I recently moved to Washington (eastern side) and out here it is more about what you can do yourself...do you own a excavator? did you build your own house? do you homestead? how much of your food do you produce yourself? can you rebuild your truck/tractor? etc.
However I love this post, and wrote up my own little analysis of a few cities I'm familiar with: http://colinschimmelfing.com/blog/the-different-social-yards...