The inmates are running the asylum. Tripp owned 10 acres of undeveloped land 300 miles north of San Francisco and complained that he couldn't cut a tree or dig a hole without permission from the local government. After a complaint from a former tenant, government inspectors demanded that he pay for expensive tests on his water system, which he said were unnecessary. Since moving to the Coast, Tripp has run across few regulations to complicate his business or personal life. Coast residents, he said, still enjoy their personal freedom and aren't paranoid.
People are busy with their own lives.
Tripp arrived on the Coast with a fascinating resume. Before he became a chiropractor in 1983, he was a percussionist with a symphony and a drummer with several avant-garde rock bands of the 1960s. Tripp started music school in 1962 and played with the Cincinnati Symphony as a student. After moving to New York City, he met Frank Zappa and began playing with Zappa's band of classically trained rock musicians. I thought I'd died and gone to heaven.