Is San Francisco really America's most liberal city?

[yuiyoshida]

San Francisco, California: The home of the Golden Gate Bridge, flower power and the Grateful Dead is also the most liberal city in the U.S. It's also consistently one of the most expensive places to live. Guess that's the price of leftist liberty. More than 852,000 residents (4.5 million in the metro area) call this city home, helping it earn a rank of -1 on the conservatism scale (the most liberal the scale goes).

We all assume San Francisco is the most liberal city in America. But is it really?

Well, wear your badge proudly, Bay Area. Because according to one study, we most definitely are.

In a report soon to be published in the American Political Science Review, Chris Warshaw of MIT and Chris Tausanovitch from UCLA, declared San Francisco the land of progressive dreams (or nightmares, depending on your persuasion).

The study used responses from 275,000 Americans surveyed on public policy to rank cities' political leanings.

Warshaw and Tausanovitch found that city governments do, in fact, respond to the "will of their citizens." Liberal cities tended to have more progressive tax policies. According to their policy preference study, San Francisco, Berkeley and Cambridge are among the most liberal cities in America while Mesa, Provo and Waco are among the most conservative.



http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Is-San-Francisco-really-America-s-most-liberal-6412585.php

and...were #2 on Glenn Becks most hated liberal city list! (According to a recent video.) Bill O'reilly thinks we're all pinheads here as well.

[KamaAina]

1. Who does Beckkk hate more than The City?

Portlandia?

[Tom Kitten]

6. Yep

Portland #1, San Francisco #2, Seattle #3.

[Auggie]

2. I thought it would be Berkeley. S.F. is certainly the largest liberal city.

[Brother Buzz]

3. These days, Davis, Ca is WAY more liberal than Berkeley ever was

Santa Cruz, too. I've seen these surveys before, and size population is part of the criteria for making the list.

[JayhawkSD]

4. I'm not sure causation is valid.

"It's also consistently one of the most expensive places to live. Guess that's the price of leftist liberty."

I'm not sure that's entirely valid. Maybe to some extent, but San Francisco is expensive to live mainly due to its location and demographics. It is crowded and real estate is outrageously expensive because the city is more confined and limited than any other city of similar population. It cannot expand due to having water on three sides and other cities on the fourth. Transportaioon, both internal and from external venues, is nightmarishly expensive. Importation of natural resources and utilities is more costly than most similar cities.

Liberal policies are simply not a driver of high social costs and, in fact, reduce ultimate costs of society. Public health service, for instance is a lot cheaper than dealing with epidemics.

[olddots]

5. Liberals move to inexpensive areas

those areas get gentrified and become expensive .....rince and repeat .