Eugene, Ore. came in at number one. Perhaps it was because Ken Kesey was a native, or perhaps it’s because you can buy tie-dyed underwear from a number of stores. According to Estately, a local bicycle shop gives away free tofu every time the local Les Schwab gives away free beef.
Also on the list, Portland (#5), Ithaca, NY (#7), and Berkeley, Calif. (#8).
The city has more hippie-themed Meetups than any city in the country, as well as Hippie Hollow, a clothing optional nudist park where hippies can recreate in the buff. The popularity of Hippie Hollow is evidenced by a simple Google image search of “Austin Hippie,” which turns up far too many NSFW photos of these naked folks. Austin is also home to 12 local shops advertising hemp products, the “Hippie Church” at the local Taco Xpress, and thousands of locals ardently working to Keep Austin Weird.
http://blog.estately.com/2013/07/17-best-u-s-cities-for-hippies/
During my Seattle years, I spent quite a bit of time in Olympia, but it was working with the legislature on rail-related issues, not weed. I viewed downtown Olympia as a bit funky, but not particularly strange.
Ken Kesey wasn’t a hippie. He was a merry prankster. His second book was about a guy who crosses a union picket line.
The hippies were America’s youth who saw media presentations of the lifestyle of the post-beats in California and headed westward subscribing to whatever fashion and drug trends were being sold to them.
They weren’t as active in contributing to the culture. They took from the free store without offering things in return. They overloaded the free food distribution systems. They joined communes but didn’t want to work the land.
Ken Kesey was to the Left of Jack Kerouac (who supported the war in Vietnam) but he wasn’t full onboard the liberalism train (some of his take seems more libertarian).