Posted on 08/16/2005 5:52:26 AM PDT by meandog
NEW STUDY RANKS AMERICA’S MOST LIBERAL AND CONSERVATIVE CITIES
Detroit tops liberal list; Provo, UT most conservative
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 researcher. “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)
Rank City State
1 Detroit Michigan
2 Gary Indiana
3 Berkeley California
4 Washington, D.C. Dist. of Columbia
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)
Rank City State
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
One of the laws of physics is that everything degenerates, loses energy, or devolves. Liberals are just living proof of the laws of physics.
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Most liberal and conservative cities listed...is your's among them?, Always Right wrote:
"The City of Evil (Ithica) is not on the list??????? Give me a break."
It may not be big enough. I can think of a lot of towns in Massachusetts which belong on that list but are too small -- Amherst, Northampton, etc.
This is part of Newton (Newton Corner): 
The skyline is Boston downtown. Green area in front part of Newton and Boston (Brighton). To left (outside of photo) is Watertown the city with large number of Armenians (churches, museums etc ...). Cambridge is to forward left (also outside of photo).
This is Newton Highlands
Newton has many parks and nature preserves, see the bird in the center of photo:
Heron in Hammond Pond
Hahaha true. But then again, you'd be hard-pressed to find a city in VA (holding Richmond aside) with a steady population of over 100,000. That said, those who do pass that mark probably don't have enough conservatives to make the list (i.e. might be more of a 50/50 R/D ratio).
Very surprised no towns from Wyoming made the conservative list...like Cheyenne.
You could count on one hand the number of conservatives in St Louis.
All of the Conservatives have moved south of the city into Jefferson County or NW into Lincoln County, and the affluent Liberals are going west into West St Louis County leaving a shell of a city that will eventually become a parody of inner Detroit.
The St Louis City Government is a bastion of Liberal/Progressives. Remember this is the home base of Richard Gebhardt.
This list has been posted many times to Free Republic. Here are some FAQs:
1. Why are Detroit and Gary so much higher than liberal capitals like Boston and San Francisco?
A. This list is determined by the percentage of the population voting Democrat in recent elections. What this means in practice is that it correlates heavily with the African-American population in the city. This means that cities which are not widely considered liberal will be ranked high on this list because their citizens voter overwhelmingly for Democrats. Similarly, many cities with a liberal reputation but which include neighborhoods of semi-conservative ethnic voters will be further down than you expect.
2. Where are the liberal hotspots like Ithaca, Madison, Newton, or Athens?
A. Cities must have a population of at least 100,000 to make the list. Many university towns and liberals oases do not qualify.
3. So this list sounds a little bit like Barbra Streisand as a reflection of liberalism.
A. Yep.
Not a great breakdown. Since they required a pop of 100k or more, Ithaca missed serious consideration. Those of us in Fox holes behind enermy lines know that Gary, IN cannot hold a candle to us. After all we regularly mobilize busloads of nothing better to do protesters to go anywhere President Bush travels. Besides, we have the yellow bug (painted with kid's toys no less) police chief car as well. So we would be competitive to make not only the ultra liberal list but also the just plain weird list as well.
I see from above that Richmond did come in at #50. Followed by Norfolk, Alexandria, Chesapeake.
I'd have thought Arlington would have been first. Certainly before Alexandria.
Where's the full Conservative list?
Boulder, CO and Madison, WI not on the top 25 liberal list????
....8 Cambridge Massachusetts....
Is this secret code for Boston?
Arlington, Boulder, and Madison all have fewer than 100,000 people.
Boston has a big pro-life population that Cambridge lacks. Cambridge is its own city.
If you don't have a college in your town don't wish for one...
Dayton, Ohio should be on Liberal list.
Manchester, NH is the most conservative New England city.
Probably right. It has the last somewhat reliable newspaper in New England.
Well at least Richmond wasn't on the liberal list. I'm sure Fairfax, Arlington and Alexandria County's could make it if listed by counties.
The list is only cities over 100k and I assume they didn't want just least/left coast area showing.
At first DALLAS was a shock - until I remembered what has happened to the City of Dallas the past decade or so --- It is no just another People's Republic and the sane, law-abiding, and intelligent people have long since left the city limits. So Dallas now fits the profile of all the most liberal cities as a welfare state.
Austin is actually getting more conservative lately --- and the most shocking??
U.T. (at least the student paper) is a hell of a lot more conservative than TAMU (student paper). TAMU board is a bunch of whooses now also!
TAMU Class of '72
Some of the cities listed are actually suburbs of larger cities...it might be more informative to rank metropolitan areas.
"21 West Valley City Utah "
Hard to believe. Everytime I venture into West Valley City, all I see are the tattooed and the pierced, in the hundreds. It's a scary place.
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