Western Information
Real estate
We looked at a lot of towns and real estate in the western portion of
the state. Generally speaking the areas west of the 3 corridor and
south of I-89 are somewhat less expensive than the areas around the
bigger cities and in the southeast part of the state. With the
exception of Keene, that area of the state is made up of scattered small
towns.
Land:
Milford - $99,900, 2.13 ac on
Maple Street. This lot is in Milford but reportedly has Wilton
water (and sewer?). It is near the border. The area it is in
is near a factory and is not overly attractive, though not overly
ugly. It is on a hill which overlooks the factory and the
river. The high prices is presumably because of it's proximity to
Nashua (drive time roughly 30 minutes).
Hillsborough - $8000 ~ $25000,
.25 - 1 ac lots in Emerald Lake Development. These lots are
numerous and listed at inexpensive sale prices. They are in a
community with an association, private dirt roads, a private water
system, and lake access (with some facilities). The lots are
smallish and the houses are a mix ranging from reasonably nice but not
large to rather trashy (in our opinion anyway). I suspect the
people are perfectly nice and you could have an inexpensive home there
but it's not the kind of place I would choose to live.
Hillsborough ~$40,000+, 2+ acre
lots on Mary Rowe. These lots are near but outside the Emerald
Lake District on paved public roads. The surrounding houses are
much nicer (several brand new colonials) and the lots are substantially
bigger.
Hillsborough ~ $40,000+,
2± acre lots on Sawmill. These lots are heavily wooded and
(according to MLS) back up to a river (stream, whatever). The
neighborhood has a slightly rural feeling to it (lot sizes in the 2-5
acre range I'd guess) but it is near town.
Tilton - $65,000, 5-7 acre lots
on Calef Hill. These lots are just a few minutes from town on a
nice street with primarily nice newer houses. These are the kind
of lots that an upper middle class family with a larger (2200-2500 sq.
ft.) house would be very comfortable on. They are near a middle
school and relatively close to shopping (I'd say 10 minutes or so from
Wal-Mart, outlet mall, fast food, etc.).
We didn't have time to look at houses in the western part of the
state. We also essentially didn't do any actually 'shopping' in
Concord. Other lots are available in other towns and that
information is readily available from the MLS. General information
about the areas is below.
Commerce and Restaurants
Concord is the capital city of
New Hampshire (population 41,000) and is home to pretty much every kind
of store and restaurant you would need or want. The downtown area
has small boutique type shops and restaurants and there are department
stores, malls, etc. Concord has high speed Internet access and
cell phone service.
Tilton is a small town (3,500
people) but has remarkably good shopping and eating for a town its
size. It is home to the outlet mall which features 50
manufacturers outlet stores with all kinds of goods. There is also
a super Wal-Mart, Staples, Shaw's (grocery store), an Applebees, KFC,
Wendy's, McDonald's, Burger King, the Tilton Diner, Subway, and several
other things I've probably forgotten by now. There is also a
'downtown' area in Tilton that has some smaller shops but it's not as
large as Keene's or certainly Concord's. I don't know if there is
high speed Internet access in Tilton but my T-Mobile cell phone works
there.
Hillsborough is a town of 5100
people in a somewhat less accessible area of western New
Hampshire. There aren't many things there now but there is a
shopping center under construction which, I believe, will feature a
grocery store (probably a chain). There's a McDonalds there but
otherwise it's all local eating establishments. There is a Ford
dealership there and there is a Sylvania plant of some sort there
(probably the big employer in the area). I saw a Verizon Wireless
store in Hillsborough but my T-Mobile phone did not work there.
Henniker is a small town and
there's really not much there. It's closer to Concord than
Hillsborough so if you like small town life (no chain stores, etc.),
that's probably a nice place for you to go.
Hopkinton is close to 89 and is
a very cute looking town. I don't recall there being much there in
the way of shopping or eating but the town itself has nice homes and is
attractive.
Franklin is west of Tilton and
is decidedly more run down. There are gas stations and what not
but I didn't find any major stores or restaurants.
Weare and Goffstown are closer
to Manchester (see drive times at the end of this page) and, I believe,
are growing as a result of their proximity. Unfortunately we
didn't get to see either one of them in the light so I'm not exactly
sure what's there.
101 (and 101A) between Manchester and/or Nashua and Keene features many
smaller towns (Milford, Wilton, Dublin, Peterborough, Marlboro,
etc.). None of them are very big. Once you get a ways away
from Nashua and/or Manchester the level of commercial creature comforts
decreases considerably. Cell service (at least T-mobile) on that
route is spotty to non-existent west of Milford (or so) all the way
until fairly close to Keene.
Churches
There are plenty of Churches around western New Hampshire. Every
town has at least one and larger towns may have several. We didn't
actually visit (i.e. get out of the car and/or actually go to a service)
any except one in Peterborough.
Monadnock Congregational Church was recommended to us by Thom Simmons
after we described generally what we normally look for in a
church. It is in Peterborough with is roughly half way (time wise)
between Nashua and Keene on Highway 101. We visited there on
Sunday, November 9, for their 10:00 coffee and 10:30 service. We
drove that morning from Nashua and arrived right around 10:00.
Having driven by the day before we thought the church was fairly large
(I estimated maybe between 200 and 300). However, the whole
building the church is in is not occupied solely by the church.
Part of it that looked like classrooms is actually other businesses (a
hair salon, for example).
The parking in the front is deceivingly small. Most of the people
park in the back of the building and there's a back door there. I
would estimate the main sanctuary seats as many as 200 and I'm guessing
there might have been 125 to 150 there that morning. We began by
going downstairs where they have coffee and socialize prior to the
service. We were warmly greeted and the people there introduced
themselves and then to the others around them.
There demographics were a bit spotty. It didn't look like there
were many 20's singles and couples there or many late 40's to late 50's
people. There seemed to be a split mostly between 30's-40's
couples with children (and, hence, their young through teenage
children), and roughly retirement plus people.
The service began with music which was a combination of songs from a
hymnal and a couple of contemporary choruses. The singing was only
accompanied by a piano (one song later in the service they traded the
piano for a guitar). There was a small choir and one soloist who
was quite good. There was also a drama near the beginning of the
service. It was well done and one of the actors in particular was
quite funny.
The church is going through the 40 Days of Purpose series put together
by Rick Warren of Saddleback Church in southern California (a somewhat
larger church ;). A couple of people in the church mentioned that
the church has been going through 'a time of transition' which we
deduced (from other comments) meant growth. There was some
implication that the growth was caused partly by doing the 40 Days of
Purpose series but I didn't press for statistics (it'd be a small sample
anyhow). The message was delivered by Pastor Tim Jantos who did a
fine job. It was well presented, good material, and nothing stuck
out that would raise any big red flags for either of us.
The church had what I would call a small church feel. I suspect
the people there might consider it a larger church feel but it seemed as
though everyone knew each other and would be happy to accept more people
into their group.
Based on our two church attending experiences, we believe it'd be
possible for us to find an environment to fit into in New Hampshire but
it will not be what we're used to. I didn't get enough of a feel
from this experience (or our time at Grace Fellowship in Nashua) to know
if the people there in New Hampshire would be open to significant
'outside' influence in their churches. For those of us desiring a
strong arts program, we may have a more difficult time finding the right
fit.
Other
Drive times for some of the towns in Western NH are listed on the
statewide page. The roads in the
western portion of NH are mostly good but mostly 2-lane.
Navigating with a good map was not particularly difficult as most of
the 2-lane roads do have some sort of signs indicating what they are
(as opposed to some streets in towns which are not marked well).
We visited a lot of towns, some of which were simply drive-by's.
Probably the best I can do is just summarize the 'look and feel' of each
one here.
Concord
Concord is a short drive (15 minutes or so) north of Manchester on I-93
which is a toll road between Manchester and Concord. At the south
end of town, I-89 splits off and goes northwest. I-93 continue
through town and to point north. The town is larger (over 40,000
people) and, as a result, has most any creature comfort a person could
need. The downtown area has shops and is near the capital.
We ate in Concord a couple of times at fast food restaurants and a
Chinese Buffet. We didn't spend a lot of time there but it seems
as though that would be a nice town to live in, particularly if you
wanted to be near the government center of New Hampshire for some reason.
Tilton
Tilton is a small town right on I-93 about 20 minutes north of
Concord. It is in the lakes region tourist area and, as a result,
is home to the outlet mall. As mentioned elsewhere, it is also
home to a seemingly disproportionate amount of creature comfort for its
size (Wal-Mart, every kind of fast food imaginable, etc.). The new
commercial 'area' (Wal-Mart, etc.) is right at exit 20 and the town of
Tilton itself is a bit west of there. The 'town' has its own feel
which is more similar to the other small towns in western New
Hampshire. Housing is somewhat less expensive than in Manchester
(or certainly Nashua) but there are some places that are less
expensive yet. We drove around Tilton on a couple of occasions and
it seemed like the kind of place we could enjoy living, though it's on
the small side for our taste.
