<\/a>A new report by Livability.com<\/a> calls St. Louis the Number 1 city for liberals. And while as a St. Louis resident and a liberal myself, I like hearing that and would love to believe it, it\u2019s probably not true. [Sigh.] How many times do I have to say this: A Number 1 ranking for St. Louis \u2013in almost any category\u2014is usually the result of statistical malpractice.<\/p>\n

The new ranking would be a refreshing change from the much more negative rankings St. Louis typically gets: Similar reports have ranked St. Louis as Number 1 in per capita murders. But that\u2019s an undeserved reputation as well.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s why. The people who do these rankings often don\u2019t understand the political\/administrative structure of the St. Louis area. For consistency, they usually create their rankings based on statistics within city limits <\/em>of the various areas they\u2019re reporting on. Their oft-quoted statistics appear to be correct for what they measure.<\/em> [Per capita gun violence and murder is very high in \u201cSt. Louis.\u201d And \u201cSt. Louis\u201d has elected its current Democratic mayor four times, and voted overwhelmingly for President Obama twice.] Unfortunately, the “St. Louis” that they are measuring yields results that are distorted.<\/p>\n

What people don\u2019t understand is that those per capita numbers apply only to the City of St. Louis \u2013 an area of just 66 square miles. The reporting areas for other cities are much larger: Kansas City\u2014319 square miles; Memphis\u2014315 square miles; Chicago\u2014234 square miles.<\/p>\n

Why is St. Louis City so small? Because St. Louis City seceded from St. Louis County in 1876, in \u201cThe Great Divorce.\u201d <\/a>To make the comparison with other areas equitable, you would have to include adjacent St. Louis County, which covers 532 square miles. So, at least for St. Louis, comparing cities’ liberalness or murder rates based on characteristics within city limits <\/em>is apples-to-oranges.<\/p>\n

Basing the liberalism ranking on the larger St. Louis area would likely result in a lower ranking. [In the study, St. Louis ranked above Berkeley, CA!] St. Louis County is not nearly as \u201cliberal\u201d as the City of St. Louis, based on who County residents elect and re-elect to Congress and to the state legislature\u2014mostly Republicans. Admittedly, St. Louis County often can be counted on help Democrats running statewide.. But St. Louis County is not a sure thing as an oasis for liberals, There\u2019s a big, conservative guns-and-religion streak in the more exurban areas of the County. I live in St. Louis County, and I\u2019m bracing myself for the sight of a boatload of Trump signs in the next few weeks before the election. You won\u2019t see that in Berkeley.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the per capita murder rate would probably compute lower if it were measured using the wider geographical area. For most of these rankings, the larger, more comparable St. Louis City\/County area would probably yield results that are much more reflective of the actual situation in what people think of as “St. Louis.”<\/p>\n

The only thing that St. Louis actually ranks #1 for is having its rankings repeatedly exaggerated by skewed statistics.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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