Safe Places

Escape has always been a dominant American theme. Today, however, it often suggests not pioneering, the expansive drive, but a quest for refuge --from crime, pollution, drugs. Thousands of Americans have emigrated to places like Canada, England, Spain and Australia. They might have looked closer to home, according to Safe Places, a guidebook assembled by a New York book editor named David Franke and his wife Holly.

The Frankes set out by car on a 20,000-mile tour of the nation and came up with a list of 46 communities where crime is low or nonexistent, the air is clean, the taxes moderate. Among the nominees: Woodstock, Vt.; Red Lodge, Mont.; Green Bay, Wis.; Fairhope, Ala.; Moscow, Idaho; and Wabash, Ind. Among the Frankes' observations: "ethnic" communities, with many old world social controls still in force--Polish, Italian or whatever --tend to be the safest, and no place in the country is free from drugs.

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