Posted on 06/21/2009 1:04:32 AM PDT by Leisler
A new nationwide study released 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, MI, and Provo, UT, epitomize Americas political, economic and racial polarization, says Peter Thai, 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 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, says 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 says.
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 http://www.votingresearch.org
http://www.votingresearch.org. Americas 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
Americas 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
“My bet is crime and taxes are high for the “liberal” cities and that they also are the most mismanaged economically.”
I’d bet a bundle on that horse too!!
I know a lot of people who used to live in Allentown, but I don’t know anyone who wants to live there.
See post 45.
“Can you really have meaningful comparisons between places like Detroit and Peoria, Arizona. I’m not even certain all of those sites on the conservative list actually qualify as “cities”.”
I was in Detroit earlier this year, not sure it qualifies as a city...looked like a ghost town to me.
The whole Lehigh Valley is very Democrat. I won't say Liberal in the sense of Cambridge or Berkeley, but they vote reliably Democrat on most things. I live and work in the LV, and while I know conservatives, everyone I work with is Democrat. Lots of Italians here, almost always Democrat no matter what, and lots of old union families (Beth. Steel leftovers).
I have no doubt you are correct.
I mean, to say that Allentown, PA is more conservative than, say, Tulsa, OK, is nuts.
The author could have saved himself a lot of time by just saying those cities with huge los negroes populations who are on the gummint teat and those cities where folks work and provide the gummint teat!
I am going to make a guess that there will a very good correlation between this list and a list of the most prosperous cities. I will also add well run cities.
I'm surprised that Trenton, New Brunswick, Elizabeth, Irvington, Hoboken, and Jersey City didn't make it either. Each a decaying bastion of liberalism in their own right. As a Jersey transplant living here in SE Pennsylvania I'm positioned within 100 miles of 7 of the most liberal cities according to this study while only 1 of the most conservative cities (Allentown) came within 100 miles of our home.
Look at unemployment in the most liberal cities. Detroit is right up there as THE highest unemployment in the nation. I would bet you would see the most conservative cities with lower unemployment. Crime is through the roof in Detroit and so are taxes.
Honey, where's my blow torch?
Some of the most messed up cities in the free world in the top 25.
Bump
The report we need now is which city is the most corrupt?
Note that Los Angeles was not on this list which I always knew. LA is more politically diverse than most Freepers are aware.
Inglewood is the closest to LA on this list and it is solidly black.
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