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Liberal Southern Cities


Claws

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I ranked all of the Southern cities with populations of 200,000 or more and put them in a list. The higher on the list the city is, the more liberal it is. I included the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Delaware in this list because the U.S. Census calls them Southern, and they're below the Mason-Dixon line. I also included Texas and Oklahoma. I based each city's liberality on two things. The first is the 2004 Election. The difference between the amount of votes Bush and Kerry received is counted as a positive number if Kerry received more votes and negative if Bush received more votes. Example: Nashville voted 55% Kerry and 45% Bush. Therefore, Nashville gets a score of 10. The biggest positive difference in votes between the two candidates was Washington, D.C. with a score of 81. Therefore, Washington, D.C. gets a 100. Since a score of 81 earns a city 100%, all the other scores are adjusted--Nashville's score of 10 translates into 12.35. (Obviously, if the list included cities that had even greater positive differences than 81, the highest positive difference present would be equal to 100%.) Keep that number in mind as we continue to the next basis for judgement, the Local Gay Index. The National Index is 100. Any number above or below 100 represents the percentage that a city's gay population is above or below the national norm. For example, Nashville's local index is 125, which represents that Nashville has per capita 25% more gays and lesbians than the national norm. For my list, however many points above the national average a city's gay index is is counted as positive points; likewise, if the number is below 100, the city gets a negative score in this category. The highest local index was Atlanta with an index of 299. Therefore, 199 equals 100%. Each other score was then adjusted--Nashville's score of 25 became 12.56. Finally, Nashville's 2004 election score of 12.35 and its gay population score of 12.56 were each multiplied by 0.5, as that is how much each contributed to the overall score. After that, the two products of those multiplications are added together for the final score. Nashville's final liberality score was 12.455. After performing these operations on thirty-six other cities' statistics (I didn't include Lexington, KY because I could not find its gay index), I have ended up with the list below. My statistics came from CNN.com and epodunk.com.

Southern Cities with 200,000 Plus Inhabitants Listed in Descending Order according to their Liberality

1. Washington, D.C. (score: 90.955)

2. Atlanta, Georgia (score: 61.73)

3. Baltimore, Maryland (score: 51.685)

4. New Orleans, LA (score: 51.405)

5. Durham, NC (score: 35.285)

6. Richmond, VA (score: 34.355)

7. Orlando, FL (score: 27.89)

8. Austin, TX (score: 25.975)

9. Dallas, TX (score: 23.505)

10. Norfolk, VA (score: 19.84)

11. Miami, FL (score: 17.275)

12. St. Petersburg, FL (score: 16.22)

13. Nashville, TN (score: 12.455)

14. Tampa, FL (score: 12.265)

15. Memphis, TN (score: 11.13)

16. Charlotte, NC (score: 7.245)

17. Louisville, KY (score: 7.15)

18. Houston, TX (score: 6.39)

19. Augusta, GA (score: 6.38)

20. Birmingham, AL (score: 3.24)

21. El Paso, TX (score: 2.495)

22. Hialeah, FL (score: 1.695)

23. Greensboro, NC (score: 1.37)

24. Raleigh, NC (score: 0.275)

25. Montgomery, AL (score: -3.29)

26. Baton Rouge, LA (score: -6.68)

27. San Antonio, TX (score: -6.79)

28. Jacksonville, FL (score: -8.365)

29. Corpus Christi, TX (score: -11.655)

30. Fort Worth, TX (score: -12.165)

31. Chesapeake, VA (score: -16.18)

32. Oklahoma City, OK (score: -16.53)

33. Arlington, TX (score: -16.685)

34. Tulsa, OK (score: -17.79)

35. Virginia Beach, VA (-19.015)

36. Plano, TX (-33.33)

37. Lubbock, TX (-37.51)

Note: Lexington, KY is not included because I couldn

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True, Columbia would have made an impact on the list, but its population hasn't reached 200,000 yet. I would have liked to have listed cities with less than 200,000, but the list took too many hours as it is.

Oh, and I used the gay index statistics found at www.epodunk.com.

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I might not neccessarily agree with your methodology, but based on your research & work on this - I certainly applaud you. Very interesting work - though I think I understand why ('gay index') I still do find it surprising to see Birmingham & Louisville low, barely 'liberal'. Also Orlando surprises me, did it rank high on the 'gay index'?

Still, I would also suggest you include any other Bush opponent, such as Nader (though he wasn't as much of a factor in 2004). But though I was going to provide some suggestions, I just couldn't think of any other data that would scream 'liberal'.

Seriously - very interesting work, hopefully - and I'm sure they will show up - people that are in disapproval of your work will at least appreciate your effort.