Franklin
Franklin is the next town west of Tilton and is not nearly as
nice. The main street is older and many of the homes are not well
kept at all. Housing prices are somewhat less expensive than
Tilton though it's not that far away (maybe 10 minutes). We drove
around a couple neighborhoods and they seemed 'spotty' where some houses
would be nicer but mixed in with very unkept places.
Hopkinton
We only drove through Hopkinton briefly but out impression was that it
was a very nice, probably somewhat upscale town. We didn't check
real estate prices but my observation of the housing there would lead me
to believe it would be a little more expensive than Tilton, maybe even
closer to Concord though somewhat more remote. If I recall
correctly, there may have been a McDonald's there but mostly it seemed
like a quiet residential town with well kept nicer homes.
Henniker
We only saw Henniker in the dark (unfortunately). The town is
south of highway 202 a bit and is home to a college (whose name I can't
recall now). There is a river that runs through town and a few
shops but no significant commercial area. There's not even a
McDonalds that we could find, though there is a nice new gas station /
convenience store right at the highway, along with what appeared to be a
newer shopping center of some sort with (I think) a hardware
store. We weren't able to really figure out the atmosphere but it
didn't seem like the typical college town to me.
Hillsborough
We spent a little bit of time in Hillsborough mainly because of the
attractive land prices there. The highway has been moved within
the last year or so and, as a result, our map was incorrect. The
highway is two lane all the way to I-89, however, it is wide and nice
and the traffic moved right along. What I believe to be the main
exit spits you out right at the McDonalds. There is a brand new
shopping center under construction which I think will probably feature a
supermarket of some sort.
The look and feel of the town seems like a 'mix' to me, but I didn't
find any decidedly upper middle class area. The closest I found
would be near (but not in) the
Emerald Lake development on Mary Rowe and surrounding roads. There
were several brand new homes there, some of which are for sale and there
are lots available for under $50,000. There's nothing right around
there, though, in the way of shopping. It's probably a 10 minute
drive from there to the McDonalds. Overall, we felt that
Hillsborough could be a consideration at that price if it were closer to
better shopping and other amenities.
Weare and Goffstown
Unfortunately, we didn't get a good look at Weare or Goffstown while we
were there as it was dark the only time we drove through. We
weren't taking notes at the time but based on my recollection, they were
both normal (average?) western New Hampshire towns, though somewhat
closer (time wise) to Manchester than those listed above. If we
hadn't toured Keene and the Lebanon area, we may have gone back for a
second look, but we simply didn't have time.
Milford and Wilton
Milford and Wilton are both west of Nashua on 101A/101. Neither
one of them stuck out as particularly nice though their proximity to
Nashua would be a plus, particularly for Milford. They did seem to
have more creature comforts than some of the smaller towns to the north
(Henniker, or Hopkinton, for example), but I didn't see any 'big' chain
stores in either town. Because of their proximity to Nashua,
property is a bit more expensive there than we thought it should be.
Peterborough, Dublin and other
towns on 101 between Keene and Manchester
There are a number of other small towns between Keene and Manchester
and I won't list them all by name. A couple that stuck out as
nicer were Peterborough and Dublin which are near an area with several
lakes and some nice hills (you couldn't get away with calling them
mountains in California). Generally speaking, though, they are
typical New England small towns and don't have the kinds of larger town
features a place like Keene or Nashua would have. If you enjoy
small town living and want something nicer and within commuting distance
of Nashua or Manchester, the towns between Wilton and Keene might be of
interest. The closer to Keene, the more time it would take to
commute (of course), but Keene, itself, is only about 1 hour 15 minutes
in good weather from Manchester so if that commute time is acceptable, I
could recommend looking there also (
Keene has its
own page here).
Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this
essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not
necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its
Officers, or its Participants.
A Verbal Arsenal for Your LTE's
by
Dada Orwell
One of the most potent weapons the individual Free Stater has at her
disposal is the "Letter to Editor." Many of us use LTE's for recruiting and
also to make our growing presence felt inside the Free State.
I am generally against sending LTE's to New Hampshire from out-of-state
because it triggers a natural reaction against outsiders. However, for those
already in-state or those writing their local "slave state" paper, here is some
verbal ammo.
Invariably, you will end up referring to one or more of the socialist
schemes that torment the nation and make our movement necessary. Why not have
a little fun in the process and reach your reader's funny bone?
I'd be honored if you would substitute one of these nicknames when you
mention an authoritarian institution. Some are from the local NH freedom
movement, others come from Free Staters (the two are gradually getting harder
to distinguish)! A few are already in common use.
Authoritarian Nicknames
- IRS = Internal Robbery Squadron, IRSS, Internal Redistribution Service,
Eternal Revenue Service
- Public Schools = Education-Prevention Camps, Coercively Funded Schools,
Government Training Camps, Reproductive Organs of the Welfare State,
Diploma Mills
- NEA = The National Education Assassination
- NASA = The National Against Space Administration or Not Anytime Soon
Abomination
- Gun control advocates = Control Freaks
- Anti-liberty = Liberty-challenged
- Academics = Academocrats
- SPLC = Southern Poverty-enhancement Law Center
- The Americans With or Without Disabilities Act
- FDA = Food and Delay Administration, Food and Delay Abomination
- HUD = Housing and Urban Devestation, Housing and Urban Dependency
- ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS = The Nanny Networks
- Liberals = Authoritarians, Socialists
- Democrats = Demothoritarians, Dictacrats
- Big Gov Republicans = Replublithoritarians, Republicans in Name Only
(RINO's), Republicommies
- Department of Defense = War Department, Department of Occupation
- Gun control = Gun owner control, Victim Disarmament, Home Disarmament,
Rape Enhancement Legislation, Rapist Assistance Act
- Social Security = Socialist Security
- The Whitewash House
- Chief Injustice
- Executive Order = executive edict
- Census = inventory
- FICA = Federal Income Confiscation Act
- Publicly funded = Coercively funded
- Targeted tax cut = discriminatory tax cut
- Gridlock = disagreeing with the Left
- Bipartisanship = agreeing with the Left
- OSHA = Overblown System to Help Accidents
- DOPE = Department Of Public Education
- Campaign finance reform = Incumbent Protection Act, Campaign finance deform
- Universal health care = Universal Health Disrepair, Universal Shelve Care
- INS = Welcome Wagon
- Health and Human Services = Health and Human Servitude, Stealth Inhuman
Servitude
- Bi-Lingual Education = Deny-Lingual Education
- Brady Bill = Shady Bill
- Brady Law = Shady Law, Brady Stalker Assistance Law
- Tax Maxification (got that from NH State Rep John Gibson...or maybe the
guy who was interviewing him, I can't remember)
- UN INSTITUTIONS: Whenever you want to rename a UN institution, just try
pronouncing it as "un." Examples:
- UNPROFOR = The UN's un-protection force (for unprotection, of course!
Unprotecting men, women, children and girls... filing complaints in a death
camp world!)
- The UN Security Council = The Unsecurity Council, The United Satins
Security Council, The Indicted Nations, The Unlighted Nations
- Outcomes-based education = outslums-based education
- Socialism = groupthink (thats from Coalition of NH Taxpayers)
- Deptartment of Education = Department of Education Prevention
- Statists = Powermongers, Powerworshippers, Authoritarians
- National Public Radio = National Powermonger Radio, National
Powerworshipper Radio, National Propaganda Radio (That's what they call
it in New Hampshire LOL)
- NAACP = National Association for the Advancement of Constant Panic,
National Association Against Colored People, National Association the
Advancement of Complaining People
- ACLU = The Against Civil Liberties Union, The Almost Civil Liberties
Union (if they don't think you have gun rights what is the word
"liberties" doing in their name?)
- NRA = The National Rifle Equivocation (I'll take this one off when they
apologize for having Free Stater Tim Condon arrested).
