HOW LIBERAL, OR BLACK, IS YOUR CITY?

From Motown to Mormon-town

The Bay Area Center for Voting Research (BACVR) just conducted a study ranking all 237 major cities in America according to their political ideology, as determined by voting patterns.

The results themselves are interesting: who would have guessed that Detroit is the most liberal city in America? And who would have guessed that Berkeley, CA -- home of the nuclear-free zone, Indigenous Peoples' Day, and countless anti-war resolutions -- would only clock in at No. 3, losing to Gary, Indiana(!), the second most liberal city.

And had I been given the chance to bet on it, I would have lost both my life savings and my virginity over the fact that Hartford, CT (#12) is more liberal than both Boston (#24) and NYC (#21).

What's more interesting -- but not surprising at all -- is the correlation between a city's political ideology and its racial makeup. Detroit, the most liberal city, is 82% black and also has a significant Arab American population. Indeed, the cities with the largest black populations dominate the top of the list, with the only exceptions being college towns like Cambridge and Berkeley.

On the other end of the list, Provo, Utah, the country's most conservative city, is not surprisingly 89% white, with a less than 1% black population.

Which is to say, the political divide in this country is not so much red vs. blue, but black vs. white, and increasingly so. The white liberals are either dying off or becoming more conservative.

While BACVR's press releases don't address the effect of other racial minorities, there's no doubt that African Americans -- more than any other racial group -- vote most consistently and most consistently Democratic.

Here's a full list of the rankings:

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Rank	City	State
1	Detroit	Michigan
2	Gary	Indiana
3	Berkeley	California
4	District 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
26	New Orleans	Louisiana
27	Ann Arbor	Michigan
28	Jersey City	New Jersey
29	Portland	Oregon
30	Daly City	California
31	Atlanta	Georgia
32	Dallas	Texas
33	Hayward	California
34	Madison	Wisconsin
35	Pittsburgh	Pennsylvania
36	St. Paul	Minnesota
37	Los Angeles	California
38	Rochester	New York
39	Memphis	Tennessee
40	Milwaukee	Wisconsin
41	Vallejo	California
42	Dayton	Ohio
43	Bridgeport	Connecticut
44	Springfield	Massachusetts
45	Syracuse	New York
46	Jackson	Mississippi
47	Jackson	Mississippi
48	Akron	Ohio
49	Denver	Colorado
50	Richmond	Virginia
51	El Monte	California
52	Pasadena	California
53	Toledo	Ohio
54	Eugene	Oregon
55	Elizabeth	New Jersey
56	Cincinnati	Ohio
57	Santa Rosa	California
58	Worcester	Massachusetts
59	Kansas City	Missouri
60	Kansas City	Kansas
61	Durham	North Carolina
62	Sunnyvale	California
63	Alexandria	Virginia
64	Fremont	California
65	Tallahassee	Florida
66	Pomona	California
67	Lansing	Michigan
68	Erie	Pennsylvania
69	Savannah	Georgia
70	Long Beach	California
71	Sacramento	California
72	Greensboro	North Carolina
73	Hollywood	Florida
74	San Jose	California
75	Norwalk	California
76	Lowell	Massachusetts
77	Aurora	Colorado
78	Columbus	Ohio
79	Concord	California
80	Norfolk	Virginia
81	Salinas	California
82	Columbia	South Carolina
83	South Bend	Indiana
84	North Las Vegas	Nevada
85	Oxnard	California
86	Fort Lauderdale	Florida
87	Portsmouth	Virginia
88	Raleigh	North Carolina
89	Pembroke Pines	Florida
90	Burbank	California
91	Glendale	California
92	Stamford	Connecticut
93	Austin	Texas
94	Virginia Beach	Virginia
95	Salt Lake City	Utah
96	Tacoma	Washington
97	Des Moines	Iowa
98	Athens	Georgia
99	Bellevue	Washington
100	Hampton	Virginia
101	Brownsville	Texas
102	Little Rock	Arkansas
103	West Covina	California
104	Orlando	Florida
105	St Petersburg	Florida
106	Downey	California
107	Fontana	California
108	Tampa	Florida
109	San Bernadino	California
110	Augusta	Georgia
111	Beaumont	Texas
112	Stockton	California
113	Aurora	Illinois
114	Warren	Michigan
115	Laredo	Texas
116	El Paso	Texas
117	Grand Rapids	Michigan
118	Coral Springs