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Outside Magazine September 2001

Build Your Own Utopia

Intro | Bellingham | Utopia | Readers' Choice | Santa Fe | Chattanooga | Eureka/Arcata | Win Lottery, Move Here | Camden | Blacksburg | Northampton | Santa Barbara | Duluth | Missoula

Somewhere between a community's basic necessities (good schools, low crime, reasonable real estate) and its most coveted luxuries (singletrack in the backyard, Class III whitewater on the outskirts of town) are the little perks that can make the difference between a fine outdoor-sports town and a downright dreamy one. Here's our highly subjective recipe for perfection, the ingredients in no particular order:

 • Seasonal farmers market
 • Outdoor lap pool
 • Artsy movie house
 • Bike lanes
 • natural-foods grocery
 • Resident oddballs
 • Water running through it
 • Climbing gym
 • International-magazine newsstand
 • Plans to fight sprawl
 • Clean air
 • Outdoor music venues
 • Dog parks
 • Local parades
 • Alternative weekly
 • Good local public radio
 • Fresh-fish vendor
 • Outdoor-skills clinics
 • Juice bar
 • Summer mountain-bike racing series
 • Minor League baseball
 • Big trees
 • Sunshine



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Intro | Bellingham | Utopia | Readers' Choice | Santa Fe | Chattanooga | Eureka/Arcata | Win Lottery, Move Here | Camden | Blacksburg | Northampton | Santa Barbara | Duluth | Missoula
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