Favorite Texas City?

[Scottolini]

Originally Posted by Mdlx

2000
Austin 46.8% Republican 10% Nader?

Yep.

Bush - 46.88%
Gore - 41.67%
Nader - 10.37%

http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/s...r=2000&fips=48

I was one of those Nader voters in 2000.

Plus, before we knew better, I think him being a Texan drew some of the more moderate Democrats around here to vote for him in 2000. He was after all a popular governor, who was considered someone who would work across party lines. What the heck happened to him in Washington?

[Cascade4567']

Originally Posted by Scottolini

Well the election data does show the city of Austin, as well as Travis County as a whole to vote Democratic at a higher rate than any of the other big Texas counties. Beyond that, many of the Democrats in other parts of this state are still quite socially conservative, which Austin is not. Issues like gay marriage, abortion, death penalty, decriminalization of marijuana, among other issues show Austin tends to be more Liberal.

Also, Austin has voted this way for decades. One or two recent elections aren't really a trend. Hopefully the other areas will remain "Blue", but I'm not 100% convinced.

So, while Austin may not be as Liberal as a lot of West Coast cities, it is the most Liberal in this state; there is documented evidence to back this claim up I can post if need be.

YES, oh yes, I completely agree that through voter turnout Austin is the more socially liberal choice in Texas and the entire South/Southwest for that matter, NO argument about that. I think my point is that Austin(which is what I love about it)is a more "active" city when it comes to campaigning, protesting, and just overall voting. It trends more democratic in every way. I was speaking more along the lines that I dont really see percentage as a total measure of a city when looking at politics and telling which city is more liberal than others.

I just do not think that in a city like Dallas where shopping is more important than your high school diploma is a place where you could get an accurate measure of how many people are liberal vs. conservative. I tend to think that Dallas is more fiscally conservative and the rest is individually based on certain demographic numbers. I do not think polictics play that much of a major role in the average persons life(as sad as I think that is) in Dallas as it does in Austin(mainly due to the percentage of the young college population).

[ChiSoxRox]

I only know of Texas from family stories and what I've seen on here. But I like Western landscapes and the border's an intriguing area, so I gave El Paso its first vote.

Wowza fact: El Paso is closer to San Diego than Houston, and closer to Santa Monica than Beaumont.

[Dan Denson]

Originally Posted by urbanactivistTX

^^ But with the Bushes... his "job" is to be a former President. It's basically whatever he wants to do. He could have just as easily moved to Turtle Creek if he wanted to be in the immediate vicinity of the Presidential Library. But there are far more affluent moderates and liberals that live in Turtle Creek than there are in Preston Hollow. There's nothing wrong with their choice, but don't be so naive as to why they chose that area.

On this topic, though, it's always been strange to me that the Bushes, when he was TX Governor, routinely had dinner at the gayest restaurant in Austin. They would often be the only straight people in the dining room, and were always friendly to everyone. I'm not even trying to make a point, but I've always thought this was sort of interesting.

I've lived in conservative suburban neighborhoods in the past, and it was always interesting that neighbors almost never talked politics. They were just nice neighborhoods where people looked out for each other and were always friendly. But that was before so many people became so rabidly political, so it may be different now. I don't plan to find out; I will always live in a like-minded neighborhood. E.g., if I ever am able to move back to Houston, I'll do my best to find a property in the inner loop.

[Trae]

Originally Posted by Mdlx

Go take a look at past Presidential election results

2008
Dallas 57% Democrat
Houston 50% Democrat
Austin 63% Democrat

2004
Dallas 50% Republican
Houston 54.7% Republican
Austin 56% Democrat

2000
Dallas 52% Republican
Houston 54% Republican
Austin 46.8% Republican 10% Nader?

1996
Dallas 46.8% Republican
Houston 49% Republican
Austin 52% Democrat

1992
Dallas 38% Republican
Houston 43% Republican
Austin 47% Democrat

1988
Dallas 58% Republican
Houston 57% Republican
Austin 54% Democrat

This is why Austin has that "blue island in a sea of red" image that has been "thrown down your throat."

Even with this, Travis County is much smaller than Harris and Dallas. Hell, Harris County has like half of Houston's suburbs in it. The City of Austin has much more pull on it's county, than Dallas and especially Houston have on their own. I don't think these are good comparisons. Is there a way to look at city limits? Also, look at entire metro areas, too.

[KevinFromTexas]

Austin's city proper occupies a little bit less than a quarter of the county. Houston's city proper occupies about a third of Harris County. Anyone know where to find the voting results for city propers?

Austin - 251 sq mi (land) - 296 sq mi (water)
Travis County - 989 sq mi (land) - 1,022 sq mi (water)

Houston - 579 sq mi (land) - 602 square miles (water)
Harris County - 1,729 sq mi (land) - 1,788 sq mi (water).

San Antonio - 407 sq mi (land) - 412 sq mi (water)
Bexar County - 1,247 sq mi (land) - 1,257 sq mi (water)

Dallas - 342 square miles (land) - 385 sq mi (water)
Dallas County - 880 sq mi (land) - 908 sq mi (water)

Fort Worth - 292 sq mi (land) - 299 sq mi (water)
Tarrant County - 863 sq mi (land) - 897 sq mi (water)

El Paso - 249 sq mi (land) - 250 sq mi (water)
El Paso County - 1,013 sq mi (land) - 1,015 sq mi (water)

So Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth occupy about a third of their counties, while Austin and El Paso occupy about a quarter of their counties, and Dallas occupies almost half of its county.

