Sandpoint, Idaho, is one of those beautiful American towns that seems perpetually in danger of being discovered by the usual unwelcome flock of people from California. Situated on Lake Pend Oreille and surrounded by mountains, it has a charming downtown, a remarkable natural setting, and the sort of small-town atmosphere that makes people want to abandon whatever overpriced metropolitan disaster they presently inhabit—and that they helped create. Unfortunately, once enough of these people arrive, they tend to demand the same amenities, conveniences, and developments that made the places they left so expensive and unpleasant in the first place.
I met Jeremy Grimm, the brilliant and relatively young mayor of Sandpoint, at the Bluebird café and bakery on First Avenue. The coffee and baked goods were delicious, and the clientele was an interesting mixture of the usual progressive types with piercings and other accessories of modern self-expression, along with Mennonite ladies who apparently understood that good baked goods transcend political differences. It was a rather amusing introduction to a town that has become something of a political mixture, with traditional conservatives, progressives, libertarians, and newcomers who have brought their own ideas about how the place ought to be run.
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