What is the most left-wing city in America?

[Docere]

Massachusetts is more "establishmentarian" than the west coast. However the right tends to conflate liberal and leftist.

[JHikka]

Originally Posted by 202_Cyclist

This answer is easy-- Burlington, VT.

Good shout and definitely a contender.

Originally Posted by wwmiv

That’s fine, as long as it is an informed opinion that takes into consideration what the political science actually writes and says, and theorizes and concludes, and can be supported empirically—because then what you’d be doing is somewhat rigorous amateur political science of your own of the kind many above are doing, and there is nothing better than citizens informing themselves properly. But, of course, being somewhat knowledgeable about what you’re arguing against (the academic political science) really would help you, no?

This reminds me of a poli sci seminar I had once asking what groups of people should or should not have the ability to vote dependant on their involvement or knowledge of government or policy. It's a pretty shit discussion to have and occasionally rests on 'only those who know politics should vote', which is what this sort of narrative feels like. People are on a spectrum without ever thinking about that spectrum and it doesn't seem constructive to try and shut down debate or win an argument by pulling out the ol' degree certificate, you know?

As with anything we should all know that voters are not always rational. Otherwise all of our politicians would be boring policy wonks and there'd be no point.

[sopas ej]

Originally Posted by Crawford

Wrong, the City Councilmember killed it. The developer cannot build something that doesn't exist, which was the Councilmember's demand. "Make a unicorn" isn't a policy stance, it's a political stance.

The Councilmember had no intention of approving a project under any circumstances. Why would she? Her whole narrative is "evil developers and gentrifiers are invading the neighborhood." Thankfully, she'll be voted out shortly, and then much-needed affordable housing can be built.

Totally different subject, but she's a fervent Putin supporter too, and blames Ukraine for the Russian invasion. Vile lady.

Would an American leftist support someone as right-wing and nationalist as Putin? I somehow doubt that. She's not really a leftist.

That'd be like Tulsi Gabbard saying she was a leftist.

[pj3000]

Vermont is not left wing by a long shot. It’s easy white green living there without distractions of any type. It’s nothing but an idealized fantasy world that only exists with the minds of a well-to-do middle to upper northeastern class in the confines of a state that has very little contact with the rest of the nation.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by pj3000

Vermont is not left wing by a long shot. It’s easy white green living there without distractions of any type. It’s nothing but an idealized fantasy world that only exists with the minds of a well-to-do middle to upper northeastern class in the confines of a state that has very little contact with the rest of the nation.

Vermont was for most of its post-civil war history the single most Republican state in the entire nation and has only ever elected one Democrat to the Senate ever, Leahy, and a handful to the House (Meyer and Welch). Even the Independent who occupied the Seat prior to Sanders, Jeffords, had previously been elected as a Republican. The Governorship has bounced back and forth a bit more, but still only five Democrats have held it in the current two party framework (Dems v Reps in the post-civil war era) and none before 1963. The other row offices (in Vermont these are Lt Gov, Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, and Sec of State) were first won by Dems in 1965, and they’ve only sporadically held them since. Dems won the State Senate for the first time ever in 1985, and the State House narrowly two years later. They’ve mostly held the State Leg since then, but not entirely.

And then when you add that before the civil war, Vermont usually went to the party opposing the Democratic-Republicans, whoever it was at any given point in time (Whigs, Federalists, etc.), then you start to wonder what has changed in the water up there. It has a stereotype of being exactly what you suggest, but I think the data really confounds the stereotype.

[JManc]

Vermont is moderate by west coast standards; they are environmentally and socially conscious but still veer closer to the middle on many economic as well as certain social issues. VT has (or had) some of the most lax gun laws in the US.

[plinko]

Clearly it is Milwaukee. Alice Cooper told me so…

• Video Link

[kittyhawk28]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

That's the topic of the thread: "What is the most left-wing city in America?"

But people keep bringing up Democrats, who are far from being left-wing. I guess the question should be "What is the city with the most Democratic Party voters/supporters?"

Since you bring up Bernie, incidentally, most Democrats in California voted for him in the 2020 Presidential Primary:

Wikpedia

Yeah in my experience, the cities in Humboldt County (Eureka, Arcata) are conventionally much more left-wing than most other big metros. Conventionally liberal places like the Bay Area are more influenced by socially liberal yuppies who are not necessarily always economically left-wing due to their wealth status, whereas cities like Eureka and Arcata are filled with either A) aging boomer hippies and leftists, or b) young college students.

[Docere]

The GOP since the 1990s has been a bad fit for New England.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by Kngkyle

I don't see the left-wing as being pro-development... if anything they are the most anti-development group with their fear of gEnTriFiCaTioN. The most leftist alderman here in Chicago basically compete over who can stop the most development in their wards. Happy to hear this is changing on the West coast but it's still pretty engrained in the far left here.

Originally Posted by sopas ej

You're viewing it through a capitalist lens. A leftist wouldn't want luxury highrise condos with ground-level retail being built and displacing the lower-income people who are already there and housed, with businesses catering to their local neighborhood needs.

A leftist would be very pro-housing development with housing being affordable for all.

