Jackson Heights, majority liberal or conservative?

[itsit]

 This thought came up as I was describing our neighborhood to visitors. Am not sure where the truth lies and if you could honestly ask every resident, undocumented, new arrivals along with long timers, what would the answer be? I suspect we are not nearly as liberal as I once believed if everyone was counted.

[dssjh]

i think we're extremely liberal as an enclave. the old-timers i know are, by and large, liberal and inclusive -- not "democratic socialists," but old-school, "inclusive" democrats. conservatives tend to be loud, whether in person or online, and they make sure their voices are heard. look at forums like this or the Facebook pages, and you'll see a handful of conservatives beating the drum with multiple posts/statements and three times as many liberals replying once and then walking away. (a real walk away, not the hashtag kind).

yes, some people won't talk publicly out of fear of "conserva-shaming," but we have a secret ballot. look at the 2016 presidential election. look at all our local elections. surely, if we were more conservative, SOME people would vote that way.

[lalochezia]

Not answering the specific question, but germane to it;  like most neighborhoods in NYC, JH is definitely a Democratic Party neighborhood (easily more than 75% of all voters vote DP, or some version of it)

[Chingwa]

Who cares.  Neighborhoods do not have political affiliations nor should they be ascribed to them.  The great thing about a DIVERSE city and neighborhood is that you have a wealth of DIFFERENT ideas and opinions.  Individuals all live inside their own bubble anyway, and are not reliable sources of what anyone else thinks or believes.  The start of 2020 is a great time to start de-escalating the creeping of politics into areas it doesn’t belong.

[itsit]

 Let me rephrase this. Are we actually as diverse as we think we are, in what people here in Jackson Heights want in their lives? Few people vote and we have had recent elections with 11% voter turnout so politics doesn't seem to be the best barometer. We also have very skewed representation in our schools with much different demographics than in the neighborhood. Not sure about places of worship. Some aspects of our lives feel very segregated but the public face is wonderfully plural.

[dssjh]

you were the one who introduced the word 'liberal' into the discussion with your original post. that's usually perceived as a political term. if you mean it socially, i'd say we're far more liberal than, say, Bay Ridge, Staten Island, the Rockaways, perhaps less liberal than the East Village or Park Slope.

[theplanesland]

This thought came up as I was describing our neighborhood to visitors. Am not sure where the truth lies and if you could honestly ask every resident, undocumented, new arrivals along with long timers, what would the answer be? I suspect we are not nearly as liberal as I once believed if everyone was counted.

I think it's pretty hard to determine based on those two words.

For instance, take a religious Bengali Muslim small-business owner. Probably wants low taxes and to be able to double-park his car on 73rd Street - that would be typed 'conservative' in the current American marketplace - but his family wants to wear hijab, get Eid off from school and have Grandma be able to come over from Bangladesh - uh-oh, that's 'liberal!'

Or some local Colombian families who attend mass regularly. Might be very negative about la migra and think national health care is a great idea because their bosses' health plans are expensive and awful - but not so hot on abortion, because, you know, the pope.

So what is 'liberal' and 'conservative' here? If what we mean is 'supports everything AOC says' versus 'supports everything Trump says,' you're going to get a lot of people in the neighborhood who live in the shades in between, that's for sure.

[abcdefghijk]

11% voter turnout? Wow! That's terrible!

Isn't the average voter turnout usually over 50%?

With those stats, it's obvious our neighborhood is apolitical!

[dssjh]

the 11 percent was for the DA election. in the last presidential election, we mirrored the 60 percent nationwide. still not good, but that's comparing roombas and oranges.

11% voter turnout? Wow! That's terrible!

Isn't the average voter turnout usually over 50%?

With those stats, it's obvious our neighborhood is apolitical!