Alpine County, CA
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Benj
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« Reply #25 on: February 23, 2013, 08:39:16 PM »
« edited: February 23, 2013, 08:46:07 PM by Benj »

Typical ski resort.  Most ski resorts tend to be quite liberal compared to surrounding areas.  Places like Blaine County in Idaho and Teton County in Wyoming have swung quite heavily towards the Democrats.  Likewise Pitkin county in Colorado went over 2/3 for Obama and it is a fairly white county.  Summit county in Utah, which has a lot of ski resorts but has a high Mormon population by contrast didn't totally follow this as swung massively towards Obama in 2008, but then in 2012 swung right back, although it would be interesting to see a precinct breakdown and see how much of that came from towns not connected to ski resorts.

But why are the ski resorts so liberal? Latino room-maids and kitchen-aids? Lots of aged hippies that have moved in to sell self-photographed postcards? Or locals getting concerned about climate change possibly eroding their income base (and increasing the risk of landslides sweeping away their homes)?

Think of the Green voters in big European cities. (Brighton, Berlin, Paris...)

Thinking of such voters would make me understand why surfing hotspots are liberal. The typical ski coach, however, would have grown up in the region (i.e  have a rural background), and rather fit the (republican-leaning) "some college" than the (democrat-leaning) "post-graduate" education strata.

This might seem counterintuitive, but skiing is a sport of the social elite in the US, especially the urban social elite. The people who grew up in the rural Rockies don't have a strong ski culture and certainly won't move to towns that sprang up solely as ski resorts. (In some places, like Aspen, they're also priced out.) Everyone who grew up in the ski towns was born to parents who themselves moved there from an urban area.

Firat off, you're vastly overestimating how 'socially elite' skiing (and snowboarding) is in 2013 vs. 1963. Second, ski resort towns reflect the voting habits of people who live there, not the far more moneied elite who visit there.

Social elite includes upper-middle class suburbanites. Certainly social elite compared to the locals.

And the people who live there are (1) Drifter kids of the people who visit there and (2) hospitality workers, who in this particular case often overlap with the former group.

Remember that many ski towns are wealthy, too. Pitkin County, CO is one of the wealthiest counties in the country by per capita income.
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Badger
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« Reply #26 on: February 23, 2013, 10:47:09 PM »

I don't deny that most skiers/snowboarders don't come from lower income, but one must face reality that, like golf and tennis, is now solidly middle-class.

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.
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Benj
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« Reply #27 on: February 23, 2013, 11:36:44 PM »

I don't deny that most skiers/snowboarders don't come from lower income, but one must face reality that, like golf and tennis, is now solidly middle-class.

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.

What? Golf or tennis is middle class? Talk about woefully out of touch. How many people making $50k a year do you actually know? Outside of retired people, they're both still games played only by the upper middle class and rich people.
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Obamanation
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« Reply #28 on: February 23, 2013, 11:45:18 PM »

I don't deny that most skiers/snowboarders don't come from lower income, but one must face reality that, like golf and tennis, is now solidly middle-class.

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.

What? Golf or tennis is middle class? Talk about woefully out of touch. How many people making $50k a year do you actually know? Outside of retired people, they're both still games played only by the upper middle class and rich people.

To be fair, people making $50 thousand a year are no longer middle class.
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Badger
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« Reply #29 on: February 23, 2013, 11:50:05 PM »
« Edited: February 23, 2013, 11:52:05 PM by Badger »

I don't deny that most skiers/snowboarders don't come from lower income, but one must face reality that, like golf and tennis, is now solidly middle-class.

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.

What? Golf or tennis is middle class? Talk about woefully out of touch. How many people making $50k a year do you actually know? Outside of retired people, they're both still games played only by the upper middle class and rich people.

Other than myself (give or take), I know plenty in that salary range.

