Why is the Bay Area so Liberal? (San Jose, San Francisco: high school, universities)

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by 18Montclair

San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, Marin County and Santa Cruz are famously liberal and deservedly so.

However, Its actually really interesting how so most suburban areas in the nation have veered to the right but in the Bay Area the opposite has taken place.

I recall only 20 years ago when Contra Costa and Santa Clara Counties were reliably Republican and served as the anchors of the Bay Area's conservative base.

Today these 2 counties are moderate and slant to the left.

I think that in 2010, the subregion in the bay that is the most socially and fiscally conservative is the area we call the Tri Valley.

Thanks for the graphic! How do we explain the rural counties north of the Bay Area? Sonoma\ Napa\ Solano\ Lake\ Mendocino & Humboldt are strongly liberal [considered the home of the Green party in California].

[majoun]

Originally Posted by californio sur

Thanks for the graphic! How do we explain the rural counties north of the Bay Area? Sonoma\ Napa\ Solano\ Lake\ Mendocino & Humboldt are strongly liberal [considered the home of the Green party in California].

The big migration of hippies from SF and Berkeley and even some from SoCal that happened in the '70s, combined with a traditional Western feel.

And the Emerald Triangle is just as Libertarian as it is Green. It's as purely libertarian as anywhere in the US considering the distrust of government, the "don't tread on me" rugged individualism, the anti-authority attitude reminiscent of the Old West, and its major cash crop.

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by majoun

The big migration of hippies from SF and Berkeley and even some from SoCal that happened in the '70s, combined with a traditional Western feel.

And the Emerald Triangle is just as Libertarian as it is Green. It's as purely libertarian as anywhere in the US considering the distrust of government, the "don't tread on me" rugged individualism, the anti-authority attitude reminiscent of the Old West, and its major cash crop.

The North Coast is an intriguing place of California. Like nowhere else in the state. I know hippies heavily settled up there but had no idea how much impact they must have. I've only been to Arcata [where a cousin attends college] twice. It is unmistakeably socialist. People live causally with each other, sharing food\ bed\ weed freely. Probably because the entire town are students or just about. Santa Cruz is also a socialist stronghold due, in part to the university. I like that idea of the "old West" individualism. How does all that mix in with the grape growers\ tourist industry? Sounds like an interesting mix of people.

[Gentoo]

I doubt the leftists here would want to celebrate Kearny, though ; he was a vicious bigot who led anti-Chinese pogroms and race riots.
Ironic that Kearny St., which was named after him, runs through Chinatown....

San Diego has an area of town called Kearny Mesa

Actually...

Ironically, San Francisco's Kearny Street runs through Chinatown. However it was not named after Denis Kearney, but after the wealthy and well-born Mexican-American War Army officer Stephen W. Kearny.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Kearney

Kearny is the namesake of Kearny, Arizona and Kearney, Nebraska. Many schools are named after Kearny, including Kearny Elementary in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Kearny High School in the San Diego neighborhood of Kearny Mesa. Kearny Street, in downtown San Francisco, is also named for him, as is a street in Fort Leavenworth. Camp Kearny in San Diego, a U.S. military base which operated from 1917 to 1946 on the site of today's Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, was named in his honor. Fort Kearny in Nebraska is also named for him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_W._Kearny

Both the SF street and the San Diego area were named for a different Kearny..rather than Kearney

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by californio sur

Very impressed with the historic info, majoun. San Francisco was "the City" in California for more than a century [maybe even 2 centuries]. When did the Spanish make San Francisco the largest city? Was San Diego the largest city during the Spanish era? Suppose most of San Francisco's growth occurred during the Gold Rush [when a lot of Europeans immigrated by way of the East Coast]. Los Angeles seems to have become liberal during the last few decades when unions became strong. Strangely, but cities with large Catholic populations also tend to be liberal but I have no idea why.

Catholics as a general rule tend to be more liberal than protestants. My girlfriends family is a personal notable exception lol

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by californio sur

What do they mean by "Tri-Valley'? It looks like the only valley is San Ramon. None of the towns are in the Santa Clara Valley nor the San Joaquin valley.