- People for the American Way = Sheeple for the American Way, People for
the Authoritarian Way
- ATF = Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Fried Americans
- DEA = Druglord Enhancement Agency
- AFDC = Aid to Families with Democratic Congressmen, Aid to Families with
Dependent Crackheads
- "It Takes a School to Bankrupt a Village" - A bumper sticker unique to
New Hampshire, apparently
- New Hampshire = The Free State
The other 49 states = Slave States
- School Superintendent = School Superincompetent , School
SuperinSPENDent, Empire Builder
- Board of Education = Board of Education Prevention
- No Child Left Behind = No Child Allowed to Shine
- Bureau of Land Management = Bureau of Land Mismanagement, Bureau of Land
Micromanagement
- Department of Labor = Department of Labor Prevention, Department of Lazier
- Diversity Activists = Diversity Nazis, Diversity Police
- Political correctness activists = PC thugs, Speech Police
- Tax Boards = Tax Barons
- Tax Collectors = Tax Tyrants, Tax Nazis, Tax Gestapo, Coercive Funding
Police
- EPA = Environmental Prevention Agency
- CBO (Congressional Budget Office) = Congressional B.S. office
- NOW (National Organization of Women) = National Organization of Whiners,
National Organization of Woe-is-us
- Government agencies = Alphabet Agencies
- Bureau of Indian Affairs = Bureau of Indian Despair
- National Endowment for the Arts = National Endowment for the Abominations
- It takes a village idiot to raise a Democrat.
- Texas Education-prevention Agency
- SCOTUS = Supreme Court of the United Socialists
- Medicare = Medicareless
- Affirmative Action = Affirmative Slaction, Affirmative Faction
- Democrat-controlled = socialist-infested, authoritarian-infested
- Dem + Rep = Republicrat, Demublican
- Progressive = Recessive
- Law = Flaw, Overhead, Bureaucracy
- Rule, Regulation = Bureaucracy, Overhead, Barriers to Entry
- Corporate Welfare = Reverse Robinhood
- "Urban Spawl" = Economic Growth
- National GOP = Grand Old Pretenders, Republicans in Name Only (RINO's)
- Space Shuttle = Flying Coffin
- "49 Slave States, One New Hampshire"
Still need names for: WTO, EU, NAFTA, CAFTA (what is CAFTA??), Diversity,
Department of the Interior, Secret Service, Welfare (hmmm...no nicknames come
to mind, but some schemes are so respectability-challenged that the real name
provides sufficient insult).
More nicknames welcome! Head to this
FSP forum thread and add yours.
Back to Essays
NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this
essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not
necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its
Officers, or its Participants.
Voluntarism in a Free State
James L. Payne
For the general public, Libertarians have a negative image. They are generally
perceived as selfish and anti-social. Their opponents easily get away with
calling them "anarchists" – meaning wild-eyed, and irresponsible.
It's easy to see where this negative image comes from. Libertarians say they
want to drastically shrink government. They take this position because they are
outraged at the waste, destructiveness, and misrepresentations of government.
But it takes a perceptive and independent-minded person to comprehend the harm
of government. The average person is swayed by appearances and rhetoric. His
short attention span prevents him from being able to analyze indirect effects
and opportunity costs. He views government positively, as a supplier of needed
public services. He sees it providing schools, caring for orphans and the
elderly, running job training programs, supporting libraries, museums, and
orchestras.
So when the libertarian tells John Q. Public he wants to shrink government, it
sounds like the libertarian wants to do away with needed public services. John
Q. draws the conclusion that the libertarian wants children to go uneducated,
orphans to starve, and libraries to close. No wonder so many people see
libertarians as enemies of civilization.
Libertarians do not do well rebutting the charge that they are anti-social
because their philosophy tends to ignore community needs. The libertarian
tradition focuses on the individual and his rights. But this emphasis should
not cause us to ignore the reality of social needs. When a house burns down,
the inhabitants are made homeless. That is a social need. When parents die in
an accident, little children become orphans. Someone needs to take care of
them. Schools and universities cannot function entirely on the basis of tuition
payments; there will always be a need for scholarships for poor but deserving
students.
If libertarians are going to make a credible, positive campaign to "take over"
a state, they need a persuasive answer to the question, "What will you do about
public needs once you have shrunk government?"
The obvious answer is voluntarism. Instead of relying on the
coercion of the state to meet community needs – as we do now –
libertarians favor the use of voluntary groups based on generosity and
cooperation. There's nothing difficult or obscure in this proposal. Voluntary
groups already exist and fill just about every imaginable social need.
(To illustrate this point, I drew up a fictional example of a society that has
no government. My book Princess Navina Visits Voluntaria describes a
land where the inhabitants have sworn off using violence to accomplish social
purposes. The result is a society thickly populated with voluntary groups,
groups that run schools, build bridges, help the handicapped, and so on. All of
these groups are modeled after voluntary organizations that have existed in the
real world. Even the Committee for Peace and Safety – known by its
acronym, COPS – copies Benjamin Franklin's volunteer police department in
Philadelphia.)
By stressing the importance of voluntary groups in social improvement,
libertarians can take the high moral ground against the state-loving liberals.
Everyone wants to improve their community. We just disagree on how to take care
of social needs. Liberals want to use force and the threat of force, in the
form of policemen and tax collectors, soldiers, and jailors. They are the party
of violence. Libertarians are opposed to using force to address social
problems. They believe in using voluntary methods, methods that are sensitive,
friendly, and efficient.
Libertarians need to emphasize this position. Libertarian groups and
publications need to devote attention to the voluntary sector. They need to
extol the importance of being personally active in voluntary organizations.
They need to publicize libertarian contributions as volunteers and
philanthropists. They need to cultivate the virtues needed for a voluntary
society, especially patience with others, courtesy, and generosity.
When the public perceives libertarians as energetic volunteer leaders
addressing community needs, they will be welcomed with open arms anywhere they
choose to move!
April 14, 2003
About the author:
Jim Payne's works on voluntarism, social reform and the future of government
are available at
www.lyttonpublishing.com. These books include
Princess Navina Visits
Voluntaria, as well as
The Befriending Leader Social Assistance with
Dependency, and a forthcoming work,
A History of Force; Exploring the
worldwide movement against habits of coercion, bloodshed, and mayhem.
Jim earned his PhD in political science at the University of California at
Berkeley in 1968 and has taught at Yale, Wesleyan, Johns Hopkins, and Texas A&M
University. In 1985 he became a free-lance scholar and moved to Sandpoint,
Idaho. His recent books include The Culture of Spending (on Congress,
the budget, and the case for term limits), Costly Returns The Burdens of the
U. S. Tax System, and Overcoming Welfare; Expecting More from the
Poor–and from Ourselves.
NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this
essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not
necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its
Officers, or its Participants.
Student Involvement in Political Change
Jason Sorens, 4 May 2005, Whittier College
Thank you for having me to your Pi Sigma Alpha induction dinner. I've been
asked to speak on the topic of student involvement in political change. What I
want to investigate here is whether and how the study of political science
relates to the practice of politics.
Is the study of politics a science at all? The proposition that "political
science" is a coherent and meaningful concept grows less controversial by the
year, but it meets challenge in some quarters yet. The argument seems to be
that politics involves mostly or solely practical knowledge, and does not
follow general laws.
Following the philosopher Michael Oakeshott, we could make a distinction
between two types of knowledge: propositional and non-propositional. Oakeshott
called propositional knowledge "technical," and non-propositional knowledge
"practical." Practical knowledge cannot be learnt from a book; it is something
one can acquire only through experience. For example, one could learn the
proper techniques for skiing from a book, and one would then enjoy technical
knowledge of skiing, but all the technical knowledge in the world won't make
one a champion skier. One has to actually ski, and learn through experience the
un-stated – and un-stateable – knowledge that comes from practice. In
the same way, just studying political science cannot make one a great political
activist; there is a certain knowledge of "how to do politics" that comes only
through experience.
Since science means nothing more than "knowledge," it is obvious that there
are also two kinds of science, which depend upon each other. Oakeshott believed
that the key error of modern social science was "rationalism," that is,
reducing all science to technical knowledge and ignoring practical knowledge.
While Oakeshott was correct and ingenious to point out the importance of
practical knowledge, he was incorrect to argue that technical knowledge cannot
be separated from practical knowledge of the object of attention. I'll
demonstrate this by means of another example.
The automobile engineer designs automobiles, drawing on a wealth of
technical knowledge. The successful specification of how an automobile should
be constructed does not require any prior experience in driving, or any prior
experience in manufacturing a car. Certainly, there is a great deal of
practical knowledge involved in the actual manufacture of a car that
factory floor workers learn on the job. But the engineer needs no experience on
the factory floor to be able to design a car flawlessly. The technical
knowledge of automobile manufacture can be divorced completely from the
practical knowledge of automobile manufacture.
In the same way, political science can be viewed as a kind of political
engineering. One need have no experience in politics to be a good political
scientist, although it may help. Now, certainly, there is practical knowledge
involved with the political science research process, just as there is
practical knowledge involved with the automobile engineering process. But the
practical science of doing political science is a science of doing science, not
a science of doing politics.
