Most liberal city in the U.S. (house, quality of life)

[houstoner]

Some of the things you are looking for seem contradictory. You are not a moderate, but identify as a liberal who agrees with Republicans on some issues? "Diversity, tolerance, hunger for education"... have you visited the California forums? I think there's plenty wrong with that state. As a previous poster stated, it sounds like you are looking for Utopia. There's one in Texas, but I don't think it quite fits your needs. Neither do any of the other cities commonly regarded as liberal, according to you. I hope wherever it is you find what you are looking for. Good luck in your search.

[Supernova7]

Not really, I'm just looking for a particular environment/community that fits my interests and needs. I wouldn't call it "Utopia" as that term would refer to "magic and something that doesn't exist." What I'm looking for is simple...A big city vibe, culture and atmosphere balanced with a low cost of living. I have no problems with California outside of the pricing, it could be far more affordable, that's not to say we have no issues but I feel they are minor compared to other states. Again, all of us don't have the same interests. Your hell may be another person's paradise....and so on.

In time and with a little patience I WILL find what I'm looking for. I'm not planning to be like most people that move on impulse blindly, not knowing what they want, losing money, going through stress and aggravation only to end up moving. It's best to KNOW yourself and what community you want from the get go...

[Supernova7]

Seattle is definitely a world class liberal city. I have a feeling it will grow very rapidly in the coming years.

[Machine]

I think Denver is one of the most Liberal Cites.

[jbear182]

Originally Posted by Machine

I think Denver is one of the most Liberal Cites.

How do you figure? Do you think Colorado Springs is as well? What do you base this post on? Metro Denver is not liberal!

[Machine]

Originally Posted by jbear182

How do you figure? Do you think Colorado Springs is as well? Colorado Springs is conservative. What do you base this post on? Metro Denver is not liberal!

Downtown Denver is liberal. In fact just recently a year ago Denver became first major U.S city to allow private use of less than a Ounce Marijuana if your 21 or older. In face Denver has not elected a Repulican congressional Representive in 75 years. I agree Metro Denver is Conservative so is Colorado Springs. In fact a study back in 2005 by The Bay Area Center For Voting Reseach a nonpartsian think tank in Berkeley,California Ranked The Most Liberal Cites in the U.S and the Most Conservative. Colorado Springs was ranked the 6th most conservative major U.S City according to the study. For the record the most Liberal City was Detriot, Michigan. The Most Conservative City was Provo, Utah. I based it on the 2004 U.S Presidential election, that's what made me think Denver is one of the most Liberal Cites.

[dullnboring]

As I just posted in the "most conservative city" thread, I just recently found the link to a report that details the political demography of our nation's large cities and ranks them on their liberalness and conservativeness. As a note, the website came to it's results using the results of the 2004 Presidential election and adding up the percentage of voters who voted for conservative candidates (largely Bush) and liberal candidates (largely Kerry). There's some flaws in this system of tabulation, largely on the liberal side in my opinion as it equates Democrat with liberal which isn't always the case (nor is Republican and conservative, but I feel the difference is more pronounced with Democrat/liberal) in the sense that many of the cities that came out on top like Detroit, have high minority populations, which while they vote overwhelmingly Democrat, actually are fairly socially conservative. Ditto for the cities with a strong tradition of labor unions. However, it does give a good general indicator of a city's culture. They looked at all cities with a population of over 100,000. Of the major (over 300,000 cities), the most liberal (with the percentage by which they voted liberal included by me) were found to be:

1. Detroit - 94%
2. Washington, D.C. - 90%
3. Oakland - 90%
4. San Francisco - 84%
5. Cleveland - 83%
6. Baltimore - 83%
7. Seattle - 82%
8. Chicago - 81%
9. Philadelphia - 81%
10. St. Louis - 80%

For the record, since they've been talked about a bit in this thread, New York is 79% liberal, Los Angeles is 74%, Portland is 76%, Madison is 75% and Denver is 70%. I was surprised by quite a few of the cities that weren't as liberal as I expected like Las Vegas, Miami, and Honolulu. Just for the heck of it, here are the 10 most liberal cities with a population over 100,000 (percentages not included because I'm lazy):

1. Detroit
2. Gary, Indiana
3. Berkeley, California
4. Washington, DC
5. Oakland
6. Inglewood, California
7. Newark, New Jersey
8. Cambridge, Massachusetts
9. San Francisco
10. Flint, Michigan

I posted the top conservative cities' list in that thread. For the record, there are many more large liberal cities than there are conservative although that may go without saying, and the liberal cities are much more liberal than the conservative cities are conservative. If you want to view the full report, showing where all the cities stand, check out this link, but as a warning, it's a pdf file so you must have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your computer and the report is huge, over 40 pages, so it may take awhile, or kill some slow computers. It's interesting to see where cities stack up:

http://alt.coxnewsweb.com/statesman/...081205libs.pdf

[lammius]

Providence, RI anyone?

[avantgarden]

These reports are based on voting paterns (democrat vs. republican), and are only a decent guage at how liberal a city really is. In all honesty, many people in Portland do not vote democrat because they are socialist, green, communist, and so on. This report has been invalidated many times, and should not be seen as a true representation of these places. I have been to Los Angeles, and I can honestly say that there is NO way that LA is more liberal than Portland.

[dullnboring]

Originally Posted by avantgarden

These reports are based on voting paterns (democrat vs. republican), and are only a decent guage at how liberal a city really is. In all honesty, many people in Portland do not vote democrat because they are socialist, green, communist, and so on. This report has been invalidated many times, and should not be seen as a true representation of these places. I have been to Los Angeles, and I can honestly say that there is NO way that LA is more liberal than Portland.

The report says that Portland IS more liberal than Los Angeles, and it also includes socialists, greens and communists with the Democrats under the "liberal" label, just as it includes the numbers of those who voted for the Constitution Party under conservative along with the Republicans.

One difference between Portland and Los Angeles however is the fact that Los Angeles has a much higher minority population than Portland (roughly 70% compared to Portland's roughly 25%) and many minorities have a traditional attachment to the Democratic Party, but remain socially conservative on a good number of issues such as gay rights and abortion. So I would then assume taking this into account that Portland is significantly more socially liberal than the city of Los Angeles. That's the flaw I found in these rankings as I stated earlier, as Detroit, a city not exactly renowned as being the most incredibly socially progressive, came out on top largely because the city is nearly 90% minority. It's to serve as a general guide. I personally think the best way to measure a city's social liberalism nowadays is to see how it voted in regards to the many gay rights issues that have popped up in recent years.