> credit (which I use sparingly), a massive library at the University
> which I can use (as an employee), several large bookstores in town,
> several great _used_ bookstores for when I go on an antiquarian jag, CD
> stores where I can obtain damn near any kind of music recorded,
> relatively few weapons-toting religious fanatics,
You're describing the environs of a university town, and university towns are the privileged exceptions to the American norm: lots of culture, books, public spaces, people who care about their community, etc. -- like islands of social democracy in the neoliberal ocean.
-- DRR