1. Ithaca, New York

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So, far from being a countercultural Eden where good vibes have solved all urban ills, Ithaca is a work in progress. What's stunning about the place, though, is the sheer volume and quality of social innovation, pragmatic activism, spiritual seeking, open debate, and homemade and imported cultural fun that goes on here-in an atmosphere of robust local pride.

There's a lot to be proud of, and to protect. Right in the middle of the Commons is a public sculpture, a big brick circle, around which, at the correct compass points, are many of the names you need to know to orient yourself in the Ithaca landscape: Cornell, of course (to the northeast), and South Hill (where Ithaca College sits), Buttermilk Falls, Inlet Island, West Hill, Cayuga Lake. Ithacans love and take advantage of their lucky perch between the brainpower of Cornell and the beauty of the surrounding hills. 'From my house,' boasts Ithaca Hours founder Paul Glover, 'I can walk four blocks in one direction and use the Cornell library-one of the biggest collections of information in the world-or go four blocks in the other direction and dive naked into a lake.'

The loveliness of Ithaca's setting caught Joan Bokaer's eye when she passed through it on a cross-country walk for peace in 1990. Bokaer returned to found EcoVillage on West Hill in 1989. Today this experiment in cohousing and sustainable living, with 22 families involved, is drawing the attention of publications ranging from Earth Island Journal to Popular Science. The beauty of the region also inspired the Finger Lakes Land Trust, a group of Green activists, to buy up land to save it from developers' bulldozers.

It was the Ithaca countryside, in fact, that generated much of its alternative culture in the first place. Ithaca's politics were Republican-dominated before the mid-'60s, and the radical right made noise too; Glover remembers Ku Klux Klan rallies on West Hill during the early days of the civil rights movement. With the rise of the back-to-the-land movement in the late '60s and early '70s, some 50 communes popped up in the surrounding Tompkins County hills, with names like The Family, The Pad, Yea God!, and Lavender Hill. As these fizzled, many of their members found their way into town, where they set up hippie businesses: organic bakeries, craft shops, bookstores, the Green Star Co-Op. By 1981, the radicals had enough political clout to elect a city council member, Dan Hoffman. Radical influence and representation grew, and the town chose an openly socialist mayor, Ben Nichols, for three terms, from 1989 to 1995.

Today Hoffman is an attorney whose close-trimmed beard and natty suit and tie give him the air of a prosperous businessman from Idaho or Montana. He's still a man of the left-his current cause is the brand-new Citizen's Planning Alliance, which aims to keep a populist eye on city growth and development-but like many others in Ithaca's alternative community, he's matured. 'Since the early '80s,' he says, 'issues of economic equity, the environment, race, and class have been regularly brought up in city government. They're always part of the debate. Ecological concerns are seriously considered when development plans are evaluated. Ithaca pioneered in creating access for the handicapped too, years before the Americans with Disabilities Act. On the other hand, alternative institutions like the Green Star Co-Op and the Alternatives Federal Credit Union have grown and shown the wider community that they have what it takes to keep a business running.'

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