November 21, 2007
Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who's the Liberalist of Them All
It's kind of an interesting Presidential Race in that two of the leading Republican contenders, Romney and Guiliani, are basing their campaigns on bashing the liberal bastions they governed. The obvious reason is to throw some red meat at conservatives by saying not only are they not actually liberal, but that they base most of their governance on beating back gays, Jews, and dark skinned people liberals. So Rudy just put a commercial out saying that he tamed "America's Most Liberal City."
This didn't sit well with New Yawkers. Douglas A. Muzzio, a professor of public affairs at Baruch College, fought back and said, “Blame San Francisco. We're not No. 1.”
So the NY Times brought in a bunch of experts to determine just who in fact is #1. And the answer -- at least according to Dr. Mollenkopf, the director of the Center for Urban Research at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York -- is... LA. Ta-da. He also added that SF is one of the most liberal cities, but not winner. We will be receiving the home edition of the “Most Liberal City” board game for our efforts.
First of all, what else can we do to be seen as the most liberal city? It's not like we're not trying or anything, what with the gay marriage thing, the banning of plastic bags, and the monthly anti-something protests.
Because SFist wants to be solution-oriented, we suggest an ad campaign to put us into the #1 spot. Maybe have a bunch of Vegan Burning Man types with dreads and Che t-shirts doing TV commercials reminding the country just how much of a progressive bastion we are. And we can throw in a snappy, "I Love New York" type slogan too, like "San Francisco-- We're Not Capitalist Pigs." Or "We'll Protest Anything."
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!!! That's surprising to me...I wonder what the rationale was - granted, if you compare the actual city of LA to other places in SoCal, it's one of the most liberal if not the most liberal, but even so, for every Venice there's a Chatsworth...I'm not so sure there's a St. Francis Wood for every Haight though.
We need to invite the judges back during Folsom, obviously.
San Francisco must triple its population before it can even hope to be compared in any meaninful way with New York. For better or worse, that transition is already underway.
These lists are too subjective.
Everyone already knows my hometown of Detroit is the most liberal city in the USA.
(and the most tourist friendly, too).
It's most liberal, Jon. Most liberal.
:-)
Going to the article in question, I can see the good doctor just asserts that LA is more liberal. He does not cite evidence. Having been born and raised in the LA metropolitan area, I moved to the SF Bay Area because it is more liberal. It's true that it really depends where you make the cutoff...which regions you include.
For instance, at the time I moved up here, bringing your own bags to the grocery store would have gotten you goggle-eyed stares in even the most liberal parts of LA. Back then, it was already reasonably accepted in SF although it may have garnered a few snickers.
Still, it's good to remember that if we look at the SF Bay Area as a whole, there are plenty of places where people DON'T bring bags to the store, proudly display "W 0'4" stickers on their cars and have city plans that are actively hostile to bike-riding, for instance. And people in the SF Bay Area are every bit as guilty of riding one to a car as they are in LA. They just have better maritime breezes to blow the smog along to some other region.
Those W'04 stickers are probably on the back of mondo SUVs.
Please don't associate all vegans with stupid Burning Man-attending hippies. Most of us actually bathe and have jobs, but simply don't like to eat animals.
SF owns the number one spot by any and all objective scorecards.
LGBT? Check.
The Environment? Check.
The War? Check.
Drugs (writ large) Check.
Health care? Check.
Minimum wage? Check.
Unions? Immigration? A draw, at best.
The only think we're at the middle of the pack on is race-relations. Our batting average slays all comers.
Dr. Mollenkopf is, forgive me, a tard. Professor Muzzio was right. San Francisco is the bluest, most liberal city in America, bar none. It’s almost beneath argument.
Can you see San Francisco electing a Republican mayor under any circumstances? Did you see the ballot returns for Arnold within these 7 square miles? Is the Green Party a serious political presence in New York? Can you imagine LA ever agonizing over something like Care Not Cash? Please.
Although it hasn’t moved the national conversation since the 1960’s, Berkeley is a fair contender to the throne. Madison, Wisconsin is not.
If we are to base “liberal” by, oh I don’t know, election returns or progressive social policy or, fuck, ANYTHING ELSE, the city and county of San Francisco are miles apart from NYC & LA.
Can we get back to our regularly scheduled blogging? These PoliSci geeks at the Times are embarrassing.