Is Thousand Oaks more liberal or conservative?

[VLWH]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

We are trying to figure out where in California to settle down with our two young children. We are eco-conscious, vegetarian liberals and would prefer to live in a place that is more liberal than not . We live in Santa Cruz right now, but the grungy hippie / drug addicted homeless / gang activity issues here are not exactly making us feel like this is the best place to raise our kids.

I've been doing research and it seems that Thousand Oaks is clean, safe and family oriented with great public schools. But so far I have been unable to find any posts mentioning it's politics. Thanks in advance!

Well those are a staple of a free liberal community, now what was your concern again?

[kpy85]

I'm very liberal and I love living in Thousand Oaks. Barack Obama actually won the city of Thousand Oaks! I know that might be shocking to some people but go check the statement of the vote, he won by about 2,000 votes. Obama actually won every city in Ventura county except Simi Valley (McCain won by 4 points), and Camarillo (McCain won by less than one point). From a voting registration number though, I think Thousand Oaks probably still has far more Republicans. Obama won the city by getting a huge amount of the independents.

[Charles]

Originally Posted by kpy85

I'm very liberal and I love living in Thousand Oaks. Barack Obama actually won the city of Thousand Oaks! I know that might be shocking to some people but go check the statement of the vote, he won by about 2,000 votes. Obama actually won every city in Ventura county except Simi Valley (McCain won by 4 points), and Camarillo (McCain won by less than one point). From a voting registration number though, I think Thousand Oaks probably still has far more Republicans. Obama won the city by getting a huge amount of the independents.

I wonder how easily it would be for an outsider to walk into any American city, including Berkley or Colorado Springs and, without having access to voting records and polls and such, be able to determine how "liberal" or "conservative" that city is.

How big of a difference does it really make anyway? The difference between those philosphophies is in the noise when compared to many other aspects of living in those places. Seriously, does political philosophy carry more weight than affordability, crime, schools, taxes, climate, traffic, job potential, amenities, and other non political demographics such as ethnicity or religion?

Finally, if you consider yourself conservative, who would you rather have for your next door neighbor, the Limbaughs or the Obamas?

If you consider yourself liberal, who would you rather have as your next door neighbor, Jesse Jackson or Colin Powell?

[jbunniii]

Originally Posted by Charles

I wonder how easily it would be for an outsider to walk into any American city, including Berkley or Colorado Springs and, without having access to voting records and polls and such, be able to determine how "liberal" or "conservative" that city is.

I have noticed that a lot of cities/towns in middle America have signs at their border such as "Welcome to Plopville - Attend the church of your choice" followed by a placard for every church in town. It may not be a 100% accurate indicator of a conservative populace, but I bet the correlation is high.

[SOON2BNSURPRISE]

One of the great things about living in and around Ventura County is that many of us get along great even though someone is liberal or conservative. Maybe that is the thing about california. We are more in the middle than anything else. Sure the state may lean to the left, but just by a fraction. Then again it does seem to lead more toward the left. I like to think that it is because of the states education system and how they have chosen to indoctrinate the young in this state. lol. I may be a conservative Republican but I can break bread with my liberal friends.

[jbunniii]

Originally Posted by SOON2BNSURPRISE

One of the great things about living in and around Ventura County is that many of us get along great even though someone is liberal or conservative. Maybe that is the thing about california. We are more in the middle than anything else. Sure the state may lean to the left, but just by a fraction. Then again it does seem to lead more toward the left. I like to think that it is because of the states education system and how they have chosen to indoctrinate the young in this state. lol. I may be a conservative Republican but I can break bread with my liberal friends.

I agree, for the most part the strain of Republican I have encountered in California is a fairly moderate breed. Orange County is the most conservative place I've lived, and it was still nothing like, say, Texas. I guess if you get out into Bakersfield and such it may be a different story.

I find people in the Bay Area to be more politically strident than in SoCal. In general I'm a liberal (though Obama with all his bailouts is testing my credentials severely) but I still get impatient with the many people I know here who blather on and on about politics and who have the attitude that "I could never live anywhere but the Bay Area - the rest of the country is so reactionary and we're so tolerant and enlightened blah blah blah." Even in Silicon Valley it's like this.

[californio sur]

Maybe I am naive but California just doesn't seem that political. I know it is considered a very liberal state but when it comes right down to governing it seems that it is not partisan. It really doesn't matter who is governor because they all are the same & just try to figure out ways to keep California from going bankrupt Maybe Orange county is partisan because they still vote Republican but otherwise California isn't into politics that much.

[frankieboy1]

Thousand Oaks was very conservative up until the early 90's when the aerospace industry left LA and Amgen and the like moved in...I would say it is now "balanced" between right and left...

You may want to look across the county line in Agoura/Las Virgenes which is a seperate school district and definitely a little more leftward...

[frankieboy1]

As for bakersfield...it's a very distinct place that has more in common with west Texas than the rest of California....I've heard things come out of peoples mouths that I would never hear in OC or TO

[DowntownVentura]

Originally Posted by jaynetarzana

Thanks so much for your posts everyone. I just looked up the zip codes on LungUSA.org (thanks Derek!) and it is a no brainer. Santa Cruz air = A while LA, Ventura and San Diego all get an F. So we are staying put. We'll just have to put forth a lot of effort to make sure that our kids get a good education in the public school system here. City data has helped me put another question to rest. I hope this thread helps someone else with the same questions.

LungUSA groups by county not city. The city of Ventura will have similar numbers to any other city on the coast, e.g. Santa Cruz.

So will the parts of San Diego and Los Angeles counties that are on the coast.