Thus, we can have a science of politics in propositional
form–political science. The goal of political science is ultimately to
develop the knowledge that allows us to design or engineer public policies and
political institutions to serve the ends in which we are interested. You are
students of political science. Through your study, today you have a better idea
of the types of institutions that tend to yield the outcomes you value than you
did before you began your study of political science.
Political science doesn't tell us the ends we should value. To know the
proper ends of politics, we need to study first moral philosophy, then
disciplines such as economics, social psychology, and sociology. Moral
philosophy gives us a good idea of the obligations we have toward other human
beings, including both the rights that others have and the values that would
prevail in a good society. Once we know the proper ends of politics, economics
and the other social sciences tell us what sorts of public policies tend to
support those ends. Political science, finally, tells us the kinds of political
institutions and patterns of behavior that tend to yield the right policies.
Political science is a relatively mature discipline, in the sense that it
tempers idealism and respects complexity. Studying political science can be a
bit dangerous for undergraduates. Dangerous not because it gives one wild
ideas, but because it tends to discourage wild ideas. My view is that
undergraduates should let their minds run riot with idealism. Take the theories
you support and run with them to their logical conclusions. Stand on principle;
be a radical. There must be a time in your life to do that, and if you haven't
done it yet, you'd better get started. Later in life, you're liable to turn
into a cynic if you don't have a firm grasp of the Ideal, both for yourself and
for your wider society.
Some of the findings of political science seem tailor-made for cynicism. We
know that most voters choose their positions on an issue based on the political
party to which they belong, not the other way around. We know that most voters
are deeply ignorant of politics. Centrist independents – the people who
determine the results of most elections in the U.S. – are woefully
uninformed and usually cast their vote on arbitrary, irrelevant, or
inconsistent criteria. The relatively informed part of the population is
little better, as a whole tending toward extreme, knee-jerk partisanship.
Sometimes, in my more cynical moments, I say that the reason I decided to study
and observe politics is the same reason that people like to watch coverage of
tsunamis and train wrecks–morbid fascination.
But of course, I'm actually at least half-joking when I say that. To my
mind, the reason to study political science is to find out ways to limit the
damage of politics. We have no alternative but to develop a sophisticated
political science as quickly as we can. We need to know whether federalism or a
constitutional right of secession can stop or prevent bloody ethnic conflict.
We need to know whether proportional representation makes governments more
representative and less likely to violate the rights of citizens. We need to
know whether the European Union will assure economic prosperity or economic
sclerosis. These are all valid topics of controversy, and every informed
student of political science has a right to participate in the conversation.
Political science does temper some of our naﶥ assumptions, but in doing
so it simply provides further ground to explore, to let the mind run. If you're
a free-marketeer, political science tells you that rapid, radical
privatizations cause an ideological backlash. So how do you craft privatization
to appeal to people who would otherwise oppose it? If you're a socialist,
political science tells you that if you tax capital too much, it will flee to
another country or simply stop investing. So how do you fund new social
programs while assuring continued investment and growth?
Political science poses provocative questions, but in answering them, I'd
encourage you not to lose sight of the end goal. Don't let the politics of the
day get in the way of idealism; don't let it limit your view of what might be
possible. The fact that an idea is unpopular or weak today does not mean that
it will be tomorrow. Political scientists tend to disparage the radicals and
the idealists, to downplay the contributions of a William Lloyd Garrison or a
Patrick Henry while lionizing the so-called "realists" like Abraham Lincoln and
Alexander Hamilton. But it's the idealists who have always pushed the debate
forward, who have eventually made fence-sitting so intolerable that the
moderates have been forced to act.
There is a related fallacy among some political scientists, that to be a
good scientist one should not be a practitioner. While I have defended
the view that one can be a good scientist without being a practitioner, the two
are by no means incompatible and are more often complementary. I'll just use an
example from my own life, simply because it's the one I know best. In graduate
school, my research focused on movements for secession or autonomy in advanced
democracies, such as the movements to separate Quebec from Canada and Scotland
from the U.K. One of my findings was that almost all advanced democracies, even
ones without secessionist movements, are decentralizing, sending more powers
back to their regional governments. In the U.S., the historical trend has been
in the reverse, with more central consolidation over time, but if these
findings hold true, that trend may reverse in the U.S. as well. Because of my
research, I thought it would be exciting to found an organization dedicated to
finding the best state in the country for people supporting the libertarian
philosophy to live – with the idea that if many libertarians move there
over time and become politically active, they will help create a very
distinctive political environment in one state. Thus was the Free State Project
born, and today we have over 6500 people committed to moving to the state we
eventually selected, New Hampshire. It's an idealistic and ambitious movement
to be sure, but I think it has a real chance of making a difference, and it's
an example of how the study of political science and political activism are
more complementary than contradictory.
My congratulations to those of you who have earned induction into Pi Sigma
Alpha tonight, and I offer you hearty best wishes on your lifelong intellectual
and practical journey. Thank you.
Back to Essays
NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this
essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not
necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its
Officers, or its Participants.
Your Choice
Ethan Nappen (son of Evan Nappen - FSP VP) wrote a poem in school
for a poetry contest. The
poem has been selected for publication in the hardbound anthology called A
Celebration of Young Poets. This is an honor as most entries are not
selected. It is a Diamante
poem. I know you will all appreciate it:
Your Choice
|
New Hampshire
Free, majestic
Inspiring, trusting, prepared
Liberty, rights, metropolis, taxes
Seizing, outlawing, regulating
Liberal, unbearable
Massachusetts
|
By:
Ethan Nappen
Grade Eight
Township of Ocean Intermediate School
1200 West Park Avenue
Ocean, New Jersey 07712
Mrs. Murphy
Back to Essays
Lebanon area Information
Real estate
Real estate in the Lebanon area (including Hanover and Enfield) is
generally cheaper than the more populated southeast part of the state,
however Hanover itself is a little more expensive. I would
estimate the prices in Lebanon at comparable to Keene and in Enfield at
slightly less. While we were in the area we looked at land in
Enfield as well as houses in Enfield and Lebanon. Here's a
sampling:
Land:
Enfield - $37,900, 2.25 ac. on
Shaker Hill Road. This plot is near 4A on Shaker Hill Road.
The commute is easy to I-89 (10 minutes or so). The lot is wooded
and not exactly level, but not overly hilly.
Enfield - $39,900, 13.7 ac. on
4A. This plot is very near the above plot and is also an easy
commute to I-89 (about 10 minutes). This piece of land has ROW
access (it's currently a gravel driveway) off of 4A. The land is
heavily wooded and hilly.
Homes:
Enfield - $280,000, 4 bed / 3
1/2 bath / 8 room, on Fitzgerald Dr. This home is on a nice
street. It was built in 1989 and looks reasonably new. It
has a finished basement and is just a few minutes from 4A (near the
above land listings). It is listed for $280,000.
West Lebanon - $229,000, 6 bed /
2 1/2 bath / 11 room, on Dana St. This appears to be a two family
home but could probably be converted back to single family use
easily. It's in a very convenient location (right near the bridge
to Vermont) and is in a decent (though certainly not upscale by any
means) area with some houses and shopping. It has a detached
three-car garage (or so it appeared). It looks to be fairly large,
and was probably built in the early 1900's.
Commerce and Restaurants
One of the big advantages of the Lebanon area is the shopping
available. While Lebanon itself is lower in population than Keene,
the combination of Lebanon, Hanover, Enfield and the people on the
Vermont side of the river (as well as other surrounding communities)
gives it a larger commercial base than Keene. As a result, we saw
a couple of things there that we didn't find in Keene. Most
notable was a Best Buy, a discount-club warehouse type place (ala Sam's
Club / Costco / etc.), and a Denny's.
The Dartmouth area (Hanover) also features a nifty downtown area that
has a distinctive college feel to it. There is also a fantastic
medical facility in the area (the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical
Center). There is a movie theater in Lebanon, though it looked
smallish like Keene's.
Specific shopping places we saw: Wal-Mart, JCPenny, Sears, Shaw's
(grocery store), Best Buy, Staples, Borders, Payless Shoes, and the UPS
store. In other words, with the addition of Best Buy (and the
warehouse place), Lebanon and Keene are nearly identical. There is
also the Powerhouse Mall (or maybe it was Powerhouse Mill Mall).
We didn't go in, but it appears to be similar to the Colony Mill
Marketplace in Keene, though maybe not as upscale.