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Thanks. I did this because I wasn't very happy with that long list that was released which said Detroit was the most liberal city in America. Detroit's gay index is 96! And New Orleans gave Kerry a higher margin of win than Detroit did! I decided that most liberal should go to the city with the most democratic election results and the most telltale sign of liberality--gay population. Birmingham is so low because they actually voted 54% to 45% in favor of Bush. Now, it is true that Birmingham has a high gay population (local index: 135), but with my list, a city must have positive points in BOTH of these areas to get a high ranking. There are exceptions, such as Orlando, who voted 50% to 50%. But Orlando has an out-of-this-world gay index of 211, which is obviously going to bump it up the list. Louisville has a fairly large gay index of 126, but they only gave Kerry one more percentage of the vote than Bush in the last election.

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I agree that usually a larger gay population indicates a more liberal city, but it is really difficult to quantify unless you live somewhere. Columbia has a large gay population, but not an extremely high index because we also have an extremely young population. Younger populations generally are not in a committed relationship and definitely not living together. Voting trends and number of gay organizations per 100,000 population might be a better indicator.

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I agree that usually a larger gay population indicates a more liberal city, but it is really difficult to quantify unless you live somewhere. Columbia has a large gay population, but not an extremely high index because we also have an extremely young population. Younger populations generally are not in a committed relationship and definitely not living together. Voting trends and number of gay organizations per 100,000 population might be a better indicator.

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Little Rock is home of Bill Clinton and Wesley Clark (in addition to Senator Fulbright, David Pryor, etc ). It's pretty liberal for being in the south, especially compared to surrounding areas.

According to this site, Little Rock ranks #102. Columbia ranks #82.

Appendix 3- All Cities; Liberal Rankings

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

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 Florida

119 San Diego California

120 Miami Florida

121

Nashville-

Davidson Tennessee

122 Santa Ana California

123 Joliet Illinois

124 Rockford Illinois

125 Charlotte North Carolina

126 Tempe Arizona

127 Yonkers New York

128 Fayetteville North Carolina

129 Cedar Rapids Iowa

130 Reno Nevada

131 Fort Collins Colorado

132 Pueblo Colorado

133 Las Vegas Nevada

134

San

Buenaventura California

135 Moreno Valley California

136 Tucson Arizona

137 Ontario California

138 Huntsville Alabama

139 Newport News Virginia

140 Salem Oregon

141 Peoria Illinois

142 Knoxville Tennessee

143 Spokane Washington

144 Winston-Salem North Carolina

145 Albuquerque New Mexico

146 Honolulu Hawaii

147 Columbus Georgia

148 Grand Prairie Texas

149 Chattanooga Tennessee

150 Green Bay Wisconsin

151 Louisville Kentucky

152 Waterbury Connecticut

153 Lakewood Colorado

154 Montgomery Alabama

155 Indianapolis Indiana

156 Shreveport Louisiana

157 Independence Missouri

158 Westminster Colorado

159 Manchester New Hampshire

160 Chula Vista California

161 Palmdale California

162 Sterling Heights Michigan

163 Fort Worth Texas

164 Topeka Kansas

165 Vancouver Washington

166 Fresno California

167 Mobile Alabama

168 Riverside California

169 Irvine California

170 Lexington-Fayette Kentucky

171 Torrance California

172 Phoenix Arizona

173 McAllen Texas

174 Arvada Colorado

175 San Antonio Texas

176 Henderson Nevada

177 Houston Texas

178 Springfield Illinois

179 Evansville Indiana

180 Livonia Michigan

181 Baton Rouge Louisiana

182 Irving Texas

183 Omaha Nebraska

184 Boise City Idaho

185 Thousand Oaks California

186 Mesquite Texas

187 Lincoln Nebraska

188 Sioux Falls South Dakota

189 Modesto California

190 Costa Mesa California

191 Oceanside California

192 Naperville Illinois

193 Fort Wayne Indiana

194 Springfield Missouri

195 Chesapeake Virginia

196 Pasadena Texas

197 Waco Texas

198 Jacksonville Florida

199 Chandler Arizona

200 Anaheim California

201 Clarksville Tennessee

202 Carrollton Texas

203 Corpus Christi Texas

204 Scottsdale Arizona

205 Fullerton California

206 Santa Clarita California

207 Glendale Arizona

208 Wichita Kansas

209 Garland Texas

210RanchoCucamonga California

211 Tulsa Oklahoma

212 Lancaster California

213 Huntington Beach California

214 Overland Park Kansas

215 Anchorage Alaska

216 Oklahoma City Oklahoma

217 Clearwater Florida

218 Corona California

219 Simi Valley California

220 West Valley City Utah

221 Garden Grove California

222 Cape Coral Florida

223 Arlington Texas

224 Allentown Pennsylvania

225 Peoria Arizona

226 Escondido California

227 Mesa Arizona

228 Orange California

229 Lafayette Louisiana

230 Bakersfield California

231 Colorado Springs Colorado

232 Gilbert Arizona

233 Plano Texas

234 Hialeah Florida

235 Abilene Texas

236 Lubbock Texas

237 Provo Utah

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One of the problems with using the election to define liberalism, is that it skews the cities based on race. Blacks overwhemlingly vote for Democrats, but that does not necessairly mean they are liberal. Some of the most anti-Gay rhetoric that I have ever seen came from leaders of the Black community and many members of that community follow the same christian dogma that you will find amoung Bush's most viperous conservative supporters. On this ranking, cities with significant Black populations are going to appear liberal, when in fact, they are not.

