The irony is that Vermont is already basically its own utopian community, where the culture is that development never gets approved unless it's being done by a resident of the state. Oh and you're not considered a resident unless you've been there at least generations. If Hall moves there now, maybe they'll let his great grandkids start building it. (If they can get the ski mountains to sell them any water rights, which isn't likely.)
The state is very far from being a utopia, and new development does get routinely approved (though it can be controversial). We do tend to oppose giant chains or people trying to push systems onto the state.
Utopia just means 'non-existent place.' Which I feel like fairly describes the state, given that they only survive by giving out tons of speeding tickets to non-residents and jacking up their property taxes.
I don't really feel like defending my state on Hacker News, but I would like a citation for the notion that we survive by giving out tons of speeding tickets. At the very least, income tax is a much bigger contributor than speeding tickets.
