oregon grocer), Yogi tea, and so on and so forth.

I'd say it's very liberal in the literal sense, rather than the contemporary political sense . . .
I'm looking for the type of place similar to what backdrifter describes. I've been to Santa Cruz, Boulder, Berkeley, Santa Fe, and Flagstaff, and they have a huge gap between The Rich and The Poor. It seems that college students in these cities are funded by way of money from parents residing in neighboring cities (Phoenix, Denver, whatever).

It sounds that Eugene is an "anti-corporate" type of place. Am I correct in this assumption? Any other college towns similar?
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Old 12-20-2009, 11:10 AM
 
Location: Maryland's 6th District.
8,358 posts, read 25,146,515 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR View Post
Backdrifter, below, disagrees with Fiddlehead, above:



I'm looking for the type of place similar to what backdrifter describes. I've been to Santa Cruz, Boulder, Berkeley, Santa Fe, and Flagstaff, and they have a huge gap between The Rich and The Poor. It seems that college students in these cities are funded by way of money from parents residing in neighboring cities (Phoenix, Denver, whatever).

It sounds that Eugene is an "anti-corporate" type of place. Am I correct in this assumption? Any other college towns similar?
Eugene is not ant-corporate per-se, and I totally agree with Backdrafter's description of Eugene over Fiddlehead's, although you will find some what Fiddlehead has described in Eugene here and there.

If you want anti-corporate and liberal (or at least not insanely conservative), than you should check out College of the Atlantic, even though it is on the East Coast.

College of the Atlantic
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Old 12-21-2009, 02:55 AM
 
Location: Southwest Washington
2,316 posts, read 7,787,069 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by K-Luv View Post
Eugene is not ant-corporate per-se, and I totally agree with Backdrafter's description of Eugene over Fiddlehead's, although you will find some what Fiddlehead has described in Eugene here and there.

If you want anti-corporate and liberal (or at least not insanely conservative), than you should check out College of the Atlantic, even though it is on the East Coast.

College of the Atlantic
Yes, there are a few trustafarians running around Eugene too, as it is a fairly diverse place. Not anti-corporate per se, but definitely a huge focus on local businesses. This isn't necessarily due to U of O... Phil Knight of Nike funds the Ducks big time, for example.
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Old 12-22-2009, 12:23 AM
 
857 posts, read 1,722,741 times
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Quote:
Originally Posted by backdrifter View Post
Yes, there are a few trustafarians running around Eugene too, as it is a fairly diverse place. Not anti-corporate per se, but definitely a huge focus on local businesses. This isn't necessarily due to U of O... Phil Knight of Nike funds the Ducks big time, for example.
Do Nike and Teva have corporate offices in Eugene?

. . .

I started the poll, and apparently my selection of college towns failed to get votes in five instances . . . Thus far, not one person has voted for:

1. Flagstaff, billed as the most Liberal city in Arizona

2. Boulder, billed as an ultra-left progressive suburb of Denver

3. Portland, home of several colleges and an ultraliberal, very pro-environmental place. Interesting, since neighboring Eugene has several votes so far.

4. the Santa Fe-Albuquerque corridor, home of several alternative colleges, along with UNM, along with famous artists, writers, galleries, and anthropologists

5. Bellingham, WA home of Western Washington University, consisting of at least two very liberal elements: the Huxley Environmental Science College, and Fairhaven Alternative College

Just out of curiosity, why has nobody selected these three options?

The poll remains open so perhaps somebody will . . . .
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Old 12-22-2009, 04:09 PM
 
Location: Maryland's 6th District.
8,358 posts, read 25,146,515 times
Reputation: 6535
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCCVDUR View Post
Do Nike and Teva have corporate offices in Eugene?

. . .

I started the poll, and apparently my selection of college towns failed to get votes in five instances . . . Thus far, not one person has voted for:

1. Flagstaff, billed as the most Liberal city in Arizona

2. Boulder, billed as an ultra-left progressive suburb of Denver

3. Portland, home of several colleges and an ultraliberal, very pro-environmental place. Interesting, since neighboring Eugene has several votes so far.

4. the Santa Fe-Albuquerque corridor, home of several alternative colleges, along with UNM, along with famous artists, writers, galleries, and anthropologists

5. Bellingham, WA home of Western Washington University, consisting of at least two very liberal elements: the Huxley Environmental Science College, and Fairhaven Alternative College

Just out of curiosity, why has nobody selected these three options?

The poll remains open so perhaps somebody will . . . .
Well I am curious, are you looking to attend college, or just want to move to a (very) liberal place?

Portland is give or take. For the most part, the city was not very liberal until Northern Californians (mainly from the Bay Area) begin to move to Portland in the 60's, bringing with them their liberal vibe, much to the dislike of the natives. There is still a good amount of liberalism left in Portland, and it is definitely one of the most liberal cities of its size, but anyone who claims that it is the most liberal city on the West Coast is not truly familiar with the place. There is still a lot of resentment over the Californian Invasion.

I am not familiar enough with Flagstaff, Boulder, Bellingham, or Santa Fe to really have an opinion.
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