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
I’d love to see crime rates, tax rates and the economic status of each city government.
My bet is crime and taxes are high for the “liberal” cities and that they also are the most mismanaged economically.
Interesting, thanks.
If Texas withdraws from the Union, that will leave the remainder of the US with even fewer conservative cities. That might be good for Texas, but hard on what remains of the United States.
I have lived in the Seattle area since 1989. At the time it was ranked as America’s “most liveable city.” I can tell you now it is rapidly descending into an inner city dump, just like the ones I used to know in the northeast. And they’re on the most liberal list, too.
Especially if you live in LibLand (Massachusetts) like me. If you guys withdraw and leave me here, then you won't have to worry about the Liberals. I'll hunt you down myself.
I think it would be helpful to know which cities are growing and which are declining in population, although I know places like Bakersfield are not growing like they were before the current recession.
20 Clearwater Florida
Heck thats right across the bay from me. I always thought they were liberal compared to this side.
Believe me, I’d love to get the hell out of here...
Most states didn’t have any cities on the most conservative list, but California had seven. Hmmmmm....
And California had the most "Most Conservative (7) all south
Break up California in to Northern and Southern and the Southern part has a chance
There's plenty of room down here below the Mason Dixon for more good Conservatives like yourself.
Not one state in the southeast had a city on the conservative list other than Florida. I found that pretty interesting, though that does fit in with the author’s thesis. There just aren’t many “white” cities in the South - the South has a large black population and is much more geographically integrated than the rest of the country.
Was Bakersfield growing before the recession?
I certainly wouldn’t want to live there...
That’s the plan. But those geniuses in Suckramento dont want to do that and want Mexifornia dependent on this illegal alien-infested and corrupt state.
I like Glenn Beck’s idea. The conservatives get 25 and the libs get 25. Split, see how it turns out.
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”.
“Provo is overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class.”
And this is a problem WHY??????
NJ with 2 liberal mentions. Surprised Camden didn’t make the list.
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