Tmobile cellular service ends northeast of Concord on I-89 and does not
ever pick up again. There is no Tmobile service in the Lebanon
area, however we did see several stores offering cellular service there
so I presume some other carriers have service there. I do not know
if high speed Internet access is available but I assume it is.
Other
In many ways Lebanon reminded us of Keene, though a little more spread
out. The areas we looked at were really broken into 4 parts:
Lebanon, West Lebanon, Hanover, and Enfield. West Lebanon is
predominantly shopping oriented with all the new store near the Vermont
border (presumably to pick up business from Vermont's tax
evaders). Lebanon seems like a larger but fairly typical small
town in Western New Hampshire. Hanover is an upscale college town
and it shows. And finally Enfield is basically a big Shaker area
around a lake which is nice but country feeling. Of all the
country 'towns' we visited, it was one of the nicer ones. It also
has relatively easy access to I-89, and the Lebanon area (10-15 minutes
depending on where you're going).
Drive times are listed on the
statewide page.
We didn't experience any traffic or weather from Lebanon to Concord and
I tend to drive a little on the fast side so the time listed from
Lebanon to Manchester is less than from Keene to Concord, however, the
mileage is more. The road is all 4-lane or better which is an
advantage over Keene, but I don't know how that affects winter
driving. On one hand, 4-lanes would appear to be a benefit from
the 2-lane road from Keene to Manchester. On the other hand, the
mileage is more so unless there is a significant difference in speed, it
may well be quicker from Keene to Manchester. Also, for airport
service, Keene also offers the option of Hartford, CT and Lebanon also
offers the option of Burlington, VT. Both are accessible primarily
via interstate.
While driving around Lebanon, we noticed several help-wanted
signs. We didn't notice a lot of them in other areas of the
state. This led me to believe that there may be more jobs
available in the Lebanon area than elsewhere in the state. The
signs, however, were at establishments that may not pay stellar
wages. I didn't find out what the wage rates were, but if working
a job or two for low wages is an option, I would recommend further
investigating the Lebanon area.
While we were there the weather was absolutely beautiful (keep in mind,
this was in November). I understand, though, that the weather
generally is not as nice in the Lebanon area as it is further south in
the state, and particularly near the seacoast.
Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
Nashua area Information
Real estate
Generally speaking, real estate in the Nashua / Hudson area is fairly
expensive. We spent some time looking at both land and homes in
Nashua and Hudson, focusing our efforts on newer construction.
Here is a sampling of what we found:
Land:
Hudson - $110,000, .79 ac.
on Bush Hill Rd. This lot that is down the street from house below on
Bush Hill Rd. According to MLS, it has city water and sewer but
required hookup fees and some site work totaling $9500 or
thereabouts. Bush Hill Road exits near a convenience store and
Burger King and is in what appears to me to be a nice part of Hudson.
Nashua - $130,000 each,
.92 ac. each on Colonial Ave. These are two building lots in a
convenient location about 5 minutes from the turnpike off (if I recall
correctly) Exit 5. The neighborhood itself is a mix of older homes
(a few split levels, some ranches, some colonials) and brand new
homes. The house between the two available lots looks nice and
fairly new (I'd guess in the 3-8 year old range, maybe even less).
The lots are at the end of a street on a culdisac.
Homes:
Hudson - $399,900, 4 bed /
2 1/2 bath / 8 room / 2800 sq. ft., on Bush Hill Rd. - This brand new
home is in an area of Hudson that is recently developed. I would
guess that the oldest homes in the area (with few exceptions) are just a
few years old. It has 2 car garage and I do not know the lot
size.
Hudson - $379,900, 3 bed /
2 1/2 bath on Flying Rock Road - This home is on a side street from Bush
Hill road. It is a colonial with a third floor loft and 2 car
garage. It is still under construction and I do not know the
square footage.
Nashua
- $330,000, 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath / 2000-2200 sq. ft, unknown address
near lots at Colonial Ave. There is a colonial style home under
construction for sale in the same neighborhood, but on a different
street, as the lots above on Colonial Ave.. It is on a smaller lot
(I think it may have been 1/4 acre or so) and the houses immediately
surrounding it are not quite as nice as the Colonial at the end of
Colonial Ave (pun coincidental). It had a 2 car garage and the
specs are the best of my recollection based on talking to the realtor.
We also visited Value Homes of New England which is a modular
manufactured home builder located in Nashua. More information
about Value Homes and modular housing in general can be found on the
statewide page.
Commerce and Restaurants
Nashua features the best of New Hampshire when it comes to shopping,
living, restaurants, etc. There is just about every type of chain
store imaginable, including several grocery store chains, a Super
Wal-Mart, Target, Best Buy, CompUSA, Home Depot, etc. etc. There
were also many specialty stores which I won't list off, though the
Christmas store sticks out in my mind.
Nashua also offers more variety in restaurants than we saw anyplace
else. In addition to the standard fast food chains (including a
McDonalds with a 24-hour drive through), there were several less common
chains and single-location restaurants. We ate at Ruby Tuesday's
one night which is in the same general area as the Ground Round,
Applebees, and what appeared to be an upscale Pizza restaurant (not sure
if it was a chain or a one-off place). Nashua also has a Denny's
for those of you who can't get enough Grand Slams.
I think it would be pointless to try and go into further detail about
shopping and eating in Nashua since it has pretty much everything.
Any general purpose shopping need could be met there and for specific or
highly specialized needs you can probably find out what's available from
other resources.
An additional comment I'll make is regarding the hotel we stayed at
(some of this is repeated on the main index page). Nashua has the
only low-cost extended stay type chain hotel we could find in the entire
state of New Hampshire. It is an Extended Stay America and is
located off Exit 8. Other extended stay and/or all suite hotels in
New Hampshire seemed to be prohibitively expensive for our purposes
(more than $10 per night additional over what we paid at ESA).
Contrary to what their website indicates, they do have rooms with king size beds
which are larger than the standard rooms. I believe you'd have to
call to reserve one. Their staff was friendly and the location was
good for our purposes. One exit south is a major shopping and
eating street (101A, which ultimately goes to Keene). There is a
K-mart, Target, Wal-Mart, at least two grocery stores, Pizza Hut,
McDonalds, Burger King, Papa Gino's Pizza, Applebees, and lots and lots
more all within about a 5 minute drive. Though the location is
good, the accommodations are not full service. Maids don't come
daily, they don't stock some basic items such as paper towels, and the
room isn't really suite sized - there's no couch.
Churches
Trinity Baptist: I stopped in
to Trinity Church to collect some information. Some of their
materials say Trinity Church and some say Trinity Baptist Church, which
would lead me to believe they are attempting to establish their own
identity, though they are, in fact, a Baptist Church. They have
two services, a 9:00 a.m. service billed "Worship with a Blend" and a
10:45 a.m. service billed "The River" which is a more contemporary
styled service. A note on their Sunday bulletin indicates parents
with children worshiping with them can take them to class at 9:25 or
11:10 which suggests about 25 minutes of music in each service.
The have a monthly newsletter which I obtained a copy of (the November
issue) which has a calendar of events in it. Between the
information in the newsletter (with calendar) and the bulletin, it
appears they have a reasonable amount of 'stuff' going on given the size
of the church (if I recall correctly, about 300 on an average
weekend). They also have a school but I did not get details about
it.
Grace Fellowship: On
November 2, we attended Grace Fellowship Church in downtown
Nashua. I don't know if there are any larger churches (measured by
attendance) in New Hampshire, but I suspect none significantly
larger. Grace averages 800-900 people per Sunday in three
services: 8:00, 9:45, and 11:30. Their downtown building is not
new but the inside has obviously been renovated for their
purposes. The main sanctuary is actually on the second
floor.
The style of worship at Grace is contemporary. Their music
featured a 'praise band' made up of drums, percussion, keyboards,
electric guitar, bass, and a worship leader who plays acoustic guitar as
well as an additional vocalist. I don't recall them doing any
'older' worship music and/or hymns. They did some songs we were
familiar with and their renditions were pleasant. They started the
set with Open the Eyes of my Heart, then Rock of Ages (the contemporary
one, not the Hymn) and continued on with a total of about 45 minutes of
music. I don't know if they do communion every Sunday but they did
on that Sunday which may have extended the worship time somewhat.
After the first 'set' they did several songs we weren't familiar with,
however we really enjoyed them both in style and 'content' (i.e.
lyrics). Some charismatic churchs offer extremely wordy songs
which are difficult to sing. Generally, that wasn't the case here.
