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 Americas 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 Americas 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 Americas 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 nations most conservative cities, Texas cements its reputation as Americas 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 citys 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.
Americas 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
Americas 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
You mean Slow-Death-Uh. I'm gonna get flamed for sure on that one, but I have a feeling even President Bush will agree with me.
I was wondering why no Georgia cities were on there. My city is actually vilified on some lefty's website. He decries the "religious, hidebound, untolerant atmosphere". Made my day when I found it.
Detroit is the most liberal? Your kidding me....
Gotta love a city that has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the nation.
I think we should change its slogan:
"Odessa. Midland's own private Tijahuana."
LOL. You and I can get matching asbestos panties.
Doh! Or boxers for you--whichever way you go.
Clearwater, FL? Tell that to Terri Schindler (Schiavo)
who resided right next door in Pinellas Park, where
she was starved and dehydrated till death. Many on FR
will NEVER stop speaking about this until justice prevails!!
Something to think about for people with conservative values who live in liberal cities/areas who think it only matters at the ballot box......
I would have to disagree with this list. Boston is definitely among the top 5 conservative cities in the country.
LOL. Who knew it? SamAdams76 is really Baghdad Bob!
;-)
Speaking of Sam Adams, it looks like it IS that time....
Sarcasm please.
Thanks!
Overland Park Kansas, #23 on the conservative list is high income. It's the place to live right now if you have money. Just for the record, I don't live there ;-(
#55..true, but with some surprisingly conservative influence in the past few years.
Keep (insert Boulder/Austin) weird.
In Austin they're very proud of their motto and keep it true to form.
They still do that :^
I live in Gilbert, and love it. Great place to raise a family. Bush/Cheney bumper stickers all around! Home prices are getting ridiculous though, as speculators try to cash in on the boom.
One of our recreations centers:
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