This happened recently in SF actually.

There was a project, 469 Stevenson, a 495 unit, 27 story tower that was proposed to be built on a Nordstrom surface parking lot. A prime downtown location with tons of transit and jobs and walkability close by. It also included 24% affordable, below market rate units (118 units). However, it was denied by the city's Board of Supervisors due to very weak gentrification claims. Their argument was that this particular proposal would displace an adjacent development, claiming that investors would buy it and move the existing residents out. Totally bogus. The project site is a parking lot and does not contain any buildings that house residents, businesses, or community organizations.

SF, to its credit, has built lots of 100% affordable housing projects over the past year, and has many more in the pipeline. It just makes it seem like they're saying if something isn't 100% affordable, it shouldn't be built. For a project that wasn't designed from the ground up to be 100% affordable, 24% seems quite generous to me.

[SFBruin]

Delete.

[pj3000]

^ if “ethnically diverse” means Hispanic, then yeah, Miami is ethnically diverse.

But otherwise, nope… I don’t find Miami to be too ethnically diverse at all.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by wwmiv

Broadly speaking, though, there are only six major urban cities and environs in which the average person is actually leftist: those three, plus D.C., Minneapolis, and Boston.

Why do you say D.C.? I've never really thought of it as a leftist place in the way that SF, Portland, or Seattle seem leftist. D.C. seems more politically similar to cities that are (or were recently) majority Black, like Atlanta, Baltimore, Detroit, and Philadelphia.

[iheartthed]

Originally Posted by SFBruin

I'm not sure that ethnic diversity is cleanly aligned with policy.

For example, from what I hear, Miami is one of the most ethnically diverse metros in the US, and I am not sure that it is one of the most liberal.

Similarly, Chicago is reasonably ethinically diverse, and I wouldn't consider it one of the most liberal.

It's just one criteria. Phoenix is diverse and I ranked it dead last. But I think having a city that is ethnically diverse AND has people living in densely built environments is a sign of a liberal society.

[Tuckerman]

[QUOTE=wwmiv;9828986]Let’s separate this out into two areas, shall we?

1. Talking about our own subjective ideological viewpoints and policy positions, vis-a-vis others, and those of elected officials with which we take issue.

2. Talking about the objective reality which is the sum of all of the ideological and policy opinions of a group of people.

I agree that this is an important distinction and the academic discussions are very useful for trying to get a handle on what is a complex idea. This is an old and recurring problem in academic social science - the relationships of classification, measurement and ideology. Like so much in social science (and so-called hard science) there is not a perfect solution. What wwmiv provides is a pretty good and sophisticated attempt to answer this conceptual idea using present day political science paradigms. Where I differ is with the very idea of obtaining "objective reality." That is perhaps an end goal which will continue to elude social science.

[jmecklenborg]

One former mark of leftisim was a local currency. I am most familiar with the Ithaca Hour, since I know a few people who attended Cornell.

The list of what cities used to have their own currency is a who's-who of academics/trust funders with too much time on their hands:

Madison, WI
Santa Barbara, CA
Corvallis, OR

[jmecklenborg]

Another marker of leftism is the presence of co-ops. These can be co-op groceries, bars/restaurants, a bike co-op - whatever. Unfortunately, co-ops are often beleaguered by in-fighting and rarely last more than ten years.

[muertecaza]

Originally Posted by sopas ej

Would an American leftist support someone as right-wing and nationalist as Putin? I somehow doubt that. She's not really a leftist.

That'd be like Tulsi Gabbard saying she was a leftist.

Here's a pretty good article summarizing the segments of American leftists that range from anti-imperialist critiques of the US/NATO's role in the Russia-Ukraine war to tacit or even outright support for Russia. The referenced NYC city councilor is discussed.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/07/04...seshoe-theory/

See also:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/08/n...ne-russia.html

[Yuri]

As people are finding hard to decide each city is more left, what about districts? What are the most left?

I ask that because down here in São Paulo, in a process that started at some point in the past, but become very noticeable from the mid-2010's onwards, very marked left-wing districts emerged. Notably, Downtown with this very big influx of alternative youngsters, and also the very upmarket Pinheiros.

Rio de Janeiro's Zona Sul (the touristic Rio), has been (wealthy) left-wing since the 1960's or so. When people say "caviar left", they're think about this area. However, bolsonarist far-right grew a lot there. He won in Rio de Janeiro, although lost in Zona Sul by a good margin.

[homebucket]

Originally Posted by jmecklenborg

Another marker of leftism is the presence of co-ops. These can be co-op groceries, bars/restaurants, a bike co-op - whatever. Unfortunately, co-ops are often beleaguered by in-fighting and rarely last more than ten years.

There's a few pizza co-ops that have survived for awhile here. Cheese Board in Berkeley since 1971 and Arizmendi since 1997 in Oakland, Emeryville, San Francisco, and San Rafael. There's one down in San Jose and Sunnyvale as well called A Slice of New York, since 2017.

Another popular one is REI which started in Seattle in 1938.

https://sf.eater.com/maps/cooperativ...rkets-bay-area