I happened to observe that the church is remarkably balanced, both
generationally and racially. There was a strong representation of
all ages as well as many races present and the environment seemed
perfectly suited to that balance. It's difficult to know, but I
suspect that is intentional. The nursery takes children through 36
months, however they will not take your children to the potty and/or
change diapers. Instead, they page you to do that. I only
say that here because that is different than what we are accustomed
to. They do have a 'family church' room downstairs which is
suitable for families with young children to attend together. They
broadcast the service as it's happening down there so they can
participate in the same service without the children disrupting it.
Based on the bulletin and promotional material, it appears they have
more things going on than a person could possibly participate in.
On their first time visitor form they list several programs they offer
including Growing Kids God's Way, Crown Ministries (financial guidance),
Divorce Care, and several others. The weekly calendar lists
several Bible studies as well as Northeast Bible Institute which is
apparently a seminary type class they offer (for credit if I recall
correctly) which is somehow associated with the church (I think the
pastor teaches it). They had a Thanksgiving food drive coming up
as well as a mens retreat.
The sermon for the morning was a part of a series from the book of Acts
and was about bitterness. Generally, I was satisfied with the
sermon. As with anything, some elements impressed me, some didn't,
and some were just different. For starters, his sermon was very
closely scripted and utilized outline material projected on the
screen. I've seen that type of arrangement before (in fact, it's
common these days) but not quite at such a detailed level (I had to look
around to see if there was a teleprompter somewhere ;). I also had
one little red flag about his outlook on prayer and how prayer works
(his view of prayer and mine are different). However, there were
several things I was impressed with. In particular, he does know
his geography, which I appreciate, and he spent a little time
communicating that to us. Most pastors don't do that and the
congregation is geographically lost with respect to the correlation
between Biblical places and our world today. Also, he regularly
referred to the Bible (as he should) but also used other quotes and
references where applicable for his sermon. Overall (aside from
his prayer theology) I enjoyed the sermon and didn't have any real
problems with his style. The church was generally casually dressed
but the pastor did wear a tie.
Overall, it seems as though that church is generally Biblically based,
active, diverse, and large by New Hampshire standards. Based on
our experience there, I would recommend visiting if you're in the area.
Events
We wound up with an unexpected event which led to a hospital
visit. Edison got his finger caught in the front door of our van
and hurt it very badly. The details of the injury are found on the
main index page. He was treated at the Emergency Room at St.
Joseph hospital in Nashua. The staff there was helpful and
friendly. There were at least a couple of people there who
identified themselves as students. They, too, were friendly and
helpful. The ER seemed busy for that time of night (we didn't get
out until close to midnight) but I don't recall seeing any severe trauma
(i.e. serious car accidents, gun shot, etc.) arriving while we were
there. We haven't been billed yet so I don't know what the cost of
that visit was or what the insurance consequences are.
Other
Drive times are on the
statewide page.
Nashua is the biggest city in New Hampshire and appears to me to be a
very nice place to live. I think we could enjoy it there, however,
it's very expensive. As a result of the real estate prices there,
we're having to look elsewhere for our housing needs. On the
bright side, both Nashua and Hudson have relatively low property tax
rates, partly due to the high assessed values of the property
there.
Copyright 2003 Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
Southeast and Seacoast Information
Real estate
Generally speaking we found the real estate in the southeast part of
New Hampshire to be way too expensive to suit us. Some towns are
somewhat less expensive than others but Salem was particularly expensive
and even the more 'country' feeling areas around Salem (Pelham, etc.)
were very expensive. Here's a couple examples of what we found:
Homes:
Pelham - $370,000 (or
maybe $390,000), 3 bed / 2 1/2 bath, unknown address. We drove by
a nice, fairly new colonial on what appeared to be an acre or two of
land listed for sale. There was no literature but we called the
realtor and determined the listing price may have been $370,000 (could
have been $390,000, I don't recall) for a 3 bedroom 2 1/2 bath
home. It was in the country on a small two lane road not near
anything in particular.
Salem - $559,000 to
$799,000, large houses on Hall Ave. There were two homes on this
street. The first was a very nice home that I would call upper
middle class but is probably really upper class. It's a 10 room, 4
bedroom, 2 1/2 bath home with about 3400 sq. ft. on 1 1/2 acres in a
development with comparable homes. It has a 3 car garage and is
within a couple of miles of I-93. It's listed at $559,000.
The second was an even larger home that looked more upper class to
me. It has almost 4,000 sq. ft. plus 1,250 sq. ft of lower level
living space with 12 rooms, 4 bedrooms and 3 1/2 baths. It was
listed at $799,000.
There was another home we got information for much closer to the
seacoast that was also in the mid $300,000 range which was much smaller
and not as nice as those listed above. We didn't look at other
properties because we couldn't find any worth looking at in our price
range. The whole area is very expensive. We did, however,
spend some time at Eric Knight's house which is (or at least was) for
sale. I believe he is asking $275,000 for it in Derry and it is a
3 bedroom on a nice lot. I don't recall the exact square footage
but I'd guess somewhere around 1800 or so. My guess is that is a
reasonably good deal for that kind of house in that area but it is too
small for us. We didn't do any real estate shopping in the
Portsmouth and surrounding areas.
Commerce and Restaurants
Some parts of the southeast part of New Hampshire feature the best
shopping and eating in the whole state. A particular standout in
this regard is Salem. Right on the MA border on I-93, it has all
the big chain stores (even a CompUSA) as well as a mall (or I think two)
with more upper class shopping (I think the anchor was a Macy's as I
recall). It reminded me a lot of home as far as the variety of
things available, though the size of the town is far less than the 1/2
million or so in Fresno.
Outside of Salem, the variety of shopping and commerce seems to be
about on par with the rest of the smaller towns in the state. A
short drive to Salem or Nashua will provide all you would need.
Because we didn't spend a lot of time driving around this part of the
state, I don't have a whole lot to report here.
I suspect Portsmouth would have most everything a person would need but
we only drove through briefly so we didn't get any information about it.
Churches
We drove by several churches in Southeast New Hampshire and went in and
visited one. We stopped in at Granite State Baptist Church in
Salem and took a tour. One of the pastors was kind enough to take
some time and show us the facilities and tell us some things about the
church. They have a nice and well used (in a good way) facility
there which also serves as a school. The main sanctuary seats a
couple hundred or so and they have three services. Based on the
variety of instruments on stage, I presume they offer a mix or more
contemporary style of worship. They have a moms play group that
meets several days per week, numerous classrooms (used by the school
during the week), a gym, and (of course) some office space. The
people we talked to there were extremely nice and helpful. They
hadn't heard of the Free State Project, so I took the liberty of filling
them in ;)
We also drove by a few churches in the seacoast / east central
area. We drove by Dover Baptist church. It looked to be a
medium sized church building (by New Hampshire standards) near the
downtown area. We also drove by Durham EVFree Church though we
didn't see it well because it was getting dark. They have a MOPS
(Mothers of Preschoolers) group and the building looked new and was 'in
the country'.
Other
Drive times can be found on the
statewide page.
We were unable to do much timing of various drives since we did most of
this touring on one day and stopped many times. We did make it
from Manchester to Derry in, as I recall, 15 or 20 minutes, though we
didn't time that accurately.
We drove the entire New Hampshire coastline which didn't take us very
long at all. Most of the seacoast area was 'deserted' for the
winter. Many buildings were boarded up but it appeared as though
the place probably comes alive in the summertime. The drive was
pleasant (we stayed in the car) and some of the houses were downright
impressive. There were also many houses that needed work and I
wondered what the building restrictions were in that part of the state
(I suspect substantial).
Overall, I enjoyed the southeast part of the state, probably more than
the western part, however, real estate is extremely expensive and, as a
result, we didn't focus much effort there. It would be an easy
commute from many parts of southeast New Hampshire to the Boston metro
area for jobs. The drive times would vary based on where you are
and where you're going but generally wouldn't be much more than an hour
and a half even in rush hour (assuming good weather). We made it
from Nashua to the Logan airport in about 90 minutes on a weekday
morning with construction on 3 for most of the way.
Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
Statewide Information
Real estate
Generally speaking, New Hampshire real estate is fairly expensive
compared to the average in the United States. There are several
factors I have identified that contribute to that problem.
First, the most populated areas in the state (from Concord south to
Nashua east to the coast and up to Portsmouth) are all near enough to
Boston to commute and/or be dramatically effected by the Boston
economy. Because Boston is one of the most expensive markets in
the nation, that raises the property values in southern New Hampshire.
Second, New Hampshirites seem to have culturally adopted the idea that
larger lot sizes are better. Larger lots naturally raise the cost
of land. At any given time, there are few building lots available
and the demand is high, so the prices are expensive.
