Free Town Project revisited

[maxxoccupancy]

Now that we have been in state for about three years, and have seen a lot more of the state, it may be worthwhile to reexamine the free town project idea... ie, voting on a town somewhere in NH that is very liveable, but is small enough to be affected by our efforts.

There are about two dozen freestaters in Manchester.  With a population of 109,000, we have made only a slight dent here.  If we could find a town of less than 20,000, we might be able to have a greater impact, there.  It would be nice to prove some of these libertarian policies, but it would also be nice to live without housing codes or high property taxes.

Perhaps we should start looking at viable towns and talk to people in those towns... do the research the way we did with the FSP vote.  That might help us get some area with the one activist per 100 population goal that we originally had with the FSP.

Any ideas?

Max

[Russell Kanning]

I like the idea.
We have about a dozen in the city of Keene right now .... so 12/23,000. I vote for Keene.
Here you have to ignore the mob bosses tax bills and building codes, so some people might prefer a place that doesn't have that level of organized crime in their town.

I agree .... let's start the free town debate.

[Russell Kanning]

I just remembered that I lost the "which state" debate ... so maybe I will go down in flames in this one too.
It won't matter, we are having too much fun in Keene. I wouldn't want to leave.

[maxxoccupancy]

This may be less for freestaters who've already moved and settled down.  Quite a few newbies are asking where they should move to, and many fsp-NHers are looking for some place to move to.  Keene is being mentioned for newbies.  In fact, because there are quite a few people there, we might want to place that on the list of nominee towns.  I think that Dover is another, and there might be a few others.

The point being, people willing to move (or move again) should be given one or two options (perhaps three) where they will be able to find a high concentration of activists and freedom loving people.

--Max

[tracysaboe]

I agree.

Such a vote would also help prospective FSPers and FSPers who haven't moved yet decide where they want to settle down in NH.

Tracy

[maxxoccupancy]

Great, that's 100% support in favor of (drum roll, please).....

a poll

here goes....

[Braddogg]

Every so often, we come across the great early-movers debate: where to move?  It seems that there are already a handful of places people are concentrating (Grafton, Dover, Keene, Manchester, Concord, and forgive me if I missed any big ones).  I think maybe setting up a place on the Underground highlighting the activities of liberty-lovers in those areas might be a good idea.  By pointing to existing action in a handful of towns and cities, early-movers that make it to the boards can be directed to those pages.  They can look through the city profiles and the kinds of activities people are doing there and can decide where they want to live.  I'm not sure we have to necessarily have a "vote" to agree on two or three munincipalities to direct people.

[Michael Fisher]

Why don't we vote on what we believe is the best region of the state for Free Staters to move into?

[Russell Kanning]

... for concentration the other places don't come close to grafton or keene.
If you want to escape the government now, a place like Grafton is good. If you want to be on the front lines of the nonviolent revolution then Keene is the place.

[maxxoccupancy]

Too late, I already put up the poll.

As a matter of fact, I didn't know that a lot of people had moved to Grafton.  I've only heard of one or two.

I honestly think that the ideal town would be one that borders on a large city (like Concord or Manchester), having the services, jobs and freeway access, but has its own small, proliberty population.  I can think of a few good ones around Manchester (like Goffstown, pop 17,000; or Auburn, pop. 6,000) and some others.  Some people are settling amongst a few towns, and we do mention that to people thinking of moving here, but it would be nice to have a town smaller than Manchester, but with 50 or 60 activists we could depend on to help out every year.  That would give us something similar to the 20,000 per state density of the original FSP.

Maybe even a Seacoast town like Dover (27,000).  412 have already moved, with some moving again to resettle in other towns.  Some NHites are getting involved, and about 700 have said that they plan to move within the net two years.

I think it would be a good idea to pick a couple of distination towns, and concentrate activists there.

Just my two cents.

--Max

[Russell Kanning]

Grafton is so small it only takes 2-3 to be way ahead of Manchester. How many people have moved to Dover? It is about the same size as Keene, but doesn't have nearly the movers.

[tracysaboe]

From what I here from Dave Mincin and others that live in Dover, it has more corrupt cops too.

Tracy

[tracysaboe]

  It seems that there are already a handful of places people are concentrating (Grafton, Dover, Keene, Manchester, Concord, and forgive me if I missed any big ones). 

Actually I think that's about it, Except don't forget the Indian Stream Republic Area. I know there's a group of people planning on moving up in that region.

Tracy

[KBCraig]

We've got the Free State nailed.

Why worry about the Free Town? If you're going that route, you might as well focus on the Free Ward.

People will move where they can find a job and afford to live. Narrowing further isn't just pointless; it feeds anxiety about whether to move to NH at all.

Don't baby people. Encourage them, but don't try to create Utopia for them. We don't want people who seek to move to Utopia; we want those who will do their best to create it.

Kevin

[maxxoccupancy]

We've got the Free State nailed.

Why worry about the Free Town? If you're going that route, you might as well focus on the Free Ward.

People will move where they can find a job and afford to live. Narrowing further isn't just pointless; it feeds anxiety about whether to move to NH at all.

Don't baby people. Encourage them, but don't try to create Utopia for them. We don't want people who seek to move to Utopia; we want those who will do their best to create it.

Kevin

I don't understand your post.  I'm not suggesting any of those things.  I'd like help set up a couple of free towns.  We'd need a lot more activists to turn around small jurisdictions.  Manchester the city is a tough nut to crack, but we can have a big impact on the state from here.  It will just take much longer to turn City Hall around, even having more fspers than any other city in NH.  Goffstown has 1/6th our population, and already has a freer city gov't.  MVP has 50-60 regular attendees.  IN a few years, the greater Manchester area alone will have a few hundred freestaters.  That would be enough to change a small town like Goffstown, but not the whole area.