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Actually a ranking of office locations and satellite offices is very unimportant to me. Im more interested in headquarters and this is how GAWC ranks headquarter cities:
Collectively the Bay Area is 5th in the World, but I already knew that.
I guess it's fun for some people to talk to themselves, huh? :-)
According to the more - shall I say - reliable global city rankings I posted, San Francisco generally falls between spots #10 to #20. That is where GAWC ranks San Francisco as you can see from the link I posted. It's fair to say that San Francisco is probably a top 15 global city - which is pretty good if you think about. Just nothing close to the level of New York or Paris.
This is arguably the most even-handed of the rankings:
Global cities index (2012):
1. New York
2. London
3. Paris
4. Tokyo
5. Hong Kong
6. Los Angeles
7. Chicago
8. Seoul
9. Brussels
10. Washington, D.C.
11. Singapore
12. Sydney
13. Vienna
14. Beijing
15. Boston
16. Toronto
17. San Francisco
18. Madrid
19. Moscow
20. Berlin
21. Shanghai
22. Buenos Aires
23. Frankfurt
24. Barcelona
25. Zurich
You have been enlightened.
Last edited by BigCityDreamer; 08-29-2012 at 02:06 PM..
This is arguably the most even-handed of the rankings:
I realize that to an uninformed novice, it might appear that way, but fear not, Im here to help.
That ranking is about the satellite office or branch office locations of certain law firms, banks, accounting firms, advertising and insurance firms.
The ranking is accurate in so far as it tells us the number of office locations there are of certain companies.
But many of us are impressed by headquarters, not branch offices.
And under that scenario, here is GAWCs ranking:
Quote:
From the Report: The study uses “The Forbes Global 2000” ranking for 2010 which is the longest worldwide listing of large corporations publicly available.
For each city the revenues of firms headquartered there are combined to produce the research results: total revenues for 450 metropolitan areas from their Forbes2000 corporations is USD 29,890.17 billion
To facilitate interpretation and ease comparison with other studies we have reclassified the companies operating in these various industry categories into the ten basic sectors of the Global Industry Classification Standard (GICS) used by Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) and Standard & Poor's (S&P).
GICS Sectors:
1 Consumer Discretionary: Hotels, Restaurants, Leisure, Media, Retail
2 Consumer Staples: Food Markets, Household & Personal Products, Food, Drink & Tobacco
3 Energy: Oil & Gas Operations
4 Financials: Banking, Diversified Financials, Insurance
5 Health Care: Health Care Equipment, Drugs & Biotech
6 Industrials: Business Services & Supplies, Capital Goods, Conglomerates, Construction, Trading, Transport, Aerospace & Defense
7 Information Technology: Software & Services, Technology & Hardware, Semiconductors
8 Materials: Chemicals
9 Telecommunications Services
10 Utilities
People are always so jealous of San Francisco and the bay. I guess its because they come from lessor known cities, the ones with absolutely no chance of ever being mentioned in the same breath as NYC, LA, Paris, London, Hong Kong. San Francisco is one of the worlds most romantic, cultural, sophisticated, cosmopolitan.
Even though haters hate us, we still love how much you folks try so hard.
But many of us are impressed by headquarters, not branch offices.
And under that scenario, here is GAWCs ranking:
The Bay Area would be 5th, so yeah...
PS Always happy to help out.
Well, if you like helping out with one-sided information to try to boost your city. "Headquarter" rankings are not overall global city rankings.
Here are the 2012 GAWC rankings by alphabetical order at each level:
Alpha++:
London
New York
Alpha+:
Hong Kong
Paris
Singapore
Tokyo
Shanghai
Chicago
Dubai
Sydney
Alpha:
Milan
Beijing
Toronto
Sao Paulo
Madrid
Mumbai
Los Angeles
Moscow
Frankfurt
Mexico City
Amsterdam
Buenos Aires
Kuala Lampur
Seoul
Brussels
Jakarta San Francisco
Washington
"Headquarter" rankings are not overall global city rankings.
Correct. The headquarter city list is far more impressive because we see where the power centers of the corporate world are located--no one in the real world cares about satellite offices.
And as far as those headquarters are concerned, concentration of HQs, revenue and especially market capitalization, the Bay Area tops everywhere except NY, Tokyo and London.
Don't worry Mont. People actually want to live and visit San Francisco for the city. People go to DC for the free attractions that the government owes us tax payers. Otherwise who cares about visiting or wanting to live in DC?
What about the fact that the Bay Area is a major international center of foreign immigration and settlement, a center of global commerce, global trade, global business, tourism, and is one of the world's culinary capitals, is one of the most well known and most desirable places to live and work.
Portland, while nice doesnt really do all that.
Nor does Seattle.
...
OK, every comparison is imperfect. Are you suggesting that there is no criteria whatsoever following which the most similar place to SF would be Portland?
Or is mentioning San Francisco in the same sentence with Portland somehow a crime?
Correct. The headquarter city list is far more impressive because we see where the power centers of the corporate world are located--no one in the real world cares about satellite offices.
And as far as those headquarters are concerned, concentration of HQs, revenue and especially market capitalization, the Bay Area tops everywhere except NY, Tokyo and London.
Try not to take it too hard.
Just one question though and in general we see eye to eye on the size of govt but this would seem to be pretty significant. The spend and influence of this as an entity is pretty substantial (albeit bloated)
Are you suggesting that there is no criteria whatsoever following which the most similar place to SF would be Portland?
Didnt I already say that there are similarities with Portland, only that they are anecdotal.
Quote:
Or is mentioning San Francisco in the same sentence with Portland somehow a crime?
No, but to say that Portland is the 'obvious' answer and then explaining it in such a way that isnt really 'obvious' at all, is rather simplistic.
Quote:
Originally Posted by kidphilly
Just one question though and in general we see eye to eye on the size of govt but this would seem to be pretty significant. The spend and influence of this as an entity is pretty substantial (albeit bloated)
DC and SF both excel, even if in different areas.
This thread is not about DC. Why are you bringing up DC?
Didnt I already say that there are similarities with Portland, only that they are anecdotal.
No, but to say that Portland is the 'obvious' answer and then explaining it in such a way that isnt really 'obvious' at all, is rather simplistic.
This thread is not about DC. Why are you bringing up DC?
ehh probably wrong thread
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"Headquarter" rankings are not overall global city rankings. 