Third, there are no unincorporated areas in southern New
Hampshire. All of the towns have expanded their borders to the
adjacent towns. Additionally, all of the towns impose zoning and
land use restrictions that substantially raise the cost of
building. Examples are additional taxes on redeveloping open space
in to dense housing (current use tax), lot size restrictions, and
setbacks. In many areas, attempting to construct new a facility
identical to that which already exists is illegal. The towns zone
and tax the property in such a way as to make it very expensive.
Fourth, there are some geographic features somewhat unique to New
Hampshire that causes the cost of building to be higher than in some
other areas of the country. The cost of drilling and excavating is
increased by the abundance of granite under the soil. Because of
the weather, bringing utilities to the surface is cost prohibitive.
All of the above factors make creating new housing expensive which also
raises the cost of existing housing. The raw land prices are
highest in the south eastern part of the state. Western and
Northern New Hampshire feature lower land prices but only in the far
northern parts of the state will you find areas that have fewer
restrictions on building (either through unincorporated land and/or
towns with no zoning and/or land use laws).
Modular Housing
While we were there, we investigated modular home building. I'll
include the information here since most of these builders will build in
significant portions or anywhere in the state of New Hampshire.
There were three builders who build three different manufactures'
modular homes that we got information from. Contact information is
available upon request for any of these builders and/or
manufacturers. In order to determine pricing, we pursued roughly
similar ideas with each builder: a 2200-2500 sq. ft. two story colonial
home with 3-4 bedrooms, 2 1/2 baths, at least 8 rooms (preferably 9) and
a 2 car garage.
Bob Lebel of RML General Contractor build Epoch Homes which are
manufactured in Pembroke, New Hampshire. Bob's office is in
Amherst. While we were there we met with Bob and took a tour of
the Epoch Homes factory and model in Pembroke. We spent quite a
bit of time discussing our ideas with Bob but could not nail him down on
a price for any particular model of home. Our impression is that
the quality of Epoch Homes is excellent, and I suspect a somewhat better
quality home than you could get from a site builder at a comparable
cost. The model was very attractive and different rooms were
appointed in various levels of trim from basic to significantly
upgraded. Epoch homes does have a website at
www.epochhomes.com and they have
excellent promotional materials available including a CD with hundreds
of floor plans on it. Bob said he can custom build just about any floor
plan and the cost is typically 10% - 15% less than a comparable plan in
a site built home. I could not nail Bob down on a price for the
type of house we were interested in, however it sounded like his price
would be something over $200,000 for everything except the bare land.
Value Homes of New England has a model in Nashua. I went there
after having toured the Epoch factory with Bob Lebel. I spoke with
the sales agent who gave me quite a bit of information. They build
Excel modular homes which are manufactured in Pennsylvania. Their
model, like Epoch's, is attractive and appointed in a variety of levels
of trim. Based on the spec sheets, it appears as though they are
largely comparable, however in a couple areas it sounds like Epoch's
standard features are slightly better than Excel's. We were able
to get some pricing information from Value Homes. They estimated
site work at roughly $40,000 for a lot requiring well and septic and
roughly $25,000 - $30,000 for a lot with city water and sewer.
Their completed home costs for 2000+ square foot capes ranged from about
$145,000 to about $185,000 excluding garage ($22,000), site work, and
land. One particular model that we were interested in costs
$168,000 (+ site work and land) and includes a garage. Those are
models in base trim but fully completed.
Camelot Home Center is located in Tilton and sells both modular homes
and mobile homes. They are a lower end builder. I didn't
tour a model and only got a few pages of written information from
them. They estimate site work at $35,000 to $45,000 which includes
well and septic. It appears as though their specs are on the lower
end and their prices are too. They gave me three floor plans, none
of which really suited us and only one of which had any kind of pricing
information available. The one with a price was a colonial (2
story) 3 bedroom, 2 or 3 bath (the third bath is a $5,150 option) which
appears to be roughly 1,800 sq. ft. for $88,000. My guess is that
there would be a substantial amount of additional work to get it in
move-in condition (could be anywhere from $10,000 to $40,000 of
completion work?). That would bring the completed cost for that
smaller home to somewhere in the ballpark of $150,000 excluding land
(that's an extremely rough estimate).
Commerce and Restaurants
All put together, New Hampshire does offer most or all of the
conveniences that other states offer. They may not come in exactly
the same forms you are used to but it appears to me that it should
please most everyone. The best cities for shopping and restaurants
are Salem, Nashua, and to a slightly lesser extent, Manchester and
Concord. Though we didn't tour Portsmouth extensively, I suspect
it has good shopping as well. Salem and Nashua even have a CompUSA
(for you computer geeks out there). Tilton stands among very small
towns (population around 3,500 or so) not only because it has a Wal-Mart
and most every fast food place you could want but also because it is
home to the outlet mall. There are 50 or so manufacturers outlet
stores there which, I can only presume, are located there because of the
tourism from the lakes region.
The other two towns that stand out are Keene and Lebanon (specifically,
West Lebanon). Lebanon is right on the Vermont border at I-89 and
features excellent shopping right along the river. The area is
roughly comparable in population to the Keene area but I presume because
of the proximity to Vermont and not having sales tax, there's some
additional business there from across the border. As a result,
there are a few more stores than Keene has, specifically a Best Buy, a
wholesale club (ala Costco - there may have been one in Keene but I
didn't find it), and a Denny's. We didn't go in to either, but the
Wal-Mart in Lebanon looked substantially larger than the one in Keene.
Speaking of Denny's, there is sales
tax in New Hampshire on meals at restaurants. Every place we ate
at the rate was 8%. So while there's no sales tax on goods, it's
not exactly accurate to say there's no sales tax at all.
There is at least one Dunkin' Donuts in every town in New
Hampshire. If there's ten people there, there's at least one
Dunkin' Donuts, but there might be three or four. In a town like
Hillsborough (population 5100) there are probably 90 or 100 of
them. I'm sure there are several million in Nashua. In fact,
I'm highly confident there are more Dunkin' Donuts in New Hampshire than
there are police officers in the entire world. I'll spare you the
agony of reading that there's a Dunkin' Donuts in every town. If I
say there's absolutely nothing in a town, there's still a Dunkin' Donuts
there. You might not have electricity, or be able to buy milk or
gasoline, but at least you won't go hungry for lack of donuts...
Generally speaking, our experience was that the cost of everyday goods
(groceries, other consumables, etc.) is comparable or less than in other
parts of the country, especially California. An example is that we
were able to pick up a gallon of highly overpriced milk at 7-11 after
midnight for roughly the same price as a gallon of milk in a lower cost
grocery store in Fresno. The milk in the Market Basket in Nashua
was almost a dollar per gallon less than we normally pay in
California. Gas prices were in the $1.50 to $1.60 range in most
places while at the same time gas in Fresno was $1.75ish (roughly $.20
per gallon more). I compared insurance prices to California and it
appears the New Hampshire rates (in my case anyway) were about 15%
less. I was unable to determine exactly how utility costs would
compare, but I got a rough idea and it sounds as though New Hampshire
is, again, a little cheaper than California, though now that energy
prices have stabilized, it didn't sound dramatically less. High
speed Internet prices are comparable.
Churches
While we were in New Hampshire we drove by and visited several
churches. Generally speaking, our observation is that the churches
in New Hampshire tend to be smaller than elsewhere in the nation,
particularly places like Florida, Texas, and California (home to some of
the larger churches in the country). When I think of a large
church, I think of one with weekly attendance of over 1,000. In
New Hampshire, a large church would be one with something over
100. I don't know what the largest protestant church in New
Hampshire is but I suspect Grace Fellowship in Nashua is at least in the
top 5, and they run just under 1,000 per weekend.
While the churches are smaller, they are found all over New
Hampshire. I don't think we visited a town that didn't have at
least a couple of churches. I would imagine that in the southern
1/2 of the state, there should be a church within a reasonable drive
(20-30 minutes) that would suit pretty much anyone, as long as you are
able to adjust your size and style preferences to fit the New Hampshire
culture. For some of us, that'll be a rather big adjustment unless
we're able to grow some 'mega churches' which, at the moment, seems
unlikely.
