GaWC 2010 - Chicago upgraded to Alpha+ (Evanston, Washington: home, colleges, to live)

[andrew61]

Did anyone else catch this new list of rankings? I found it linked over on the City-vs-City forum.

The World According to GaWC 2010

In addition to Chicago being upgraded from Alpha to Alpha+, there are quite a few other surprises. Check it out. Now the list of Alpha cities includes San Francisco, Washington, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Another surprise (for me, at least): Cleveland jumped from High Sufficiency to Beta-.

I know this list is controversial and many here take it with a grain of salt, but I found it interesting so I thought I'd share. Comments?

[Josef K.]

Chicago always does well on these surveys. I haven't seen this kind of gradation before though (3 levels of alpha!). And it looks more reasonable than the one I posted about, ranking Chicago in 4th place.

I admit I'm surprised to see Dubai in there. Last I heard, the place was in deep trouble.

[Garfieldian]

I would take it with a huge grain of salt. Chicago in no way, shape or form is on the level of Hong Kong, Paris or Tokyo. Though it very much looks like these are in order... So in that case, being ranked "8" on a list of world cities... I could see that.

[SoxCub Fan]

Originally Posted by andrew61

Did anyone else catch this new list of rankings? I found it linked over on the City-vs-City forum.

The World According to GaWC 2010

In addition to Chicago being upgraded from Alpha to Alpha+, there are quite a few other surprises. Check it out. Now the list of Alpha cities includes San Francisco, Washington, Miami, Boston, Dallas, Atlanta, and Philadelphia.

Another surprise (for me, at least): Cleveland jumped from High Sufficiency to Beta-.

I know this list is controversial and many here take it with a grain of salt, but I found it interesting so I thought I'd share. Comments?

Atlanta and Miami are listed as Alpha- not Alpha

[andrew61]

Originally Posted by SoxCub Fan

Atlanta and Miami are listed as Alpha- not Alpha

I know... I was just going by the general Alpha category, and ignoring the pluses and minuses.

IIRC those cities (along with the others I listed) used to be Beta.

[Vlajos]

Interesting, thanks!

[Maintainschaos]

I am always a bit surprised that Chicago ranks as high as it does on the survey, but I find the information very interesting.

[Garfieldian]

Originally Posted by andrew61

I know... I was just going by the general Alpha category, and ignoring the pluses and minuses.

IIRC those cities (along with the others I listed) used to be Beta.

The lists are in order, so there is a difference between the top half of alpha + and the bottom half of alpha +, Chicago is in the bottom half and thus makes more sense where it is at in the 8 slot globally, while not necessarily being on the level of Paris or Tokyo, which it isn't in person nor on paper. See my original post in this thread. London and NYC are also not equal, e.g. London is over NYC, and so on and so forth down through the list. I would not pay attention to the arbitrary categories, but the ordering of the cities.

[Craziaskowboi]

Another impressive jump is Philadelphia from Gamma+ to Alpha-. Must have something to do with Comcast NBC Universal.

[hsw]

Do own economic rankings...don't mindlessly believe lamestream media "analysis"

How valuable (per stock market) are corporate HQs located in region?
How many >$1MM/yr earners choose to live/work in region?
Where do top 10% of grads of world's top 5 colleges migrate for careers?

Chic trounces lots of towns anywhere (esp towns in low-productivity EU/Asia; why haven't Apples/Googles been created in these backward, yet highly populated regions of world???)....but it's really a few 100 traders in Loop who define Chic's economy esp at hedge funds like Citadel (or Magnetar out in Evanston); most valuable cos. in region are mockable McDonalds and Abbott located in distant suburbs, not in city

And most of world's wealthiest software engineers live and work in suburbs around PaloAlto, not in any Luddite town like SF or SJ; and many of world's most valuable companies like Apple or Exxon or Google or Microsoft are HQd in mundane suburban office parks, not in "city" of SF or Dallas or NYC

Traditional economic/cultural relevance of cities is increasingly suspect as highest-IQ, most economically productive work most often occurs via computers from anywhere at anytime, perhaps from a mundane suburban office park or someone's suburban home or (less often) a trading floor in a nondescript skyscraper in MidtownManhattan or Loop