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
In Midland we talk about all the bad liberal influences our kids pick up in Lubbock.
Seriously, Lubbock more conservative than Abeline? I guess b/c Lubbock keeps the liquor stores out on the strip.
I get out quite a bit. I've been to some of the other listed cities and I can tell you that Austin deserves a spot in the top 25.
Lubbock does not have dust storms. That is merely Oklahoma coming for a visit.
LOL. Is it just me, or are we blessed to be living in West Texas if Lubbock is a "liberal influence" on Midland kids? I wonder why Midland didn't make the list?
we're not dusty. we're clay deprived.
1 Provo Utah
2 Lubbock Texas
3 Abilene Texas
4 Hialeah Florida
5 Plano Texas
6 Colorado Springs Colorado
7 Gilbert Arizona
bttt
No, they merely pay more for a house in Cambridge.
It's worth about 1/100,000,000 of a house in Lubbock.
I guess there are size limitations but Dothan, Alabama and Pensacola, and Panama City, Florida are more conservative than any place I have ever seen.
I cant believe Madison or Ithaca didnt make the list
Actually, I'll bet Lubbock topped Abilene because of Charlie Stenholm serving in Congress all those years.
I don't know. Maybe we are too small, although I suspect we are about the same size as Abeline.
I just noticed they say over 100,000. Sort of automatically makes a city liberal.
Yeah...if 200,000 population was the cutoff, that would explain Amarillo also not being in there.
I cannot believe Seattle is so far down on the list. I mean this city elects and re-elects Bagdad Jim Mcdermott on a regular basis.
Amarillo should be right up there with Lubbock. I live in Amarillo, and it is extremely conservative.
Midland didn't make the list either. Not sure why. It says the population was over 100,000. Maybe they picked "representative cities"?
They just didn't make the top 25.
New Orleans was 26th most liberal.
Ann Arbor was 27.
Portland was 29.
Madison was 34.
Los Angeles was 37.
Eugene, OR was 54.
Austin was 93.
Sioux Falls, SD was 188.
Jackson, Mississippi was listed as 46 AND 47 for some reason.
They're all listed here:
http://votingresearch.org/USAliberalcities.doc
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