Other
All of the drive times are listed here and not on each individual
location page (so as not to duplicate too much information).
| Locations |
As Timed
|
Per Mapquest
|
Keene Wal-Mart to Manchester
(293/101)
|
1:11
|
1:17
|
Keene Wal-Mart to Nashua (Exit 8)
|
~1:00
|
|
Peterborough to Keene
|
:27
|
|
Nashua (Exit 8) to Manchester
(293/101)
|
:13
|
|
Manchester (293/101) to Concord
(89/93)
|
:14
|
|
Nashua to Concord (Mapquest from
city to city)
|
|
:41
|
Manchester (293/101) to Lebanon
(Exit 20 / 89)
|
1:04
|
1:17
|
Enfield (Shaker Hill / 4A) to
Lebanon shopping
|
:15
|
|
Enfield (Shaker Hill / 4A) to
93/89
|
:54
|
|
Manchester (293/101) to Tilton
(Exit 20 - timed / City Center - Mapquest)
|
:32
|
:40
|
Concord (89/93) to 202/89
|
:08
|
|
202/89 to Hillsborough
|
:20
|
|
Manchester (293/101) to
Hillsborough
|
:42
|
:55
|
Boston to Nashua (Exit 8) -
night / no traffic / construction / via 3
|
~1:00
|
|
Nashua to Boston (Exit 8) - day
/ heavy traffic / construction / via 3
|
~1:30
|
|
Henniker to Weare (via 114)
|
:11
|
|
Weare to Goffstown (via 114)
|
:13
|
|
Goffstown to Manchester (293/101)
|
:16
|
|
Wilton to Nashua
|
:25
|
|
The above times should allow you to do two things: get a very good idea
of how long it takes to do some of the standard commutes, and use
Mapquest to accurately estimate driving times. Weather for all of
those estimates was either good or only raining (which didn't slow
things down noticeably), and traffic didn't seem particularly heavy for
any of them (except as noted). In winter and/or poor traffic,
times would be longer. Based on conversations with the locals, it
sounds as though snow removal is efficient in New Hampshire compared to
some other states.
I did notice that the road quality in New Hampshire was generally very
good. The toll roads we drove on (Everett Turnpike between Nashua
and Manchester, and 93 between Manchester and Concord) are multi-lane,
well maintained, and traffic moves along nicely. The tolls are
$.75 for each stretch, however, you can buy a roll of 40 tokens (each
token pays $.25 worth of toll) for $5.00 which works out to half
price. We were there for 12 days driving those roads regularly and
went through a roll and a half of tokens. Also, navigating can be
tricky in some places as many of the streets are not well marked.
Sometimes there are lots of good street signs and sometimes it's
difficult to tell where you are at all. This is true all over the
state, but we noticed it particularly in Nashua.
The people of New Hampshire were friendly. I didn't detect any of
the 'attitude' that seems to prevail in Boston or New York, even when I
was in the 'big cities' of Nashua or Manchester. Though the accent
is similar, it seemed to me that the people were noticeably nicer.
The weather while we were there varied. For roughly half the time
we were there it was overcast and intermittently rainy. Roughly
the other half of the time it was clear and cooler. The
temperatures were typically in the 40's and 50's for most of the
trip. The fall foliage was well past its peak when we arrived on
November 1st but it was still attractive to look at. As the week
and a half progressed we saw much of the end of the change of colors and
leaves falling off the trees. It did freeze a couple of times and
on the drives to and from Keene we noticed the first signs of ice
forming on the lakes.
Copyright 2003 Varrin Swearingen - to reproduce in any way (in whole or
in part), please contact the author at: varrin at varrin dot com.
NOTE: The opinions and commentary expressed in this
essay are those of the author and are an exercise of free speech. They do not
necessarily represent the views of Free State Project Inc., its Directors, its
Officers, or its Participants.
The Free State Project's Unique Role among Libertarian Organizations
by Stephen Cobb – 4/12/04
A large and growing organization faces communications challenges, with
many, especially newcomers, unclear on its mission and values. Since the FSP
has attracted over 5,000 participants and now has some real muscle, it is
important to occasionally communicate and clarify its role. The FSP has a new
and unique function in the libertarian ecosystem, where other organizations
have long been specializing in the various phases that ideological movements
cycle through:
-
Observe facts of human nature—our desires, behavior, and
limitations.
-
Develop principles to describe human behavior, and the values,
goals, and rules of the movement.
-
Spread ideas throughout society by persuasion (educating and
propagandizing) or coercion (laws or violence), targeting the authorities,
people with influence, educators, the mass media, and common people.
-
Act on the basis of principles in all spheres of life, e.g.
economics, religion, politics, volunteer work.
For several reasons, libertarians have been less successful in the third
and fourth phases than our opponents on the left and right (who, we would
protest, are weaker in the first two phases). Libertarians tend by nature to
be analytical, and to care about ideas (e.g. justice, the rule of law)
and process. Our superficially utilitarian opponents tend to be more
emotional, and to think first about people (children, families, the
elderly, the poor) and short-term results; it is hardly surprising that they
are more persuasive. Furthermore, libertarian principles will not allow us to
spread our ideas through coercion, one of our opponents' favorite tools.
Libertarians cannot abandon our attachment to principle without giving up who
we are. However, we can turn our superior analytical ability on the evaluation
of our failures. What has been missing?
The libertarian organizational ecosystem is full of thinkers and
propagandizers. Think tanks abound, such as the Cato Institute, which exerts
wide influence: according to FAIR, the media cite Cato material more often than
any other think tank except Brookings, and, according to Cato, of all think
tanks, its web site is the most visited. At least four Nobel-prize-winning
economists are avowed libertarians, and more could probably wear the label.
Educational organizations such as the Foundation for Economic Education and the
Institute for Humane Studies spread the ideals of freedom to thousands. We
don't lack for journals and writers: there are many paper and electronic
magazines, like Reason, and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged has been voted the
second-most influential book in the US, right after the Bible.
The libertarian failure can be seen in the lack of concrete results: by
nearly any measure one could name, our ideas have not won out. Where
libertarians believe that government should be smaller, decentralized, less
intrusive, and act only to defend rights, the trend in the US has been the
exact opposite, dramatically. We can only try to console ourselves with the
idea that without our action, things might have been even worse. And anyway,
to libertarians it is nearly enough just to be right, because it is the
principle that counts (like to left-wingers it is enough to care, because it is
the thought that counts). We think that our principles should win out on their
own logical merits, without any elbow grease from us.
The problem is that the large numbers (in absolute terms) of libertarians
successfully produced by the thinkers and propagandizers have not been put to
good use by the action organizations, because in relative terms we remain a
small, ineffective minority throughout the country. Since such a minority has
no hope of effecting change, enthusiasm for every new doomed effort is
unsurprisingly minimal, and we console ourselves with being right. While there
is still room for improvement (for example, the organization The Advocates
teaches libertarians the gentle art of persuasion), the best solution is to
concentrate resources enough to effect change. That requires providing a
missing organizational link—a concentrator of libertarian activist
manpower.
Consider the Free State Project to be equivalent to a talent agency,
providing diverse, energetic libertarians to any New Hampshire activist
organizations that can use them. The FSP has no business determining what
should be the end goals of these organizations; they are free to compete for
the migrating porcupines' attention and energies. The role of the FSP is
simply to ensure a supply of at least 20,000. The organizations need not be
large or pre-existing; the activists may self-organize in small temporary
groups to accomplish a given goal.
What kind of activities might these activists engage in to effect societal
change? In the FSP we can only speculate, but we would expect a wide range.
Political action of various kinds (like depoliticization) comes to mind first,
because it is the most obvious in our politicized world, but many libertarians
out of principle will not vote or otherwise take direct part in the political
system. More important are one's everyday market decisions—where you
choose to shop and whom to socialize with. Libertarians could actively promote
free-market alternatives to state semi-monopolies, e.g. education, and actively
support friendly businesses. They could contribute to the organizations that
form the foundation of civil society, e.g. charities, churches, and other
fraternal organizations. Such small daily interactions shape a culture more
than crude, infrequent elections. Activists could spread the ideas of liberty,
which would now be of more than mere theoretical interest. Activists could
even counter unjust laws using the techniques of jury nullification and civil
disobedience, both of which require a concentration of informed citizens.
As the only libertarian organization performing the role of concentrating
activist manpower, it is critical that the FSP stay focused on its mission:
"The Free State Project is an effort to recruit 20,000 liberty-loving people to
move to New Hampshire." There is a subtle but important difference between the
roles and responsibilities of the FSP leaders (more than thirty people in
formal or informal positions) and those of the FSP members (officially
participants—people who have signed the Statement of Intent). In
one sense, the leaders actually form the FSP, while the participants are really
the FSP's customers, whose goal it is to get active in New Hampshire.
In another sense, the FSP is itself an activist organization whose purpose is
to help participants attract more participants. For this critical task, the
FSP must have priority. While theorizing, propagandizing, and general activism
are critically important, they are not the FSP's role. The first task of all
FSP activists is thus recruitment, until we reach the critical mass of
20,000 participants. The resulting explosion of libertarian
energies—uncontrolled by the FSP—will be felt for many years to come.
Back to Essays
Participants
in New Hampshire
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