Posted February 21, 200817 yr Ahh, Yellow Springs. What more do you have to say? One of if not the best small town in Ohio (I admit that the number I have visited pales in comparison to others here, but I have looked at lots of them so I have an idea). I took these on our annual mandatory pilgrimage to Young's Jersey Dairy's buy-one-get-one-free-pint-of-ice-cream sale. The streets were lively as you can see even in February and it just felt great that I didn't have to try hard to get people in the shots. Locals there really value their town and are proud of it. A good number of Ohio towns and cities need to take notice of this and change that part of their culture. Hey look it's Dave. Nah, just kidding, those are my unsuspecting friends. There's another one of these in downtown Upper Arlington. Who'd have guessed? Antioch activism. Need I say more? Great small town urbanism. This used to be a train station and now the rail line has been converted to a bike path. They even have the name of the place in Arabic on the inside. Well, it's college. Here's a view from the east, but it could be any college. This one's more fitting. Well, that's all and you can guess whose shadow that is.
February 21, 200817 yr Quaint. However, someone needs to tell the owners of the house with the holiday decorations, that it's muy tacky! It's February, almost March, for goodness sakes!
February 21, 200817 yr The hippie thing in Yellow Springs gets a little thick and full of itself (although after seeing the stuff in the news about Berkeley, CA trying to "drive out" the USMC recruiting station, maybe "full of itself" is a working definition of today's hippies.) For one thing, housing there in Yellow Springs has been pretty expensive for years, ever since YS was discovered by Dayton area professionals as a self consciously hip place to live. My point being, would a REAL hippie, someone living creatively at the margins of society, even be able to afford to live there alongside dweebs who work in civilian jobs at Wright Pat and high income "sellouts" who have standard corporate commuter arrangements in Dayton or Columbus? IE: could THESE guys settle in Yellow Springs? I got really cynical about this when the Trails Tavern charged me .50 for a slice of tomato on an already expensive sandwich that took 45 min to serve. Seems pretty hard core capitalistic to me. :evil: I personally think that the counterculture thing in Yellow Springs has played out and now it's mainly window dressing. But it's a fun place to shop and eat.
February 21, 200817 yr Yellow Springs is nice, but it is far from Ohio's best small town. Ohio's most funky/(insert any related adjective) small town, maybe, but not outright Ohio's best small town.
February 21, 200817 yr What TheDonald is talking about is the what David Brooks calls the BoBos, or Bourgouis Bohemians. Yellow Springs probaby hasnt been "hippy" since the 1970s or early 80s (as there havnt been real hippies in decades in most parts of the US), and the more youthfull alternative/indy thing in the "springs is more like similar scenes in other college towns, working off an anarchist/punk/rasta/eco thing. (and thanks for that Freak Brothers thing...nostalgia....reminds me of my stoner days back in the 1970s...reading those and other underground comix..Zap Press, I think...)
February 21, 200817 yr Yellow Springs BoBos and the relationship with the local college scene - exactly and precisely! "Real" honest to God hippies, IMO, now wind up in isolated parts of the US where land is cheap enough to support living off of small scale farming, crafts, non corporate tourism, etc. And also where the local culture isn't outright hostile to non conformity. Places such as rural Arkansas, Pennsylvania, VT, upstate NY, many places in the mountain west, etc. And the problem with having a "critical mass" of truly countercultural people in an area is that the idiot Bobos come in with their absurd windfall profits from the sale of their homes from some distant urban center, and drive up the price of local real estate. They love the "non comformity" so much that they wind up destroying the local character by moving in. Real estate valuations are the enemy of colorful local culture in the US, IMO. Check this out, a guide to US hippie havens: http://www.hippy.com/havens.htm
February 22, 200817 yr Yellow Springs...sigh. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 22, 200817 yr Yellow Springs is nice, but it is far from Ohio's best small town. Ohio's most funky/(insert any related adjective) small town, maybe, but not outright Ohio's best small town. I'd be interested to hear what you'd say it is, since you've been to several. Wasn't there a thread related to that? Kinda. So is it still Lebanon? :lol:
February 22, 200817 yr I was saying Lebanon in 2006??? I should have been shot. ColDay's list is pretty good, although I'd probably take off Oxford and add Wooster, Wellington, Celina, Sidney, Tiffin, Troy, Milan and Chardon. Delaware and Medina are great towns, but the way they've sprawled really turns me off from the whole city.
February 22, 200817 yr Residentially, Sidney is underrated. Downtown-wise, Troy, Milan, and Celina are great. Oxford is still up there and I prefer it over Wellington, Tiffin, and certainly Chardon. And agreed on Medina and Delaware (similar boat to Lebanon). "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 22, 200817 yr Residentially, Sidney is underrated. Downtown-wise, Troy, Milan, and Celina are great. Oxford is still up there and I prefer it over Wellington, Tiffin, and certainly Chardon. And agreed on Medina and Delaware (similar boat to Lebanon). No love for Greenville? ;) I like Sydney and Troy as well, but I submit Bellefontaine and Urbana as two of my favorites. I also like some of the southeastern river towns, like Marietta and Steubenville.
February 22, 200817 yr I don't care for Bellefontaine but Urbana is also one of my favs. I haven't been to Greenville in over ten years so I can't really judge it but it looks nice from what I've seen and remember. "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
February 23, 200817 yr ... Urbana is also one of my favs ... You just like Urbana because of the Party Girls! :lol:
February 23, 200817 yr It's nice to see people out and about, even in February. The village itself and the surrounding parks make it such a great place to just get away for a day. John McCain was just at Young's Dairy just a few days ago, getting some ice cream. He must have seen this thread! Nice job, Columbusite.
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