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I've seen naked people walking around waving at cars downtown portland in the middle of the day. Never seen anything like that in any other city I've lived in (Minneapolis included). When I first saw that I was like "what kind of a city is this?.."
Hey, I was at the LOA show at First Ave : ) I don't really remember that, but I liked first ave for a lot of events.
Looks like a typical afternoon in Boulder actually..Boulder back in the day before the yuppie crowd moved in made places like Portland, Austin, Seattle look mainstream.
I think a good gauge of what makes a city "socially liberal" is how they vote on certain ordinances\ propositions. For example, there are several cities that have large gay populations but that doesn't mean the city itself is liberal. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles voted for the right of gay people to marry. I wonder how many other major American cities would do likewise and my hunch is that not many would be so liberal; even New York, Philly, Houston, Chicago, etc would likely not support that level of progressiveness.
I think "social liberal" areas and states can largely be identified by their opinions on two issues: same-sex marriage and abortion. Social liberals tend to support the legality of both. If a person supports the two, they are likely to identify with other, more marginal socially liberal causes.
Ten Most Pro-Choice States Source: SurveyUSA, 12 September 2005
1. VT 70%
2. CT 68%
3. MA 68%
4. NH 67%
5. NY 66%
6. CA 65%
7. MD 65%
8. NV 63%
9. DE 63%
10. ME 63%
11. NJ 63%
12. RI 63%
13. WA 63%
Wow, look how things have changed since 96. It doesn't look like any place went down. Somewhat of a trend on this issue.
Portland elected the first gay mayor of any of the top 30 US cities(it was a pretty cool party, he made a speech about keeping Portland weird and nothing about sexuality).
I think a good gauge of what makes a city "socially liberal" is how they vote on certain ordinances\ propositions. For example, there are several cities that have large gay populations but that doesn't mean the city itself is liberal. Both San Francisco and Los Angeles voted for the right of gay people to marry. I wonder how many other major American cities would do likewise and my hunch is that not many would be so liberal; even New York, Philly, Houston, Chicago, etc would likely not support that level of progressiveness.
I think anything(gay rights, marijuana legilization) is going to have to come from California. It has the presence and political muscle to make a difference.
If the complaint is more against the obnoxious smug "I'm more liberal than you" (and therefore all-around cooler and hipper) vibe that some people give off, I'm in total agreement that those people are hypocritical and annoying. I also do agree that some cities have more of that aura than others. Portland and Seattle come to mind, and perhaps Austin; I don't know if Minneapolis does because I don't think it has the hip factor that the other places do. San Francisco definitely attracts some of those people, but it's relatively easy to avoid them if one simply chooses not to live in a trendy/hipster neighborhood.
I genarally do not pick up the "smug" vibe in Minneapolis. The city and the area is so pragmatic and down to earth I think that helps to squash some of those attitudes.
To add to this subject, I tend to find MODERATE areas as the most accepting towards those of other races, granted that the races don't act completely stereotypical. This specifically goes for areas that are socially liberal/libertarian and fiscally conservative like the inland regions of the Western US, and gradually increasing spots within Appalachia (a surprise, I know)
But I will side with jluke's hypocritical tolerance and lack of acceptance of blacks within the extremist liberal community. A lot of hipsters, yuppies, and other liberals tend to be more proponents of gay rights, abortions, and other "chic liberal" trends. And to prove my point, the said black person doesn't even need to be a self-proclaimed part of the "black culture/community," as many liberals I run into tend to categorize minorities into cultural groups, a la diversity and multiculturalism. You may have a token black dude in a clique of yuppies and hipsters, but ask the dude if they're dating any of the white/Asian girls in the circle, or better yet, ask them their sexual orientation. Nothing against gays, but this is to prove the point about liberals being more accepting of gay couples vs interracial couples involving blacks, it doesn't cross certain boundaries many yuppies/hipsters would be intimidated by. And the black person who tends to be Americanized can possibly face more hatred from liberals than a stereotypical one due to how they don't fit into the "multiculturalist image" of what a black person is supposed to be, and can prove to be a threat to their standing in the merit department.
At least this is my observation dealing with the liberal whites who have flocked to DC. Many of which have transplanted from other "liberal" areas in the east like NYC, Philly, Chicago, and Boston.
Fairfaxian: I noticed that you always seem to want to point out that you feel blacks are not accepted by and large by the 'liberal, yuppie' white community. And while I undertsand what you are trying to get at, I can't help wonder why you have to ignore the same when it comes to blacks not being fully accepting of whites. I can assure you, you would have a much easier time being a black man in a majority white neighborhood than a white person in a majority black neighborhood. And who do you think commits most of the crimes in areas where yuppies live and socialize? I will give you a hint, they aren't white, Hispanic, or Asian. We both live in the DC area, have you not read or seen the news? Blacks are the ones who are alienating themselves. Gays and women are constantly attacked on the streets by young black thugs. And you still wonder why there might be some friction. You don't see whites going east of the river to go mug some innocent black women do you?
Interestingly, although gay rights supporters are traditionally more likely to be pro-choice (in my experience, and I believe statistics would confirm it), the general attitude of the U.S. is much more pro-gay than 20 or even 10 years ago, but slightly less pro-choice. My generation (Y) is overwhelmingly pro-gay, even in the more conservative states; I attribute this to:
1) Strongly positive messages about homosexuality in the media. During the 90's, popular media was relatively silent on "GLBT" (or "LGBT", or "BTGL") issues; during the '00s, TV shows, movies, musicians, etc. portraying homosexuality in a positive light exploded in number. Think of ***** Eye for the Straight Guy, The L Word, Big Love, Christina Aguilera's "Dirty" video, Madonna and Britney Spears' kiss, "I Kissed a Girl", Lady Gaga, etc.
2) A "laissez-faire" attitude towards the sexual inclinations of others, associated with a general weakening of the Christian sexual ethic. Other places this can be seen are in the increasing explicitness of popular music (shamelessly promoting lust and oral sex: Lil' Wayne's "Lollipop", Akon's "I wanna **** you", the just out Enrique Iglesias / Ludacris song "Tonight I'm ****ing You") and the open popularity of "hook-ups" as an alternative to a committed relationship.
3) A general devaluation of marriage. Same-sex marriage proponents use the examples of Britney Spear's 55-hour marriage, etc. as ammunition against opponent's claims that such unions will de-sacralize the nature of marriage by pointing out (though never in these exact words) that marriage cannot be desacralized much further.
Fairfaxian: I noticed that you always seem to want to point out that you feel blacks are not accepted by and large by the 'liberal, yuppie' white community. And while I undertsand what you are trying to get at, I can't help wonder why you have to ignore the same when it comes to blacks not being fully accepting of whites. I can assure you, you would have a much easier time being a black man in a majority white neighborhood than a white person in a majority black neighborhood. And who do you think commits most of the crimes in areas where yuppies live and socialize? I will give you a hint, they aren't white, Hispanic, or Asian. We both live in the DC area, have you not read or seen the news? Blacks are the ones who are alienating themselves. Gays and women are constantly attacked on the streets by young black thugs. And you still wonder why there might be some friction. You don't see whites going east of the river to go mug some innocent black women do you?
Lol, are you serious? Blacks commit far more crimes against each other than they do anybody else. It's not even close. Please don't pull stuff out of your behind.
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