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
"I've lived in 3 of the top 6 most conservative!"
You're lucky. I was born in the #1 liberal city, recently moved out of the #9 liberal city and I now live in the #17 liberal city. At least I am going in the right direction (no pun intended).
I have a relative that lives in Boulder. She makes the DU crowd look like raving conservatives(and I'm not joking at all). Very bizzare family gatherings to say the least.
They also left off Madison, Wisconsin, population OVER 200,000.
Lubbock PING
"it is now clearly black vs. white"
Yet, if you were to poll or interview many blacks on their beliefs or stands on different issues from school choice, religous expression, gay marriage, even some on taxes you would be surprised how conservative they are.
"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."
I'm guessing by liberal they mean "votes democrat", but the 2 aren't necessarily synonomous on every issue.
Where are all the black guest?
Is Tim Russert a racist? What percentage of elected democrats are black? What percentage of Tim's guests are black?
How about ABC's George S.? Why no liberal blacks on network TV? Or CNN? Or MSNBC? Are liberals ashamed of their elected blacks?
11 Cleveland Ohio
Home of Dennis Kucinich
Detroit's powerhouse radio station 760 AM WJR has Mitch Album on at 3 pm. Following Rush. I wonder if they know how many tune out when Album's 'AirAmerica Light' comes on.
Hey, where's my hometown of San Rafael, CA?? That's one leftist enclave!!
Where is Madison, WI? Is it less than 100,000? And Austin, the anus of Texas, definitely should have made the Losers List.
"Wow, a lot of depopulating, declining Midwestern cities are on the liberal list."
Yeah, that's because of a combination of the black vote and blue collar votes.
I wonder where Marquette Mich is on the socialist list? Although it aint quite the asshole of the world, one can sure see it clearly from there.
Poor white trash...
Any Utah FReepers know what the real estate market's like in Provo? I'm looking around for a retirement home....
You should have pinged me too!!! I'm a Simi Vallier! We need a Simi Valley Ping list. There are what, 5 of us now?
Here's the liberal cities, with their 2000-2004 population growth estimated by the Census Bureau (cities > 100,000)
1 Detroit Michigan (-5.4)%
2 Gary Indiana
3 Berkeley California (-1.2)%
4 Washington, D.C.(-3.2)%
5 Oakland California (-0.4)%
6 Inglewood California (-1.2)%
7 Newark New Jersey +2.4%
8 Cambridge Massachusetts (-0.6)%
9 San Francisco California (-4.2)%
10 Flint Michigan (-4.2)%
11 Cleveland Ohio (-4.0)%
12 Hartford Connecticut +0.6%
13 Paterson New Jersey +1.1%
14 Baltimore Maryland (-2.3)%
15 New Haven Connecticut +0.9%
16 Seattle Washington +1.4%
17 Chicago Illinois (-1.2)%
18 Philadelphia Pennsylvania (-3.1)%
19 Birmingham Alabama (-4.0)%
20 St. Louis Missouri (-1.4)%
21 New York New York +1.2%
22 Providence Rhode Island +2.6%
23 Minneapolis Minnesota (-2.3)%
24 Boston Massachusetts (-3.4)%
25 Buffalo New York (-3.3)%
Conclusion: where ever you find liberals, people flee in terror.
DAMN .!!!! Missed the Top Ten by One.
Number 11 on the Most Conservative Cities in the USA : ESCONDIDO,California. Yeah Baby.!!!
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