America's Most Sprawling Cities Are Also the Most Republican

Hickory, a small industrial city in western North Carolina, lies within the state's 10th congressional district, one that the Washington Post has called "one of the most Republican in the nation." Its representative, Congressman Patrick McHenry, proudly boasts that, on family values issues, he is tied for the "most conservative voting record in Congress."

Last week, Hickory topped another list. Researchers at Smart Growth America named the metro it anchors (Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, population 350,000) the most sprawling in the country (PDF). At the other extreme, the metros topping the list of "most compact" are also some of the country's true blue strongholds, with New York and San Francisco ranking as the two most "compact metros" in America.