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Salt Lake City, the headquarters for the Mormon Church, is probably #1 conservative.
Utah as a whole is extremely conservative, but that's not so much the case with Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City, for instance, almost always elects a Democratic mayor. And in the presidential election when McCain ran against Obama, Salt Lake City's vote (not Utah's) went to Obama. Salt Lake City (surprisingly) is also considered quite a gay-friendly city. I know... that's hard to figure out.
Utah as a whole is extremely conservative, but that's not so much the case with Salt Lake City. Salt Lake City, for instance, almost always elects a Democratic mayor. And in the presidential election when McCain ran against Obama, Salt Lake City's vote (not Utah's) went to Obama. Salt Lake City (surprisingly) is also considered quite a gay-friendly city. I know... that's hard to figure out.
I've also head that SLC has a larges percentage of atheists of any city behind Seattle and Portland.
I suppose it's a city of very polarized attitudes, but I've never been there.
I think Miami and Tampa's retiree population from other parts of the country also make them more conservative. Remember that most people get more conservative as they get older. A lot of people are liberal in college, which is why lots of college towns are liberal. As people get older, as they raise families and have kids and worry about everyday life, they start becoming less liberal. I've also noticed that my friends who have kids, including those who had kids straight out of high school or even in high school, are more conservative than people who do not have kids. For example you have the college kid who feels so passionately about "equality" and supports "affordable housing" but when you have a kid, you worry about affordable housing bringin crime and drugs to your neighborhood, you worry about illegal immigrants in your kids schools dragging down the school system, you want to buy a gun to protect your children at home. You care about lower taxes as you are no longer dependent on mom and dad and you have to pay your own taxes. I think the failure of Obozocare will only make seniors MORE conservative.
And the older generation, today's baby boomers and seniors, were raised in a very religious society and older people tend to oppose abortion and gay marriage a lot more so than younger people. Also the people who can afford to retire to Florida are also people with higher incomes, who tend to also be more conservative. The Obama voting welfare and food stamps receiving black Democrat is going to stay in his Section 8 rowhouse in Chicago vs be able to buy a condo in Tampa.
I've heard San Diego is also pretty conservative because of the military influence and the retirees as well though the illegal immigrants are a liberalizing influence. But then again its the SUV driving suburban retired couple that's going to trade their gated community home in Michigan and move to San Diego, not the black Democrat who can't even fix up his Section 8 home on Eight Mile Road, or the old union worker in a failed steel town.
If you include smaller "major cities" I think Lynchburg, Virginia and Charleston, West Virginia are relatively conservative....in particular Lynchburg which has a significant evangelical Christian element to it.
A lot of cities in the Deep South like Atlanta, Birmingham, and New Orleans are actually Democrat within the city limits though they are surrounded by conservative suburbs.
Portland has the largest number of strip clubs per capita, and some rural Nevada counties have legal brothels. This can be seen as a mark of liberalism. Detroit is also a classically liberal city with black Democrats along with unions. Detroit should be held up as an example of what happens to a liberal city when the state no longers props it up using suburban tax money.
I think Las Vegas should be on the list of liberal cities with the anything goes attitude. Another surprising fact about Las Vegas is that the unions are extremely powerful in the tourism business there whether its the taxi drivers union (that has prevented the construction of the monorail to the airport) or the hotel employees. There is also a large illegal alien and anchor baby element in Las Vegas which has increased since Arizona passed their new laws. Gambling itself doesn't make a place liberal since there are casinos everywhere now, but the union prescence, the illegal aliens, and the liberal California transplants plus the large federal government workforce in the Las Vegas region are all liberal elements. In addition, church attendance in Nevada is quite low, as it is in most of the West. The least religious states are all in the West or the Northeast.
On this note I think Phoenix is a conservative city when it comes to illegal immigration views, but I'm not sure about others.
On this note I think Phoenix is a conservative city when it comes to illegal immigration views, but I'm not sure about others.
Phoenix proper barely leans Democratic, while the metro is pretty heavily conservative.
Due to the large concentrations of socially-conservative Mexican-Americans and a high Mormon population (second only to SLC) I feel that Phoenix does not have the more libertarian attitude that you'd find in places like Denver, Las Vegas, Albuquerque, or even Salt Lake City.
I think Las Vegas should be on the list of liberal cities with the anything goes attitude.
I dispute that. Outside of the strip and city proper, Vegas has nothing but suburbs and families. They seemed pretty conservative to me. Also, some of the biggest megachurches in the country are in Las Vegas.
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