Court and tee fees have drpped dramatically in recent decades with the growth of public facilities. Tennis and golf of course are they sports of choice among the wealthy, but considering players of the sport to be primarily rich is relying on a black and white comedy about Ms Moneypenny and her guests being shocked at Abbott and Costello's antics on the links.
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Napoleon
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« Reply #30 on: February 24, 2013, 12:31:24 AM »
« Edited: February 24, 2013, 12:36:30 AM by Senator Napoleon »

I don't deny that most skiers/snowboarders don't come from lower income, but one must face reality that, like golf and tennis, is now solidly middle-class.

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.

What? Golf or tennis is middle class? Talk about woefully out of touch. How many people making $50k a year do you actually know? Outside of retired people, they're both still games played only by the upper middle class and rich people.

To be fair, people making $50 thousand a year are no longer middle class.

Most suburban white families are going to be taking in over $50,000. Skiing, golf and tennis are all middle class recreation activities in America. The wealthy spend their time at Pequot.
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« Reply #31 on: February 24, 2013, 10:54:31 AM »

Tennis and golf are only rich/upper middle class sports? Is this some type of coastal thing? Definitely not true here.

I can see golf since a golf club membership is probably fairly pricey, as is a set of clubs (hey both uses of the double meaning of "club" there), but to play tennis regularly all you need is a $30 racquet and YMCA membership or public court nearby.
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Franknburger
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« Reply #32 on: February 24, 2013, 11:44:18 AM »
« Edited: February 24, 2013, 11:47:41 AM by Franknburger »

The concept that 'drifter kids of the people who visit there' is in any way a measurable demographic of ski towns....Huh...wowzers.

Good idea! This means that the 20-34 age group should be overrepresented, at the expense of the "under 19" and "over 65" age groups.

Checking this with 2010 census data on the four Cololorado counties named above, i.e. Pitkin, Summit, Chaffee and Gunnison, however, it turns out that reality is more complicated:
  • Summit and Gunnison fit the criteria, with 28% of the total population between 20 and 34 years (Colorado average is 21%), and only 19% (Summit) and 23% (Gunnison) below 20 (Colorado: 27%).
  • In Pitkin and Chaffee, however, the 20-34 cohort, as the below 20s, are strongly under-represented. Instead, the 50-64 age group is dominating (26%, vs. 19% state average). Chaffee also houses a large number of seniors (20%, vs. 11% state average) Demographically, these two counties rather look like typical rural out-migration regions - and still they vote strongly Democrat.

In Pitkin and Summit, I also noted above-average percentages of foreign-born residents (11% and 13%) and "other than English spoken at home" (16%), which cannot be explained by the Latino population share alone. European (alpine) immigration (ski coaches, hotel management, chefs, etc) ?
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minionofmidas
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« Reply #33 on: February 24, 2013, 01:19:22 PM »

Typical ski resort.  Most ski resorts tend to be quite liberal compared to surrounding areas.  Places like Blaine County in Idaho and Teton County in Wyoming have swung quite heavily towards the Democrats.  Likewise Pitkin county in Colorado went over 2/3 for Obama and it is a fairly white county.  Summit county in Utah, which has a lot of ski resorts but has a high Mormon population by contrast didn't totally follow this as swung massively towards Obama in 2008, but then in 2012 swung right back, although it would be interesting to see a precinct breakdown and see how much of that came from towns not connected to ski resorts.

But why are the ski resorts so liberal? Latino room-maids and kitchen-aids? Lots of aged hippies that have moved in to sell self-photographed postcards? Or locals getting concerned about climate change possibly eroding their income base (and increasing the risk of landslides sweeping away their homes)?

Think of the Green voters in big European cities. (Brighton, Berlin, Paris...)

Thinking of such voters would make me understand why surfing hotspots are liberal. The typical ski coach, however, would have grown up in the region (i.e  have a rural background), and rather fit the (republican-leaning) "some college" than the (democrat-leaning) "post-graduate" education strata.
In Austria and Bavaria, yes. America's ski resorts (actually, most of these places have summer tourism as well) are a bit further away from populated ex-agricultural parts.
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