[Trae]

I was talking about population.

[urbanactivist]

(alla Wikipedia.com)
Bexar County..... 1,622,884
San Antonio..... 1,351,305
83.3% of Bexar County is San Antonio

Travis County pop.....974,365
Austin.... 757,688
77.8% of Travis County is Austin

Harris County..... 3,984,349
Houston..... 2,242,193
56.3% of Harrris County is Houston

Dallas County..... 2,366,511
Dallas..... 1,279,910
54.1% of Dallas County is Dallas

Austin has far more of its county population that are residents of the city of Austin than Houston or Dallas. So the county trend is going to line up much more easily with the city trend. Whereas in a place like Harris County, it's typically going to split half and half. Without city voting records, we wouldn't know for absolute certain that the suburbs didn't vote for Obama over the city, but my guess is that the city of Houston leans more Democratic than its suburbs, just like most major cities.

[Scottolini]

This map shows that the entire Austin metro tends to be more Liberal than most of the rest of Texas, not just Austin or Travis County.


http://images.google.com/imgres?imgu...a%3DN%26um%3D1

[Scottolini]

And this PDF will show just how overwhelmingly Liberal the city of Austin is, with much of it more than 80% opposed to discrimination against homosexuals.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/demograph...position_2.pdf

[Scottolini]

Originally Posted by urbanactivistTX

(alla Wikipedia.com)
Travis County pop.....974,365
Austin.... 757,688
77.8% of Travis County is Austin

Not all Austinites live in Travis County. There is a substantial Austin population in Williamson, and even some in Hays.

I'm sure it doesn't change the percentage too much, but i do think it's worth mentioning.

[Scottolini]

I just found this data, which is dated (2004). However it states the number of Austinites in Williamson as 17,000. I'm sure it's notably larger now.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/demograph...p_forecast.pdf

[urbanactivist]

Originally Posted by Scottolini

I just found this data, which is dated (2004). However it states the number of Austinites in Williamson as 17,000. I'm sure it's notably larger now.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/demograph...p_forecast.pdf

Right, and no one is disputing Austin's history of being more liberal than other areas in Texas. There's plenty of data that shows this to be true.

The issue (if you're going to try to determine it) is how liberal the other metros may or may not be. If Houston were 77% of Harris County's population, our map and historical trends may have been viewed differently. Maybe not.

[hookem]

Originally Posted by Scottolini

And this PDF will show just how overwhelmingly Liberal the city of Austin is, with much of it more than 80% opposed to discrimination against homosexuals.

http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/demograph...position_2.pdf

Pretty amazing what you see east of I-35, around Ed Bluestein... one of those interesting cultural anomalies.

[KevinFromTexas]

Most of Travis County's population is within Austin since most of the population lives up and down I-35. Areas east and west of there are pretty rural and have lower populations. Bexar County is similar in that way, where you have San Antonio's population centered in the north/central part of the county, with most of the growth growing northward. Most of the county to the west, east and south is pretty rural. It's less true of San Antonio and Bexar County since they have I-10 with a good bit of development along that west/east highway. Austin and Travis County lacks the major east/west highways of the other metros, and even the ones that do exist have minimal development along them. Think 71 and 290 east and west of Austin. There's not much development really. So most of Travis County's population live up and down I-35 and fewer along any east/west corridors. Outside of those areas, Travis County is pretty rural actually.

[FastFerrari82]

San Antonio
Austin
Houston
Dallas
South Pardre

[Adplayer]

Houston- Biggest gulf coast city in the south.

Dallas- Biggest city in East Texas after Houston, Americas NFL team.

Corpus Christi/ Port Aransas- Port Aransas is probably the best beach to visit on the Texas coast.

San Antonio- Where the American South meets the Southwest, the core of the Texas hill country.

Austin- The core of the Central Texas area, UT main campus, small college city with widely varied residants. Also the eastern most frontier of the texas hill country, any more west and your in West Texas.

[greywallsareboring]

Dallas-it's my hometown and I've grown to love it over the last year after spending 8 years away!
And what about Carrollton?!?! Home of Vanilla Ice!!!

[Jdawgboy]

Originally Posted by Adplayer

Houston- Biggest gulf coast city in the south.

Dallas- Biggest city in East Texas after Houston, Americas NFL team.

Corpus Christi/ Port Aransas- Port Aransas is probably the best beach to visit on the Texas coast.

San Antonio- Where the American South meets the Southwest, the core of the Texas hill country.

Austin- The core of the Central Texas area, UT main campus, small college city with widely varied residants. Also the eastern most frontier of the texas hill country, any more west and your in West Texas.

Austin a small college city??? I wouldn't call a city of 800,000 people small.

[wwmiv]

Originally Posted by Adplayer

Austin- The core of the Central Texas area, UT main campus, small college city with widely varied residants. Also the eastern most frontier of the texas hill country, any more west and your in West Texas.

Austin, a small city? ...