Published: August 13, 2005

By DEVON MAYLIE
Of the News-Register

The Vokacs consider themselves connoisseurs of communities claiming fewer than 50,000 residents.

They evaluate towns as they would a good bottle of wine or a vintage car. They look for places that have aged with grace.

In their latest guidebook, "The Great Towns of Oregon," McMinnville was one of 18 meeting their criteria for a great getaway or residence. They were chosen from 320 falling into the right population range.

What's more, when the Vokacs then rated the 18, McMinnville ended up at No. 2, behind only Baker City.

Retired urban planners from San Diego, 65, and Joan, 57, invest their time in towns, not cities like Seattle or Portland. They look for the ones with the highest livability quotients, based on both objective and subjective analyses.

"Towns like McMinnville are often treated as a sidebar," David said. But he said, "I feel that more people want to spend time in the boondocks."

They fell in love with nearly every element of McMinnville, from the tree-lined elegance of the Downtown Historic District to the soaring contemporary architecture of the Evergreen Aviation Museum. In their book published by West Press in July, they describe McMinnville as "genteel sophistication with deep Eastern roots."

David has been authoring guidebooks since the mid-1980s. Joan joined him full-time on this one, the latest in a series of 10 on towns in California, Oregon and the United States.

He has sold between 10,000 and 20,000 copies of each book. They have been distributed both nationally and internationally, and some have been translated into Japanese, German or Russian, he said.

The Vokacs use a refined version of an evaluation system David developed as part of a geography thesis 40 years ago at the University of Arizona. Along with having a population under 50,000, each town must have some world-class feature - in McMinnville's case, the aviation museum.

Before he and his wife even pay a visit, they analyze the town using a 100-point survey. They map objective components like the existence of public restrooms, the absence of parking meters, the presence of public furniture and the number of trees per block.

McMinnville ranked number one in trees per block.

"That is part of how we knew McMinnville was going to make it," Joan said. "It made a lasting impression."

They visited McMinnville in the fall of 2004. And they liked what they saw.

Of the 320 Oregon towns that fit the size requirement, only 27 remained in contention once an objective analysis was completed. The vast majority fell by the wayside.

Through on-site visits, the Vokacs boiled the list down to 18. In addition to McMinnville, their roster includes the likes of Ashland, Bend and Newport.

"The cities have to have a great deal of scenic beauty and a lot of cultural vitality," David said. "McMinnville has a come a long way. It has a superb hospital and town parks."

They inspected the downtown area, checking for merchant and business vitality. And they examined the quality of the architecture, checking to see if new buildings blended with old and if the old were well maintained.

"McMinnville has done a good job segregating land uses so the downtown remains walkable," Joan said. They also cited the town's vicinity to the heart of Oregon's wine country as a contributing factor.

Their book will soon go on sale in local bookstores, with a cover price of $10. It recommends restaurants, motels and attractions for all 18 towns.

The pair are currently updating their information for small towns across the United States for a revision of David's book, "The Great Towns of America," and their website, www.greattowns. com. In conjunction with that, they just came through McMinnville again this week.

"We believe McMinnville has a good shot at being in the top 100," David said.