Posted on 08/11/2005 1:13:23 PM PDT by TheMole
BERKELEY, CA – A new nationwide study released today by the nonpartisan Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR) ranks the political leanings of every American city and finds that Detroit, Michigan is the most liberal and Provo, Utah the most conservative.
In all, the BACVR researchers examined voting patterns of 237 American cities with populations of over 100,000 and ranked them each on liberal and conservative scales.
The list of America’s most liberal cities is dominated by cities with large African American populations that are concentrated in the Northeast, Midwest and California. Conversely, the study found that the staunchest conservative cities are clustered in the South and interior West and have extremely low numbers of African American residents.
“Detroit and Provo epitomize America’s political, economic and racial polarization,” said Jason Alderman a BACVR director. “As the most conservative city in America, Provo is overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class. This is in stark contrast to Detroit, which is impoverished, black and the most liberal.” Gary, Indiana, a rust belt former steel town, comes in as America’s second most liberal city, followed by Berkeley, California, which ranks third. Washington, D.C. comes in as the fourth most liberal and Oakland, California comes in fifth.
On the list of the nation’s most conservative cities, Texas cements its reputation as America’s most rock-ribbed state, having three cities in the top five. Lubbock and Abilene, Texas rank as the second and third most conservative cities, respectively, followed by Hialeah, Florida in fourth place and Plano, Texas in fifth.
BACVR researchers found a direct correlation between a city’s political ideology and its racial makeup. “The great political divide in America today is not red vs. blue, north vs. south, costal vs. interior or even rich vs. poor – it is now clearly black vs. white,” said Phil Reiff, a BACVR director.
“While there are a few liberal cities without large African American populations, these wind up being the exceptions. College towns like Berkeley and Cambridge have modest black populations but remain bastions of upper middle-class, white, intellectual liberalism. These liberal white communities, however, are more reminiscent of penguins clustering together around a shrinking iceberg than of a vibrant and growing political movement,” Reiff said.
The Bay Area Center for Voting Research is a nonpartisan think tank based in Berkeley, California. A full copy of the report and the complete list of rankings for all 237 cities are available at www.votingresearch.org.
America’s 25 Most Liberal Cities
(in descending order)
1 Detroit Michigan
2 Gary Indiana
3 Berkeley California
4 Washington, D.C.
5 Oakland California
6 Inglewood California
7 Newark New Jersey
8 Cambridge Massachusetts
9 San Francisco California
10 Flint Michigan
11 Cleveland Ohio
12 Hartford Connecticut
13 Paterson New Jersey
14 Baltimore Maryland
15 New Haven Connecticut
16 Seattle Washington
17 Chicago Illinois
18 Philadelphia Pennsylvania
19 Birmingham Alabama
20 St. Louis Missouri
21 New York New York
22 Providence Rhode Island
23 Minneapolis Minnesota
24 Boston Massachusetts
25 Buffalo New York
America’s 25 Most Conservative Cities
(in descending order)
1 Provo Utah
2 Lubbock Texas
3 Abilene Texas
4 Hialeah Florida
5 Plano Texas
6 Colorado Springs Colorado
7 Gilbert Arizona
8 Bakersfield California
9 Lafayette Louisiana
10 Orange California
11 Escondido California
12 Allentown Pennsylvania
13 Mesa Arizona
14 Arlington Texas
15 Peoria Arizona
16 Cape Coral Florida
17 Garden Grove California
18 Simi Valley California
19 Corona California
20 Clearwater Florida
21 West Valley City Utah
22 Oklahoma City Oklahoma
23 Overland Park Kansas
24 Anchorage Alaska
25 Huntington Beach California
It's too bad because it's a beautiful place for a town, it's a nice size, it's pretty with all the red brick and flowers, etc. But there is a reason that Mork from Ork lived in Boulder, and that his robed friend Exidor was one of the local residents. I spent a little while lazing in the sun on the courthouse lawn back in my drifter days.
Birkenstocks and pot heads galore and infested with bureaucratic BS through and through. Just look at our good for nothing senators, Feingold and Kohl.
Take Milwaukee and Madison out of the mix and WI would be a red state.
OMG, Gary, Indiana. If Detroit is a toilet, then Gary is the sewer.
I'm surprised Ithaca NY didn't make the liberal list.
We in thousand oaks are going to ship a few libs up the 23 to you. I cant believe we didnt make the list. must be polution from westlake.
Indeed. To say that Birmingham, Alabama is more liberal than Austin is hilarious!
I bet that the folks in Austin are P!SSED! Bwahahaha...
The same fact left out some very conservative areas. I live in Lancaster County, Pa and the county is almost exclusively conservative. Lancaster City only has 54,000 residents, but the county has almost 1/2 million total residents
From what I understand the real estate market in Utah, let alone Provo is booming right now. And if you're really, really, really into the quirks of the LDS culture in Provo, it's the place for you.
They were given the boot.
Or more likely, they are lying about it, trying to say they are from Lubbock to be 'authentic.' Bet they are really from Berkeley.
In any case, they are misfits.
"Older history books from the 1930's describe Detroit as one of this nation's gems. Not any longer."
Same deal here in Cleveland (#11). When I was growing up I believe we were the 6th largest city in the US. Now I think we're in the high 20s and falling.
And once the death spiral starts, I don't think there's any way to stop it. Fleeing wage earners just leads to higher taxes, which leads to more fleeing wage earners, etc...
What a shame. We really had a nice medium sized town here.
Anyone believing anything coming out of Berkeley is nonpartisan is fooling themselves immediately. And the fact Portland Oregon isn't on the list tells me this list is bogus.
I know what you mean I live near Gary.
Could it be that these cities are black BECAUSE they were liberal (welfare) rather than liberal because they are black. HMMM??
She 'from' Lubbock.
Gary, the murder capital of Indiana.
interesting, ping me if you do the 25 most conservative.
Isn't it Simi Vallian? You can count me and cowboy code in your ping list.
Contrast:America’s 25 Most Conservative Cities, with 2000-2004 population growth (cities >100,000):
1 Provo Utah
2 Lubbock Texas +4.1%
3 Abilene Texas (-1.0)%
4 Hialeah Florida (-0.8)%
5 Plano Texas +10.5%
6 Colorado Springs Colorado +2.3%
7 Gilbert Arizona +42.6%
8 Bakersfield California +16.8%
9 Lafayette Louisiana +0.1%
10 Orange California +3.1%
11 Escondido California +1.3%
12 Allentown Pennsylvania +0.1%
13 Mesa Arizona +10.0%
14 Arlington Texas +8.0%
15 Peoria Arizona +21.6%
16 Cape Coral Florida +25.1%
17 Garden Grove California +1.3%
18 Simi Valley California +6.8%
19 Corona California +16.1%
20 Clearwater Florida (-0.3)%
21 West Valley City Utah +3.5%
22 Oklahoma City Oklahoma +4.3%
23 Overland Park Kansas +8.9%
24 Anchorage Alaska +4.8%
25 Huntington Beach California +3.0%
Conclusion: where ever you find conservatives, people will flock.
Any list of liberal cities that leaves off Eugene and Portland, OR is wrong.
Orange Country got three on the list of most conservative and we're growing stronger.
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