Rank Northeastern and Midwestern metros from most liberal to most conservative

[traininthedistance]

I'll believe it when I see it, but I'd have to believe the SUBURBS of Chicago are more GOP-friendly than the suburbs of Baltimore...

I was thinking the same thing; Chicago's suburbs are not like they were 20-30 years ago in friendliness to the GOP, but I definitely think they're a lot more friendly to the GOP than Baltimore's surrounding environs.

The Baltimore suburbs are not exactly Democratic, especially not at the federal level.  Carroll and Howard are more Republican than any of the collar counties, and my impression from a distance is that they are still kinda "Southern" in many ways, moreso than the DC suburbs.

[traininthedistance]

I'll believe it when I see it, but I'd have to believe the SUBURBS of Chicago are more GOP-friendly than the suburbs of Baltimore...

I was thinking the same thing; Chicago's suburbs are not like they were 20-30 years ago in friendliness to the GOP, but I definitely think they're a lot more friendly to the GOP than Baltimore's surrounding environs.

The Baltimore suburbs are not exactly Democratic, especially not at the federal level.  Carroll and Howard are more Republican than any of the collar counties, and my impression from a distance is that they are still kinda "Southern" in many ways, moreso than the DC suburbs..

I think you meant to say Harford.

Howard County is the most Democratic county in the Baltimore metro area; Romney at least broke 40% in Baltimore County. Last time a Republican won Howard County was in 1988; same time when the suburbs of Baltimore last went Republican. I agree that Carroll and Harford are extremely Republican on every level and way more Republican than any county in Chicagoland currently.

Compare that with Chicagoland which, until 2008, Republicans were winning every county in the metro area (save Cook and Lake, Indiana).

Yes, I did mean Harford.  Oops! 

[traininthedistance]

We've had this debate many times. Historically MD was southern, and many residents still use that historical reference. If you look at measures such as membership rates in non-black evangelical churches or listeners to country music stations, MD doesn't look very southern anymore.

I think those that claim that Maryland isn't "purely" southern have a point, but few make a good case for it being Northeastern.

It is 29% African American.  No non-Southern state is more than 20%. 

It doesn't have the "white ethnic" populations of the Northeast.  Where are the Italians and Irish? How much of the Hispanic population is Puerto Rican?

It also has a lot of unincorporated areas rather than towns/boroughs and the suburbs of DC look more Sunbeltish and "boomburb"-ish than than they look like the "quaint suburban towns and old industrial cities" model that prevails in most of the Northeast. 

Of course, being in the national capital region it's going to have a lot of transplants and be an outlier culturally and politically.

Demographically, it resembles Virginia more than it does any other state.  Maryland is a border Southern state.

This may seem like a small thing, but take a look at the sort of housing stock in various major cities across the USA.  Philadelphia- and especially the poorer parts of Philly- has a distinctive rowhome style which you don't really see in NYC or points north, or out in the Midwest or South either.

But you do see it, in spades, in Baltimore.

Perhaps evidence for a shared Mid-Atlantic identity somewhere in there?

[traininthedistance]

I was going to make a similar point that Balto shares much in common with Philly. The architecture and history follow very similar paths. I would take train as the authority, but rowhouses in parts of Queens and Brooklyn remind me of their counterparts in Balto and Philly. In my visits I find more similarities than differences.

As to the demographics, Balto was a significant some to white ethnic immigration and was the second largest port of entry after NYC. Residents of Irish ancestry make up 13% of the population in Balto. Little Italy is an important neighborhood and was the childhood home of Nancy Pelosi, the daughter of Baltimore Mayor D'Alesandro. Before the Civil War the black population of Balto was predominantly free, though there were some slaves, and today makes up the largest ethnic group as it does in Philly.

What I'm thinking of more than anything is the two-story lower-class housing like this:

 (in Philly)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Douglass_Houses_Baltimore.JPG (link 'cause the picture is huge)

...which is often found on on really tiny side streets that are much closer together than you find in NYC.  Most of Brooklyn's row home stock is three stories at least, often four; where you have two story row housing in NYC it's almost always further from the core, and has setbacks and front lawns, like so:



Note that you do get this style in Philly, too: but, again, further out from the core.  And NYC of course has a much larger prevalence of multi-story apartment buildings.  And, of course, in Boston you get triple-deckers instead.  (I was struck by the prevalence of detached three-story buildings with balconies on every floor long before I knew what it actually was.  It's a really distinctive feature of New England housing.)

I agree, also, that Baltimore does have a history of "ethnic" immigration and the lack of such is overstated.