That area is actually three semi connected Valleys. Danville and San Ramon are in one. Dublin and Pleasanton in another and Livermore in a third.

[majoun]

Originally Posted by Gentoo

San Diego has an area of town called Kearny Mesa

Actually...

Ironically, San Francisco's Kearny Street runs through Chinatown. However it was not named after Denis Kearney, but after the wealthy and well-born Mexican-American War Army officer Stephen W. Kearny.

Dennis Kearney - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Kearny is the namesake of Kearny, Arizona and Kearney, Nebraska. Many schools are named after Kearny, including Kearny Elementary in Santa Fe, New Mexico and Kearny High School in the San Diego neighborhood of Kearny Mesa. Kearny Street, in downtown San Francisco, is also named for him, as is a street in Fort Leavenworth. Camp Kearny in San Diego, a U.S. military base which operated from 1917 to 1946 on the site of today's Marine Corps Air Station Miramar, was named in his honor. Fort Kearny in Nebraska is also named for him.

Stephen W. Kearny - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Both the SF street and the San Diego area were named for a different Kearny..rather than Kearney

OK, so I was wrong about that.

But if we're talking irony and bigots, David Starr Jordan was a professor at Stanford who was an advocate of eugenics and "scientific racism". He publically advocated white supremacy, railed against Asians and blacks, and decried "miscegenation". He opposed World War I because he believed that whites killing each other off in war would lead to nonwhites taking over their countries. Adolf Hitler was a big fan of Professor Jordan. Yet, Jordan High School in Watts, which was overwhelmingly African-American from the day it opened (although it's probably mostly Latino now) was named after him IIRC (although I may be wrong about this as I was about Kearney).

[wburg]

Originally Posted by AuburnAL

One thing I've heard before is that it has the hishest number of people in the country living off trust funds. As a result of never having to live like everyone else they have a huge disconnect from reality in terms of taxes and the like. Then you just don't see many fiscal liberals and social conservatives so they're likely to be very liberal in every aspect of their lives.

I'd be a bit suspicious of that--I haven't met any of those "trust fund babies," and even if there are some, they represent a tiny fraction of the overall population, as they must by necessity be the children of the wealthiest. And since a trust fund counts as taxable income, it's not as though they are immune to taxation.

[wburg]

Originally Posted by californio sur

The North Coast is an intriguing place of California. Like nowhere else in the state. I know hippies heavily settled up there but had no idea how much impact they must have. I've only been to Arcata [where a cousin attends college] twice. It is unmistakeably socialist. People live causally with each other, sharing food\ bed\ weed freely. Probably because the entire town are students or just about. Santa Cruz is also a socialist stronghold due, in part to the university. I like that idea of the "old West" individualism. How does all that mix in with the grape growers\ tourist industry? Sounds like an interesting mix of people.

The Northcoast is an interesting mix--the hippies are very liberal (I wouldn't call them "socialist") and the townies/loggers very conservative, often resulting in confrontation and conflict. Arcata is a college town, which tend to be very liberal, but McKinleyville is something of a Republican bastion, and Eureka is generally far more conservative than Arcata. Towns where logging is still important don't have much tolerance for lefties, although places that focus more on tourism are a different story. However, keep in mind that the entire population of Humboldt County is only around 100,000 people--that's about 3% of the population of the city of Los Angeles.

[californio sur]

Originally Posted by wburg

The Northcoast is an interesting mix--the hippies are very liberal (I wouldn't call them "socialist") and the townies/loggers very conservative, often resulting in confrontation and conflict. Arcata is a college town, which tend to be very liberal, but McKinleyville is something of a Republican bastion, and Eureka is generally far more conservative than Arcata. Towns where logging is still important don't have much tolerance for lefties, although places that focus more on tourism are a different story. However, keep in mind that the entire population of Humboldt County is only around 100,000 people--that's about 3% of the population of the city of Los Angeles.

I use the term "socialist" interchangeably with the Green Party whose presence in the North Coast is sizable in comparison to the population but as you point out some of these counties are pretty sparse.