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/\ Somehow, I doubt that.
Anyways, I use Mpls. for most of my examples. Here is for this one.
The core of Mpls. and Saint Paul is obviously quite liberal. As the cities grew fifty years ago, most conservatives moved to what are now inner suburbs. (axiom - conservatives migrate to the edges of cities.) Like sukwoo alluded to, they don't like cities. As The Cities continued to grow geographically, most conservatives moved to the newer suburbs. The inner-suburbs, for the greater part, became pretty liberal. (Not as liberal as Mpls, but voting Democratic). Now the conservatives have moved to exurbs, so the inner suburbs are realiabally Democratic, and the outer suburbs are convreting relatively rapidly. (For evidence, see the MN-3 Congressional race sans its 15 year incumbent, a toss-up in a all suburban district). The density of these cities have not increased. So in addition to the density axiom, we must also look at the geographic axiom. It leaves The Cities like an ever-expanding, political donought. A blue center, a crimson frosting.
That leaves the third axiom - history. This holds true in more rural areas. Some backwater Minnesota towns are overwhelmingly Democratic. The mining towns, the Indian Reservations, the College towns. This as opposed to the basic railroad towns with nothing in them, they are generally conservative. It seems like if there is something added to the area, it treds more liberal. Unions, Colleges. I know i'm off on a tangent, but I had to.
Location: Uniquely Individual Villages of the Megalopolis
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Originally Posted by ogre
I think this is a good, succinct analysis of why cities in general lean more to the left. I'm not sure it really explains why some cities change. For example, Columbus was the city the original post focused on. As the population of Columbus has increased, so has its land area. Columbus continues to be a city with an urban core that is surrounded by sprawling areas that are officially within the city limits but are suburban in character.
The mention of suburban areas points toward another possibility, which is that many metropolitan areas may shift leftward in some ways because of a shift in attitudes in the suburbs. This may have to do with attitudes prevalent among Baby Boomers, now the generation in their prime years, who are the leaders of today. There are individual exceptions, but the Boom generation on the whole seems to lean more to the left than previous generations. Certainly, their do-your-own-thing philosophy ties in with relatively loose attitudes about the old trio of sex and drugs and rock-'n'-roll, which contributes to the "socially liberal" half of the "socially liberal and fiscally conservative" formula that is said to sell politically in the suburbs at present. This generational shift in attitudes may affect the politics of entire metropolitan areas, as the arch-conservative old blue bloods who ruled in the more affluent suburbs in the past have been replaced by a generation of Boomer yuppie latte liberals.
Another possibility: The South and West are where the jobs are. People are moving there. Most of the fastest-growing cities are in these regions. Where are the transplants moving from? To a great degree, from the Northeast and Midwest. An influx of people from the traditionally blue regions into the major cities of regions that have historically leaned more to the right is bound to cause some skewing of political attitudes. On some of City-Data's state forums there are numerous threads by natives of various states, who complain that those moving in from other states (MA people moving to NH, Californians transplanting to MT) take the ways of the places they leave behind with them into their new home areas, and then turn these locations they move to into the same kind of places they left. Putting aside the complaints of people who resent the changes they see happening in their home states, but instead just to observe the phenomenon, it does seem that people take a lot of their old ways with them when they move, and this may include Rust/Frost Belt politics finding their way into the traditionally conservative Sun Belt, on the backs of Northern transplants.
I think if that had had that much effect, Red states would have turned a long time ago as the migration has been moving in those patterns a long time since the 70s. But Red or Cons states have maintained their conservativeness except perhaps in the large cities, but I think that's always been the case. The cities of conservative areas were always to be party towns, wilder, and dens of iniquities. LOL!! New Orleans was an archetype, Atlanta another, and so on. They've always been liberal even in the most conservative states.
Could it be that foks from the North or Midwest or Swing states tend be tranquilized a little bit and know cities and towns are there to party in and then return to the burbs and get all Sunday-ed up again for the work week?
I think the Southern and Texas heat tones people down, they start living life more and thinking about themselves more. Maybe there will be a new spurt of Eudora Welty's, Tennesse Williams, William Faulkner, Shirley Jackson, and all those great Southern authors.
Colorado Springs?
Maybe Lubbock and Amarillo, TX?
Topeka and Wichita, KS?
Springfield, MO and Ft. Smith, AR?
There probably aren't too many conservative cities, but there seem to be a few.
Yes, these places are conservative. They're also not very big. Incorporated cities? Yes. But none have the attributes we Americans normally associate with "Cities"—skyscrapers, mass transit, lots of multiple dwellings, etc.
One of my favorite areas to look at maybe living someday would be the Tri-Cities area of NE Tennessee. Very conservative—although the "cities" are really just three small county seats.
Cape Girardeau, MO is another classic example: about the size of my hometown, birthplace of Rush Limbaugh. Might even be the largest city in SE MO, but again...not a place that comes first to mind when we think of "urban" environments.
And if you want an example of a city that's larger than most of the above, just take a spin down the road from the city discussed in the original post, and check out Cincinnati. Another moderately large conservative city is Jacksonville.
Even these examples are more like exceptions to the rule, though. I think those who have said it's in the nature of urban environments to lean more to the left politically are generally correct, and Sukwoo offered a viable explanation for this. It would be interesting to have an idea what causes the exceptions. Maybe someone will write a doctoral dissertation on that question some day. Or maybe someone already has.
Cincinnati is great! And yeah, it certainly has a conservative reputation among cities its size. Its unique location, history & demographics have a lot to do with Cincy's generally right-leaning attitudes. There aren't many places like it.
Jacksonville, of course, has a large military presence. That tends to inject a certain conservatism to the atmosphere of a place. Probably the same reason San Diego is regarded as the most conservative of Cali's big cities.
Nonetheless, these places are all big enough that pockets of hardcore liberalism can still be found, if you know where to look (or if you care to)
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