Hey everybody, so I’ve been heavily considering moving to NH. Through networking I’ve been talking to a couple of people in Manchester and will be traveling there in the near future.
While I’m there I’d like to see some other areas in NH, especially those that have high concentrations of freedom-loving people.
What would be some other good areas to check out when I come that way?
Thanks in advance.
I’m planning a trip myself. You probably what to work Keene into your visit. You might want to look at some of the suggestion folks have made to me.
The best areas to check out are probably: Keene, Portsmouth, and Manchester. They’ve got high concentrations of freedom-people who have migrated to the state. However that said this and surrounding areas. There really are people all over southern New Hampshire and it’ll be a challenge to pick a bad spot. Well, sort of. I mean in that there won’t be people nearby.
An overview:
Keene: Population 23,000. Small town. Very beautiful and a great place to raise a family. Also has a very active community and is the “media capital of freedom”. There are many different liberty-oriented shows produced in the shire here. There is more in-your-face activism than probably anywhere else. There is a lot of crypto-activism and Keene is #1 in this space. Keene and particularly surrounding areas are very affordable. Low unemployment (I believe it is higher than Manchester, but 5-6% vs 4%, below 4% is actually bad, most of southern New Hampshire at least has fairly low unemployment though too). Very beautiful and a super friendly liberty community.
Portsmouth: It’s a great place to live if you got the money. It’s a bit more snobby and elitist, but none-the-less there is a more friendly community 10 minutes north too so not really that bad. The town has a little smaller population than Keene. It’s absolutely beautiful. The town is the 2nd best place to be in the United States as far as crypto acceptance is concerned.
Manchester: If you need a job or like “city” life this might be a good place for you (or a nicer surrounding area). Manchester has lots of jobs and is the biggest city in New Hampshire. It’s got 113,000 people. It’s definitely not as friendly as Keene even within the liberty space. If you are into crypto you might not like it here as there hasn’t really been anybody taking up the cause so only a few places that are liberty-owned take it compared to dozens in much smaller towns like Portsmouth and Keene. There just isn’t the same level of activism going on in the crypto space. What Manchester does have going for it though is political activism. The city shines in this regard. The city itself is a bit of a rundown shit hole. It’s hard for me to understand why people like it. The cops are corrupt as hell and nobody seems to do anything about it other than outsiders. However as I said earlier there are some beautiful communities surrounding Manchester so if you need a job- maybe??? And then buy a house somewhere nearby.
Is Manchester the only option for city living? Do you think its problems are addressable?
What about Nashua? I was pleasantly surprised they have a large maker space.
What do you think about the Hampton Beach area?
Any radically free liberty communities, like of tiny homes or in a mall to keep the weather out.
Any university cities that are becoming more libertarian?
Hampton Beach is along the seacoast. It is a nice area to live. It’s that elitist kind of area where there is a lot of money and things are probably going to be pretty expensive. I would think more so now that prices are going up as people try and escape the cities. You are about 20 minutes south of Portsmouth in the Hampton Beach area. I think they’re a bit more friendly in Rollinsford which is about 35 minutes north of the Hampton Beach. I have had some very positive interactions with people from that area and people behind the less snooty SHELL in Rollinsford. The SHELL is basically a competing club, but they’re apparently more open to the community than some of the other private clubs (even more so than the ones that have public events too- I like this more open approach much more as we need to be a welcoming community if we really want to attract people and succeed in changing things for the better). Portsmouth is beautiful and I can’t speak much to Hampton Beach specifically beyond this “rough area” analysis. I don’t know anybody in the Hampton Beach area specifically to refer you to either unfortunately. There may not be many people that far south.
Now I know Nashua a bit. My partner lived in Nashua for years. Manchester is a bit more of a shit hole than Nashua, but it’s not that bad everywhere. Nashua from what I’m being told has lower property taxes than Keene. There are some nicer areas of Nashua. Nashua is a little smaller than Manchester in population, 90,000 people. What it lacks is a more significant community of like-minded people. However there are some meetups that happen in Nashua so it’s not non-existant. I’d also say Nashua is a bit of a suburb of Boston, so … you’ll probably have a lot more interaction with not-so-like-minded people who commute.
As far as any radically free liberty communities… umm communes? 
I will say that there are people trying to acquire land or a camp ground. The idea isn’t new and hasn’t ever happened up to this point- but there were people actually seriously looking. Actually a couple of groups and a couple of people with the financial resources to pull it off. The most recent attempt to purchase a campground has been delayed repeatedly due to the fact its up for auction by a bank and the bank apparently is trying to work out a fix with the current owners still. This one was in southern new hampshire. There have been a few other attempts to buy a campground in northern New Hampshire and land in the Keene area. The northern campground did have genuine talks and negotiation, but fell through due to taxes and financing when it came time to get a loan. The land in or near Keene didn’t progress anywhere.
Keene is probably the most libertarian friendly that contains a college although I wouldn’t call Keene a libertarian leaning city. It’s more liberal leaning, with there being a sizable number of libertarians moving to the city. If you want to be around libertarians Keene is an excellent choice. I wouldn’t worry too much about the liberals in Keene as the authority of the city bureaucrats is limited to what is allowed by the state government. It doesn’t mean that we don’t fight shit in Keene, but it’s more like “high” property taxes (they are higher than surrounding towns, but lower than high property tax regions like CA, MA, NJ, NY, etc… I paid 10k in NJ and paid $6k when I moved to Keene for instance… yes- it’s high- but for the property it is not that bad comparatively- and given it’s the main source of revenue in NH it could be much worse- other high property tax regions usually have sales taxes, income taxes, and so on, which we don’t have… soo… really isn’t as bad as it looks), and instances where the state has allowed there to be ordinances for something of which isn’t banned statewide. As an example prior to the smoking age going up to 21 the state authorized towns to ban smoking for those under 21. Keene didn’t do it until just prior to the federal or state government going in that direction. Ultimately it has little real impact, for a few months or whatever, but theoretically it could have been the case that Keene banned under 21s from buying cigarettes years prior to the state/federal government banning it everywhere. Again- Keene could have because the state authorized it, but they didn’t, so… it’s not perfect… but it’s not as bad as one might think either. Particularly compared to a liberal town in another state that has home rule where they can do whatever they want. * I want to point out that I’m not 100% on the exact details of this now. It was something like this though that went down not that long ago in Keene.