Cities tend to be "liberal"

Not that this is news, see the past blog entries:

-- "Progressive City Leaders, Progressive Urban Politics and Policies," 2006
-- "Repositioning cities (at least on the coasts) for greater political prominence, and a city-first agenda," 2012
-- "Local elections in New York City and Seattle as a temperature gauge for progressive politics," 2013
-- "A new progressive urban politics and social housing," 2013

But this chart from the Economist, recently re-covered by Vox, and based on a journal article from the American Political Science Review,"Representation in Municipal Government," is an interesting illustration of the reality.

But the data also illustrates that charts like these aren't always that useful.  DC is considered the second most liberal city in the US.  Maybe I am a flaming radical, but it doesn't feel that way to me.  Unless the failure to realize greatness is inherent within liberalism.  Although the list is derived more from policies on issues such as marijuana legalization or gay marriage, and not on the execution of policies and practices related to progressive urbanism.

DC's liberalism isn't very engaged, the nature of government is very much top-down, and the city isn't particularly committed to progressive urbanism--most of the city's elected officials live in the more suburban parts of the city.