I beg to differ about SoCal. Compare it to the San Francisco Bay area in Northern CA, and you'll see that Southern CA isn't "the most liberal and Godless" place in the USA.
For liberal: SF voted 80% to keep Governor Davis and its surrounding counties also voted wide margins to keep him, while most of the rest of the state, including most of So Cal, voted clearly to recall him. The liberals are the more vocal people.
For Godless: the atheist who wanted to remove "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance is from Northern CA / SFBay area. Senator Barbara Boxer, who supports partial birth abortion, is from Marin County, near San Francisco. Maybe there's such a thing as a Godless person, but I don't think there are Godless places -- certainly not as large a region as Southern California.
I don't know much about NYC, but I'm sure they've got their share of good people who aren't as visible as the liberals.