If The Name Fits...

City dwellers are returning to the good life in small-town, rural America. New Eco-Topia, comprising one percent of the United States, mixes an interesting bunch of folks: those escaping downtown and those who've never lived downtown, or as author Michael J. Weiss says, "a mix of granola and grits." Although they're earning middle-class incomes ($35,300), the Eco-Topians bring a touch of big-city tastes to the back country with a penchant for imported cheese and organic gardening, AOL and public broadcasting, Subarus and Humvee trucks.

• Averaging 35-plus, New Eco-Topians are rural blue-collar, white-collar and farm families living in single-unit housing. They're predominantly white, some have children, and most have graduated high school and attended college.

• Voting booth: Overwhelmingly moderate Republican, they voted for Bob Dole in 1996, and their key issues are tax and welfare reform and legalizing marijuana.

• Reading material:Country Living (223), Organic Gardening (195), T>Today Show (158)

• Eating and drinking: beef (145), imported cheese (143), low-fat sourPopular Science (151)

• Watching and listening:NBC Nightly News (218), As the World cream (136)

• Driving: Dodge 4WD pickups (586), Humvee trucks (580), Jeep Grand Wagoneers (491)
  
  Source: The Clustered World: How We Live, What We Buy, and What It All Means About Who We Are urns (200),

Contact Sources

Koplovitz & Company, (212) 551-3585

National Foundation for Women Business Owners, (301) 495-4975, ext. 13, http://www.nfwbo.org

Viridian Capital, 220 Montgomery St., #946, San Francisco, CA 94104, (415) 391-8950

This article was originally published in the March 2000 print edition of Entrepreneur with the headline: If The Name Fits....