Most-liked cities: Seattle and Portland tops, Detroit dead last (poll)

Portland, Ore., one of the most popular U.S. cities according to a poll (Photo: AP)

New research from Public Policy Polling finds that Seattle, Wash., and Portland, Ore., are America's most favorably viewed cities. Conversely, Detroit is the nation's least favorably viewed city.

The report found that 57 percent of respondents in the poll view Seattle favorably, compared with 14 percent who view it unfavorably. Similarly, Portland has a favorability rating of 52 percent with only 12 percent taking a negative view of the City of Roses.

In other words, if the Pacific Northwest were a politician, it would be more popular than President Obama and Mitt Romney.

Perhaps not coincidentally, a recent Yahoo News story found Seattle and Portland to be the top two best cities for hipsters.

And while Romney counts Michigan as one of his "home states," he wouldn't want Detroit's poll numbers. Only 22 percent of those polled by PPP had a favorable view of the Motor City, with 49 percent taking a negative view.

These days, it would seem that Portlandia is more popular than Robocop.

The only other two major cities in the poll to have a net negative view are both in California: Los Angeles (33-40) and Oakland (21-39). However, California is home to the 11th most popular city, San Francisco (48-29).

The poll demographics also showed some results that PPP says line up with national political trends. For example, the biggest political gap in the poll was over the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. Democrats like it by a net margin of 44 percent;? Republicans dislike it by 24 percent.

Black and white Americans also had differing views on some of the cities in the poll. Black respondents said they like Los Angeles by a margin of 35 percent, while white respondents dislike it by 16 percent.

Some of the other findings from the poll:

Boston (52-17), Atlanta (51-19), Phoenix (49-18), Dallas (48-21), New York (49-23), New Orleans (47-24), Houston (45-22), Salt Lake City (43-20), Philadelphia (42-22), Baltimore (37-24), Las Vegas (43-33), Chicago (42-33), Cleveland (32-25), and Miami (36-33).

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