In addition many liberal people, especially in the South voted for Bush simply because Kerry was such a bad candidate. He did not offer any reason to vote for him except that he wasn't Bush and he alienated the South right off by saying he did not need the South to win the election. That statement pissed off many in the South who ended up voting for Bush though I am sure they now regret it.

Nader was an attactive option, but the one achievement of the Democratic party in the 2004 election was in keeping Nader off the tickets in most places. That was another vile act of the 2004 election and another reason the two parties are tearing this country apart.

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We don't need another long thread about what cities and states constitute the South. Good work though. I'm sure it took a lot of time. I too would like to see rankings that involved more than election results and local gay count. However, everyone here is right, these things are hard to quantify. I think a city

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We don't need another long thread about what cities and states constitute the South. Good work though. I'm sure it took a lot of time. I too would like to see rankings that involved more than election results and local gay count. However, everyone here is right, these things are hard to quantify. I think a city
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One of the problems with using the election to define liberalism, is that it skews the cities based on race. Blacks overwhemlingly vote for Democrats, but that does not necessairly mean they are liberal. Some of the most anti-Gay rhetoric that I have ever seen came from leaders of the Black community and many members of that community follow the same christian dogma that you will find amoung Bush's most viperous conservative supporters. On this ranking, cities with significant Black populations are going to appear liberal, when in fact, they are not.
From what I've seen, blacks actually just tend to be more liberal. The connection to the civil rights movement, which was very much a progressive movement still exists. One thing that often ticks me off is the right's ability to frame every discussion as if they have an intellectual monopoly on Christianity. As if it's impossible to be liberal and Christian at the same time.

In addition many liberal people, especially in the South voted for Bush simply because Kerry was such a bad candidate. He did not offer any reason to vote for him except that he wasn't Bush and he alienated the South right off by saying he did not need the South to win the election. That statement pissed off many in the South who ended up voting for Bush though I am sure they now regret it.

Those were moderates though. Swing voters don't do anything for either major ideology. Only about 20% of voting age citizens are really actually 'liberal' in both an economic and social sense. Then another 40% are purely in an economic sense. Then there are the libertarians which are purely in a social sense.

It's that 20% that define a city politically, in reality. How much of a city falls under that category. 40% of those aren't registered democrats though. And a large proportion of them don't really vote. Generally, I'd willing to bet the greater the 3rd party support an area has (Green, Socialist, Libertarian), the more liberal it is. But finding that in the south is a lot rarer than finding a simple democratic majority in a county.

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That list by Johnny in my opinion had the top 7 based solely on black population (Detroit, Gary, Inglewood (which is like Compton)!!), which isn't a way to assume a city is liberal.

A lot of large cities in the south voted for Kerry, but the states voted for Bush (I know Charlotte voted for Kerry, but NC voted for Bush).... The south has a history of voting conservative, even though it has about 55% of the black population in the U.S. (which proves black population is not a way to call a city liberal)

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That list by Johnny in my opinion had the top 7 based solely on black population (Detroit, Gary, Inglewood (which is like Compton)!!), which isn't a way to assume a city is liberal.

A lot of large cities in the south voted for Kerry, but the states voted for Bush (I know Charlotte voted for Kerry, but NC voted for Bush).... The south has a history of voting conservative, even though it has about 55% of the black population in the U.S. (which proves black population is not a way to call a city liberal)

Other cities had large college populations. Like Cambridge is the home of Harvard and Massachussets (sp?) Institute of Technology.

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From what I've seen, blacks actually just tend to be more liberal. The connection to the civil rights movement, which was very much a progressive movement still exists.

I disagree. Blacks tend to be socially conservative, but vote Democrat since that is the party that appears to be more sympathetic to the cause of civil rights.

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One thing that often ticks me off is the right's ability to frame every discussion as if they have an intellectual monopoly on Christianity. As if it's impossible to be liberal and Christian at the same time.

That's exactly why I didn't use the number of churches as one of the categories. It's just not fair. I can think of several Protestant Christians that call themselves liberals. Also, I remember that my Biology teacher, who doesn't believe in a personal god, is a self-proclaimed conservative. So giving the amount of religious people isn't a very precise count of conservatives.

Anyway, I thank all of you for the pointers. I'm seriously considering including cities in the 100,000 to 199,999 range on the list if I get some more free time soon.

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