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Study Ranks America’s Most Liberal and Conservative Cities
Live Leak ^ | Jan 23 2009 | unknown

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


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; US: Alaska; US: California; US: Illinois; US: Indiana; US: Kansas; US: Michigan; US: New Jersey; US: Oklahoma; US: Pennsylvania; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: bluezones; cities; illegalaliens; immigration; michigan; redzones; sanctuarycities; timetomove; topten
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http://govpro.com/content/gov_imp_31439/
1 posted on 06/21/2009 1:04:33 AM PDT by Leisler
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To: Leisler

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.


2 posted on 06/21/2009 1:08:07 AM PDT by DB
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To: Leisler
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3 posted on 06/21/2009 1:12:29 AM PDT by ansel12 (Romney (guns)"instruments of destruction with the sole purpose of hunting down and killing people")
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To: Leisler

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.


4 posted on 06/21/2009 1:12:52 AM PDT by FFranco (To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness.)
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To: Leisler

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.


5 posted on 06/21/2009 1:13:50 AM PDT by Catmom
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To: FFranco
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.

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.

6 posted on 06/21/2009 1:17:30 AM PDT by csense
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To: csense
Head south my FRiend, head south.
7 posted on 06/21/2009 1:22:12 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Hamish; "Where are you going?" William: "I'm going to pick a fight!")
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To: DB

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.


8 posted on 06/21/2009 1:23:59 AM PDT by married21
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To: Leisler

20 Clearwater Florida

Heck thats right across the bay from me. I always thought they were liberal compared to this side.


9 posted on 06/21/2009 1:25:45 AM PDT by driftdiver (I could eat it raw, but why do that when I have a fire.)
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To: Markos33

Believe me, I’d love to get the hell out of here...


10 posted on 06/21/2009 1:25:56 AM PDT by csense
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To: Leisler

Most states didn’t have any cities on the most conservative list, but California had seven. Hmmmmm....


11 posted on 06/21/2009 1:26:07 AM PDT by Prokopton
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To: Leisler
Interesting California had the most, "Most Liberal" (4) 3 north, 1 south

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

12 posted on 06/21/2009 1:30:10 AM PDT by tophat9000 ( We are "O" so f---ed)
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To: csense
Then get the hell out then! Things are only going to get worse in that Red Enclave, formerly known as the great state of Massachusetts.

There's plenty of room down here below the Mason Dixon for more good Conservatives like yourself.

13 posted on 06/21/2009 1:35:50 AM PDT by Semper Mark (Hamish: "Where are you going?" William: "I'm going to pick a fight!")
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To: Prokopton

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.


14 posted on 06/21/2009 1:36:31 AM PDT by The Pack Knight (Duty, Honor, Country)
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To: married21

Was Bakersfield growing before the recession?

I certainly wouldn’t want to live there...


15 posted on 06/21/2009 1:37:15 AM PDT by DB
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To: tophat9000

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.


16 posted on 06/21/2009 1:37:36 AM PDT by max americana
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To: Markos33

I like Glenn Beck’s idea. The conservatives get 25 and the libs get 25. Split, see how it turns out.


17 posted on 06/21/2009 1:39:51 AM PDT by FreeSouthernAmerican (All we ask is to be let alone----Jefferson Davis)
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To: Leisler

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”.


18 posted on 06/21/2009 1:41:14 AM PDT by tlb
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To: Leisler

“Provo is overwhelmingly white and solidly middle class.”

And this is a problem WHY??????


19 posted on 06/21/2009 1:41:31 AM PDT by antiunion person (The Obama administration is the same as a cosmic black hole.)
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To: Coleus

NJ with 2 liberal mentions. Surprised Camden didn’t make the list.


20 posted on 06/21/2009 1:43:04 AM PDT by Calpernia (DefendOurFreedoms.Org)
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