Ashland earns high marks as retirement spot
By BILL KETTLER
of the Mail Tribune

Add Business Week magazine to the endless list of list-makers who think Ashland is a great place to live.

The Shakespeare city was profiled in the magazine's July 20 story about cities and towns that offer retirees more than just great golf.

The story, "When a Home near the Fifth Hole Isn't Enough," says more retirees are looking for places that offer cultural enrichment, educational opportunities, good entertainment or opportunities to do volunteer or part-time work. College towns often provide many of those amenities, and Ashland was cited along with others such as Chapel Hill, N.C., Fort Collins, Colo., Iowa City, Iowa, and State College, Penn.

The magazine's conclusion was no surprise to Helena Darling, vice president of Mountain Meadows, an Ashland retirement community.

Darling said people like to retire to a place where they can do things they've always known and loved or jump into things they've always wanted to do but never had time for.

"Ashland's good for those things," she said.

Plenty of retirees knew about Ashland's advantages before Business Week discovered them. Amy Hanson and her husband, Woody, felt the town was the right place to retire when they first saw it 14 years ago.

"We had traveled everywhere in the United States," Amy Hanson said, "but we never really felt comfortable with any of the localities we visited."

That changed when the Cleveland, Ohio, couple dropped by the Oregon Shakespeare Festival on a recommendation from their daughter, who had settled in California.

They overheard a clerk in the Tudor Guild shop give a glowing report about Ashland as a great place to retire, and then took a walk in Lithia Park.

"Everybody was smiling, and I thought I was in heaven," she said.

Hanson said Ashland gives her and her husband the chance to enjoy "big city" entertainment without all the driving. Both have become active community volunteers. She works with the Tudor Guild, and he works with the Ashland Police Department.

Ashland's theater community also lured Marion Ferguson to Southern Oregon. Ferguson moved from Port Townsend, Wash., to Ashland to live near a cousin and be close to the Shakespeare Festival and the other live theaters.

"I'd been going back and forth on Interstate 5 for years checking out Medford and Ashland," said Ferguson, who now lives less than a mile from the Shakespeare festival's theaters.
Copyright © interRogue & The Mail Tribune 1998, Medford, Oregon USA
 

New book touts Ashland as "Top 100" vacation spot
A San Diego writer spent two years criss-crossing the country to find us
By Traci Buck
Ashland Daily Tidings

David Vokac acclaims Ashland as one to the top 100 vacation towns in the country in a new travel guidebook, "The great towns of America,".

"I'm not surprised," said Ashland Mayor Cathy Shaw. "The people of Ashland have done a lot to provide a host of activities for visitors."

At the same time, Shaw said she doesn't believe Ashland caters directly to tourism.

"If we did, we would take away from its magical quality," said the mayor. "Like my mom says, 'It's a little bit of what life use to be like'."

Vovkac, of San Diego, Calif., spent 1996 and 1997 driving more than 60,00 miles, criss-crossing the nation seeking the 100 best getaway communities. During his two-year trek he took time to experience each town, its outdoor recreation and its culture.

"From 271 semi-finalists, I got the ultimate 100, he said

And Ashland ranked high on his list.

Vokac use a 100-point system ranking the community on things such as land forms in and around the town, access to the town center, water features, vegetation, weather and the overall nature of the community.

"The natural grandeur and the cultural vitality of Ashland is undeniable," said the author, referring to surrounding lakes, forest, Mount Ashland and the Rogue River.

Lithia Park, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, restaurants, shops, and bed-and-breakfast inns also played a part in Vokac's decision.

On any given summer day, between 125 and 150 visitors stop by the information booth in the Plaza, according to volunteer Fred Sheire. "More and more people are being drawn to Ashland," he said.

Cherrill Avant of Mississippi and Violet Daniels of Alaska, who are visiting family in Medford, agree.

"We came from Alaska and Mississippi to see the park. What does that tell you?" said Daniels.

"This feels like home," added Avant.