Keene’s not the only hot activist destination, Manchester, the “big city” is as well. Though, you wouldn’t know it from the blog activity there. Here are some folks who are moving now, expounding on why they think Manchester is pretty spiffy:
Tomorrow morning we’re heading out on a seven day journey that ends in Manchester, New Hampshire. Tonight I want to address why we chose to land in Manchester and not any of the other NH hubs of Free Stater activity. I think every place has its pros and cons, and I also realize that I currently have an outsider’s perception of NH and things could very well change once we’ve been there a while, but here goes!
Manchester is the biggest city in New Hampshire, with a population of about 110,000. The other sizeable cities are Nashua and Concord, which are both an under-30-minute drive from Manchester. Adam grew up in Southern California and has never lived in a small city or town. Yuba City, the Northern California city to which I moved when I was four years old, had a population of about 20-30,000 when I moved there and has now grown to about 55,000 people. My parents both grew up in the Los Angeles area and so I was instilled with the idea that Yuba City was tiny with few opportunities, and my family often ended up driving 40 miles to Sacramento for various classes and activities. And although I appreciate Yuba City’s friendliness and safety and see why it’s a good place to raise a family, I still think it seems small. So looking at Portsmouth or Keene, which are both in the 20,000 range, or someplace very rural like Grafton, I don’t think we’d feel comfortable. We may be ready for something that small eventually, but right now Manchester will seem like enough of a size change from Los Angeles and San Francisco.
Manchester is super central. I love that we’ll be only an hour from Boston. Even if we don’t make the trip there very often, the option is always available to us. If we want to support activists, attend events, or visit friends in Keene or Portsmouth, it’s only an hour away. If we lived on the Seacoast, it would be pretty much a day trip to travel all the way to Keene for something. I visualize the main Porcupine hubs as Keene-Manchester-Seacoast west to east and Concord-Manchester-Nashua north to south, and Manch is right in the center of that plus sign.
I know that many Free Staters and liberty proponents make their homes in Manchester and its suburbs, and that is another big reason for our choice. But there’s lots that we like about Manchester that doesn’t have to do with the FSP at all! I love the Currier Museum of Art and would love to work with them or their adjacent Art Center someday. There’s an indoor rock climbing gym. On our first visit to New Hampshire we ate at Cafe Momo, and I’m looking forward to going there regularly because it was amazing. I’m excited to go to Monarchs and Fisher Cats games, where the teams are professional enough that they’re fun to watch, but they’re not such a huge deal that it takes an hour to get into the stadium and another hour to get out. The mill buildings on the river are really neat for office or studio space, and we are excited to get hooked into the emerging startup culture. Adam has his remote job already, but Manchester and surrounding areas appear to be one of the best places to find job opportunities for me, along with the Seacoast.
Take this love letter to Manchester with a grain of salt. We’re not there yet! Maybe it’s not the city for us at all, and we’ll end up falling in love with a different part of New Hampshire. But for the reasons listed above, it’s where we’ll start.
