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Washington, D.C. is the easy answer. It definitely has more "prestige, and presence" on a global scale. It's the capital of the United States. It's known worldwide for being the seat of power of the American Government.
Boston's prestigious in terms of its institutions of higher learning, and to a lesser degree its hospitals and financial sector. It's still on a different tier globally.
Seattle would be my pick for third of the bunch. It's definitely the most naturally beautiful of the three, but I don't think it's viewed on the same level domestically or internationally.
"desirability" is subjective. Each of them is desirable for different reasons. I'm not going to touch "respect." I think they all get their fair share of respect.
DC should win this easily without question.. Boston and Seattle are very nice cities but they do not come anywhere near DC in terms of prestige, influence, and importance as a major city in the western hemisphere..
I voted Boston > DC > Seattle. DC is the nation's capital but it wasn't really recognized as a "global" city until the 1960s. Before then, it was described as a sleepy, Southern city with little in the way of wealth or culture.
Boston is obviously a lot older. While political power is prestigious, I associate Boston with the establishment (Harvard, Wellesley, aristocracy, Cape Cod, etc.) more than I do with any other region. On City-Data, you have more DC posters comparing their city to Boston than the other way around ("Maryland has more of a New England-type feel").
I was surprised how "regional" the vibe felt in Boston the few times I've been there. I expected that being a finance center and having schools like Harvard and MIT would make the city feel more international than it is. A pretty historic place nonetheless.
Local Weekend Getaway: Nantucket/Cape Cod/Martha's Vineyard vs. Annapolis/Eastern Shore/Bethany?
Most notable natives sons/daughters: John, Robert, Edward and Joseph Kennedy, Paul Revere, Samuel Adams, John Quincy Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes, John Murray Forbes, Henry Cabot Lodge vs. John Philip Sousa, Duke Ellington, Warren Buffet, Maury Povich, Sandra Bullock
Seattle may be the most "desirable" right now, but not much can compare to DC in terms of "prestige"
Desirability is so subjective (moreso than prestige imo) that it makes no sense to even bother addressing it.
There's prestige in power. That's also prestige in age (which is why Wimbledon, for example, is considered more prestigious than the U.S. Open). I think there's also a lot of prestige wrapped up in being sort of Ground Zero for the culture that--according to E. Digby Baltzell--went on to dominate much of America's educational and political institutions. Not having grown up in New England, we spent more time learning about the Mayflower and the Massachusetts Bay Colony than we did learning about the state we were actually living in.
I think that Boston, and New England as a whole, denotes a sense of class in the minds of most Americans that no other region does. There's certainly a strong White working-class presence throughout New England, but we all know that perception and reality rarely align, which is why you have City-Data posters saying that Connecticut is full of forests, small "New England-style towns" and country farm estates. Places like Nantucket stir up certain images and connotations in the minds of average Americans in a way that Annapolis never will.
I was surprised how "regional" the vibe felt in Boston the few times I've been there. I expected that being a finance center and having schools like Harvard and MIT would make the city feel more international than it is. A pretty historic place nonetheless.
You don't think NYC has a regional vibe?
There are certain places in Boston that feel more "international" or cosmopolitan. And by "international," I don't necessarily mean immigrants, but more or less in the DC sense of having white people from foreign countries speaking another language at the table across from you. Outside of these tiny areas, there is more of a provincial feel that the DC area lacks, which is why you probably get the sense (rightly so) that the city has more of a regional vibe.
About 88-80% of Harvard students are from the U.S. The student body is probably Blacker and more Hispanic than many people would think. It's also, imo, poorer than BU's student body given the considerable financial aid most students receive.
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